Found Not Lost

My girls and I bring our lunches to school and work daily. Not only does it save money, we end up eating healthier, home-cooked meals rather than the fatty junk we would probably end up buying. We love bento boxes and cute water bottles and that’s how I first found Your Guide to Green. I subscribed to their newsletter and today while going through emails, I say the announcement for these bamboo utensil sets and I just had to post about it.

This cutlery is made from quickly renewable and natural bamboo. The holder is made from recycled pop bottles. And for a limited time the set is on sale for 8.99.

Oh I know it seems like a lot to pay for a single set of utensils, but think of the long term impact of this expense. For instance, when we bring disposable plastic utensils, we don’t normally re-use them. They get tossed in the trash where they will probably stay in the landfill for a couple of generations. The girls and I are not too crazy about that idea nor are we crazy about the cheap plastic things that I buy because they’re cheaper either.

So, we  all end up bringing silver ware with our lunches. Yes, the same silverware that is part of the set we use at home. Guess what, I’ve had to buy additional forks for our set because we keep losing them! As careful as we try to be, the spoons and mostly forks, get tossed away with the trash or fall out of the bags never to be found again.

So I think these bamboo utensil set will work out well for us.

So throw away the brown bag and plastic bags. Check out the lunch sets and water bottles at YourGuidetoGreen.com and get your stylish lunch on!
 
 
Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this review nor did I receive anything free from Your Guide to Green. I just happen to be a fan of the site and their products.

Do you have a green idea that would benefit your community but just haven’t had the means to implement it? This is your chance to see your idea put into action. There’s only a couple more days left in the Green Effect Contest sponsored by Sun Chips and National Geographic.

Visit the Green Effect site and submit a description of your idea by June 8, 2009 and you could win $20,000 to implement your project! Ten finalists will be chosen and announced on July 7, 2009 then from those, five final winners will be chosen. The final five winners will also be profiled in National Geographic and will travel to Washington, DC to share their projects with environmental leaders.

View the official contest rules and read sample ideas on the website if you need inspiration to get started.

I’m a big fan of Oprah’s book club even though I’m always a year or two behind in my reading. The book selection right now is Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. They even have an online classroom going on Oprah’s website to discuss the book and “A New Earth” as they put it.

A New Earth encourages ever yone of us to change the way we live in order to make a difference. To find purpose and meaning in our lives. Tolle asks (which reminds of Horton Hears a Who which is now out in movies), what can one person do to change the world? A New Earth is supposed to guide us in finding our purpose while also initiating change in the world that we live in.

The Sedona Method mirrors the same ideals as A New Earth. It provides “simple, powerful, easy-to-learn and duplicate technique that shows you how to uncover your natural ability to surrender – or let go. It naturally shows you how to let go of the tendencies that cause you to flee from freedom as opposed to whole heartedly embracing it.” The Sedona Method will provide you with the tools to let go of the limiting habits and thoughts that have prevented many of us from attaining inner peace and spreading it outwards. Sometimes when we look inward first, our outward vision becomes much clearer and lucid. Our awareness of us, and of what surrounds us and how we react to it is central to the teachings of a new earth and the Sedona method.

Call it what you want: self awareness, spiritual enlightenment, transcendence or a new earth. It is all the same, the search for a way of living peacefully and responsibly on this earth. It is what we all ultimately ask of ourselves, what is our purpose and what were we put on this earth to do? If you’ve embarked on this journey and need additional guidance, I suggest visiting the Sedona Method website and request for the free DVD and CD for additional background information to get you started.

You have heard it all before, the warnings about global warming, reducing your carbon footprint and taking care of our earth. You’ve probably taken measures to go green; many people have but there are more who haven’t. It’s a start though, every little bit helps, we say to ourselves.

AnInconvenientGuiltTrip.com provides an alternate point of view regarding the changes going on in our planet. The blogs owner states:

The purpose of this site is to create a sounding board and collection of ideas and information that the national media is not providing. So that we can have a place to send the people we meet to get a dose of reality (gee if it is in print it must be true) when they are trying to explain how we need to reduce our carbon footprint. (Just annoying us to the point of tears.) I want to be able to collect and report on the other 90% of us that don’t buy in to the entire “Inconvenient Truth Global Warming is Man’s Fault Guilt Trip”

My grandfather used to say that there is nothing going on in this earth that hasn’t happened already, so maybe the site has a point. This global warming, temperature and climate shifts, it’s happened before already. It’s nothing new. Maybe it’s the earth’s way of renewing itself. Sort of like when you get a spa treatment and slather yourself in muck just so you can have refreshed skin after you wash it off.

Maybe the point of greener living is not necessarily to save the world from global warming but rather just living responsibly. Sort of why we have designated bathrooms. I think what the site is trying to say is, don’t buy into the hype and think for yourself. The world will not blow up when the hole in the sky opens up.