I was raised to be conservative. To conserve water… the land, food, trees, petrol, propane, toothpaste, toilet paper. I grew up with the mantra “save some for tomorrow”. My grandfather, Charles Hodel, was a famous conservationist. He fought strip mining. He made our family legacy one of awareness that too many humans would plunder this world and that “less is more”.
I also grew up running printing presses. The real kind. Lithography… I even learned some Letterpress… but with the lithographic process, you are mixing water and ink. The ink sticks to the places on the printing plate that have an image and the water coats the blank parts of the plate with no image.
So, the pressman is constantly balancing that ink/water ratio with dials that release each onto rollers inside the machine. When the image starts getting too dark, some operators add more water. When the image lightens, more ink. You see where I’m going with this!
I had to learn to balance that ratio. Every good pressman learned that. I thought about these things this morning in the shower. The water started cooling as I washed my hair and I instinctively turned down the cold tap (instead of turning up the hot). I thought about a step daughter who I took care of during a teen pregnancy who took long, hot showers twice daily. I swore that she took the shampoo & conditioner instructions literally; “wash – repeat – apply conditioner – leave conditioner 5 minutes – rinse thoroughly”… my conservationist self squirmed!
I fed her and myself with a garden I started in February under cloches (I wrote about them for Organic Gardening Magazine, called it “Cloche Encounters”). I hope that I taught her ways to conserve; ways to live well with little. I have not heard from her in decades…
So, I sit here on this New Years Eve contemplating my lovely new life. My new name. My new dream. My new focus. My new horse!
One thing that will never change for me is my deeply rooted practice of conserving. That Middle Way of balancing the things of life and Earth is ingrained into the cells of my body… it is genetically encoded into me. Granddad Hodel was born of Swiss immigrant parents. He was entered into the Congressional record upon his passing and they called him the “Albert Schweitzer” on crutches… I’m so proud to be the daughter of his daughter!
My Australian husband is making me some toast. He is chilling Celtic cider for tonight. I am starting potato, beet, parsnip and kale soup for tonight in the crockpot and have the black-eyed peas cooked already. We will trim Dream Cat’s hooves in a few minutes and I have one lesson to teach before noon. I now have stepsons on the other side of the planet… life is such an adventure!
We must step into this New Year, into 2018 with dreams intact. With a focus upon simple, logical, compassionate themes and a bit of that “save some for tomorrow” mentality… truly, LESS IS MORE.
Rock on
Katharine Chrisley-Schreiber!
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