Our story is about a group of people who showed up to a one-time-only, last minute (two days before Earth Day 2020) meeting to discuss transitioning our individual commitment to the earth from a once-a-year observance to a practice of celebrating the Earth Every Day.  We wished to adopt positive, sustaining actions that would shore us up rather than adding to the unease that we and the world were experiencing. To keep the focus on the earth in a fun and inspiring way, we wondered what the impact might be if we set a goal of five good deeds each day, one for: ourselves, family, friends, others, and the earth. One year later our team is still showing up and being amazed at the power of these concepts.

Terryl, who got the ball rolling by coming up with the idea, had asked Jim to add his zoom expertise to invite a pooled list of their acquaintances, family and friends to “an informal, fun discussion of Earth Day.” Her motivation was to ask others to share their talents and imagination to increase the impact of Earth Day by transitioning the focus onto the earth each and every day, all year long, every year. She wondered if the five good deeds concept could be used to help us accomplish that goal.

The one-time meeting was carried over to the next week with dialogue that was filled with serious intent, light-hearted banter, and respectful disagreements which we mined for the golden nuggets of great ideas. This collegial interaction was fostered by calling on Jim’s expertise in group dynamics which included a discussion of Earth/Fire/Water/Air temperaments. Our group had many hilarious conversations around the manner in which the nuances of individual personalities played out in our discussions. (Spoiler alert – we may sponsor a future Community game to name the characteristic earth element for each of our crew.)

We began to experience a sense of deep commitment as a team on a mission. We also began to experience the joy of collaborative creativity and shared intent, which fueled our desire to come together week after week and month after month. As others began to hear of our commitment to these concepts, Jim observed that our fledgling efforts had begun to move out from our group to a broader community, like “ripples in the pond.” This concept became a powerful metaphor for the efforts that we began to see reflected back from family and friends. 

Jay and Michelle, our acquaintances from Sicily, offered to share their expertise as experienced website designers to create a 5 Good Deeds Instagram account to capture the beauty of the ripples of good intent which people had begun to share with us. This effort was said to be “a way to collect, archive and share ideas for simple acts of kindness that help each other, ourselves and the planet.” We realized that what had started as a personal and local initiative had a potential global scope and impact. 

The group meetings benefitted by the attendance of Carl (succinct and analytic), Linda (creative and musical) and Paul (interpretive and able to synthesize the logo from contributions of the entire group).  Terryl, Michelle, Jay and Chris began to build the infrastructure of a website to create a vehicle for the developing community to share ideas and experiences. Chris volunteered his curating expertise relatively early on the process to capture the collegial interactions and ideas in a manner that could be readily accessed. Terryl has done the lion’s share of the writing as we populated the website with text to explain the concepts and initiatives. Chris has kept the “train on the tracks” of organization and curation. Michelle and Jay have continued to shine as artists, crafting a beautiful venue on which to share these amazing ideas generated by and through the group of eight. Each individual is accomplished and collectively represent a powerhouse of creativity, critical thinking and commitment.

As the project grew and expanded, the group of eight realized that what had begun as a personal and local initiative had, in fact, a global scope and impact. We transitioned the name of our initiative to Our Earth Every Day as we realized that each person on the earth has ownership of the planet, emphasizing that each of us has the privilege to improve the quality of life on our Earth. 

Please join us and share your experiences and ideas as we move forward with our efforts to celebrate

Our… Earth… Every… Day…

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