Care work
It's very slippery and it's difficult to walk. I walk very slowly so I don't fall. I left my only pair of shoes outside overnight, and they got filled with snow. I didn't have time to dry the shoes indoors and they feel uncomfortable. I could order food and other things to be delivered to my door but I try to avoid taking part in the gig economy that provides no stable jobs, no opportunities for development and spiritual growth.
Many of my practices of minimalism, voluntary simplicity, and zero-waste have been possible because of this privilege: I had no, or very few, care responsibilities. Caring for my students was of course part of my job, but I had no children, no elders, no pets to care for. I often say that living an almost perfectly sustainable life is a full-time job. Having a full-time job imposes limits on the amount of time and energy one can spend looking for zero-waste options, engaging in alternative organisations and activism, meditating and developing a worldview to which love towards the self, human and non-human others, and nature is central. It is so easy to sketch a list of what a sustainable lifestyle would look like. But it is difficult to practise it in reality. At times I was thinking, if I find it so difficult to practise, say, zero-waste when I have very few care responsibilities, it must be so much more difficult for my fellow humans who have more of such responsibilities.
Then things changed. My partner had an operation which prevented him from walking for some time. Care is not a burden. It is magical and humbling. It is the right thing to do. But I began to notice how having this responsibility, in addition to my other commitments, was affecting my everyday sustainability practice. Usually, we do our household activities either together or we split them somewhat equally. I suddenly was in a situation where I had to do them all. I began to have less time for writing and spiritual practice. Because I still wanted to read and write a little bit, I decided to go to the nearest supermarket to buy food. It was the most convenient option, not the best ecological option. I didn't want to spend much time in the supermarket looking for the best ecological options. Rather, I wanted to leave as soon as possible to come home to see that my partner was ok. I was thinking, what if it was an elderly person who needed many more years of my care, what if I had a very young child.