The Joy of Sustainability #003: Lights Out
1:30am.
The baby is starting to fuss. He’s hungry. Another 15 minutes and he’ll start really wailing. Time to nip this in the bud and go get some milk.
The weight of my body feels like it’s been multiplied as I try to pull myself out of bed, but dreading what will come if I don’t move, I manage to drag myself out of bed.
My mind is cloudy – and I’m partly trying to keep it that way. It’ll be easier to go back to sleep if I do. I open the bedroom door and go down the stairs in total darkness, telling my sleepy brain to use whatever resources are active to focus completely on not tripping down the stairs.
I open the fridge. The bright light is blinding and hurts my eyes so I quickly grab a pre-measured bottle of milk (thanks, before-bed me) and close the door.
I trudge back up the stairs and put the bottle and some water into the bottle warmer and push the button to start warming. It’s just 3 minutes until it’s done, but in this state it feels like an eternity, so I walk over to the bedroom window and peer out onto the darkened street.
It’s lit only by the orange glow of the nearby streetlamp. A cool breeze comes through the louvered windows (popular in Hawaii, ‘jalousies’, as I’ve learned they are called) and something about the combination of looking outside and the cool breeze sends a chill through my whole body. It’s not entirely unpleasant…On the contrary, I actually recognize it and love the feeling – it’s the same feeling I get when I’m out camping in the wilderness and stare into a campfire as a breeze comes through the campsite. Or when I wake up inside the tent and step out into the cool morning air. It’s a feeling I associate with being in nature.
Less lights, less energy, more pleasant night chills
This routine, as you may be able to guess, was discovered accidentally. I used to wake up, turn on a nightlight, then the kitchen light, and then grab milk, but now I don’t turn on any lights at night intentionally, specifically because of that feeling of connection to nature that I get out of it – that familiar chill that runs through my whole body.
It’s become one more tiny way that living sustainably feels joyful to me.
Sure, you could argue that not turning on a nightlight and kitchen light barely counts as a significant improvement in living sustainably – the global impact of not turning on a couple lights is less than negligible. But it’s lead me to start thinking about what a life with less lights at life means, and it’s lead to me turning off more lights earlier in the evening and I’ve found that it’s not just that nice chill that I get when I look out the window – living with less light makes the evening atmosphere of the whole house more calm, inviting, and relaxing. It makes dinner with the family feel more intimate. It makes falling asleep easier.
Yes, not turning on the lights has a small positive impact on the planet, but it has had a huge impact in the life quality of my evenings!
By finding these small joys in reconnecting with nature, it leads you to find ways that are more natural and speak to a deeper part of your soul and human nature.
I live ECO for me. Sure, for the planet too, but much more so for me.
