Welcome to week 3 of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a sustainable living tip for the week. This week, a look at friendships that stand the test of time, new alcohol consumption guidelines, the economic impact of biodiversity loss, why buying local is a good thing, and more.

The Sunday Spark – Week 2

On my mind this week: Friendships that stand the test of time

Last weekend, I got together with my high school friends. It doesn’t feel possible that it has been over 40 years since we graduated high school, but that’s a topic for another post.

Whenever I gather with this group of friends, there’s always lots of laughter. It doesn’t matter how long it has been since we’ve seen each other, we just pick up where we left off. These friendships really have stood the test of time. Through all of life’s ups and downs—marriages, divorces, kids, illnesses, deaths, and more—we’re still friends.  

Some of my longest-lasting friendships are with people who live far away. We only see each other once every few years but, when we do get together, it’s like we’ve never been apart.

There’s an old saying that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. What is the secret ingredient that makes some friendships last over time and distance, whereas others just fade away?

I don’t have the answer to that question. For now, I’ll just be grateful for good friends, near and far, and the joy they bring to my life.

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Three highlights of the week

That get-together with my high school friends was a definite highlight of the week. But I also make a point of just celebrating the simple things in life. Here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• Last weekend, we finally saw the sun again! It had been more than three weeks since we’d had a sunny day. It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do for your mood.
• On Sunday, our church choir got several compliments on our music from members of the congregation. That was nice.
• The Amaryllis that I got for Christmas is in bloom. I love having flowers indoors at any time of year, but especially in winter.

Three things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

• A new report released this week by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction (CSSA) reports that consuming more than two alcoholic drinks a week can increase our risk of several types of cancer, heart disease and stroke. That’s a big reduction from the two to three drinks a day previously stated to be okay by health authorities. Maybe I need to make Dry January a permanent thing.
• In the first post from the Climate Change Collective, I wrote about how climate change will impact all our health and our wallets. A grim report out of Davos, Switzerland this week, where the World Economic Forum is holding its annual meeting, confirmed my fears. They reported that over half of the world’s GDP is at risk because of nature loss. (Source: Nature Risk Rising) That’s over $44 Trillion USD of economic value. When will we wake up?
• I’ve written before about the perils of fast fashion, but I had never given much thought to the environmental impact of leather goods. Leather comes from animal hide. In addition to being a carbon-intensive activity, cattle raising is responsible for much of the world’s deforestation and biodiversity loss. This week I learned the leather tanning process uses chromium, a heavy metal that’s dangerous to humans and the environment. As if that’s not enough, producing one square metre of hide results in 16,500 litres of wastewater pollution. New plant-based leathers are being developed but they don’t stand up as well as real leather. I suppose the solution for now is to make our leather goods last as long as possible and to look for shoes and purses made from other materials. (Source: Earth911)

Sustainable living tip: Buy local

Last week’s sustainable living tip was around the benefits of trying a Buy Nothing Challenge. That can be difficult, especially when it comes to gift giving. If you’re not ready to give up all non-essential shopping, why not challenge yourself to buy local?

The big box stores and online shopping giants make it so easy and convenient to drop in and pick up everything we need. But do you ever stop and consider the sustainability track record of these huge corporations? From excessive packaging, to exploitation of overseas workers in their supply chain, not to mention less-than-ideal working conditions for their onshore employees, they have a lot to answer for.

Local small business owners are your neighbours, and they make a valuable contribution to your communities. For more reasons to buy local, check out this post from Krista and Alison at A Sustainably Simple Life.

This, week consider shunning the mega-corporations and buying local.

What do you think the secret ingredient that makes friendships stand the test of time? Drop me a comment below with your thoughts on that or anything else in this week’s Sunday Spark.