In what ways do I practice sustainability? How am I capable of sustaining a lifestyle that treats the earth with kindness? I seem to ponder these questions daily and am often struck by the HOW instead of the WHAT. I notice that when I simply wake up and walk through the day with the conscious effort to compost, recycle, reuse, and reduce my consumption I not only feel better in my body, I also see the colors of the earth more vividly. My body aches when I see how often styrofoam is used in restaurants. My muscles tense when I witness glass, aluminum, paper, and food products tossed into a garbage can instead of being recycled or composted. Rather than taking medicine for my pains, I consciously choose to do what I can to educate others, recycle, reuse, and compost when possible.

I know I can always do more – “be the change I wish to see” as Gandhi reminds me. And, I also know that I do not want to cause unnecessary suffering around what I cannot do. My path of sustainability is a process – learning daily more ways that I can “green” up my life, while at the same time gently teaching others how they too can create a life of sustainability. I was lucky enough to have been invited to give a talk last fall at an international conference on how schools can be more sustainable. Although I was the “presenter” I learned more from those who attended the workshop! We spent a few hours discussing how schools in the Philippines, Australia, Africa, and Europe practice sustainability. I was humbled as well as encouraged by the efforts of educators all over the world who have a daily practice of treading lightly on the earth. I left the conference with a renewed sense that I have the choice in every moment to live a sustainable life – even as I drive daily and eat in restaurants. Sustainability is a choice that is not expensive or difficult or only for “hippies” – every person can take a step toward a life that sustains us all.

Some practical tools that help me on my journey to live more sustainably are carrying a water bottle with me everywhere I go and refilling it rather than using plastic bottles, taking my own “to go” containers with me to restaurants so that I limit the use of styrofoam, reusing paper at work and double siding any handouts that I give to students and faculty members, and the most important one for me is:  To simply have compassion for myself and others as we learn how we can practice simple steps everyday to reduce the amount of waste in our world. I engage in conversations with students, faculty, and complete strangers about how to live more “greenly.” Although I am not able to live at the Monastery, I can bring the message of the Monastery out into the world and BE the sustainability I wish to see. As a wise woman once told me, “As I believe, so I behave; As I behave, so I become; As I become, so becomes my world.”  In Gassho.

Also, I want to share this prayer from the book “Life Prayers from around the world”:

Earth Mother teach me of my kin,
Of Hawk, and Dove, and flower,
Of blinding sunlight, shady knoll,
Desert wind and morning showers.
Teach me every language of
The creatures that sing to me,
That I may count the cadence of
Infinite lessons in harmony.
Teach me how to honor
The Sacred Spaces of all,
Gently melding with the whole,
Answering the whippoorwill’s call.
Steamy tropics to glacial ice,
To thundering ocean tides,
In every grain of desert sands,
Your beauty forever abides.
Oh, Mother of every kingdom,
Let me claim my family’s love,
From the whales of the deepest oceans,
To the Winged-ones, high above.
Expand my limited vision
Until I can truly know
The missions of my Relations
And the blessings they bestow.

-Jamie Sams