Lessons & Reflections from the National Butterfly Center

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but many people do. My daughter calls them "the Resoluters", and complains that the gym is so full of them she cannot get to the equipment she wants to use.

"It's a temporary situation," I tell her. "Be patient." For few people stick with their resolutions.

Here at the beginning of February, many resolutions are forgotten, while others are simply abandoned; but I recently met two visitors to the National Butterfly Center, who shared their resolve with me. They asked for restaurant recommendations, and explained that wherever they are, they seek to eat at places that serve menu items grown locally, in an environmentally-friendly and ecologically sustainable way. I could only think of two places in our area--and thought, "How sad there are so few."

At the same time, I marveled at how healthy these visitors appeared to be and how remarkable their "resolution" was. It required no treadmill, no paid professional of any sort, no massive lifestyle overhaul, but, wow, was it radical! Clean, conscientious, connected.

Clean, conscientious, connected. I found myself repeating this, like a new mantra. Wouldn't it be awesome if everyone ate this way--if everyone lived this way?!

Isn't this precisely the type of lifestyle we seek to promote at the National Butterfly Center? (Although I had not been able to reduce it to these three words, until now.) Every day we're connecting people to plants and wildlife, showing them how to care for the environment, and encouraging them to conserve and create more habitat for the creatures we need to keep our planet healthy.

In the end, it's about living responsibly, but who wants more responsibility? It's heavy and burdensome, so we shirk it, deny it. But clean, conscientious, connected? Well, that's just cool!

Clean, conscientious, connected. Let your mind meditate on this. For my family and me, it means we try to avoid the big chains; seek to produce more biodegradable waste; and realize it's probably not environmentally-friendly foodstuff, if we've seen a commercial for it on TV.... We are not raising goats, or allowing free-range chickens to roam our neighborhood, but we are planting cantaloupes and zuchini in the small patch in front of our townhouse. We're excited about the little changes we're making, and the impact this new mindset will make on our family, our community, our world!

Clean, conscientious, connected. We invite you to give a try.