A few weeks ago I had lunch with a very nice woman who works with the American Lung Association who was looking for influential bloggers to help her spread the word about the Clean Air Act and our children’s health. We had a nice conversation and I enjoyed listening to someone who was so passionate about her cause and her mission.
When I started this blog I didn’t have a clear mission other than to share my knowledge about the environment and going green with others. As time progressed you can see that my primary mission these last few years has been cloth diapering and raising children in a safe and eco-friendly environment. Like most of us in the cloth diapering community I am just as passionate about our diapering choices as Heather is about air quality. She didn’t understand how women/mothers/parents/etc couldn’t be as passionate about our air quality as she was.
I’ve struggled with this question for years but I’ve come to the conclusion that we all have our own personal battles that are most important to us. Let me give you a few examples of other passionate bloggers to demonstrate my point:
The Soft Landing Blog – Alicia is very passionate about providing BPA-free and chemical free baby products that are also sustainable.
My Plastic-Free Life – Beth is very passionate about living a life without using plastic (or with minimal plastic). She is the queen of reusing items and finding alternatives for all of the plastic waste that we use each day.
PhD in Parenting – Annie blogs about parenting with an attachment parenting philosophy and has strong feelings about breastfeeding, feminism, and is very anti-Nestle (a longtime WHO violator).
The Feminist Breeder – I think the title says it all. Gina is active in educating us all on what it means to be a feminist. Gina believes in raising her children in a gender neutral environment, home birth, VBAC, breastfeeding, and so many other topics.
These are all bloggers who share similar ideals but yet they all have their own passions that are close to their hearts in which they advocate for. While they will all tell you they try to live an eco-friendly life I’m sure there are areas of their lives which they wish they had time to pay more attention to. Maybe it’s eating more organically, learning more about BPA, or wishing they had chosen cloth diapers on their own children.
The point I was trying to make to Heather with the Lung Association is that while for a brief moment in time air quality might seem very important to me, and while I do see it interconnected in the overall scheme of going green and living a more natural life – – there just aren’t enough hours in the day for any of us to attack all of the evils in this world. Would I be the most effective person to convince someone to have a VBAC when I’ve never a) had a C-section, or b) had a VBAC? No. Would I be the most effective person to talk about BPA and chemicals when I clearly struggled with Chemistry in college?? Probably not!
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t support those causes either. If someone were to ask me about any of these topics I would know exactly where to send them to find out more information. We have the ability as a community to work together as a team and together we CAN make a difference.
To learn more about the American Lung Association, the Clean Air Act, and how it all relates to our children and their health (and our own health) please visit their website and find out more how you can become involved. You can also stay informed by following them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/lungusa) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/lungassociation).
What is your passion? Do you think you can make a difference?
What are my passions? Hmmm…. now that is an interesting question. I suppose the thing I go back to most often on my blog (and in my life), the thing that I want to explain to everyone in the world in hopes of making them see as I do is that ….. okay I have typed something and erased it six times because I cannot find the exact right words. We are a family who has two children through adoption and two children through birth. The thing that I hope people who know us (through our blog or through real life) will take away from us is that it doesn’t matter how our kids got here. We are a family and we are all equally important. We have struggles and triumphs just like any other family.
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You’re definitely on point here, and I think you’re making a world of difference, just like Heather and all the bloggers you listed are, when it comes to making our planet a safer and healthier place. Every movement has to have leaders AND followers. Just because we can’t be leaders in every aspect of living an eco-friendly, healthier life, doesn’t mean we can’t follow those who do lead, and still make a difference 🙂
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I am a passionate intactivist. I focus on spreading information to parents and possible parents so that they can know as much as possible about circumcision. I do this because before I became pregnant with my son I assumed it was something that was “just done” and didn’t question it. It was an intactivist online that was so kind and talked to me (but mostly invited me to do my own research) and helped me decide not to have my son circumcised. I want to be able to make a positive influence like that, too. So aside from talking to people online, I also leave out information cards and write links in chalk for people to see; I make donations as well and am always looking for new ways to help spread information.
I write about all kinds of green living issues but I’m becoming more and more passionate about clean air and even more so cement plants because I live near one and with the EPA stripping bills that are being past I’m getting pretty worried. I also have asthma so it effects me a lot. The local plant is a Clean Air Act violator so the idea that the rules may get even less strict for them is terrifying to me.
It’s funny my blog wasn’t even about green issues when I first started it.
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