Celebrating and honoring the earth need not be contained to one single day. This year, consider beginning a practice that can continue all year long. Making it playful and fun can instill a lifelong love of the earth.
- Start a compost pile or get a worm bin so that you can limit how much of your household waste goes into the trash.
- Find ways to conserve water in your household. Grow drought-resistant plants in your yard and water plants in the evening or the early morning so the water does not just evaporate in the heat. Always limit car washing and long showers — not just when there is an imposed limit on water use.
- Pay attention to the kinds of household cleaners and body products you use, and choose from the many options that are earth-friendly. Consider visiting Rooted in Wailuku for a variety of house and beauty products that you can refill.
- Collect microplastics from the beaches you visit. Make or buy a beach sieve to collect microplastics from your favorite beach sand. Once you start noticing how much there is, you can’t stop seeing it.
- Learn about the ahupua’a system of land division that recognizes the interdependence of nature and all living beings.
- Trace the streams that flow from mauka (mountain) to makai (sea) to understand how what happens in one place is connected to another.
- Grow something from seed or a small start in your yard. Whether it’s flowers, herbs, a garden, or a tree, plant something and watch it grow. Consider planting something like a native plant. Maui Nui Botanical Gardens can help you find something that will grow well in your area.
- Grow plants that support butterflies and bees, which are important to the ecosystem.
- Get involved in one of the many initiatives on Maui that support the planting of trees or helping the native forests thrive.
- Take the ideas of the three R’s to heart: reduce, reuse, and recycle are thrown around, but talk about these concepts as a family and focus on reducing and reusing since our ability to recycle on this island is very limited.
