Please note the Url has changed.

Since I have changed direction of my blog from a gratitude blog to a blog on education and sustainability I have decided it would be more appropriate to change the url from gpgratitude.blogspot.com to susanpicard.blogspot.com. The link on my webpage reflects this change. If you subscribed to this blog using a newsreader you will have to resubscribe to susanpicard.blogspot.com to receive new posts.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

The Farm

If I were to trace the threads back to the beginning I would have to go to the farm. I grew up with a mother who fed a family of eight all winter long with the vegetables that she grew in her garden. My father hunted the wild game that provided us with meat and we harvested buckets and buckets of wild berries to preserve for winter. I know how a bear smells. I know the foliage that supports certain wild crops. I know how to strip a gizzard after I've pulled it out of the belly of a chicken. I know how vegetables taste fresh from the garden. I know that there are many people who know much more about these things than I do however it is this knowledge that forms the basic of what it is that I know about sustainability. To sustain oneself relates primarily to food...sustenance. Sustaining our family on that farm took a tremendous amount of work and I'm not going to pretend that I am predisposed to that lifestyle though in my heart of hearts I wish I was. But thank goodness for those who are predisposed to that way of life. Thank goodness for the needs that they have once their bellies are full. Living sustainably isn't simply about being able to feed ourselves, it's about the interrelationships that form so that we are able to do those things to which we are predisposed and still eat. On the farm these relationships were apparent at a very basic level. Whether it was through the care we gave the livestock or the garden, one of the basic tenets on the farm was that our survival depended upon not just the survival but the flourishing of those things that were in our care. It is something that translates off the farm in so many ways, yet I know it in the core of my being because our life on the farm was committed to supporting the growth of those things which sustained us. Imagine if everyone in an institution or organization knew and acted on the principle that their survival depended on those around them flourishing. Imagine how that would impact global economics. It seems like a simple principle when you think of it and maybe there are a million other ways to learn it. And while I didn't completely know that principle then, as a child, it is so embedded in my bones now that I realize it isn't something that I learned but rather something that became a part of me. What are the implications of this basic tenet when considering how we are in the classroom and what things become embedded in our bones there?

Anchors Away!

It's hard to know when exactly my passion for understanding what is meant by sustainability began. Perhaps it was when I was just a kid, growing up on a farm with parents who were passionate about being self sufficient. Maybe it was in my role as my social worker during a time when home visits and personal interaction were an important part of determining the need for public assistance. It could have been during my career as a teacher as I struggled to make learning meaningful for my students. Then again it could stem from my love for singing and writing songs and a desire to sing about things that matter. Regardless of where and when it began, if I look back on my life at this point I see a thread running through it. This thread desire to know and understand what it means to "sustain" and make meaningful our presence on this planet. Ultimately I suppose it comes from a love of life and a love of what makes life a joy to live. If that wasn't in my heart I don't suppose sustainability would matter. Thanks to so many elements in this world, in particular the people who are a part of my family and community, I have a life worth living. Some have told me that it is extreme arrogance that makes someone like me worry about sustainability but I disagree. I believe that I am a hopeless romantic, completely in love with the world around me, despite the obvious flaws. And so I will embark on this journey of exploration and record it here. Anchors away!