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The daughter of a friend had set her wedding date for this spring, but has postponed it til fall. If it were my decision to make, I would go ahead with the original wedding date — but have the celebration online, maybe with only immediate family members physically present.

Life goes on. Young couples ready to get married, start families and all should go ahead and get married, not wait. For that matter, same with old couples who are ready to get married. We shouldn’t assume that things will be “back to normal” at some future date. (And in fact, fall being hurricane season in this part of the country, I would not plan an event for that time of year anyway. Learned from experience.)

Am I saying we should forget about celebrations? No! An online event is still an event! In many ways it opens up possibilities: More people can attend. And there can be more room for heartfelt creativity in the tributes we make. You could send the happy couple a congratulatory meal by delivery after the wedding’s over; you could video a congratulatory performance of some kind, such as singing them a song.

And in-person celebrations aren’t gone for good; just for now. I do see this shutdown of events as a “correction”; an opportunity to rethink the mass long-distance “travel at the drop of a hat” to which many of us have become accustomed. So accustomed, in fact, that a person almost feels like a spoil-sport or a renegade for choosing not to travel across several states to attend a wedding, graduation, or other gathering. But if nothing else, I figure a young couple could use money, and at least part of the money I’d spend on travel and hotel, I could instead give as a gift.

I feel the same about graduations. Whatever we lose by not gathering in person, I think we make up for by saving travel footprint, time, and energy. And money (at least some of which is then freed up to be given as a gift if we choose). Northeastern University is holding its graduation online, reports Channel 10 Boston.

I feel bad for the hotels and event venues that are losing bookings. But the individuals who run those places, and the individuals who work there, are sure to devise their own creative strategies for earning a livelihood that does not depend on events or long-distance travel. (As just one example, a lot of my musician friends are live-streaming performances. Online art shows are happening as well.)

Even funerals are going online. This is not just a response to the Coronavirus; it’s actually a trend that’s emerged over the past decade or so, according to funeral industry experts. I like the idea. We have all this great telecommunication technology and broadband infrastructure; what better use for it than to bring more people together, while taking a load off of people’s schedules and wallets, not to mention Earth’s ecosystems!

Yes, of course telecommunications has an eco footprint. Servers use quite a bit of electricity. But I think that if you add up all the costs of a physical gathering, you come out ahead with a virtual celebration. The present circumstances invite us to really push the envelope of what it means to have the best of both worlds: We get to (are forced to) spend most of our time at home. And at the same time, thanks to technology, we also get to spend time gathered in each other’s living rooms, collapsing distance and time.

Further Reading:

Virus could change funerals; how we handle death (Daytona Beach News-Journal): Live-streaming funerals, and using social media as a gathering space for celebrating a loved one’s life, has become a growing trend over the past few years — and one that could continue to grow even after the virus panic passes, say experts quoted in the article.

Other examples: Sports events are a kind of celebration. They are starting to go television-only, with athletes playing to empty stadiums; see photos and report in Wired Magazine. (But then many have canceled their seasons entirely.) The Olympics might even get canceled — or maybe it’ll just be online/TV only! NASCAR has introduced simulator-based racing, which is televised and offers the excitement of crashes (without the blood) and familiar star racers.

Movie studios are starting to release films onto DVD and streaming at the same time as the theater release date (not that the theaters are open). Universal Studios was the first studio to do this, reports Vanity Fair.

Many churches I know are streaming their Sunday services. I just listened to my pastor, Rev. Kathy Tew Rickey of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ormond Beach, on YouTube! Check out her sermon to hear some comforting words amid the pandemic — and to see a beautiful example of how a church can keep many of its programs going, and maintain a sense of family, via phone and online channels.

And finally, April 22, 2020, marks the 50th Earth Day — and the first-ever digital Earth Day. Visit EarthRise2020.org to register and to invite friends.

“What would happen if the shutdown taught everyone they can live on less of everything they thought was important?” — So goes a Facebook meme that’s been making the rounds the past few days. It’s getting a lot of Likes, and I am one of them.

During disasters, life gets turned upside-down, and people focus on toughing it out “til things get back to normal.” But I think we’d be better off assuming that this is the new normal, and adjusting our lives accordingly. In particular, I really think it behooves us to adjust our finances, so we can live well on far less money. Right now, most people I know of are very financially vulnerable even if it were not for the quarantines and shutdowns prompted by the Coronavirus. Over the past few years, people’s livelihoods have been interrupted by hurricanes and other weather extremes. Even among those who are able to earn a steady income, many people’s lives are adversely affected by student-loan debt, medical debt.

The best advice I can offer anyone is, Learn to live on less. In permaculture design courses, the saying was, “Reduce your need to earn.”

For those of you who are thinking, “I shouldn’t have to be uncomfortable! Why should I deprive myself?” — I say, this isn’t about deprivation; it’s about lowering your overhead so you’re not a financial slave to anything or anyone.

Here, I’m going to cover the top culprits in high overhead, and offer tips for getting out from under them.

A roof over your head: Rent or mortgage is the top expense for most of us. Even if you own a house free and clear, you still pay rent to the government as property taxes. Lower this overhead by choosing the simplest, smallest place possible, and, even more importantly, by living with other people. Live in multigenerational community with family or friends. Living alone is not only expensive but isolating. When living with another person seems like too much of a hassle, remind yourself of how much money you’re saving by not having to pay for a whole place yourself. And learn the art of taking turns letting the house’s other occupants have the house to themselves: Don’t always be home! Go take a walk around the block; run errands.

And speaking of roofs, if you’re paying for a storage unit, now would be a great time to cut that expense loose. Find a place for your stuff inside your house, or else sell it or donate it right now to someone who has immediate use for it.

Entertainment: Bar tabs and coffeehouse receipts can add up fast. Treat yourself but don’t make it an everyday thing. (This is one area of expenses that’s been curtailed by the virus.) Write down what you spend; you might be surprised. Ditto for travel and electronic media.

Travel: warrants its own category. Be it for entertainment or for social visits, maximize the innovative use of teleconferencing, and don’t look back. I hope a lot of the teleconferencing innovations (such as musicians giving concerts by Zoom) will stick around, as people wake up and realize how exhausting and expensive all that travel was.

Home energy use: Be it electric or gas, heating or cooling your home is most likely your biggest energy expense. Cutting back, or doing without in regions where that’s feasible, can save you hundreds of dollars a month. Other energy-bill elephants are the clothes dryer (use a clothesline or drying rack instead) and the water heater (turn it way down, or do without if you can).

Transportation: Automobile ownership eats up a huge chunk of your income. Ditch the car. I know it sounds harsh but so is opening up a vein for the car payment, gas station, insurance company, and auto repair shop. If you want to free yourself of a real albatross, ditch that car and live close to where you work. Or make a home-based business. (At the very least, if you cannot or will not do without a car, then please do yourself a favor and share it with multiple other people.) Yes, doing without a car requires a bit of planning and coordinating, but instead of focusing on the inconvenience, focus on how much money you’re saving and how much you enjoy being free of the ever-looming specter of car payments and engine trouble.

Student loans, medical debt: These are pretty much impossible to get out of. But by reducing your overhead in the above ways, you can get free of them faster, and live a less stressed life along the way. If you haven’t yet taken on debt for school, don’t. Just don’t. The fickle job market should be proof enough that student loans are a dicey bet.

Does the above advice sound too extreme? What’s really extreme, is how financially vulnerable we’ve allowed ourselves to become. High overhead breeds insecurity, and it’s hard to enjoy our prized material possessions or any other aspect of life if we’re insecure.

When I was a kid, I’d see pictures of people in “poor, primitive” countries, and wonder why they had such big smiles on their faces. Well, now I know: 1) They owned their homes free and clear. Might’ve been a grass hut but at least they owned it. (And, they knew how to build themselves a new one if it burnt down or washed away.) 2) They were surrounded by family and community. They knew their neighbors. 3) Everyone had jobs to do. From little kids to elders, all knew they had a role in the economic life of the community. 4) They knew how to grow or forage their own food, get their water from streams or the sky. 5) They were physically and mentally acclimated to the prevailing temperature and other weather conditions.

None of which is to say that modern life doesn’t have its great riches and blessings. I’m using one of those blessings right now to get these words out to you. But let’s be smart: Let’s use the economic challenge of the Coronavirus to get our household economies truly, deeply in order. In the process, we will also be reducing our eco footprint. Hooray!

Don’t wait for things to get back to normal. Assume this is the new normal. And adapt and thrive accordingly.

Further Reading:

How To Align Economy and Ecology (Open Collaboration Blog): “PROVIDE JOB TRANSITION SPACE for people to leave jobs in companies which are based on producing more unnecessarily. Provide space for companies to reorient more ecologically. TRANSITION TO NEIGHBORHOOD COMMONS. Shifting childchare, eldercare, sickcare, food cooking back into the commons, shifts money from runaway capitalism system into the commons, it recenters life in our neighborhoods so theres less travel and less gas use, and it leads to more sharing of goods which lowers consumption …”

In the Midst of the Coronavirus Crisis, We Must Start Envisioning the Future Now, by Masha Gessen in The New Yorker: “When we virtuously retreat to our homes, deserting public space and delegating all authority to one man armed with emergency powers, we are creating a society as close to the textbook definition of authoritarianism as has ever actually existed.” And, regarding how we choose to think about the changes prompted by the pandemic: “[W]ill we think of distance learning as a way to make education more accessible or as a way for colleges to save money on professors and classrooms? For younger kids, might the shift prompt us to stop thinking of school as a place to warehouse children while their parents go to work, and start thinking of ways to engage children in learning? Will we emerge more atomized than ever before, with all casual links severed, accidental connections precluded, and public spaces destroyed—insuring that the new authoritarianism continues—or will we take care to create our public space anew? Will we have the courage to resist trying to restore the world we have lost, with its frenetic pace, its air travel and traffic jams, and its obsession with growth and production?”

In these TP-troubled times, a device more worthy of consideration than ever is the bidet, which has long been used in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere but has only relatively recently caught on in the USA.

Bidets (or bidet attachments designed to fit on your existing toilet) can be expensive to buy and install, though they do come at various prices. My favorite option, and one that I’ve been using for awhile now (as have many of my green-minded friends) is the bidet bottle. This is, simply, a plastic squirt bottle that you use like a bidet. It can be any kind of squirt bottle; I find that a short squat mustard bottle is a handy size and shape. I even take the bottle with me on trips.

Not being dependent on toilet paper is great from an eco standpoint of course (some appalling number of trees are felled each year just to wipe North American bums). Also, many of us feel cleaner with a bidet. And now, with the coronavirus panic sparking a weird reaction of mass toilet-paper stockpiling (I keep trying to tell people it’s a respiratory virus, not intestinal!), not needing to be worried about t/p becomes even more appealing.

After using the bidet or bidet bottle, many people like to pat dry, which can be done either with a square of toilet paper (way less than you’d need if you were trying to use t/p to do the whole job!) or with a square of cloth. The “toilet cloth” (also known as “family cloth”) can then be laundered like any other household laundry. My favorite source of toilet cloth is old cotton t-shirts or terrycloth towels, which I cut up into squares.

(Not quite ready to give up TP? Try Who Gives a Crap toilet paper. It’s made of bamboo, recycled paper, and other “forest-friendly” materials. Or ReelPaper, made of bamboo — just now found out about them.)

I first learned of the bidet bottle via my fellow greenies in the Journey to Zero Waste group on Facebook (an absolutely stellar resource for reducing trash or other waste in any possible area of life). But as I did further research, I learned that a bidet bottle (or pitcher, or other container) is de rigeur in Muslim cultures, and is known in at least some countries as a Lota. Other cultures are so often a storehouse of riches for best practices in everyday life.

Further Reading:

Islamic Toilet Etiquette (muslimgirl.com)

Secrets of the Muslim Bathroom (Salon): “Instead of fearing the lota, we as a society should tolerate and embrace the diversity of booty-cleansing techniques that are now available to us. Americans eventually accepted hummus and Bollywood music. Could the lota could be next? Regardless, it’s time to put an end to the self-loathing and fear and let the lota proudly step out of the water closet.”

Reddit thread: How to use a bidet bottle/Lota: “Lean forward. With right hand, take lota (which you filled) and bring it to your back and lean it forward to get a flow going. You want a good flow, not Niagara Falls. While the water is hitting your buttocks, use your left hand to rub the water around there (nothing too aggressive just feel it out like you would in the shower). Repeat if necessary. Dry if you want, some people do, some people don’t. Wash your hands with soap. That’s basically it.”

“Issue With Tissue” Sustainability Scorecard Flunks Charmin and Other Toilet Paper Brands
NRDC/Stand.earth Report Exposes the “Tree-to-Toilet Pipeline” Destroying Canada’s Boreal Forest.

As many people are pointing out, the slowdown imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic offers us the gift of time and space to reexamine our priorities and sort out what really matters to us (individually and collectively).

The slowdown in the default frantic pace of life can also be a time to question what passes for normal in everyday USA life. I’m constantly doing that anyway, but the slowdown gives more time for it.

The other day I accompanied a neighbor to the hospital for outpatient surgery. It involved an hour’s drive, by medical taxi, down the interstate to the big city. The drive provided time to think, and a cross-section of “normal” sights.

It’s normal to use tons of concrete. TONS, everywhere. When you’re on a modern interstate the whole world seems made of concrete. I cannot imagine the resources it takes to do this — for what? We need these huge walls and pillars and I don’t know what all else, just to provide a surface for our vehicles to get from point A to point B? Seems like backwards evolution to me. If I were a space alien I might think the resident populace was compulsively using up its resources in order to commit species-suicide.

It’s normal to totally scalp the landscape, even on very very steep slopes. Lay the sod and keep it scalped. Turf companies and mower companies must be doing very well.

It’s normal for people to have health insurance. If you have some kind of government-based coverage, everything is covered, even an hour-long taxi ride to a hospital for elective surgery. Of course many people have no insurance. But the system is totally set up for people who do. If you don’t have it … you don’t fit into the system.

It’s normal for hospitals to be huge, lavish Taj Mahal-like palaces that even keep advertising themselves once you’re inside their walls and have presumably become a paying customer. It’s normal to bombard hospital patients, in their beds, with a constant TV screen of pharmaceutical advertisements.

It’s normal to cram all the used linens into a giant disposable plastic bag. I assume they were being taken to be laundered, not thrown away. In that case why not use a cloth bag and wash it along with the linens? But maybe they were throwing the linens away? In any case, what they were doing is normal.

It’s normal to use straws. Disposable, one for every drink. You’re still weird if you question that. And it’s work if you want to try to get a drink without a disposable plastic cup and straw. These things are normal.

It’s normal, even outside a building (as opposed to inside), to have movie screens flashing garishly colored digital ads. It’s normal to intrude on the outdoors in this way. Ditto for intruding on the outdoors with sound (music, ads, etc.), as many businesses do. If you question that, people will just look at you like you’re nuts.

It’s normal to have a car. It’s not normal not to. If you don’t have a car, the default environment is not set up to accommodate you.

It’s normal to view the vast majority of nonhuman species (both plant and animal) as “pests”, and spend millions of dollars trying to eradicate them. Even many people who profess to believe in God, do not think twice about doing this to God’s creatures.

It’s normal to keep indoor environments heated or cooled so far from the ambient outdoor temperature that you need, for example, to wear a jacket indoors when it’s nice and warm outside. It’s normal to construct whole buildings with no windows that can be opened.

It’s normal to try to keep the outdoors “neat” using landscaping practices such as edging, leafblowing, that do violence in the form of noise pollution, air pollution, and disruption of natural restorative processes.

A few years back, I attended a talk by Joel Salatin, a farmer who engages in regenerative practices. He’s quite a speaker. One of his favorite phrases is, “Folks, this ain’t normal!” (describing mainstream industrial ag practices). This phrase might serve us well as we move through our days, noticing the various default settings that pass for “normal” in mainstream USA. Questioning normal is always a healthy reality check, even when what’s normal appears to be working. Especially when what’s normal appears to be working. Because it’s probably not working for everyone or for Mother Nature.

People who question the norm are labeled pests and freaks. I know I have been. Don’t let that stop you. Question “normal”! If you go out today, see how many examples you can find even in just a few minutes, of things that usually go unquestioned but are really crazy. It can feel demoralizing, noticing all the craziness without feeling you can do anything about it. But noticing it is the first step. There might be people around you who are ready to notice it too, and start joining forces to do something about it.

Coronavirus panic has governments and organizations cancelling events large and small. Events as far out as May, and beyond, are being cancelled. Kids’ schools are shutting down, leaving working parents scrambling for ways to accommodate the situation.

The influenza pandemic of 1918 infected ONE-THIRD of the world’s population and eventually killed one in ten of those it infected. The flu every year kills tens of thousands. So far, coronavirus isn’t showing signs of being anywhere near this magnitude of crisis. It’s killing about 2-3% of those it infects, and those infected are a tiny percentage of the population so far. But then again, the 1918 pandemic started with a milder wave in the spring of that year, and only in the fall came back as the raging monster we read about. Knowing human nature, I can’t really fault people for panicking, or governments and event planners for being cautious.

As I see it, coronavirus is just the latest of Mother Nature’s wakeup calls to humanity. Previous wakeup calls include severe storms, wildfires, drought-flood extremes. By “wakeup call,” I don’t mean anything like “Mother Nature is punishing us,” “God/dess is showing us His/Her wrath,” etc. No. What I mean by wakeup call is, an invitation for human beings in the rich industrialized world to notice where the design of our current systems makes us fragile and vulnerable. And a further invitation to us to build resilience into our households and communities.

Be it a storm, earthquake, drought, flood, or disease, the task remains the same: Build resilience.

The most basic human needs are food and water. At the very least, we need to boost our self-reliance in collecting and storing rainwater, and growing food locally. Not everyone needs to grow their own food, and we don’t each need to grow all our own food. But growing at least some greens at home would be a start. And planting fruit trees in neighborhoods. Potatoes and other calorie crops too.

Other than food and water, our core needs are shelter and each other. The coronavirus panic (like the many disasters that went before, and the many that will surely follow) is a wakeup call to meet our neighbors (if we haven’t already) and start working together on things like food, water, and grassroots aid (for example, teaming up to provide childcare for working parents, and making sure vulnerable seniors are looked after).

Also: Boost your economic resilience by diversifying your income sources, the more local, less commute-dependent the better. Think of a need that you can meet in your community. Mail-order businesses (crafting, etc.) are good too, though of course long-distance transport can be vulnerable to disasters. On the positive side: U.S. Postal Service says not to worry about transmission of Coronavirus via mail; the virus has poor survivability on surfaces.

And speaking of economics, the closures and event cancellations underscore the importance of acting as individuals and neighborhoods to support our local businesses, local nonprofits, local artists and musicians through this time. Hey, it’s what we need to be doing anyway, right? Times of trouble are a fact of life; might as well use them for the good.

Modern industrial societies right now are the opposite of resilient. We are too dependent on flimsy supply lines (conventional wisdom says the typical grocery store has three days’ worth of food) and long-distance travel, and every crisis gives us a peek at how fragile our systems are. So do we just keep on pretending this isn’t so, or do we take the cancellations and quarantines as an opportunity to get our house in order?

The Riot for Austerity, the grassroots movement of people aiming to cut their eco footprint to 10% of the US average, turns out to be very sensible disaster prep too. For example, if you know how to get by on five gallons (or less) of water per person per day, and you have a thousand or even just a hundred gallons of water collected in rainbarrels in your yard, you’re obviously a lot better off than someone who’s lost without running water (or storebought bottled water).

If this post rings true for you but you aren’t sure where to start, drop me a line. I can steer you to resources that will help you and your community become more resilient. One good place to start is the Transition Towns movement (linked in the sidebar). My heart is with you on the journey we all share.

The task remains the same as it has always been. Build resilience. And, use the pressure of difficult times as an opportunity to clarify what matters most in life.

Further Reading:

“The Theory of Anyway,” by Sharon Astyk (co-founder of the Riot for Austerity). “My friend Pat Meadows, a very, very smart woman, has a wonderful idea she calls “The Theory of Anyway.” What it entails is this – she argues that 95% of what is needed to resolve the coming crises in energy depletion, or climate change, or most other global crises are the same sort of efforts. When in doubt about how to change, we should change our lives to reflect what we should be doing “Anyway.” Living more simply, more frugally, using less, leaving reserves for others, reconnecting with our food and our community, these are things we should be doing because they are the right thing to do on many levels. That they also have the potential to save our lives is merely a side benefit (a big one, though).”

“Sharing with Your Neighbors” (Madisyn Taylor, DailyOM): “Creating a network of neighbors who agree to pool certain resources and share daily duties … Together, you will need to decide what chores you want to do communally and what resources can be shared. Ideas for community sharing are child care, errands, housework, keeping a joint garden, cooking for the group, and carpooling. For instance, if you cook large meals for four neighbors once a week, you take off four nights after that.”

Every plant has its place in the ecosystem. But some plants are extra useful to those of us human beings who engage in organic gardening, be it to grow food/medicine, to support wildlife, or both. For purposes of this post (and maybe for other posts in the future), I have decided to call these extra-useful plants “Botanical Superheroes” or “Super Plants.”

I’m using this term to describe a plant that has as many as possible of the following attributes: 1) grows wild, but can also be cultivated; 2) has a wide geographic range, the more continents the better; 3) grows profusely and is good for land restoration, soil remediation; 4) provides food or medicine (for humans, livestock, or both); 5) supports wildlife. Note, this is not a formal classification; it’s just a term I’m suggesting.

One example of what I’m calling Super Plants is comfrey. From the checklist above: 1) Yes; 2) Native to Europe and Asia, but grows wild in Africa and the Americas also; 3) Yes – nutrient accumulator and mulch; 4) supplemental chicken feed, herbal medicine, and other uses; 5) Yes – supports pollinators, as well as insects that prey on garden pests.

We learn about comfrey in permaculture design courses, and “permies” love it because, among other things, it makes a great “chop and drop” mulch, and it can be used as a supplemental food for chickens. I have not yet incorporated comfrey into my garden, but now that I’ve read this post from Happy DIY Home, and have found some other good articles on comfrey (see links below), I plan to do so!

(As I mentioned, we did learn about comfrey in permaculture design class. But I never latched onto it because I don’t raise chickens (at least not yet), and also maybe because I wasn’t paying enough attention to its many other uses! Sometimes it takes me multiple go-rounds for useful info to sink in. Depending on the circumstances, it can be years later!)

The general word on comfrey is that it grows profusely, so you want to be sure and pick your spot carefully. (I will test out this claim with my black thumb and my deficient-in-everything beachside soil, and will get back to you.) In recent years, as drought-flood extremes become more of an issue all over the country and world, I have become more focused on useful, profusely growing plants as part of the solution. Robust plants help mitigate drought-flood extremes by uptaking rainwater and helping to slow its runoff, creating richer soil and a “juicier” landscape. Living storage of water and nutrients!

Besides comfrey, other plants on my list of Botanical Superheroes include amaranth, sorrel, and clover. What are some of your favorite “Super Plants”?

My purpose in writing this post is two-fold: to let you know about a useful plant; and also, to give you an example of how, in a more general sense, we are surrounded by invaluable allies (plant and otherwise) that we might not know about. And therefore, I want to encourage you to keep your antennas out for the many allies all around you: plant, animal, human, and inanimate!

Further Reading:

How To Grow Comfrey: Care, Types, and Growing Tips (by Elizabeth Waddington on HappyDIYHome.com) (also linked in my post above) is a great all-around intro to comfrey. “Comfrey is one of the most useful plants to grow in an organic garden. If you are interested in taking care of our planet, its people and wildlife, and creating a way of life that is truly ethical, green and sustainable, this is one plant to include in your growing scheme. In this article, we will discuss this useful flowering perennial.” (Note, I am also adding this article to the Further Reading list of my post on knowing your wild edible and medicinal plants.)

Comfrey: Its History, Uses, and Benefits (by Paul Alfrey in Permaculture Magazine): This excellent article from Permaculture Magazine goes into detail from a permaculture land-management standpoint, as well as describing medicinal uses.

(***CAUTION!!!: While comfrey has historically been used for various medicinal applications (one of its folk names is “bone knit”), and has even been eaten as a vegetable, it has been linked to cancer and liver damage, and is not now recommended to ingest by mouth. I am not in a position to recommend this plant for human food or medicinal applications. As with any plant, do your own research, which needs also to include consulting with your local experts in person.)

And one more comfrey article I found useful: Growing and Foraging for Comfrey, on growforagecookferment.com offers additional advice from a permie perspective. For example, the authors grow it around their fruit trees because it brings up nutrients from the soil through its long taproot.

Wrapping up today’s “resource roundup” for you, I want to share with you a website called Jen Reviews. It’s the sister site to Happy DIY Home (source of the first comfrey article linked above). I’m giving Jen Reviews a boost because 1) it offers lots of practical info, such as this article on ways to control 13 common household bugs without using toxic chemicals; and 2) Jen Reviews offered to share my blog with its readers, in exchange for my sharing their site. (I would not have agreed to this unless I liked their content, which I do.)

Jen Reviews describes itself as “the authority on everything food, fitness and home,” and says “All our writers are experts in their particular niches. Our expert team includes former Olympians, doctors, registered nurses, executive chefs, mountain guides, yoga instructors, certified dog trainers and more.” I appreciate being contacted by the editors of this popular website. And hope you will check it out, and will find lots of useful stuff there!

As I’ve mentioned (and as some of you may have noticed), I sometimes expand old blog articles by adding new resources as I come across them. I don’t typically issue any notifications when I do this (it would get cumbersome and cluttery).

That said, I’m about to do one such update to an old article. Once that’s done, I will add the article title and link info to this post, and will also make a post on my “Deep Green Book by Jenny Nazak” Facebook page.

Usually when I add to an old article, it’s because I have belatedly stumbled on an additional resource (article, video, etc.) that I want to share with you on that topic. But this time, I’m doing it because a fellow eco/health blogger alerted me of such a resource. It’s a milestone for this blog, because the fellow blogger who emailed me is a stranger who stumbled on my blog, read my old post, and found it good enough that they asked me to include their article in the “Further Reading” section. That’s really cool!

Every single one of you readers, be it a longtime friend or a stranger, is precious to me. I’m here to support each of you on your paths to creating a kinder, greener world. Though old readers are every bit as precious to me as new ones, I take the appearance of a new reader, who I have no personal connection with, as a sign that my effort to spread the #GrassrootsGreenMobilization is catching on. And for that I am so happy!

I’ll be back in a bit with that post update info for you!