Home Green HOME

Picture that cross-stitched heart enveloping the words “Home Sweet Home” hanging on a wall. You know the one. It must hold meaning since it appears in various languages on thousands of items around the world, perhaps your very own doormat. I remember another saying. “Home is where the heart is.” What is the universal appeal of these proverbs? I invite you to consider their relevance to you.

Given the current realities of greening our lifestyles – and the “greenwash” (false impressions of greening) that comes along with them – I’d like to explore with you the seeds of green. This article discusses the connection between Heart and Home beginning with a few interpretations of the sayings above. Once we find the green seeds within us, we are better able to express healthful values in our lifestyle choices every day. For the purpose of framing the experience of home, I’ll employ my own perspective called H.O.M.E., or Healthy Organic Mindful Environments (© 2007).

“Home Sweet Home” expresses how people feel upon arriving at a place where their sense of belonging is strongest – a home base, if you will. It’s typically a physical place where they may feel safe, comfortable, relaxed, autonomous, passionate, and free to be themselves – whatever that means to them. Such places may help people connect with personal or family history – their “roots,” an inspiring vision of their future, or perhaps connect their past with their future. Home may be a family farm, a child’s secret place, a college dorm, a first apartment or house, a new town, a retirement village, or any place providing a deep heartfelt connection.

Another sense of home may develop around shared beliefs, values, or experiences. A purposeful sharing with people who seem to reflect important aspects of ourselves may also feel like coming home in some way. Examples include being among people who feel similarly through a community, interest group, professional association, action group, employer, etc. A reunion, conference, or retreat that brings people together around common, yet personal, themes may revitalize one’s feeling of home. Many people describe a spiritual feeling of finding home within themselves. This often involves a sense of connecting one’s personal truth, passion, journey, direction, and purpose. Home Sweet Home may, therefore, be a portable experience. In all of these understandings, the connection of heart with home is essential. Note that in many healing perspectives the heart is associated with the color green. So let’s continue with the practical side of Home Green Home.

H.O.M.E. - Healthy Organic Mindful Environments

The H.O.M.E. approach helps realign who we are with how we live every day. H.O.M.E. provides an holistic way of looking at lifestyle issues now, as well as anticipating likely future scenarios. Today’s choices can influence tomorrow’s lifestyle in beneficial ways. Since everybody has a unique set of issues and circumstances, I’ll raise several questions that will help you assess and address your lifestyle issues. These questions are intended to touch on many different lifestyle scenarios. Feel free to focus on the ones that are relevant to you. I will continue to do my best to serve as your green navigator. Meanwhile, remember that holistic perspectives in health are essential to nourishing your green seeds.

H is for Healthy. The holistic perspective of personal health considers spirit, mind, and body. Remember that self-health empowers everything else. How do you maintain, and renew your spirit? Perhaps you take some quiet time for yourself each day or meditate. Do you have a private space that encourages you to embrace this activity? Are you literally inspired by clean air? What else nurtures your spirit?

What is a healthy mind? Do you think and process thoughts in healthful ways? Are you able to focus your attention on what feeds you rather than what impedes you? Do you feel self-empowered? Are you effective at organizing various aspects of your life in ways that make sense to you? Do you establish and manage helpful limits and boundaries in your relationships to encourage mutually beneficial interactions?

Of course physical health is most familiar. Do you maintain healthful nutrition, condition, and ambition? Is your home free from unwanted interruption, distraction, odor, and potentially harmful chemicals? Are you comfortable in and around your home? What about other household members living there? Is exercise something you enjoy? If not, what else do/can you do that isn’t called exercise, e.g., gardening? Does your home support your favorite and necessary activities and tasks effectively? Do you enjoy going places? Are there interesting places to visit nearby?

O is for Organic. Generally speaking, there are organic products (and services that utilize them) available now that go in, on, and around you. Though specific definitions may vary, organic generally refers to healthful and natural processes, methods, and products that facilitate healthful living – in your home, as well as the places they are manufactured and utilized. Since organic products do not utilize manufactured chemicals to increase useful life, they often come from local sources. Those that don’t require “shelf lives,” such as organically grown cotton clothing, may come from greater distances without fear of spoilage.

Do you purchase organic foods from local farms? Are your soaps and cleansers green and clean? Do you raise living plants that help filter your air naturally and beautifully? Do you purchase fabrics for your clothing and home that have been organically grown without pesticides or chemicals?

M is for Mindful. Consideration is something often dropped from daily choices these days for the sake of perceived expedience. People may wish to purchase the same products they have been using for years to avoid the time it takes to apply some common sense or do some research. Perhaps they supplant their own views, instincts, knowledge, or wisdom with answers provided by another person, such as the store clerk, the homeowners association, or the handyman – all of whom may have a vested interest in your choices. Many beneficial results derive from consideration, though not all choices require great analysis – should I brush my teeth before, during, or after showering? However, it may hold long term value to assess the ingredients in your toothpaste, choose a healthful one, and stick with it.

Seemingly natural solutions must also be carefully considered. Nature tends to seek balance and respond to local conditions. For example, drought-tolerant plants flourish in dry regions or seasons. In green landscaping strategies, such plants also reduce need for watering and conserve potable water. Additionally, foods that are inherently local and organically grown tend to have nutrients relevant to healthfulness in their natural climates. Since we are what we eat, let’s eat a lot of local organic veggies.

Be mindful of cycles. Specialists now employ the expanding tools of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to determine all of the true costs and impacts of our choices. Importing critters to feast on pesky insects may create imbalance in your local ecology, for example. Purchasing an organically produced product from 5,000 miles away may be wasteful due to the energy resources required to deliver the product to you. Perhaps you can find a local alternative that supports your local economy in the process. Remember that mindfulness is directly connected to behavior. In terms both simple and elegant, Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see.”

E is for Environments. There is so much to discuss that I will revisit various topics more extensively in future offerings. For now, it is important to understand that people spend most of their lives indoors. Time outside is typically minimized and serves as a necessity to go between various indoor venues. Sure, people go to games, play golf, and experience exotic vacations, but interior environments literally and figuratively “shape” our daily lives.

This being said, the theory of “biophilia” suggests that people benefit by an inherent and healthful connection with nature. Just think about decades of personal ads identifying dream dates including long walks on the beach, wine and cheese picnics, balloon rides over vineyards, and more. One pharmaceutical commercial series even shows a couple holding hands from adjacent indoor-style claw foot bathtubs in various bucolic outdoor settings. Whatever they had in mind, to me the presence of nature conveys the prominent idea in these ads – nature is vital.

Let’s characterize some common Boomer home environments. Our dwellings may consist of shared housing, apartments, condos, town homes, twin houses, single family houses, estates, or perhaps specialized settings. Structures may be single storey, two-storey, or multi-level. Locations may be in the woods, on the beach, on a farm, on a campus, in a gated development, a suburban community, an urban area, etc. We may lease a place, own a place, own more than one place, or rent space to tenants.

We live by ourselves or with others. Imagine the possibilities: spouse/partner/friend, teenagers, young pre-adults, boomerangs (grown children returning home for a while), adult children with their children, grandchildren without their parents, aging parents, personal care-givers, etc.

A lot goes on in our homes as well. Do these dwellings support and embrace all inhabitants healthfully? Homes shape working, learning, hobbies, recreation, health pursuits, personal tasks, cooking/eating, sleeping, and more. Are these home-based activities accommodated sufficiently? What about your indoor environmental quality? Have you replaced furnishings and finishes with materials that do no harm when you touch them or breathe near them for hours at a time? Are you redesigning or reconfiguring your spaces to serve you better? Are you planning an addition? Do you plan to age-in-place because you love your home and neighbors? What about a first floor master suite? Do your contractors understand green building techniques and products? What is LEED Certification? Are your designers familiar with “universal design” criteria that make daily living effortless? These questions represent some of the typical issues that are impacting all of us at one time or another.

In closing, I recognize that many of you are feeling overwhelmed by the green H.O.M.E. agenda and may not know where to begin. This is okay. You’re not alone. I also recognize that many of you are feeling excited. Your internalized green seeds are being nurtured and you are continuing to grow toward the sunlight. This is great too. Wherever you are in your personal journeys of greening your lifestyles and experiencing your own Home Green Home, understand that it all matters. Perhaps you’re ready to simply change the little light bulb of creativity over your head to a compact fluorescent. Maybe your empty nest is refilling and changes are required. Talk to people. Ask your questions and share what you learn. Nobody has the best answer, so don’t be stalled by the paralysis of analysis. Meet with friends and neighbors to share problems, information, and solutions. Interactive Green Chats – give them your own fun name – is the essence of living in community. And after all, creating community and living green are a matter of the heart.