Wisdom in truly unlikely places

In these first days of the new year, I’ve been taking stock – as I’m sure many of you have been doing – of what is important, what my priorities are and about what I want to achieve. I’ve already shared with you a few of my own personal health resolutions, but my biggest priority again this year is to become a greener, more eco-conscious person. Although I’ve made many progresses over the last year, there is still much room for improvements.

In my reflections, I realized that I had started wondering about the “whys” more then the “hows”. We are creatures of “hows”: How can I be healthier? How can I make more money? How can I be better? But how about asking why? Why am I not as healthy as I would like to be? Why do I not make the kinda of salary I wish I had? Why am I not the best person I can be?

I started thinking about going green and doing all these things. Asking the “Hows” was a bigger focus of my year in 2009. But last night, I surprised myself with a question I couldn’t fully answer:

Why do I have to make all these adjustments and changes in order to save the Earth?

Where did this questioning come from? You’ll never guess: From a Vancouver 2010 Olympics commercial. As they were talking about the site and environmentally sounds planning and developments surrounding the event, I was intrigued by a quote from the narrator:

“Treat the earth well: It was not given to us by our grand-parents, it was lent to us by our children.”

There is definitely beautiful awareness to be passed on from such a statement, but it also frustrated me a bit because the earth, and the shape it’s in, does have to do with our grand-parents and everyone that came before them. I’m not saying they necessarily knew how all of this would come to be, but it is very important to know where the problems come from in order to understand what we need to do and why.

Where am I going with this?

I’ve decided to make my first few posts of the year about understanding our past so we can better save our future. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting articles on movements, pioneers, scientific phenomena, theories and all kinds of topics related to the birth of our modern environmental conscience.

I hope you’ll come and read as I post them. If you have suggestions on topics, feel free to write them here. I’m hoping to make this year one of learning and information. I hope you’ll take the journey with me.