Note: This letter was originally published in our weekly newsletter and is being republished here.
Hey guys,
I read recently that we live an average of just over 27,000 days and it reminded me again of life’s value and relative shortness. I am no stranger to confronting mortality. I’ve experienced grief many times over the course of my life.
My first experience of life-shattering grief was when I was 16 and my boyfriend of a year passed away of a brain aneurysm when he had just turned 17. That experience would forever change me and contributed to my being the seeker I am today.
A few years later I would experience grief for the second time when my favourite teacher and beloved soccer coach who coached me for 4 years in high school (I played outdoor and Futsal) died when I was in my late teens and still fragile from my boyfriend’s death, I endured another huge round of sadness, despair and mulling over life’s meaning.
I escaped grief for about seven years and then unexpectedly, Ben’s youngest brother Mark passed away. Watching Ben grieve over his brother is the most helpless I’ve ever felt as a human, watching him go through that pain and knowing I couldn’t take it away from him. It was Mark’s passing that was the catalyst for where I am today. If he hadn’t have died, I doubt very much Ben and I would have made the decision to leave Melbourne. We left because Ben wasn’t coping with his brother’s death and needed to be near his family in Queensland. We packed up my Celica and drove up, lived in a tent for 4 months on his parents’ vacant property and then once the shed was built, Ben and I moved into that (I have rat and spider stories to last me a lifetime). I went from city Princess to Eco Warrior and hence, ECO WARRIOR PRINCESS.
Now some people roll on out of bed and think ‘same shit, different day’ and believe that nothing that they do makes a bit of difference. I disagree with their assessment. Here’s how I view things: each decision creates ripples, and contributes to positive and negative vibrations. Time is precious, and like fossil fuels, it’s finite (on Earth anyway). We can either “get busy living or get busy dying” as the popular Shawshank Redemption quote goes. I prefer to get busy living and use my skills, this media brand and my organic farm life to be a part of “the solution”. What about you?
Anyway, here’s who I’m following, what I’m reading and listening to this week:
Podcast Shows:
Eileen Fisher: Eileen Fisher, How I Built This with Guy Raz
Economics, Sexism, Data, Planet Money
Viral Sensation Rutger Bregman on How Utopian Ideas Can Become Reality, Intelligence Squared
Books:
The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by Jeff Goodell
The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka
People / Accounts:
Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Sudanese-Australian writer and a self-proclaimed recovering engineer.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat Congresswoman for NYC and the initiator of the Green New Deal.
Articles / Reports:
Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby, New York Times
Adani water plan ticked off within hours despite lack of details, internal CSIRO emails reveal, ABC News
Anyway hope you all have a fab week and if you’re in Australia, remember that along with making each day count, YOUR VOTE COUNTS THIS SATURDAY TOO! Make it a thoughtful, considered,policy not personality based one!
Peace, love and all that jazz,
Jen xx (Editor-in-Chief)
Recommending reading:
- It’s OK to Have Some Time Out
- The Art of Slow Living: Chasing Less, Living More
- It’s Time to Stop the Glorification of Busy
- 9 Top Environmental Books to Learn About Climate Science and Sustainability
- 5 Inspiring Australian Female Politicians You Should Know
- 30 Things You Can Do If You’re Feeling Helpless About Climate Change
- Greta Thunberg, The 15-Year-Old ‘Radical’ Climate Activist Demanding Systemic Change
Feature image via Unsplash.
