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Simply Taking Action, and Flowerpot Heaters

Problem overwhelm, solution overwhelm, simple action

Simply Taking Action, and Flowerpot Heaters

The bees are vanishing. Your organic produce was grown in China downstream of a coal-powered water mill.  Sea otters are found on Alaska beaches dead of canine distemper, spread from Atlantic seals  because the ice cap has melted. That plastic in your water bottle is making fish infertile and giving little boys boobs.

It's called the finite pool of worry.  Or compassion fatigueInformation overload.  I get it in my schedule too--so many things to do, I don't know where to start and end up doing nothing.

That's one of the reasons I love the Origins film and telesummit: the presentation is solutions-oriented and positive.

But that can be overwhelming too. You get the "someday" syndrome, and btw, "someday" isn't on the calendar! "Oh, great idea! Someday I'll build a solar greenhouse." "Oh, when I finish this project I'm totally going to go salvage building materials and make raised beds and domesticate a bunch of quail..."

I'm even worse about that when the weather gets cold. 

The burly down bootees have long replaced my rainbow socks from when it first got chilly here (and what is it about this blog and pictures of my feet??)

But I'm still rocking the rainbow higher up. It's warmer outdoors than in during much of the day, but the day is short now, and nights are, well, not Alaska-cold, but also not Alaska-insulated home.

ela hatscarf

Something's a good idea, but I'm like coconut oil left in the fridge, smooth and solid, or is it honey left at the back of a cupboard, granular and crystallized?  

And then, back to the finite pool of worry, I'm avidly avoiding running the heater that wastes electricity, I try not to turn on the stove for hot tea too often but my thermos only holds 60 oz and I run out; my hot water bottle (rubber, right, not plastic) is a lifesaver, but I avoid showering more than strictly necessary because I can't stand the chlorine on my skin and "someday" I'm going to figure out a filter for the very old-fashioned shower head in this old house.

I was talking last week with a friend who's some way ahead of me in all this: she's given up the automobile and bikes everywhere, she has solar panels; for heaven's sake she built her own miniature mud house... And she told me that after sundown, when her solar panels won't run her crockpot (which keeps her space warm and keeps her hot tea hot), she relies on flowerpot heaters! Two clay pots, one inside the other, with a small candle underneath. On a nonflammable surface like a baking sheet. She bolts the two pots together for ease of movement--the clay allows the candle to breathe so the hole doesn't need to be open.

So, I tried it! Which also meant I got around to up-potting a couple plants that really needed more space around their roots. I don't own a baking tray, I didn't have a nut and bolt to connect the two pots --someday, someday--but I avoided the someday and tried it out anyway, with what I had. My candles weren't the best either. But once I could get a candle to stay alight, it worked! A pleasant, yellow, mellow, earthy heat, a live thing, like a pet fire. Something I can have by my feet as I work in the evening with the lights low; something I don't have to feel guilty about sending out through the cracks in my walls.

How did I get past someday when I'm solidified, crystallized with cold? Bees in a hive starve inches from their food if they come out of hibernation too early and it freezes again. In other words, when you're too cold, that's not sufficient motivation to go find the warmth.

So was it a fluke, then? Honestly, probably that's part of it.

But I think the fact that the idea came from a friend, in person, probably helped breathe some life into it. And the daytime warmth and sunlight sets me buzzing around the light some.

heaterpot250I'd like to hope that my current intention/attention to habit changing and awareness played a role, too, because it brings a willingness to experiment, to be imperfect. And so, not someday but today, my feet are a little warmer, thanks to sharing with a friend, and thanks to just doing, with bits and pieces I had already.

And one thing becomes the example for another. Maybe next I'll take an iPhone pic of my shower head to a water filter shop and see if they have ideas for me!

 

About the Author

Ela Harrison

Ela is a wordsmith and herb lover who has lived in many places and currently resides in Tucson, AZ.

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