Night Thoughts

It's 1:30 a.m. and my alarm will be going off in five and a half hours. My body tells me I'm tired. My mind tells me I can't sleep. Where is the off-for-sleep-switch for a busy brain?

Remember my post last week where I mentioned watching the documentary No Impact Man? In true Stephanie-style, I promptly placed the book on hold at my local library (the book that was the reason behind the whole year-long experiment of living with no environmental impact that the DVD documented). I just finished it tonight before attempting to settle down to sleep and I think that's just a small part of why I'm still awake. For a week and a half now I've been pondering how I live.

I wouldn't ever go to the extremes that Colin Beavan and his family went to as they explored their relationship with the environment. I'll keep electricity and I want to enjoy foods that can't be found locally, but still I've been thinking. A lot. And I suppose that's really why the book was written in the first place.

Jeremy's car died about a month ago. At first it would start sometimes. Now, it's stubbornly sitting in our driveway, unwilling to turn over. We'd hoped to drive it when we went down to visit family as my brother is a mechanic and he thinks he knows what the trouble is and is willing to work on the car. Now that she won't start, we're questioning our next step. A big part of me would like to try to be a one-car family. To bike and walk more. The trouble is, Jeremy is the one who gets stuck at home on days that I work he doesn't, or the one that bikes or walks to work in whatever the weather because he works so close by. Because I work so much further away, I'm the one with a car 90% of the time. So, he's not as keen to go down to one car. But, I've been pondering the environment (not to mention finances) and wonder, could we do it for a year? Give it a try?

When we moved to our new apartment, we left behind TV. We own a television (a nice big one!), but use it only for watching movies as we don't own an antenna to bring in local stations. Although I'm not terribly hip, as I can't stay up on current TV shows, I can't say I miss having the TV. It's so often a big time waster, as well as a relationship stifler. I don't know if that's related to the environment, but it's definitely related to how we live.

Just about a mile from home is the year-round farmer's market. I'm striving to buy more fresh produce there. Ideally, I'd like to get a basket for my bike and ride there.

The saddest aspect of the No Impact Man book is the very real sense that Colin is searching for meaning in life as well as greatly pondering what comes after life. He holds no security in Christ and yet realizes that the material goods we gain here aren't going to do much for us after we die. I'm thankful that I can say that my hope and security rests completely in Christ. And I know material wealth won't gain me riches in Heaven. But I'm still figuring out how to be a wise steward of this life and this earth that God created. And so, I'm glad to have stumbled across both the documentary and the book. I think they'll be sticking with me as mental companions for awhile.