How many times have we been told, or indeed told others not to sweat the small stuff ? It’s difficult though, right ? We all live in our own little bubble, much more since Covid. We worry daily about little things, but to us they are mighty big things. We worry about our health and the health of those we love, about money, education. Our relationships, our friends, our family. We are all wrapped up in our own bubble. We want to make it the best bubble in the neighborhood. We want the biggest car, the best garden, nice clothes, expensive holidays, new kitchens, luxury bathrooms, but this all comes at a cost….not only to our pocket.

This is very difficult for me to write. I have been taught to see the bigger picture in a very painful way. I have been shown that however much I have been upset and inconvenienced, as the saying goes…..there is always someone worse off. How very true that has been this past week.

We all have our own agendas, our commitments. Whether it be religion, climate change, poverty, animal warfare, ancient buildings, open spaces, you name it, someone worries about it.

Earlier this year I created a little plant pot garden, which I have boasted about on here. It wasn’t very big, or even very special, but it was colourful, attracted butterflies & bees and it was all mine. It is now mainly all gone though. It has been so cold and wet that a lot of the seeds rotted in the ground. The wind snapped the hollyhocks and devastated the lilies. I was so upset. All my hard work gone, all the pretty flowers gone. I admit I was cross, I moaned about the weather far too much. It would have been simple to fix, but the rain never stopped and the wind was too cold.

Oh, how I sweated the small stuff. I didn’t bother to see, or even think about the bigger picture. All my hard work had been ruined by the stupid, stupid weather we were having. As if the weather had a mind of its own, as if it got up in the morning and decided to rain and hail on my little garden. Of course it doesn’t. The weather we are having is all down to us. The earth dwellers who mess up the atmosphere.

I lost a few flowers, those poor people in Europe lost everything, some lost their lives. When the Rhine broke its banks it’s destruction was absolute. If anyone is reading this who has not seen the footage, please look up online the floods that have ripped through Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands.

This is down to climate change. Something we have created, something we can put right. It may be inconvenient to us, it may cost us more money, but we must put up with that. We must stop sweating the small stuff, we must start sweating about the bigger picture. We must all in our own small way do something to stop climate change. However small, it will help. We are all a piece in this global jigsaw, we need to help each other, educate each other.

If we don’t we will have more devastatingly high temperatures leading to horrendous fires, more heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding in more places. Climate change is here, it does not just affect other people, tomorrow you could be the victim.

You are reading this, you have access to the world wide web. Look up climate change see what small change you can make. Maybe reduce your carbon footprint. Buy locally produced food, eat seasonally. Reduce your reliance on single use plastic by refilling your bottles. Only buy new if it is totally essential, try to recycle everything. There are so many small things we can all do.

Thank you for reading.

Much love M. XXX