I believe that God has invited each of us to be made new, and to live into God's kingdom of peace and justice. However, this is not something that can happen all at once. Although I believe we are "empowered by the Spirit of God" to live in this kingdom of peace, there is also the reality that it doesn't come naturally, and it will be a long process, a journey of slow, but hopefully constant change, and frequent failure. I strongly believe that this life should be joyful, if not easy, and in that vein Michael and I have taken small steps toward simple and Just living instead of immediately trying to implement every single thing possible. This is humbling, and it means that we have to live with that uncomfortable element of ambivalence, but it also means that we know where we are heading and what we are moving towards without getting burned out or judgemental (since there are examples of people making bigger changes than we are).
(The farmers market flowers with daisies and ferns from our backyard that we used for our wedding are my "joy in simplicity" visual for this post.)Here are a few little examples of how we are starting out.
Just Eating: There are a lot of things about our current system of food production that are unjust and unsustainable. A LOT. There are a lot of things we don't do that we know would be good, but here are a few things that we have chosen to be our starting point for food justice.
-Organic fair-trade coffee. We don't eat entirely organic or even, at this point, mostly organic, because it is a lot more expensive. But after passing several months between the two of us in Peru, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Argentina, where we personally knew coffee farmers and saw the affects of this industry on individuals and on land, we do our best to be consistent about supporting fair-trade organic coffee (rainforest alliance cirtified when possible). We plan to move toward more organic food especially based around certain products as we learn their particular importance.
-Making our own bread. We bought a bread machine for $4 at a Thrift Store. Making our own bread is inexpensive, delicious, and FUN. Once or twice a week we sit on our couch in anticipation of warm fresh bread. Then when the bread machine beeps we rush into the kitchen to slice off big pieces and smother them with butter and jam. Mmmmm... Plus, we are closer to our food production and use a little bit less plastic.
- Less meat and milk. Again, this is an easy choice for us. It is cheaper, healthier, and better for the environment and world food sustainability. Plus, I prefer soy milk to regular milk. And there are tons of wonderful ethnic meals that don't require any meat. My thinking is to try to find a balance of eating in a way that would be possible for every person on earth to eat if somehow resources were equally distributed. We have discovered that the less we eat meat, the less we desire it. Eventually we may head to a fully vegetarian diet, but right now I have to admit find a lot of joy in the occassional burger or chicken in my pasta.
- Starting a garden. This is very much a starting point. So far we have sucessfully grown... cilantro! Semi-successfully grown basil, rosemary, and the onions and sweet potatoes are looking good. Our composting experiement failed, as did the lettuce and broccoli. But it's been a fun journey and a learning process. Little by little we are going to figure out how to grow some of our own food, and it brings us joy. We also try to get a good deal of our produce at farmers markets, this is easy to do in San Diego and again FUN.
Other things besides food related:
-Michael rides his bike to work. He LOVES it. This is much easier to do living in San Diego. We live close to our jobs so as to not commute, and I personally think God helped us out with that one. I should ride my bike to work too... but so far I haven't motivated to start doing it, so I am giving myself grace and hoping to start soon.
- Another easy choice, because we just don't make a lot of money, was not having internet or TV at home. We're on the computer all day at work, so I really enjoy coming home and having a break from it. We recently started watching episodes of LOST that we get from the library... and are loving it, so we're definetly not up on any high horse about the whole TV thing, but we also enjoy knitting or crochetting, playing music together, reading, and getting outside often. We're just starting out on exploring how to promote peace through our liesure activities by being "creators and makers" (a method of opposing destruction and consumption, probably worth a post of its own). I am looking forward to finding new ways to do this.
- Refraining from buying new clothing in favor of second-hand and hand-me-downs. This was hard for me to commit to at first, but now it has just become natural and easy. I am really encouraged by that fact because I think it is an indicator of how the rest of this journey might go -- moving towards simplicity can sound overwhelming at first, but little by little these changes become integrated into your life and start being easy and natural, at which point it is probably a good idea to take a step further and try something new!
If any of you have ideas or examples of how you have joyfully engaged in simplicity and justice, we'd love to hear it!
