How Green Grew

On the weekend of March 22 and 23, I had the privilege of being involved with the BIL Conference. I met some really great people and one of the, David J. Hiebert, is contributing to today's entry.

David is the author of Gratefully Green, a children's book that explains the benefit of living a green lifestyle.

I haven't always been green. I’m still not “perfectly” green. Why wasn't my life “green”? There was a problem with the roots.

After years of marriage, I divorced. I jumped into a series of relationships. Common law, an affair with a married woman, a marriage that ended when I cheated. I stopped. I lived alone. I took stock of my life. I saw that what my life had grown into was very weedy,confusing and not very attractive. During this ”gardening” I was clinically diagnosed as having ADHD. I received treatment, benefited from an adult ADHD support group and started to weed, prune and cultivate my life.

Then an “inner voice” asked me if I would be willing to be an apprentice for sixty years to work for one? That was not such a strange question considering that I had just had my second blood transfusion. I had had ALL the tests. Cancer? No. A virus? No. Finally there were no more tests to take. Then followed years of monitored maintenance. More blood transfusions. Weekly and bi-weekly Iron infusions. My doctor said she was glad that she had saved my life.

I decided to live my life more honourably by being Creative, Compassionate and Humble. It was during this time of deconstructing and rebuilding my life that a concept came to me. The concept was that each letter of the word GREEN had a meaning to explain what “Going Green” might mean. It started with, “G is for Grateful”, “R is for Respectful” etc. Each “explanation” became wordy and plodding. These ramblings morphed into snappy poems. I drew the illustrations.

And so the concept grew. The leaves became pages that turned into a book. The process to an ISBN numbered children’s book called Gratefully Going GREEN took five years.

I have read Gratefully Going GREEN at a school, it’s in a local book store and I’ve presented it at the recent BIL conference. Where will the book go next? I don’t really know. It’s still growing. .

Thank you. David (J. Hiebert)

Thank you David for an entertaining, and enlightening, article.

The photos are from me and Morgue File.

See ya next time.