Mother's Nature Journal: Fashionably slow (before we're too late)

Today was Day 2 of the Drawdown EcoChallenge as well as the end of our cousins' spring break visit.  
On top of three kids, ski gear, and a dog my sister managed to lug all of her family's carefully saved hand-me-downs to pass along to our kids.  Baanko was thrilled especially with the fancy dresses.  Winter wear for next year was what made me squeal with delight.  The planet and our personal pocketbook once again dodged a big ding.  Clothing, especially fast fashion apparel AND microfiber rich active-wear, are taking a huge toll on the environment.  We made that fact our focus today for the EcoChallenge and our homeschool afternoon.

We started our learning journey with the story of microfibers
https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-microfibers/

and our deepening curiosity led us to reporting about the cost of fast fashion:
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/blog-post/why-fast-fashion-needs-slow-down

We brainstormed while sorting through a pile of the problem right in front of us.  (Even though the fleeces and leggings avoided the landfill, we now know that each additional wash we wear into them will release more and more microfibers into the ocean...)

"What can we do about this microfiber problem?"  I asked E.P.

The kid who naturally effervesces with wonder full ideas was flat.

"It feels too overwhelming to even start."

I knew what he meant.

It was time to get simple.

We powered down from unenvironment.org and poured a cup of tea.  We needed a refresher:

As we paged through our well worn favorite our overwhelm settled like dust.  Nothing like a picture book from the children's section of the library to source the most important lessons in our learning.  Grey pages warmed toward a golden conclusion. What you do with a problem, we were relieved to remember, is look for the opportunity that it holds inside.

The question we finished the day with came after we asked, "What do we do?"  After we felt the familiar overwhelm.  After we steadied and refreshed ourselves.  We dug deeper and asked  "Who do we want to be?"