overwhelmed both by his stumble into cold water and the state of the beach

on the bright side, there's always a piece of rope handy when you need one... sigh

the emotional theme of february seems to have been overwhelmed. this was one of the days i felt it all just under the surface, threatening to boil over. overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of caring for mother earth, overwhelmed by the pervasive indifference. overwhelmed with gratitude that there are others out there who are trying, too. some links:

5 gyres (fighting the good fight against plastic in our oceans)

harmony art (documenting beaches in california looking a lot like ours here in oregon; harmony is a committed servant of the earth who designs organic cotton fabrics)

the green bag lady (she posts awesome info about plastic, that first link has an awesome video of a couple in california who use beach plastic to make incredible art. the green bag lady is on her way to see what’s out there in the ocean firsthand; her campaign against plastic bags is relentless and inspiring)

chris jordan (photography of dead baby albatrosses whose parents mistakenly fed them full of plastic bits; probably the best imagery i have seen to convey why we need to take this whole plastic problem more seriously)

these are just a few of the folks i’ve come across who i want to give a shout out to on days when i’m wondering why i forgot to bring my broom and dustpan (and a dumpster) to the beach… to the devil’s punch bowl state natural area, to be exact. and, gulp, i’m not giving up. i’m going to keep picking up as much of it as i can, continue to reduce my footprint as much as i can, and keep talking about it….

…tomorrow: much more uplifting post about quinn’s birthday, celebrated yesterday! my little man is four years old!!!