Priorities

Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you challenge yourself to try new things in January? Do you commit to lifestyle changes, maybe in your home or at work, or the places in between?

I'm not a huge fan of resolutions because I think January is a pretty crummy time of year to make big changes. It's cold out, the days are still quite short, and it's hard enough to re-establish your previous routine after going on vacation over the holidays - let alone make changes to that routine. Let's all agree: it's an uphill battle all the way! Instead of resolutions, I tend to choose a few big goals that I hope to achieve in small doses over the course of the year, gradually, gently. One of these is to slow down, and I expect to accomplish this by making bite-sized changes to various aspects of my life.

So it is with some sadness, but also conviction, that I am announcing an adjustment to my relationship with this blog: at the risk of losing followers who enjoy regular updates, I am going to write posts only when I feel the need to share information and/or opinions about topics that are very important to me. You might be wondering how that differs from what I've been doing so far! Obviously I cared about what I wrote in 2010 and 2011, but too often did I put pressure on myself to keep up the twice weekly pace of updates... for no justifiable reason! In order to write posts every three or four days, I sometimes had to sit down in front of the computer when I didn't really want to, or suffered from writer's block, or worst of all, didn't actually have enough time to commit to the task! Now that a brand new year is upon, I'm being more mindful of how I fill my days, and if I want to reach my goal of slowing down, I have to do away with writing blog posts under pressure, or under some sort of time/pace constraint. I am going to stop doing things because I have to and start doing things because I want to!

When I began thinking about this post, I wondered if I would provide an estimate of how (in)frequently I might be writing in 2012... then I realized that even that would create unnecessary stress for me. So instead I'll say this: I look forward to telling more stories (good and bad), sharing more of my strong opinions, and challenging you to challenge yourselves, and I hope you'll keep reading despite a slow pace of updates.


Photo of new year snowman used under Creative Commons from Ruth Flickr (flickr).
Photo of street art used under Creative Commons from Cubby (Stickerthing blog).

Inspiring Change

I'm delighted to announce that my fellow blogger Lynn Fang over at Upcycled Love, crusader for social change, has just published an e-book!

Lynn, a strong supporter of environmental and social justice, loves to write about how we can change the world by making changes in our own lives. She discusses organic food and farming, DIY projects, conscious living, and other topics that help us value time, experiences, health, and happiness, rather than money, stuff, convenience, and productivity. In her never-ending search for creative ways to bring about change, Lynn asked her blogging friends for stories about successfully influencing others to adopt more sustainable lifestyle habits. By bringing together these stories into a collection of positive, empowering, hopeful anecdotes, Lynn has painted a picture of what works and what doesn't when trying to inspire others, and, overwhelmingly, it seems the best method is to act as a role model, to live life as sustainably and fully as possible, and to show that there is an alternative to the rat race that we're told to believe is the only way to live life. I was honoured to be able to contribute to Lynn's work, and I hope you will feel enlightened when reading this uplifting collection of stories. To download a free copy of the e-book, please click here.