It's hard to know exactly what to say about Earth Day this year. I'm not gonna pretend it feels like a normal April. It's hot as heck down here in North Carolina with no rainfall in sight. They used to say, "April showers bring May flowers!" and I think we might be on the verge of a drought here instead. There's so much happening all around the globe, and yet here we are, still hoping, still planting things, still showing up, still believing it all matters somehow and that this fragile planet is worth fighting for.
Earth Day started in 1970 as a collective environmental awakening, a grassroots movement that grew into a global one. But are we really doing better? It sure feels like we have a very long way to go. Climate catastrophes abound and impact our lives daily. War plays havoc with people, land, and ecosystems, leaving destruction that takes generations to heal. As the crisis becomes ever more serious, each Earth Day that comes along feels more urgent than the last.
THE VIEW FROM OUT THERE
Just days ago, four astronauts returned from the farthest journey any human has ever taken from Earth.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen flew 252,756 miles from home aboard their spacecraft Integrity, looped around the moon, and splashed down in the Pacific on April 10th. One of them called it "the most special thing that will ever happen in my life."
From out there, the Earth is just a crescent of blue light suspended in an ocean of black, with no noise, no borders, no argument about whether it's worth saving. Just this one world; small, luminous, and irreplaceable.
It's worth sitting with that image this Earth Day — the view those four humans had just days ago. We spend billions of dollars and decades of effort to send people far enough away to truly see this planet. And what they saw was fragile. Beautiful. Finite.
The question that image keeps asking is one we already know the answer to: If we can engineer rockets that break distance records, we can certainly choose to take better care of the home we keep flying back to.
FOR THOSE ALREADY ON THE PATH
I do know our Mood Indigo community though. Many of you have been living in a thoughtful, eco-conscious way with sustainability issues at the forefront of your thinking. Reading labels, making intentional swaps, asking questions that most people don't think to ask yet. We love that about you.
So I'm not going to suggest you purchase a reusable tote bag. You've got seventeen already, I know!
If you're just getting started on this journey though, we've covered the 7 R's of sustainability and practical everyday actions in two earlier posts — they're worth a read, or a share with someone just finding their footing.
For those of you already doing the work, here's what I've been wrestling with lately from a sustainability perspective.
I began using essential oils in my products deliberately and especially for the therapeutic benefits, the purity, and the integrity of using something that comes directly from the earth. That decision was made with care and conviction.
But now I sit here with a different set of questions about what that choice actually costs the earth. It's confusing and confounding and hard to figure out exactly what to do. It takes up to 10,000 pounds of rose petals to produce a single pound of rose essential oil. The monoculture farming required to meet that demand often depletes soil, reduces biodiversity, and releases carbon rather than capturing it. Some species are already endangered from over-harvesting. And I keep coming back to the uncomfortable possibility that a responsibly made, phthalate and paraben-free synthetic fragrance might actually be the more conscious choice for a product you're rinsing off anyway. Oof it's kinda hard to even put in writing.
This is clearly NOT what I thought I'd be grappling with at this point in time. But I think these sorts of questions keep us honest, constantly reviewing our choices when new information presents itself and what real eco-consciousness looks like. There often isn't a simple and clear answer, but we need to be willing to sit with the discomfort, examine the science and data, and keep asking the hard questions. I know i'm going to have to do a lot more research on this and will share with you as my thinking evolves.
And that's really the spirit of what I want to leave you with this Earth Day. Not a checklist, but an invitation to go a little deeper with the choices you're already making.
As I continue mulling, here are a few things worth thinking about.
Ask where things actually come from. Not just what's in something, but how it was grown, who harvested it, whether they were paid fairly. Clean ingredients sourced exploitatively aren't really clean. Look for brands willing to show their work, and when they don't, go ahead and ask. You'd be surprised how much a single email to a brand can matter. Well a small brand like me anyway.
Consider the full journey of what you consume, not just what it's made of. Where did it come from, how did it get to you, and what happens when it's gone? Choosing local, whether that's a farmers market, a small maker, or a regional food system, cuts the carbon cost of shipping while keeping dollars in your community. And when you do order online, batching orders and avoiding rush delivery is one of those small unglamorous choices that actually adds up.
Buy less, but finish what you have. Yes, I know, probably a strange thing for a small business owner to say. But I mean it for real. The most sustainable product is the one you actually use completely before buying another. A bathroom shelf that's intentional rather than accumulated. That's the goal.
Shift toward regenerative where you can. Sustainable means doing less harm. Regenerative means actively giving back — to soil, to ecosystems, to farming communities. It's a higher bar, and it's worth looking for brands, farms, and food systems trying to clear it.
Talk about it. Openly, without preaching. The people in your life who aren't there yet don't need a lecture — they need to see someone they respect living this way and making it look worth it. That's one of the most powerful things you can do right now.
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
At the end of the day, we are this earth's stewards and caretakers. Every choice we make has deep and lasting impact. We know this. And this very moment calls for more, more intention, more courage, more willingness to question even the choices we thought we'd already figured out.
And here at Mood Indigo we believe in folks like you. Folks who keep showing up for the environment, for health, for environmental and social justice and equity. Folks who ask inconvenient questions and who choose less and mean it. Those of you who are out at the farmers market on a Saturday morning because being part of something live and local is important and matters.
This is the struggle and work we do. Not perfectly of course, as we're still figuring things out alongside you. But every product we make is an attempt to honor your skin and this earth in equal measure.
The Artemis crew looked back at Earth from a quarter-million miles away and felt something that changed them. We don't need to leave the atmosphere to feel it. We know it deep in our bones. We just need to keep paying attention and doing our very best.
The earth is still growing things. So are we.
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