In a world that often feels like it’s spiraling out of control—where climate crises loom, cities buzz relentlessly, and our pace of life rarely allows for a breath—it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Amid this chaos, movements like sustainability, slow living, and shopping small have emerged as radical yet simple antidotes. What ties these practices together is the pursuit of a more intentional, connected, and grounded life. Each contributes not only to personal well-being but also to the health of our communities and planet. This interconnected wisdom offers us a pathway to stay sane in an increasingly unstable world.
Posts tagged #green living column
Green Living~Foraging and Using Natural Materials for Home Crafting
Nature provides a variety of inspiring materials that can be useful for crafting traditional and useful things. What a joy it is to learn, year by year, a bit more about the qualities of the natural world by foraging and co-creating with nature.
Urban Ashes: Triple Wins for the Economy, People, and the Environment
Paul Hickman is one of a number of individuals and companies nationwide, who have a better idea—actually a number of better ideas—about ways to put those 600 trees, and the many thousands more every year throughout the US, to better uses and to sequester their carbon. Hickman is founder of Urban Ashes, a local company that, since 2009, has been using salvaged wood to produce furniture and picture frames, and has done it primarily by employing formerly incarcerated people, a frequently marginalized population.
Green Living: Ditching the Paper Towel
Did you know the invention of paper towels was completely accidental? Many are familiar with the Scott Paper Company which founded toilet paper all the way back in 1879. In the early 20th century, the Scott plant received a railroad car’s worth of paper rolled too thick for toilet paper. Instead of scrapping the whole load, one of the founders used a story he heard about a school using small pieces of soft paper to hand out to students with runny noses during flu season as an entrepreneurial opportunity. The paper was perforated into small towel-sized sheets, called Sani-Towel, and sold to hotels, restaurants, and railroad stations for use in restrooms. It wouldn’t be until almost 30 years later before paper towels were popularized for household kitchens the way they are today.
Green Living: Putting Our Yards to Bed For Winter
Over the past six months, we’ve witnessed the transformation from last winter’s dormancy into a lush and verdant summer. We’ve been enjoying the fruits of Nature’s labors—beauty, food, and shade from flowers, vegetables, and trees. Now is the time in our cycle when all this foliar production returns to earth. What has increased must decrease. For leafy life to begin anew next spring, all this green must become brown and nourish the soil.
