LUSH

It all starts with presents. I would buy Lush, Rituals and other delicious cosmetics for friends, but not for myself. Also, if I got something from these brands, I would pass it on.
Until recently. I realized that it´s meant also for me and I can spoil myself to the extent of using it. So, if I get some delicious soaps and lotions, I use them and love the feeling of it - the smell, the touch, it´s all a whole new dimension.
It´s also nice that we got lots for scented wedding gifts! And just recently, a pleasant surprise - I was looking for a book I lent to someone and could not remember, who to! And one Sunday afternoon, planting a small flower in our 30cm * 2m front yard, the neighbor brought the book back and a box full of Lush delicacies (apparently, someone dropped it off with him as we were not at home). I am very happy to be reunited with Vegetal Cities, but still do not know who had it, since there was no note with the book. Whoever you are, thank you for getting the book back and for a box full of scented goodies! I am very happy with all of it. I just feel bad about not remembering who I need to thank...
Long live natural soaps and lotions! And friends who bring your books back (by the way, I hope it was inspiring to read the book)!

Assessing it

I am trying to think of all the documentaries we have seen in the past two years about the food we eat (The Future of Food, Our Daily Bread, Food Inc, Supersize Me, and many others), about fishing (The End of the Line) about overall (un-) sustainability issues (The Yes Man, Carrot Mob, Zeitgeist, Home, The Age of Stupid, etc), climate change (the Inconvenient Truth), migratory pressures, financial crises - the list could go on for much longer....There is so much info out there!
These films also propose some really gloomy scenarios. We are all eating mass produced food (whereas distribution inequalities have reached epic proportions), we have overfished the seas, used chemical pesticides and grew non-indigenous crops, grew businesses to a size where even with the very best intentions one does not have an overview of the full supply chain and it´s impact on the environment and communities, a huge part of the ice sheet in Greenland just broke off a day ago (its size is 100 square miles and over 520 feet of thickness) and it is just floating ...there goes our fresh water supply. And there it goes in the Himalayas where it also causes floods in Bangladesh and forces people to flee.
So, it looks really gloomy. Actually, worse than that.
Nevertheless, remember when the volcano is Iceland broke out in April this year for the first time? It was massive chaos. And remember the second time? Everyone was so much more ready to deal with it. We seem to adapt to new realities so well.
So here´s my proposition (and please, feel free to challenge it): Despite the fact that we do not know how the global ecosystems will function after Greenland will be all green, after all red-listed species will disappear, after we have used up all the oil and our western societies will grow very old, but I believe that human life on Earth will continue. We´ll just eat jelly fish and roaches, we´ll lower our consumption standards out of necessity, but we´ll still be around.
I wonder if the massive global distribution inequality will be reduced....but nonetheless, we´ll be here, possibly fighting over something we perceive as scarce, whereas it´s abundant.
I wish governments and captains of industry created a bigger wave of change and brought about a systemic change in the way we live. To start thinking in a long term, holistic way is (in my opinion) the solution. Yet, this needs to happen not on moral grounds, but based on the business case we create with sustainability. This would be the best case scenario. I see so many initiatives, so many enlightened well connected people who are working for this change, but I do not see the critical mass forming fast enough.
This is the reason for my proposition: even if we do not change our ways of doing business and consuming fast enough, we´ll eventually learn to adapt - learn to take care of ourselves, possibly even grow our urban food, live in less comfortable conditions, do whatever it takes. And start all over again. There were plagues in the middle ages. There were wars, economic crises...there were even times when our ancestors didn´t quite control fire. And look how far we got.
This is not to say that we should stop trying to fix what we are destroying - it is just to say that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, that I believe we´ll make it. It may not be the brightest sunlight at the end of the tunnel, but it´s not all that dark either.
How do you see this (not) happening? What will be left of us?

Sunflowers

I was looking for inspiration on a cloudy August morning. August mornings are generally sunny, in most parts of the world. Not so often in Amsterdam.
Last Saturday some friends came over to eat delicious lamb stew and cataplana (I guess the Algarve version of paella), have some delicious drinks and finsh with my home made cakes. (I have fallen in love with maknig cakes - it's a very relaxing process. And I rarely follow a recipe - which gives me as much space for creativity as I am willing to create for myself.)
Anyways, apart from the great (often unfinished) conversations and the many extra bottles of wine we now have at home, I got some flowers (Ik ben gek op bloemen!!!). Among the flowers were also sunflowers.
Since I have also bought a bouquet of sunflowers on Saturday morning at the market, our tiny apartment was getting very full of sunflowers. So I brought some to work today.
It it worked magic - the contrast with the grey sky was way too big. The yellow of the sunflowers is so full of life, warmth and optimism! It even turned the grey sky somewhat sunnier!
Long live the power of flowers!