Geocache Philosopher

Last night I had more fun than I've had in a long while. Want to know what I was doing? Geocaching. I had never been, but one of my dear friends insisted that it was quite an enjoyable time.

She was right.

We spent an hour traipsing around in the snow and ice to find three fabulously hidden treasures - all within a mile of my apartment. We documented it with pictures and a Blair Witch style video.

If you're not familiar with geocaching, let me enlighten you. You go online, find the "cache" you wish to locate, grab your coordinates and a GPS and go to it! Some caches are tiny and called nanos. Inside, you find only a rolled link of paper where you sign your name. In larger caches, there are usually trinkets or prizes. There's a "catch" to the "caches", however - if you take something out of one, you must replace it with something of equal or greater value.

I got to thinking about that concept - if you take it, you replace it - and how that applied to the bigger picture. The way I see it, we do an awful lot of taking. We take our resources - trees for houses, oil for gasoline, water for, well, water. But do we replace what we've taken? Sure, sometimes we do. But not often enough. If we were balanced, we wouldn't be in the resource decline we are now.

This bothers me, and I'm not quite sure what to do with my new found frustration. What I do know is that I'm thinking about it. And I'm sharing my thoughts with you.

Because maybe that's where it starts: being conscientious and keeping things front of mind.

I'll keep you posted on where this whole thought train goes. In the meantime, your insights are always welcomed.

By: Gingerly Green of Two Girls Go Green

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