everything is made of plastic, a lenten journey pt. 2

My fabulous journey into a deeper relationship with my spirituality vis-a-vie lent is definitely not going the way I planned. Landing back in the city after six weeks away, I found myself way behind on so much work—for the press, for some other side hustles, and all that general life stuff that we adults have to take care of. (dentist appointment’s, cleaning the apartment, big piles of laundry, dealing with mechanics and car repairs, grocery shopping, going through a month’s worth of mail to figure out what needs to be responded to) I had envisioned for myself hours of silence, meditation, abstaining from technology and ruminating and what it meant to live a life without excess. Instead, for this first week and half, I’ve been bombarbed with meetings, errands, emails, and catching up with friends, which of course begs such an eternal question of how to live a spiritually driven life amidst the many details of the mundane.

I started with some material changes, as material changes are often the easiest to incorporate when we’re trying to give ourselves a spiritual overhaul. I thrifted a reusable water bottle, and now haven’t bought a plastic water bottle in over a month. I switched to washable pads as well; realizing that by doing so I’m keeping around 2,000 pads from ending up in a landfill. (Which is great, because they take about 800 years to decompose) I talked myself out of several purchases that I didn’t need (one was an adorable lunch box with bunnies on it—even though bunnies are my favorite I had to remind myself of the adorable strawberry lunch box I bought myself last year and have only used once since then), and decided to check out the latest books on my “to-read” list from the library instead of going straight to buying them. I started using the many hankies I have instead of paper tissues, which prompted me to reflect on the number of modern inventions and conveniences that are designed to distance ourselves from our own bodily functions. I do think in many places there is a sense of both fear and disgust when it comes to dealing with our natural bodily processes—including and especially death. But I digress.

A friend inspired me to do a pantry challenge, so I’ve been working on cooking and eating all the dry goods that have accumulated in my cabinets, only buying new groceries where there’s an obvious need for something fresh, like greens or milk. It’s been fascinating to see what I’ve been avoiding cooking in my cabinets—I finally had to open a long-abandoned bag of dried black beans and figure out how to incorporate them into different meals. (Turns out even a little stale they’re both delicious and amazing for gut health)

A big realization about a source of excess in my life that caught me unawares was my headphones. That’s right, my headphones. Usually listening to music, unless I’m at the gym, then it’s public radio and podcasts. I realized that I was using music to take myself out of the present moment, to distract myself and disassociate from what was going on around me. As a natural day dreamer it’s always been easy for me to live in my own head. As someone who lives in New York, I’m used to plugging those headphones in the moment I step outside. So I’ve been putting them away, letting myself be more present with my surroundings, my neighbors, and my thoughts—whether it’s on the street, in the subway, or in the grocery store. I’m appreciating how it feels to reduce the overall amount of stimuli I’m taking in at any given moment—I’ve also implemented a one screen limit in my house. (aka, no watching tv and also being on the phone or laptop! one screen at a time)

Another big change coming my way is in the well-worn shape of a Nokia flip phone. I’m officially downgrading away from a smartphone, and asked my mom to mail me her old phone, which is about as old as I am. Honestly, I’m amazed she still kept it after all these years. Words cannot expressed how excited I am to not be walking around with a smartphone, even though I deleted pretty much everything off my phone except messaging, music, and podcasts last year. (I also went to see The Secret Agent last night and waxed nostalgic about telegrams, even though it’s a service I am too young to have ever used. Can we bring back more analog technologies please?)

As I have been so busy, I’ve definitely felt myself rely on old stress coping mechanisms, otherwise known as ice cream and wine. While I’ve been trying to not go overboard, I’m aware that this is an old pattern of mine, and I’m hoping next week (when I will be significantly less busy) I can put these down for a while, or practice stress relief in a more mindful way.

In my attempt to limit the amount of plastic in my life, I have realized that in fact the entire modern world is one big piece of plastic. Thank you, big oil. You can’t even buy groceries without filling your apartment with a huge amount of non-recyclable plastic. I have noticed a drastic reduction in the trash I’ve created the past week as I’ve been more mindful in my shopping, but it is inevitable. Instead of classical recycling, I’m going to investigate if there are other ways or methods of reusing/recycling different plastics that I feel forced to interact with if I’m going to buy literal necessities. We’ll see. I did find a fabric recycling plant that repurposes worn out clothes and fabrics not suitable for donating, and have been setting aside old batteries and ink cartridges to recycle instead of chucking them straight into the trash.

The other pillar of this lenten journey is being in service. I’ve adopted the free fridge in my neighborhood and do a weekly clean of it, and also have been trying to get in touch with local grocery stores to see if they’re open to giving me the food they were going to otherwise put in the trash. Finger crossed! Otherwise, it’s back to dumpstering. ;) I also decided to join a local mutual aid group, and am attending my first meeting on Saturday. In line with the message of loving thy neighbor, I realized that caring for my literal neighbors in my physical community was sorely lacking. Though I’ve done work over the years for my sex worker neighbors, I also want to build stronger relationships with the amazing people that live all around me, and take care of each other.

When it comes to almsgiving, though I haven’t done anything “formal” I have tried to embody a spirit of generosity whenever possible. If someone asks me for help, instead of saying no or giving a dollar, could I give 5? 10? 20? More often than not the answer is yes, and I have not yet found myself in financial duress because I’ve decided to extend more help to someone who is asking for it.

My study and contemplation has been varied—I’m deep into the writings of Gustavo Gutiérrez (the father of liberation theology) and reading the tales of Margery Kempe, a medieval female Christian mystic. While I haven’t had my hours of meditation and silence that I envisioned, I’ve extended my morning meditation to twenty minutes, and have tried to be more intentional and grounded in my prayers.

I ask myself, how can I make every day revolutionary? How can I make every aspect of my life revolutionary? The answers are many, and they do include the trash, our groceries, how we think, talk, and even walk down the street. We’ll see what week two has in store. <3