Giving Mother Earth the cold shoulder

Does anyone else feel guilty when they throw something away that should be recycled? Or is that just me?

I feel like when I put that empty spaghetti noodle box in the trash and not the recycling bin I'm giving Mother Nature a slap in the face. Well, maybe not a SLAP ... that may be a bit extreme ... more like stepping on her foot or bumping her funny bone. It smarts for a minute or two, but then the pain fades and goes away.

Still doesn't feel very good and that is why I have such guilt about it. I mean, it's not Catholic guilt or anything. That I DO have (in droves), but guilt nonetheless.

(On a side note, isn't nonetheless a wonderful word? It seems like it isn't used very much anymore. Like thus, thine or thou ... but I don't really like those words so much. They make me think of literature I don't understand and is boring to read. But nonetheless is so lyrical to me ... so lovely .... But I digress ...)

I do TRY to be Earth conscience and green and all that. I bought the reusable grocery bags, started a compost bin, break down boxes and wash out cans and bottles for what has become not one, but TWO recycling bins we put out every other week for our garbage/recycling company to pick up. So that is something. (Even if my "compost bin" has yet to be anything but a bunch of avocado rinds(is that right?), onion skins and grass clippings. Some sort of disgusting Mother Earth stew that has never really developed into the lovely compost soil is was supposed to.)

It was just that yesterday I had a pots and pans all over the kitchen, and the spaghetti box was empty, and the bin was ALL THE WAY in the garage and I must admit I threw it in the garbage. I know! The SHAME!! I instantly felt guilty. Although not guilty enough to actually reach my hand into the garbage, take the box out and put it in the recycling bin.

To make matters worse I had already chastised my husband earlier in the day for tossing an empty hand soap container in the trash instead of putting it in the recycling bin. But again, I didn't put my hand in the trash can and get the container out to be recycled. (Especially since I had just thrown a banana peel in there. Nobody wants to reach in a garbage can and feel THAT! But now I feel guilty because the banana peel should have gone in the compost bin. Ahhh! The guilt, the crushing guilt!)

I try to justify my "spitting-in-Mother-Nature's-face" actions by telling myself that it will break down in whatever dump it lands in right? Who are you kidding Sarah? It won't. It will rot there for thousands of years and the human race will not be able to continue to exist on this planet and we'll end up in same sort of Wall-E existence, all because I could not bring myself to walk the 15 extra feet to the recycling bin.

I AM KILLING THE EARTH!!

The shame, Sarah, the shame!

I'll take my penance in the form of cold, quick showers to conserve water and energy, reading in dim light and walking to the store instead of driving (up hill, both ways, in four feet of snow). OK, that last one isn't really feasible with kids but I feel like should get a couple of points just for thinking of it.

On an unrelated note, it officially fall weather here so I am in full on Mr. Rogers mode. To explain, it means that I wear a jacket when I go out of the house and when I come home I take off my jacket and then put on some sort of sweater-coat or sweatshirt or something. Because once the nippy weather hits, I am pretty much cold until at least May. Weird I know. I get cold when it's 70 degrees out. Ask my husband. It just happened Saturday.

But I love fall and I would rather be cold than hot so I will look ridiculous wearing a sweater-coat OVER a sweater (it has happened) and getting goose bumps when it is 72 degrees out.

Maybe being cold all the time is Mother Nature's way of getting back at me for those bottles I didn't recycle. Like the whole how-do-you-boil-a-frog-scenario but in reverse.

Maybe not. Either way I think I need to go put on another sweater ...