The Trash Vortex

Cleaning up our inner and outer world.

I would never litter the earth, but my mind is an endless dumping ground for all kinds of garbage.

From tossing out solutions for potential problems that will likely never materialize to throwing out countless self-growth options I don’t have time for, my mind-trash is overflowing.

I think I am not alone.

Regardless of what particular brand of garbage we fill our minds, I think most of us are overloaded with a random collection of rubbish that prevents us from absorbing the present moment.

Beyond this being detrimental to personal peace and happiness, it occupies the bandwidth required for reaching out to help the world, even in small ways.

Luckily, every so often, something jolts us out of our trance.

This happened last week when I did Earth Balloon day as part of our school’s enrichment program.

They brought in a twenty-foot inflatable globe and spoke about our continents, oceans, ecology and environmental issues. At the end, our guide spoke about the Great Pacific Garbage Dump.

Located in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii, California and Japan, it is a collection of marine debris the size of Texas, made up mostly of micro-plastics.

The microscopic size of these plastics makes it nearly impossible to clean up.

Nets designed to scoop up trash would catch small sea creatures as well. Even if such a net could be invented the sheer size of the oceans makes it prohibitive.

The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program has estimated that it would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean.

Plus, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is so far from any country’s coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up.

However, certain companies and individuals are undaunted.

Adidas has partnered with environmental think tank, Parley, to create a world first with a shoe upper made entirely of yarns and filaments reclaimed and recycled from ocean waste and illegal deep-sea nets.

Parley’s Founder Gutsch, describes Parley as, “a collaboration space where creators, thinkers and leaders from art, film, music, fashion, technology and science partner up with major brands and environmentalists to raise awareness and to collaborate on projects that can end the destruction of the magic blue universe beneath us: Our Oceans.”

Pretty cool.

Individuals who collectively collaborate to make a difference.

We did that last weekend at our annual Rowayton Trash Bash. Everyone pitched in to clean up our town. These initiatives exist all over.

And it made me think, what if we set our intentions as individuals or families t clean up our thoughts. To transform negativity into possibility, to be committed to finding the silver linings in what we find to be our greatest disappointments.

Perhaps this new way of thinking could change our world. Inside and out.