Caleb's top 11 things you can do to change your life and the world in 2018!

Here are my 11 things you can do in 2018 to absolutely change your life and the world! Some of these will be difficult, no doubt... but some easy. Some of these you will likely cringe or disagree... of which I don't care because its my blog. :) I've done quite a bit of research on these issues, yet this article is not intended to be a defense of anything, simply this is my personal reflection on what I believe is the Truth and what has changed my life.

So, here we go!

Eat beans not meat.
This is a big one.
I believe this is the single greatest thing you may do for your life and ALSO for the world.
One of the largest impacts on our changing climate today is the release of green house gases into our atmosphere. A ton of these gases come from massive cattle and livestock farms. The way we've chosen to farm has a deep and immediate impact on our planet. Because of the mass quantity of meat that is being consumed on a daily basis corporations have turned cattle farming into a horrible hysteria. Because of this sort of farming, to keep up with the high demands of meat and other animal products... the way we eat has a drastically higher impact on the Earth than even what we drive.

Also eating animal products ESPECIALLY processed meat has been directly linked to all sorts of diseases... cancer, heart disease, etc.. Actually, processed meats are listed as a carcinogen! Come on ya'll! It's right up there with cigarettes...
Much study and research has been done on the health benefits of eating vegan... in several cases individuals have had total remission of cancer and other illnesses just by not having animal products in their diet. On the flip side, beans have many rockin health benefits such as being one of the top foods associated with longevity.
If you only decided to Eat Beans instead of meat you would change your life and the world.



Hang Dry Your Clothes
Alright, I'm posting this one even though I know many of you are probably rolling your eyes. Eight years ago after we got married Emily and I decided not to have a dryer. It may sound crazy but its something really practical you can do for the Earth and yourself. Dryers use a lot of energy... every year you burn ridiculous amounts of coal just drying your clothes. Not to mention how much longer your clothes hang around when they aren't beat up in the dryer every week. (pun intended) Also, it definitely has saved us a lot of money over an eight year span.

The only way we've really been able to do this is by not having a dryer in the house... Remove the temptation completely! We've also been known to baffle mostly all women over the age of 50... I've personally witnessed jaws drop and eyes get a little teary... and you would be amazed how many sweet older women have tried to buy us a dryer!
No doubt we have a lot of first world perks here in the states... but I know our lives and the world is better without this one!



Drink Fairtrade Coffee
Really there are two huge products that if we changed the way we consume them it would change the world. Coffee and also chocolate. The world consumes an unbelievable amount of both of these products every single day. It is estimated that the world consumes about 2.25 billion cups of coffee in a day! ... and most of it is NOT fair trade. Which basically boils down to much of the coffee we consume... someone is not getting paid, or barely getting enough money to live on, and in many instances it can be the equivalent of slave labor.

In a market so huge as coffee we may not realize what a big deal it is to purchase fair trade. Companies such as Folgers and Maxwell House have the worst company ratings you can get on websites such as Better World Shopper. This means many of these big coffee companies willingly engage in the destruction of the environment and the exploitation of human beings for profit increase... that these businesses succeed at the expense of future generations and the natural world. So in the end I think coffee tastes better without blood in it.


Purchase your Veggies from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
We live in an age when instead of living out of our own gardens we eat from "gardens" halfway across the country. Most of these typical grocery store vegetables are doused in pesticides and are mostly genetically modified. (Not to mention the unseen back door where all the non-uniform veggies hit the landfill) This sort of eating generates tons of green house gases into the atmosphere just by sheer transport, increases the landfill, hoards the wealth, and prohibits our ability to eat the very substances that should bring us the most nutrition.
One of the greatest joys for me is getting to support a local farmer. For the past few years my family has been getting all our vegetables from a CSA in the area. For most of us we generally don't know where our food comes from. Despite much of what we believe about the future of food... our future as humanity depends on small local farms not huge corporate farming! (See the documentary Tomorrow. Literally its the best thing.) 

Live into what you already own.
Give away 100 items. 

I am lumping these together because it mainly has to do with our STUFF. Many of us who are able to even sit and read this blog likely already possess much of the stuff we need in life. The greatest temptation for Westerners in particular is to own everything, to possess, to accrue... I believe shopping and spending money is literally an addiction that many have... Spending money, purchasing something... it makes us feel good. It releases endorphins. After the Holidays many are having a shopping hangover.

Many of us even have multiple coats and pantries of food going stale... you know just in case.
But what might it look like to live into what you already possess? 

This is a big one for me having worked in the "trash industry" now for several years. It is one of the sickest things in the world to see the type of stuff we throw away. We've been desensitized by stuff. And most of us don't see where it goes after it leaves us...
(a box of stuff I was called to throw away...)
Basil of Caesarea wrote, "When someone steals a person's clothes, we call him a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to those who need it; the shoes rotting in your closet to the one who has no shoes. The money which you hoard up belongs to the poor." 

And if you think you don't have 100 items to give away... I think once you begin counting you'll be shocked. One of the greatest secrets of "happy" living is simple living. The less stuff we have I believe the more Kingdom we possess.


Don't Buy One Time Use Plastics
I do have to take just a quick minute to mention plastic. (If you haven't watched Plastic Paradise it is absolutely worth a watch! It may still be on Netflix.) Here's the deal, every straw you've ever drank with... still exists. Plastic does not biodegrade. Yes, it does eventually break off into smaller and smaller pieces... but that is mostly the issue as it leeches into the earth and more importantly
our water. If you've eaten fish in the last year there's a chance you've eaten plastic. Also, if you've ever thrown away (or washed) polyester... same issue. Polyester is made from plastic.
This may seem daunting... and it kind of is :) ... but the good news is together this is totally changeable. Stop buying things wrapped in ridiculous plastic packaging... don't throw the plastic you already own away but do your best to repurpose it. If it is thrown away (it should go without saying) but recycle it as best as possible. Even most plastics that do get recycled are only something like 20% recyclable!! The BEST thing you can possibly do is avoid One Time / One Use Plastics... such as water bottles, plastic bags, lids, etc. Just take your own mug to get coffee, take your own bag to the store... its doesn't have to be complicated! :)

Give to Charity Water

If you give to one non-profit this year, my personal pick is Charity Water. 1 in 10 people lack access to clean water... its 2018... there's no reason we can't fix this. Charity Water is amazing in that every single penny you give goes to giving Clean Water to those in need... you can see it for yourself! One of the great ideas that's fun to do is give Charity Water your birthday. Instead of getting more stuff you don't need this year... change a life.





Read a book by Richard Rohr
Alright, on another note, Richard Rohr is by far my favorite author right now. You could just search on Amazon and point your mouse at any given title, read that, and your life would be better! But my personal favorite is The Naked Now. He has many others though and I absolutely recommend checking him out. One of his more popular ones is Everything Belongs, many start there.

Yet with a word of warning, if you are not open... you will be tempted to close further or open wider.
If you read to get something rather than encounter something, you'll just be frustrated.
If you believe you've already got it figured out... you might as-well do like the rest of the world and read something that already affirms that which you believe.
But if you're hungry, if there's something underneath and behind the wall... trying to get out... if there are things you've been longing to put words to in life and the universe but haven't been able to... if you really want to grow out of the façade of dualism...
Take the plunge!

Take a Sabbath
I'm not going to expound on this right here anymore than... It's for you, it's part of your natural rhythm, it will make the other 6 days phenomenal, and I've been doing it on Saturdays for 10 years now and there's no going back!

Alrighty then... This last one will probably sound a little old school. Millennials are now facing this issue in droves... and with increasing anxiety and depression everywhere you look I believe this is more important than ever.
Find a Faith Community
I know first hand how religion in the last century has left a generation just wanting to be left out of everything that resembles "church." I get it. It's no mystery how we've ended up with the Rise of the Nones. Also now we've filled our lives with a pretty much constant stream of stuff and media and work.... to the point that when it comes to "carving out" more time to be a part of a community like this... it sounds exhausting. Now what's happened is we've filled our lives with a bunch of things that don't matter and everything that does matter doesn't seem to fit.
If we will make the choice to be a part of a faith community and reorient our relationship to work, stuff, and Sabbath... we will find that what we've needed all along was healthy community. Life is not meant to be lived isolated but in the sharing of all things and with purpose.

I believe there is no such thing as real community outside a Jesus oriented community... if you are jiving with any of the things said earlier in this article... I believe you're jivin' with Jesus! That is what the gospel is about... Loving God... and so Loving each other. Loving the World.
We were actually created to do that together.

Have a great 2018!