My kids love waffles.
I mean—don’t you, too?
Those fluffy, tasty, sweet waffles with berries and applesauce.And of course… some chocolate cream.
Well, it was a big disappointment when, two weeks ago, our waffle iron (which also works as a toaster because it has some kind of switch thing) broke.
And it was a Sunday evening.
Frustration. Kids pouting. Helplessness -for an millisecond.
Then I remembered: there was a small business in town that repairs little electronic things.And I also knew that a new one would cost approximately 80 euros.
So I went there to see if they could help.
Unfortunately, they are open only on Thursdays and Fridays ... so another week without toast or waffels...
When I finally got there, the man told me, “Yes, of course we can repair it. It’s a good brand, and we have plenty of resources for that.”
He told me it would be 85 euros, even less because of a governmental bonus for repairing electonic thingies: if you repair things instead of replacing them, you get back up to 50 % percentage of the cost.
And I was lucky to get that bonus (not the full, but some)!!!
So I said, “Okay, let’s do it.”
But it turned out that this was not the final price.That amount was just to explore what was broken and how to fix it.Of course, any additional parts would cost more.
They called today and said it would be another 50 euros.
And I was… really torn.Actually, I thought they were calling to say I could pick the repaired thing up.
Instead, it was: “Surprise, it’s 50 euros more.”Which means it's now around 130 euros.
I could have bought one and a half new ones.
And when that first feeling arose—you know, that instant reaction—I thought:
“Yeah… this is exactly it. It’s cheaper to buy new things and throw the old ones away.”
And this is the crazy part.This is how we ruin our world.This is how we live on resources that don’t even exist anymore.
It turns out:If you want to be resourceful...If you want to live with a smaller ecological footprint…If you want to contribute to reducing the use of limited resources…If you want to live in a happier world…
You have to invest in that.
And nobody said that living a simpler, more environmentally friendly life wouldn’t cost something.
So even though I really think that globally spoken we are heading in the wrong direction,We have to start in our own homes.
We have to talk about what we do different.
Not to brag, not to complain—but to be honest.
Please don’t get me wrong:I’m not complaining about spending money to repair something.But I also want to share that it doesn’t always feel good.
And… that’s okay.
Doing the right thing doesn’t always feel good.
And: We’re not here to chase comfort.
We’re here to live our values.
So that’s my story for Environmental Day today.
And maybe…
Maybe I’ve inspired you to think about your contribution to this world.
Because I really believe:
The question isn’t what the world can do for us—But: what we can do for the world.