Trusting the words of Thoreau

Sometimes when we make decisions, we get more than we think we bargained for. Supporting local farmers-you betcha. Buying healthy food- been doin' it for years. Cutting out random stuff I shouldn't be eating any way and just eat when I'm anxious about something- uh sure; it's gross in looks, habit and how good can it be if it's been travelling half way around the world to get here? Saving energy- feels great. Researching and finding new household products- fun! (It was super awesome grocery shopping yesterday by the way- plus I spent about half as much by loading up on healthy/organic/local products. Did you read that properly: almost half as much just by shopping consciously and creatively!)

It's the talking and teaching other people about sustainable living that seems a little less than comfortable. I do much better leading by example than I do getting up and preaching people into a revolutionary state.

A couple of months ago I had become interested in Milk Paint. Everything about it seemed right. No VOC's, great bright colours, easy to work with, environmentally friendly, has a great history and you can even by it from a Canadian manufacturer/retailers (see Household). I redid our wee one's dresser in Sea Foam Green and was very impressed by the application and country/shabby chic look. I then started talking about it....and couldn't stop. At home, on the phone, at work. Yes, at work. We're currently doing a series of weekend retreat workshops at work and I (in all of my excitement about Milk Paint) suggested a weekend retreat in learning to work with it. Once I realized what I had done I called high and low (or from Edmonton to Toronto) attempting to hire an instructor to run the 'Working with Milk Paint' weekend. I had such positive responses- but not in the way I was hoping to. "No, I don't know anyone to do it but that's awesome why don't you run it?!" "No sorry we don't teach that but if you ever decide to run it please call us back- we'd be very interested in hosting it here too!" Even the guy from Toronto called back leaving a message so long that the machine cut him off "I'm always excited to talk to people who are interested in using Milk Paint- call me back and we'll chat some more."  Really?

Sometimes we can't avoid things that make us uncomfortable but I still tried. I found someone (two people actually) who would work with latex and other poisonous materials, that achieve beautiful results. I reserved them and got excited about learning their techniques. I printed labels and covered the Milk Paint Weekend promotional material. In the midst of this excitement though something didn't sit right and the saying "you can put lipstick on a pig..." kept running through my head (but not in it's assumed meaning). It is now just a couple of days before the workshop and people are just not interested in my label-covered advertisement. At the 11th hour, in my devotion to making sustainable choices (at the expense of both my comfort and embarrassment) I have decided to run the "Working with Milk Paint Workshop" myself with 5-6 participants.

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success." -Henry Thoreau