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This morning among other stalling tactics I have been practicing while I stubbornly resist finishing my now-overdue article for NextSpace, I scanned the interesting articles in the latest two print magazines to hit my desk: American Libraries and Governing. Both had cover stories on environmental topics, which was not surprising as Earth Day is in April, spring is finally coming, etc.

So after I mopped up the drool from all the great green library architecture featured this month, I flipped over to Governing, to see that Fayetteville, AR has hired a person to help them be greener in the city government. And the guy has become known as Mr. Sustainability. AND he's all of 30 years old. How cool is that?! Nice that he's gotten some recognition for his work, and I hope it inspires some of us to be greener in our workplaces, too. Do you turn your monitor off at night? Flip the lights out? Walk occasionally, instead of always riding the elevator?

It strikes me that libraries are part of a not-so-big, green lifestyle by implicit design: you don't need to own the book in order to read it, absorb its knowledge and share it with others.

May be we should start capitalizing on our built-in green-ness, in addition to our beautiful new LEED-certified buildings. Can you appoint a Mr. (or Ms.) Sustainability for your staff? Or maybe it's a rotating distinction, that different staff members (or a volunteer!) wears for a couple of weeks, notes behaviors, and then suggests easy changes.

If you have a cotton/canvas library bag available for sale, why not team up with local grocery stores and make you bag available for purchase at the grocery store check-out? Whole Foods is aiming to be plastic-bag free by Earth Day. If they can do it, so can your grocery.

I was so down yesterday and was guided to make an "I LOVE" book to help me get back on track. I wanted to see what new directions were really taking me--where I wanted to go, not where I thought I should go. Out came the magazines, the scissors, the fun doodads like ribbons and pockets (just love pockets), and each page I pasted down what excited me and what I loved. Above is a page about costumes. I had a funny dream the other night where I was told I could have been a costumemaker. I love designing and drawing fashions. (See etsy FairyGoddess Print packet.)
What came out of this exercise was blatantly obvious--I loved making books, my soul wants to paint, I love the process of designing whether it is a drawing or web page, and I love inspirational /informative writing. Oh, and I kept hearing from my soul I needed to drink more water, and lay off the sugar. :) Would I give in to my soul or would I keep hearing the critic who tells me I need to do other things to make a living? Because as long as squoosh down these passions, my energy would die and I would continue to have down days.