You are here:

The work that only you can do

Information is worthwhile if it helps you make a difference to something that matters to you. This page in this "About" series is about your work, why it matters, and why I hope A Real Green Life can support you in doing it. 


Two central things

Don't underestimate what ripples out from your intentions and actions.

A sustainable, regenerative life starts with how you take care of you, since obviously your capacity to take care of anything else depends on your own degree of well-being. (Yes, its obvious, but a reminder never goes astray, does it?)

Assuming that you are an adult, and reasonably functional, you are the only one who can take care of you.

You need others who can help and support you, but in the end the responsibility for your personal health and quality of life lies with you.

Next – your family. You are responsible for them, too. No-one else cares about them, or can care for them, like you do. 

In the process of handling these two central things—caring for your self and your family—the effects of your attention and focus ripple out into the world around you.

Don't underestimate those ripples. They are expanding outwards right now, and will play out in the world for generations.



We need to empower ourselves, nourish ourselves. Live your daily life the way you want the world to be.” 

~ Shekinah Morgan

Are you doing enough?

Healthy families and a healthy planet are linked.
We can't have one without the other.

Some people rug up and go to the Arctic to make films to convince us to lobby our politicians to protect it.

Others tie themselves to trees or march in the streets or camp in blockades.

Still others build websites, work social media, or write books. 

Thank goodness all these people do what they do. Activism in all its forms is helping raise awareness and make a difference. 

Does that mean that "just" staying home and taking care of your family is not enough?

I don't think so.

  • When you re-fill your own cup so you can replenish someone else's;
  • when you show your children how to appreciate and connect to all their relations their human family, nature, and all other life forms;
  • when you choose real, local, ethical food;
  • when you take your neighbor a carton of eggs or a bunch of excess greens from your garden;
  • when you by-pass the supermarket aisle with the toxic cleaning products;
  • when you reject consumerism in all its forms and choose a lifestyle that respects the web of life that it is nested in...

... when you do these things, you’re acting not only for yourself and your family, but also for healthier ecosystems and communities in the world around you.

Healthy families and a healthy planet are inextricably connected. We cannot have one without the other.


"Small" is not the same as "powerless"

Your work – your everyday, small, repetitive decisions, choices and actions, do matter.

They matter to you, to your family, and to our precious, fragile, complex, endlessly and intricately connected living world.

So fragile, so complex, so connected, that yes – your small part matters. Perhaps partly even because of its smallness.

Contrary to our culture's common assumption, small is not bad. Small is not at all powerless.

Your part matters

You are not crazy. 
Your choices are not insignificant.

Your work may not seem huge, but it is significant. It may not be work that can be measured or quantified, but that does not make it less important. 

Breaking the whole into pieces so that we can say, "This kind of work matters and makes a difference, and this other kind does not," is impossible.

So—because you are important, because your work is an essential part of what must be done—those are the reasons why I hope A Real Green Life can help you along on your way, make you feel a little less alone, and help you realize you are not crazy and your choices are not insignificant.

I hope something here serves you in building a more real, satisfying and sustainable life.

I hope these ideas and concepts help you take better care of yourself, your family, and by extension, our living planet. 

I hope you'll take the ideas you find useful, make up a new variation of them that serves your own unique journey, and then pay it forward by sharing how you did it so someone else can benefit.

And if there is nothing here that really serves you, then let this be the point at which you close this window and move on to something that does.

Next up

This was part of a series of pages about A Real Green Life. The next page in the series is "Our Family's Journey." 

Looking for a subscribe button?

>