notes on trying to live and examined life

I just got done with Let my People go Surfing, from patagonias founder, he talks a lot about living and examined life, and I have been for quite some time now been trying, weather or not I knew it to live and examined life. I wasnt intent to just get by, to just go through the motions, but the more I look in to all aspects of my existence the more I come to terms with the fact that it is a process and not an easy one, because some times the answers that you get are not the ones you want to hear. As you start to look in to each purchase or each use of the car or each flight home to see family, you must weigh the pros and cons and it becomes glaringly obvious that at times the only answer is to do the one with the least impact, that leaves the smallest footprint. I currently live in Seattle, but a lot of the organic produce that the stores have comes from California, or Mexico, so while the produce is organic there was still a pollution and damage caused by getting it here, in the form of fuel consumption. So you look at getting things closer to home, but there are no farms in the city limits, maybe a Pea patch or two, but no real means of sustaining us all, that and the climate itself is not condusive to it. So what does one do? Organic Cotton still has an impact on the environment, but incrementally it is on the right path towards the way we should be thinking and what procducts, if we must consume products, we should be consuming. The other day I talked about packaging and such, how can we as consumers demand or push for less packaging, because lets face it part of the price is inclusive of packageing, so in a way we could all be saving if things were packaged differently. Glass reusable containers are always better than single serving use items. For the new year I am going to try to shrink the size of my footprint by and this is a crude list and subject to change depending on how things go. I plan to have this list finalized by New years, I hope.
1. carry a coffe cup, mug for beverages, or consume out of reusable, washable drinking vessels. I hope to get a metal mug,one with the least amount of PVC contained within it. we all know the dangers of PVC, think cancer. think bad for you. I do remember a time when if you brought your own mug the coffee was much cheaper, well these times need to return. Lets face it the way to motivate people to do things is to make it finacially viable, then later on they realize how they are actually doing something that has an environmentll impact. Why is it that we as human beings love the outdoors but we rarely motivate ourselves solely on the fact that a act will be good for the environment? just a thouhgt.
2. Going along with number 1 carry silverware incase I encouter a plastic only food decision.
3. Buy local whenever I can. I plan to get growlers of beer from the locally brewerys as opposed to from the store. The farmers market is a great idea, for a meal once a week.
4. Think before I buy. Buy organic clothing, but only when I need. Really limit purchases to needing an item, not just wanting it. Think about where it comes from. Buy recycled products or products made from recycled material.
5. Volunteer on trail building initiatives at least once a month.
6. Ride my bike for as many and to as many functions/activities as my body allows me to.
7. Get healthy. one way or anther, get back to normal, I am not a fan of the word normal because what is normal really, we are all fighting our own battles, but a normal level of life, where I once was.
8. Recover, finacially, mentally and physically.
9. Keep better records, be more organized. Limit clutter. This is going to be hard for me, I have stacks and plies of things all around my computer, with notes scibbled in corners of ripped papers all over the place. I need to get organized, it is however the motivation to do so, the initial clean that is daunting, then the daily mantience,once used to is easier.
10. To cook a new recipe and to have a day/night where I cook for a number of days. A new recipe a week.
11. Learn more about proper nutrition. Eat a raw foods meal once a week.
12. tying in with number 6. Sell my car. Sell my girlfriends car and by a desiel car/truck and convert it so it runs on vegatable oil, part of the time. Use biodesiel when not using vegatable oil.
13. Focus on the positive. In myself, others and the world.
14. Be less judgemental. I have been a crappy fucker as of late. Real fun to be around you can imagine.
15. Believe in myself again. This has been a long year, one where I lost the faith in myself, my self worth and happiness has been tied to exersise and a passion in one way or another since I found skateboarding as a 12 year old. It has always been my outlet, my coping mechnism, with that gone as of late my self worth has suffered. This is no good. No matter what we are all doing our best.
16. To do my best at what I choose to do. Doesnt mean I will be the best but with each experience to stive for a personal best. I call this my commitment to learning. To be in the moment.

This is what I have been coming up with and this is the first time that I have commited these to paper, so to speak so I will be revamping and revisiting them and getting them more polished. MY new montra has been: I will rise again. tattoo to follow. be strong, and keep pedaling.