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how I became an earth
friend
In one of my prayer times, the Lord spoke to me through a worm. I felt my eyes drawn to its puny little body, working its way up a big old tree inch by inch. I saw myself in its place, and God as the tree. As a worm, I could only see and know such a small part of the majesty, beauty, and greatness of that tree and that there was so much more I had to discover, the same way the Lord wanted me to know Him even more.
This is only one of the many times in which the Lord was able to touch my heart through nature. Seeing the sky, feeling the wind, touching a leaf, would all have a special way of speaking to me about God.
Ever since I was little, I would spend a lot of
time in our garden, and I was often found trailing stray cats in the neighborhood,
eventually raising generation by generations of them. My family too, shared my love
of nature and animals. Long before people were environment-conscious and the term
"earth-friendly" was popularized, my dad already taught us kids to never throw
things outside the car, and to put trash in our pockets 'till we found trash cans.
My mom showed us the value of "Waste not, want not" since she was ingenious at
transforming things like Clorox containers into piggy banks and scrap cloth into stuffed
toys. This would always make me think twice before throwing anything away.
In 1990, I joined our family business of gift shops called "Papemelroti" after graduating from college. By that time, we were already using recycled paper for our paper product lines even if we weren't yet aware of the global problems concerning the amount of garbage in dumps and landfills and the indiscriminate cutting of trees to use for paper. And even if, initially, what attracted us to natural brown recycled paper was how it looked, we eventually found out that this was tremendously beneficial to the environment since no dangerous chemicals were produced or used to whiten the paper and no trees were cut.
We also saw to it that our products in the shops
had minimal impact on the environment. We used pinewood, recycled from freight
crates for our wooden items, and used natural materials as much as possible. We came
up with a easy-to-use handmade-paper-making kit, and instructional materials with tips on
how to care for the environment, through our free quarterly journals. This led us to
really read up on a lot of issues concerning earth protection and make environment
awareness part our shop's mission.
We also started the Papemelroti Planet Patrol, a club for all ages geared towards raising environment awareness. I was in charge of answering letters, accepting members and coordinating activities done through the mail. During that time, the members were able to do projects collectively. Some of these projects include - a compilation of recycling centers and junk shops contributed by the members, letters from members were sent out to government authorities lobbying the protection of Tigers from extinction in Taiwan, old eyeglass frames were donated to the Department of Health for re-using and others.
More importantly, the Planet Patrollers were encouraged to "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have," and report to us what they did individually. They would write me saying, "Ate Tina, I was elected officer at our school's science club and we planted trees and put up a greenhouse," or "I used my old notebooks and made collages out of them," or "I read that the endangered plant Evening Primrose can treat heart disease and arthritis, and we can save people, if the forests were not destroyed." It was encouraging because we would have members who'd be 5 or 8 years old and they were already doing their part in protecting nature. I guess it is the Lord's blessing on my family and I that He gave us the means by which to share our values to others through our business.
The wonderful thing about being
"earth-friendly" is that everyone can make a huge difference, just by doing
simple
things. Turning off unused lights, conserving water, refusing to wear fur, or
choosing CFC-free hairspray is just as important as rallying against unlawful cutting down
of trees. Everyone can or maybe I should say, everyone SHOULD get involved and be
aware of what is harmful to the environment - which will invariably affect us, and the
future generations.
As overwhelming as the issue of environmental protection may seem, I continue to strive, inch by inch, like the little worm, to be a good steward of our world's resources and make this my way of life. I'm sure that the Lord, like a great, majestic tree with many secrets of ages past, will slowly reveal to me, as I seek Him daily, His greatness and glory as I scale the heights of His boundless love.
