My very first blog carnival!

Some of you may have heard about a new group that's taking the world by storm. Some of you won't have, so I thought I'd tell you a bit about the APLS movement. As you can see in the image, APLS stands for Affluent Persons Living Sustainably. Before you react to that name, please hear me out. Just about every active member of this group has their own definition for APLS. I happen to like Green Bean's definition (the short version), which is "someone who cares about the state of the planet and folks living on it, who lives beneath their means, gives to charity and enjoys a lighter lifestyle." I have to say I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the word affluence, but the overall meaning works well for me, so I'm learning to live with the whole term.

So, all that being said, the APLS group is putting together a blog carnival. This concept is new to me, but it essentially invites all APLS members to post on the same topic to clarify our positions, look at various aspects of the same idea, and/or generally get the word out an issue at hand. The topics are set out by an APLS volunteer. Thanks to Melissa at Better Living, our very first topic is.....drumroll please...

What does sustainability mean to you?

Boy, what a question. When I started pondering how to respond to this question, I decided to look up the definition of "sustainable." Yep, I'm a word person, and I like to hunt down other people's definitions before I come up with my own. The first set of definitions that came up included:

1. To keep in existence; maintain.
2. To supply with necessities or nourishment; provide for.
3. To support from below; keep from falling or sinking; prop.
4. To support the spirits, vitality, or resolution of; encourage.
5. To bear up under; withstand: can't sustain the blistering heat.
6. To experience or suffer: sustained a fatal injury.
7. To affirm the validity of: The judge has sustained the prosecutor's objection.
8. To prove or corroborate; confirm.
9. To keep up (a joke or assumed role, for example) competently.

Hmm. I'm intrigued by the peculiar combination of definitions, especially since I can see how each of describes the whole purpose of the APLS group. We are all trying to (1) maintain in many ways - maintaining our environment, maintaining our relationships, and maintaining our sanity in a complex and constantly changing world. We are working toward (2) supplying necessities and nourishment for ourselves, our families, and our planet. The whole purpose of the APLS group is to (3, 4) support each other's spirits and resolutions as we work toward living better lives. Many APLS members have discussed how helpless they feel and how much they (5, 6) suffer as they watch others work in direct opposition to their own beliefs about the amount of responsibility we should each take for the full impact of our lives. I have to say that finding a group like APLS has helped to (7, 8) affirm the validity of and corroborate my own feelings about the way. Clearly, we all hope to (9) keep up our efforts and encourage others to make small steps toward living a beautiful life while inflicting less damage impact on our planet.

I think that all of us APLS believe we have a lot of room for improvement on the sustainability front. I'd be the first to admit that I'm not all the way there yet. But if I wake up every morning and start making most of my daily decisions based on whether my actions will compromise the ability of future generations to live happy and healthy lives, then I feel like I'm definitely headed down the right path.

So you'll be seeing more posts about APLS over the coming months and years. I'd encourage you to jump over to the APLS blog to peruse the various members and visit blogs written by other folks in the "bushel basket." Hopefully you'll enjoy this community as much as I do...