Transcript

Nothing new | Kristin Skarie | TEDxSemesterAtSea

[Music] so I had a really rough 2009 A Series of Unfortunate personal events and changes completely shifted my life sideways the economic downturn took its toll on me and completely forced me to do my business in a different way compared to how I'd been running it for the last 15 years I was overcommitted to the point of exhaustion uh it felt like I was giving 10% to everything and 100% to nothing and I was giving bits and pieces of myself to my family to my friends colleagues and to my volunteer work and so it seemed as if I needed something to change some kind of Revelation and I knew that on the outside maybe I was saying to everyone everything's great and on the inside I was trying not to freak out so I needed some kind of Revelation something I was hoping and praying for one for the year to end and two for something to come along to change my life basically so I got a card from my cousin and it was a beautiful supportive card on the front there was a quote that said there are years that ask questions and years that answer so when I opened up the card there was a white light shining out of the card it elevated itself off of my kitchen table and there were angels singing oh so I I thought it was a sign I thought this is it this is going to be the year 2010 will be the year that I get all of the answers they would probably be presented to me in a colorcoded set of binders like an owner's manual and that this would be it this would be the year that finally everything would fall into place so of course that wasn't the case uh January 1 came and went and I was still kind of waiting and praying and hoping for a revelation for something to change so a few months went went by and I met a new friend at a professional conference and she and her partner had just done an experiment and they didn't buy anything new for one year and so her stories about uh streamlining and decluttering and uh kind of re prioritizing were really intriguing and very inspirational so I decided on the spot that I would start my year of nothing new so I set some boundaries for myself I knew right off the bat that I wasn't going to start raising chickens or making my own soap so I made friends with people who did and I also knew that I was going to buy new food so that's kind of the number one question what about food and there is no such thing as used food so new food is good there is once it's used it's gone so new food and then I also allowed any other consumables so toiletries or cleaning products things that once they were used they would be gone and then I also allowed in-person social experiences my family scattered so I allowed myself that travel or that kind of expenditure and so then I started the year and I started by stopping shopping I stopped completely going to the places that were tempting for me right now you're thinking of that place I know uh the place where uh I knew I before I spent money before I even got in into the door or opened up the website and I knew I needed to just not even put myself in a position to want to spend any money there and so after that a couple couple weeks maybe a month went by and it it was easy it was almost boring and I needed something else to keep things going so I decided to add monthly motivations so challenges that would keep things interesting and maybe a little bit more fun for this whole experiment the first thing I did was start a garden and that became my joy my hobby uh everything about it the miracle of a tiny pin head siiz seed turning into lettuce it's exciting and so right it's all about the lettuce so uh started there and everything about that was really great so most of the food in the US travels about 1500 miles from Farm to Table so it was really gratifying to walk 50 ft to get kale or a quarter mile down the street to go to the farmers market and get eggs from fima and Larry so I decided to continue those months so in June I didn't turn on any lights in my house I left the back porch light on Just for Safety and Security and I travel so uh for a while I tried to not have any lights on in my hotel room and that was weird and scary and then I tried using a little headlamp and that was weirder and more scary so I let that go and I stuck with a one light rule so anytime I'm in a hotel room or in a ship cabin I only have one light on at any given time and you know it can be easy you just walk in and start flipping on the lights so that's stuck and it it helped me kind of translate that to how do I use the lights thing while I'm traveling in July I started out trying not to use anything plastic and it was almost impossible you're probably within an inch of something plastic right now and so instead I decided I wouldn't buy anything plastic and that's almost as impossible U most most food especially if it's fast food comes in plastic containers and so I also decided to kind of punish myself and anytime if I did slip I would make some decisions about the packaging and would have to force myself to kind of bring that home so that helped helped me make make better decisions about uh plastic and I also started carrying a set of bamboo utensils and my own cloth napkins so I have all this little kit when I when I travel uh so in August I decided to only eat Foods grown in New York state I ate a lot of corn in August and other wonderful things corn is my friend and when I traveled I decided I would only eat within a 100 mile radius of that area so a lot of farm stands a lot of grocery stores and uh that was actually really interesting and there's so much more available so much local abundance uh if you really start looking in September I detoxed my house I cut all of my cleaning products in half and Got Back to Basics so baking soda and vinegar and hot water lemon juice sunshine and completely cleared out kind of that under the sink area with most of the products that are not a natural blue color and nothing against the blue colors uh but things that were not not at all consistent uh with how I wanted to live trying to have a a much smaller footprint but maybe leave a bigger handprint in October and November I did the same thing I tried to detox myself and my personal care products and it took two months it was really important to me that I was able to use products that weren't tested on animals that had some kind of awareness or very few toxic kind of ingredients that if went if into the oceans or into our streams would cause trouble and also that the packaging was recyclable or recycled so it took a while to get that done in December my close friends and family decided that we weren't going to exchange any holiday gifts that being together was enough and that there was no amount of gift giving that could ever replace the personal personal time that we had a few select friends did receive uh Gifts of small loaves of bread which when the feedback came back around they were more like tiny little bricks which was feedback is love so change the recipe a little bit uh and so interesting way to end the year when that is often a year where people are maxed out in many ways uh we weren't burdened with that with all of that in January I did a fashion fast I only wore six items of clothing for one month and that was really interesting in terms of what I do not need uh to have and I completely cleaned out my closet in February I tracked the trash in my house and and reduce did the similar to when I was with my travel trash and then in March I worked really hard to reduce the amount of gas that I put in my car and decided on uh two at least two days a week that were no Drive days and so that at least was making some some impact so I cleaned up I cleaned out I decided that anything that I did keep when I was cleaning out closets had to be beautiful memorable or useful it had to be at least two two of the three and if it didn't it was donated or discarded and then I also decided that uh part of the the end of that year was trying to figure out what was next uh and in that process to decided that this was all about kind of Greening My Lifestyle so who cares so what you grew a few green beans saved a little money A lot of people do that uh plus what you're doing is on such a small scale that it's not going to matter said former friend so he's not here right now um for about six months that set me back in terms of trying to figure out what my next step was was did this story even matter who cares maybe he's right uh maybe I should just go back to kind of the way I used to live with not really worrying about how I was spending my money my time or my energy and then I realized that actually his flip comment helped me solidify my why in all of this so his who cares was the an the my answer was I care and I'm responsible for this corner of the planet that I live on not only for myself but for my nephews and the next seven generations after me does it matter it matters because my carbon footprint is huge I travel alone I live alone much of what I do involves driving anywhere from four to eight hours and so I'm in my car by myself and the second I get on an airplane no amount of reduced reuse recycle can counteract any of that so I feel like every green bean um every secondhand sweater matters I feel like every Fork that I don't put into the landfill or every Styrofoam cup I never buy in the first place matters and so I get to decide and in my purchases or how I spend my time and my energy as well does this or does this not matter and so now from there I can start to figure out what this really means for me so I had to make some hard decisions uh that year and in the year after as well I decided that I needed to release about six different work commitments as well as two longtime friendships uh part of this decluttering wasn't just about my physical space it was about streamlining and cleaning out my head and cleaning out my heart and I'm convinced uh that part of um part of this year was really about me allowing other things to come into my life and so I know that the quality of time that I spend with my nephews um and with my fourth graders at Henry Hudson School number 28 is enhanced because I let go and allow the really important things to show up so what I thought was going to be a shopping experiment turned into a values realignment a complete overhaul of what was really important to me and I asked myself these questions over and over again during my year do I want this do I need this or do I have it so do I want it maybe and then I get to decide is it beautiful useful memorable uh am I okay with how that was made who made it and where it's going to go when I'm done with it do I need it probably not uh what I really need basic needs I need food clothing and shelter that's it and love four things I need food clothing shelter love those needs those daily basic needs are met for me every day of my life and do I have it I have a wealth of intangibles that no one can take away from me and by the way I I have huge privilege to even have made a decision like this I want you to know that I know that there are many people if not most people who cannot choose to buy something you used or new that or they have nothing and so this was an in my face reminder of that uh every day of that year and every day following as well so what can you do what could you do for one month for three months for a year that would change how you live on this planet uh one planet um not the nine planets that we would need if everyone lived like I did uh what what can you do something that's doable but challenging something that would make an impact on how you spend your money or your time or your energy uh could you never ever again buy a plastic uh a bottled water could you cultivate one tomato plant uh could you decide to overhaul that under the syn you know kitchen cleaning product area or could you decide that you need to release a friendship so maybe it's not about the money for you but it's about the time and the energy so 365 days of nothing new uh turns out it wasn't the year of the answer it was the year of the questions and it was the year of the right questions so what do you need what do you want and what do you have and what what you really need is nothing new