Today I bade farewell to my friend Meg as she headed off to Europe for the summer. I was sad to see her go, I know she will have a marvelous time:-) but I have gotten used to having her around for the last several months. We have been spending a lot of time together planning our wedding photography business. So far we may have three weddings lined up for the summer, but only one definite. (Hopefully we will be more busy in the fall when Meg comes back.)

Life here at the Eco-village has been in full eco-spring mode. A couple weekends ago we had the Rain Barrel festival put on by Sustainable Berea. I got to help paint one of the rain barrels that was going to be put up for auction; along with the rest of the Chaplains that I work with:-) it was a lot of fun. We did our painting in an old abandoned house on property owned by our boss the college chaplain, Loretta.During the rain barrel festival Cali and I had a booth where we tried to sell baby slings and jewelry, (we sold lots of jewelry but only one baby sling.:-) and Kyle and Caleb had a both with woodworking.

Living here it seems like our awareness of current issues in the world have been heightened....this can be quite exhausting!

Sustainability is a catchy word around Berea; a lot of people have gardens, re-use their sink water, only flush their toilet once a day (yes, really!) I think sometimes Christians are afraid to show too much concern for our environment because of the whole "mother earth" type mentality that is often associated with such concern. Sometimes I wonder though if maybe we show too little concern, we are afterall supposed to be good stewards and cartakers of this earth that God has loaned to us.

Fair Trade is also a huge catch phrase around here. This is something I am more concerned about, some companies take advantage of farmers in the third world, as well as factory workers. They do not pay a living wage, but since the workers need some sort of money they have no other option but to work for meager wages and in unsanitary conditions, sometimes resulting in disease or cancer. This is especially a concern in coffee and tea industries, as well as sugar and clothing.

So, I have started to buy fair trade certified coffee, it is a little more expensive (appropriately) so we have had to drink a little less coffee. (which is good for us.)

A lot of my neighbors are really aware, and don't buy a lot of things if they aren't grown locally, or from certain companies that are known for mistreating their employees, or hiring undocumented employees that can't fight back when they are mistreated. They also won't shop at Wal-Mart for this reason because of how they handle their factories overseas.

It may be exhausting, but maybe this is something we should all look into a little more and be more aware of where our money is going. Maybe this is the essence of good stewardship, rather than getting the cheapest best "deal" possible.

okay, that is my two cents for the day.

:-) here are some pictures for fun....

Staci and Noah and I went out for coffee, and got stuck in the rain.....Noah thought the rain was amazing!