An inspiring story from this week’s Alpha Course video prompted me to consider how we all have the power to make a difference right now in our own corner of the world.
Welcome to the 62nd edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. In addition to how we can all make a difference in the world, this week I share some interesting facts from an Earth Day webinar. Plus, the important role of pollinators, and decluttering under the bathroom sink.
On my mind this week: How we can all make a difference
Let’s all do our something. And all our somethings collectively make a difference.
Julia Immonen
On Thursday at the Alpha Course, I wrote down the above quote as we were watching the video. Julia Immonen was speaking of how hearing about human trafficking inspired her to put together a rowing team. Her 5-woman team spent 45 days rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to raise awareness for modern slavery. It was a story of courage, toughness, and working together to make a difference. (You can read Julia’s story here.)
Over the years, there have been all sorts of examples of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. People like Terry Fox and Mother Teresa endured significant hardship to make a difference in the world. But you don’t have to row thousands of miles, run across Canada, or take a vow of poverty to have an impact.
Leaving things better than we find them
I’ve always believed we should leave things better than we find them—even if it’s only just a little bit better. Each of us has the power to make a difference and be a positive force in our homes, our families, our workplaces and our communities.
You don’t need a lot of time or money to make a difference. Sometimes the smallest actions go a long way to brighten someone’s day. You could help a co-worker with a task they’re having trouble with. If you’re baking, you could bake a few extra cookies and share them with a friend or neighbour. Or you could buy a couple of extra items during your weekly shopping trip and donate them to the food bank.
Imagine how much better the world would be if every single person did just one small positive thing for someone else every day! The power is within us. We just need to harness it.
Whose life will you touch? How will you make a difference today? Think about it and drop me a comment below to let me know.
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- Our 12-year-old dryer quit working last weekend. My newly-retired husband has time on his hands, so he did some online research and figured out how to fix it. We ordered a belt from Amazon for $18 and the dryer is now working again. Let’s hope it keeps working for a while.
- When I went into the office on Tuesday, I went out for sushi lunch with one of my work friends. I hadn’t had sushi in ages, and it was so delicious!
- On Friday, my daughter Colleen arrived home safely from Prince Edward Island. It’s nice to have her home for a few days.
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are some things I learned this week:
Facts from Earth Day webinar
On Monday, I attended an Earth Day webinar presented by Jack Bruner from Mammoth Climate. During the webinar, I wrote down a few interesting facts.
- Despite the emergence of green energy, 80% of the world’s energy is still delivered from fossil fuels.
- The positive impact of driving an electric vehicle depends on where you live and how green your electricity supply is. In Canada, 95% or more of the electricity generated in the provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland is from green sources. Here in Ontario, a small portion of our energy is still generated by natural gas, but we’re doing better than Alberta where over half of their electricity is coal generated.
- Food waste accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than the aviation industry. And 43% of that food waste happens in our homes.
- And the emergence of AI is not good news for the planet. The average AI model produces more emissions than the entire lifecycle of a car.
Why pollinators matter
As I’ve been thinking ahead to my summer garden, I’ve been learning more about pollinators. Did you know that we can thank pollinators for one out of every three bites of food we eat? That’s why it’s so important to plant native species that will attract them to our gardens!
(Source: Pollinator.org)
This week’s decluttering challenge – Under the bathroom sink
In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was decluttering under the bathroom sink. I was able to declutter 6 items from this area. You can find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.
If you’d like to join the challenge, visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
The webinair sounds great, I must see if I can access it and a few others I have had queued up but hadn’t had a chance to get around to.
It was very interesting but it was an internal webinar at the company I work for so probably not available online. Mammoth Climate is an interesting company though. They help companies reduce the climate impact of their workforce.
As far as leaving things better, here is an affirmation poem I converted into a children’s book, with the help of friend who is a talented artist.
A Little Bit Better
Thanks to the things I did yesterday,
Today I am better in every way.
I love myself with all my features.
I love the world with all its creatures.
I set great goals and I get them done.
I find many helpers and so it is fun.
I’ll use this day wisely and go with the weather.
Tomorrow, I’ll wake up a little bit better.
I love that poem! Yes – Every day just a little better than the one before. Brilliant!
Hi, Michelle, I’m always looking to increase the pollinators around my garden, too. I’ve thought of your blog recently, as I’m considering getting under my sink & in my closet to get rid of things! Have a great week! 🙂
Hi Lisa. As I’ve been researching plants to attract pollinators, I was surprised at how many of the plants we have in our gardens are not native to our area.
Glad to hear you’re feeling the nudge to declutter. Good luck!
Thanks!
I love your call to leave things better than when we found them. So inspirational and actionable! Thank you, Michelle!
Thanks, Wynne. It’s such a simple philosophy really but it could make the world so much better if everyone thought that way. Have a wonderful Sunday!
About pollinators, will you do in your country the “No mow May”? In Belgium it’s becoming more and more popular! Now, in public parks, they only cut the borders of fields to let all the plants grow. As you know, this is very useful to preserve biodiversity, including pollinators and other insects.
We are starting to hear about no-mow May, although it hasn’t really caught on a lot here in Canada. Our public parks definitely don’t get mowed as often as they used to, but I’m not sure if that’s a cost-cutting measure or an environmental initiative.
It is true that the electricity could come from fossil fuels.
In the UK around forty percent of our energy now comes from renewables or nuclear, which is real progress. More progress needed though.
I was very interested to see the difference between Canadian provinces. British Columbia is definitely leading the way with green energy. Ontario is doing well too…at least we’ve eliminated the coal-fired power plants. Not surprising to see Alberta and Saskatchewan (our two oil-producing provinces) still heavily dependent on coal.