FASHION CHANGES, BUT STYLE ENDURES.

 

WAYS TO PERSONALLY HELP THE ENVIRONMENT

 

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks.

This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling's. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of
buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-ass young person.

www.butterbin.com

Cloth dolls without a mouth are inspired by the Waldorf pedagogy, which shows the importance of the doll in children's games. >> The doll is like that (without mouth, nose and eyebrow) so that the child can project all his emotions in it more naturally.

 

RECYCLED BOX INTO A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE FRAME FOR MY SEWING ROOM

 

FELT ORNAMENT BIRDS TO MAKE

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE AND A CAT.

 

A LESSON WE COULD ALL LEARN FROM.

 

She Tells Her Grandma That She’s Just Been CHEATED On, So Grandma Tells Her To Do THIS.

This woman was just cheated on by her husband of 5 years. She was having a real tough time accepting what was happening so much so, that she just wanted to give up in every aspect of her life. She was tired of fighting and of struggling, she had no motivation to get up out of bed in the morning. Her life was a disaster.

One day she went to visit her grandmother to seek comfort.

Her grandmother was a clever and thoughtful woman. She filled three pots with water and placed each of them on high fire. In no time at all the pots all came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

Without saying a word, she watched them sit and boil.

After around 20 minutes she finally turned off the burners. She fished the carrots and the eggs out of the pan and placed them in a bowl next to the coffee.

Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, ‘Tell me what you see.’

‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied.

Her grandmother then asked her to feel the carrots . She did and the young woman noticed that they were soft. The grandmother asked the woman to take the egg and break it. After peeling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally the grandmother told her to take a sip of the coffee. The young woman loved coffee, and she smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She paused for a moment and then asked ‘What does it mean, grandmother?’

Her grandmother then went on to explain how each of these objects had faced adversity: boiling  water. She then explained how each of the different objects had reacted differently, in their own ways. Before the adversity the carrot was strong, hard, and unrelenting, but was now soft and weak as a result. The egg was once fragile. It’s shell was the only thing that protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiled water, its insides became hardened.

Last but definitely not least, she pointed out how the coffee beans were unique. After being added to the boiling water, they had not only changed themselves, but they had also changed the water they were in.

The grandmother then asked “Which are you?”

“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”

Are you the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity you wilt and become soft, loosing your strength.

Are you the egg, with soft gooey insides until it changes under the heat? Are you a fluid spirit that solidify at the first sign of hardship.

Or are you in fact the coffee bean? The bean not only develops in to something else, but it changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, the coffee releases its full fragrance and flavor. When things are at their worst, the coffee gets better, and changes the situation around it.

When things are tough, and I mean really tough, do you elevate yourself to another level?

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

We are here to tell you that the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.

May we all be like the COFFEE.

http://www.littlechurchmouse.com/