Sunday, January 15, 2012

Cycles and Christmas Gifts

Yes, that's right, I am currently making all of my Christmas gifts for 2011.  A little late you say?  Well that's just the way things go sometimes.  For me it seems that's the way it almost always goes.  For some reason I cannot get used to the gift giving cycle.  This is a funny predicament because I am actually a big fan of cycles.  I absolutely love the cycle of the seasons.  The lunar cycle is perfectly lovely.  The cycle of life, the water cycle, even the Krebs cycle is worth gaining an understanding of.  So what is my problem?  I know without doubt that there is this one day in December when this ritual takes place.  Why don't I just start in July? 


Anyway, what got me thinking about all of this cycle stuff in the first place was not my late Christmas gifts, it was an article I came across on the Permaculture Institute website.  It is all about circular economies.  If you want to read the article you can click here, I'll warn you though it is pretty technical in some parts.  There's a great illustration in the very beginning though that gives away the punchline, so it's worth going to just for that.  The gist of circular economies is that everything goes back to where it came from, like any good cycle.  A couple of examples come to my mind.  First, there is my step-brother-in-law Victor. He lives in Sacremento (I think) and his job is to help every company in his area to find other companies that can use up all of the waste products of the first companies. So everybody uses up everybody else's  leftovers.  It is a great concept that works toward a goal of zero waste!  The other example is Germany (I'm pretty sure that's where it is anyway) where if you purchase say,  a washing machine, use it for several years and it breaks down or maybe you just want a new one.  The company you bought it from is responsible for reclaiming the item and recycling 100% of the components!  Amazing isn't it!  Why shouldn't we run our entire economy that way?

So that's what's on my mind these days as I take fabric leftovers from a garment factory (among other sources) and turn them into lovely grocery bags so my loved ones do not have to be piled over with those godforsaken plastic grocery bags.  You can see some examples of what I'm talking about by clicking here.

Well, I'll leave you now,  with warm thoughts!

4 comments:

Jen awJ said...

Or maybe you're right on time, lined up with a cycle in old Irish mythology, the Ulster Cycle. About which I know nothing, other than I just read the brief Wikipedia entry. But I'm going to go to some nature-based celebrations at the Unitarian Church here - and the next one coming up is Imbolc right near the beginning of February, which according to Wiki is the celebration of the beginning of spring, a cross-quarter cycle celebration between the Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox. What better way to celebrate light overcoming darkness and/or Christmas than giving gifts as spring overtakes winter? :) your fellow tree-hugger :-D

Jen awJ said...

Here's the link about Imbolc, which I left out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc

Barb Schanel said...

I love that! Giving gifts to celebrate the coming of spring!

Karen from Collins said...

Whoa, that IS a spectacular, wonderfully pagan idea! :D I love the circularity of things too, very much. Conservation of matter - nothing is ever really lost or gained, only transformed and so on...