Getting A Feel For This Place

Walking Gently on the Earth (a book I co-authored with my mother, Lisa McMinn) was released a few days ago. As I’ve been enjoying flipping through the final product of our labor, it’s caused me to reflect yet again on my successes and failures at sustainable, compassionate living. Just recently we’ve made the switch from disposable wipes and diapers to cloth ones.  I was delighted to discover that smelly, dirty cloth diapers could actually be quite satisfying.  With each small change toward sustainability comes a deep sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

As I’ve reflected on my pursuit to walk gently, mostly I am confronted with many of the contradictions: my mocha being an ideal example. For years my morning, and sometimes afternoon, mocha has been half and half: half “just” and half not so much. I’ve been using fair trade coffee for a number of years but just recently have made the switch to Fair Trade cocoa. I always thought it would be extravagantly laborious and expensive to buy Fair Trade cocoa, but Dean’s Beans has been a great discovery.  I recently realized their baking cocoa is fairly equivalent to what mocha powder at Starbucks costs. Now the only ingredient left to investigate before proclaiming I have perfected my mocha is the milk. It is organic but that doesn’t necessarily say anything about the treatment of the cows. And I suppose that’s partly the point: the deeper I begin to look into living justly, I begin to see just how many “ingredients” I’ve left unturned.