This is my new thing.

Every day I wake up and ask myself–what will I give back to the Earth today?

It’s a tough question. Because every day I take. And take. I eat, consume, cook, and use a lot of energy.

But I don’t do a lot in the way of giving back…and that is our problem. We take fossils from the ground, a place where they have been for thousands of years, and we burn them for energy and don’t replace them with anything that keeps the Earth healthy.

And we know that nothing will change until we find a way to limit our use of fossil fuels. That is waaaaayyy bigger than I am. I try. We can all try, and my Resources and Books pages have lots of ideas for that.

But I am going farther back to ancient practices. The practices of indigenous people who understood long before Europeans, how to give back to the Earth and to treat it as the Great Nurturer that it is. If there are two plants, eat only one. Keep the seeds, share the harvest, feed the soil.

I can do these things. I find myself looking at everything in my house as something that no longer belongs in a garbage can but belongs in the dirt where it can work with good bacteria and worms and things that live in the soil to become rich and nutritious for my food.

I‘m starting a compost pile.

Let me just say that I live in the suburbs and don’t know much about compost piles. But the Earth does, and I hope that it will teach me.

What have I done for the Earth today? I went out back and put my pots of dying poinsettias, along with their dirt, onto a pile in the woods behind my garden. Little by little I hope to add other things. Eventually, it will all decompose (I’m not in any great hurry).

It’s a small step. But a journey of a thousand miles starts with a small step. Right? Join me on the journey. Tell me about your efforts.

Together we will make a difference. And even if we cannot save everything, maybe we can do better. It’s worth a try.