Hearing Voices

 I have this voice inside my head.
It's been with me all of my life...
and it's not one to be ignored!

Do you have a voice inside of your head?

You know the one....
the one that tells you when something just isn't right!

Yes, that's the one.
And the consequence for not listening to that voice?

Guilt.

Yes, I suppose this has been my curse all of my life,
but it has made me who I am today.
And for that I am grateful.

You are wondering where I am going with this, aren't you?
Well, I am going to tell you a little tale of an experience that I had yesterday.
Just a little example of how loud that voice inside my head is.....

Every month or so I load up the bed of my pick up truck with recyclables....
newspaper, magazines, catalogs, cardboard boxes, plastics, metals and glass,
and I take them about ten miles away to a local recycling center.
For $5, I can drop off all of our recyclables.

Well, yesterday was recycling day.
While I was at the center, the young gal who always helps me
asked me why I don't just burn our papers and cardboard
instead of paying to recycle them.

Her words were...
"Heck, if I lived out in the middle of nowhere, where no one could see what I'm doing,
I would just burn my stuff."

To which I said...
"What about all the carbon that you would be placing into the atmosphere?"

She just shrugged her shoulders
as if she didn't care.

Didn't CARE!

Her only concern was getting caught....no concern for our air.


Ok, so this is where the voice inside my head is screaming....
if I know that doing something is harmful for the environment,
then how could I possibly do it?
How?
And how do people justify this type of cognitive dissonance?....
knowing that something is harmful, yet still doing it?

Where is the voice inside their heads?


Maybe that's why this world is in so much trouble, now....
maybe we've just stopped listening to that voice.


I love this world and would do anything to keep it as beautiful and perfect as it should be.

I recycled yesterday,
and I am glad that I did....
but I came home sad.

PS....do you do everything in your power to care for our world?
Do you listen to the voice inside your head?


Comments

Anke said…
Sadly, I think there are a lot of people that don't even have that voice anymore...
Debi said…
I know that really ticked you off, and it probably would have me to. We have ignorance visit our farm sometimes and have to get rid of it quickly to never return. Your fall color is dramatic; gorgeous. Had to back-track and catch up w/your posts below. Congrats to Fred and Sissy; job well done! And that handsome baby boy is getting cutie each visit. I know he must love coming for visits.
Unknown said…
Yep, I sure do and I am so glad you do too....when I hang my laundry out I know that people like you keep it smelling wonderful, so I have sweet dreams on lovely scented sheets. Thanks for doing that for me...and you.
Anonymous said…
I recycle every Thursday!
Anonymous said…
Thank you Bev-recycling is the right thing to do-Marshe
Country Gal said…
We try. We have recicling pick up every week with the garbage but the big stuff like furniture and bigger we take it once a year to a huge dump that does recicling and even some restoration. We compost,use our wood stove ashes as furtilizer on the gardens in the spring, Papa also uses his wood chips and shavings from his wood work shop for the gardens so ya we do what we can here cause we care about our land and animals and our future. Great post , Have a wonderful weekend.
We recycle a lot. There is much more we could do, I'm sure. But if we don't need to drive somewhere, we just stay home. We try to plan errands for minimal trips into town. I don't allow spraying on the property because our chickens and donkeys are foraging and grazing. Hubby's daughter works for a global environmental company and works with countries to establish policy. It's such an uphill struggle, but if we all do a little more....
Unknown said…
I don't think it is that people have stopped listening to that voice inside.... I believe it is that our children, for generations, have not been taught how to listen to that inner voice. Maybe they don't have an inner voice to listen to. Maybe they should have been raised by my grandmother..
Anonymous said…
We have a next door neighbor that has a burn barrel. Drives us nuts that he does not recycle. Just drives us absolutely nuts!
This N That said…
I, for one, am glad that you have that little voice inside your head and that you listen to it..(you always have)..What does that girl think the purpose of her job is?? Goodness, it's why she even has a job...Unfortunately to her, that's all it is..a job
Anonymous said…
I can totally sympathize with your concerns. I agree this is mostly what is so badly wrong with our world today. No one seems to care about anything except themselves, personally and business and government. It is truly very sad.
Marcy
Kristin_Texas said…
The recycling truck comes to our neighborhood once a week. Unfortunately, they give us far too small recycling bins. It's overflowing by half a week.

I feel your frustration, as I have a neighbor that doesn't recycle AT ALL. That bin just sits there in her garage, with clutter on top of it.

Those are beautiful pictures you posted. You must feel so blessed to be surrounded by such beauty every single day. I can't even imagine what that would feel like.

Kristin
Teresa said…
It drives me crazy. My own child is horrible about things like that. I feel guilty knowing I could do more than I do, and he just doesn't care.
The pictures of your farm are just beautiful. I appreciate your concern for our world.
Rene
I forgot to mention...I use picnik.com to edit my pics.
Verde Farm said…
So true Bev--that’s the attitude that brought us here. Worry for getting caught-not the harm they are doing. Sad indeed.
Amy :(
Katmom said…
Never were truer words spoken!
I hate the "if no one sees me... it's ok to do it" mentallity! Grrrr!
Out here we do not have recycle pick-up so I too have to tote my glass, plastic, paper & aluminun to the recycle drop off bins in town... but I don't mind, I hit it about every 2-3 weeks,,,,and drop off the recycles first and then head on to do my town errands.... it's not a big deal and like you said,,,, we are being responcible for our carbon footprints.
Speaking of carbon footprints... heeheehee! check out my latest 'footprints' on my blog....LOL!
hugz & miss ya!
>^..^<
Yes I have that same voice in my head....I think it's called a 'conscience' :) It really irritates me that people have to PAY to recycle...I don't understand the thinking. WHY should WE have to pay to recycle when the people getting our stuff are making money from it? I don't know if it's like this all over the USA but it is that way here in our part of Kansas and now I know it's like that where you live. In British Columbia Canada where I moved here from we get paid to recycle some things like certain plastics...pop cans...glass bottles...pop bottles. My daughter took in a trunk load of this type of stuff and came home with over $40 while we were visiting her. You don't very often see cans and bottles and things like that along the roads up there because even if people do throw things out as they're driving...other people will walk the roads sides and pick them up to make a bit of money. If people got paid to bring their glass and plastics to be recycled here in the USA more people would do it. It's a great way for kids to earn a bit of money...we used to have kids come by collecting bottles for Boy Scouts. It's amazing how people will clean beer bottles and cans out of their garage to give to the kids. We used to have our milk delivered in glass bottles twice a week (this is still done where I lived) and the milk man would take our empties away with him. We were all very conscious of recycling. I know there are people here that do it but I think most do not. Too bad. Hopefully things will change.