Metamorphosis

According to Webster’s online dictionary, the word metamorphosis is defined as “a striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances.” It is a word most often used to describe a beautiful transformation. It conjures up happy images of fairy tales and butterflies, but the word pandemic is anything but beautiful. For me and probably to most people, the year 2020 will forever be remembered as the year of force metamorphosis. Many Lives have been lost and altered forever, but as the year 2020 came to a close, a new hope for a new year is celebrated by many.

The past year has been filled with terrible loss and sadness, but it was also filled with change. It was difficult for some and extremely challenging for others. It broke some people, and it fixed some wrongs. It has changed how we worked and where we worked, our habits and our pastimes. Change is different from one person to another. A small change to someone is a big and important change to another. It is our way of making little miracles.

Just like everyone, I became home-bound. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it was forced on us by a tragic word that I hope I never hear again. Yes everyone! It’s the word “lockdown.” I made some changes in my habits last year that I am thrilled to be bringing into this new year. With the earth and thus the environment in mind, I had planned to reduce my energy use and the amount of microplastics my clothes released with every wash.

It starts with nature, of course! It turns out owning and buying clothes made solely of natural fibers like wool, cotton and linen has so many benefits and positive changes. Owning and buying natural fibers let me consume less water and energy. It also helped me reduce the microplastics that my clothes released into the ocean every time that I need to wash them. I also invented a new word because of it. It’s called “air-washing.” What is it? You ask. Well, it’s exactly what it means. I wash my clothes made of natural fibers with air. I know that I sounds tricky and foolish, but I promise you that it isn’t. It turns out and with a fair bit of online research, clothes with natural fibers don’t need to be laundered regularly. Hanging clothes made of all natural fibers in either a warm or cool but dry environment kind of has the same effect as washing them as long as they’re not soiled. Of course, you can’t “air-wash” clothes forever. I found wool to be the most “air-washable” of all the natural fibers, and this includes cashmere, alpaca and anything else that can be defined as wool. I will let you be the judge of “air-washing” clothes made of natural fibers, but it’s definitely something good to try if you’re looking to reduce your water and energy consumption.

To further reduce my energy consumption, I decided to turn to nature again. Summer months usually mean summer heat and humidity in places where ideal summer weather isn’t common like Toronto. I thought that it was hopeless to stay cool even indoors when the temperature outside is soaring so high that people start praying for a blizzard. With my air conditioning trying so desperately to cool down my place, I decided to make a change. I decided to enjoy the heat! I challenged myself to get used to the warm breeze and humid feel of the outdoors within the comforts of my home. It was a very slow and somewhat agonizing process at first, but it paid off. By mid-summer, I was able to withstand indoor temperature of 27 degrees celsius before having to turn the air conditioning on. I don’t recommend people try this because everyone has a different limit on what can be endured, but what it taught me is that I don’t need to have the air-conditioning on all the time. Instead, I should enjoy nature and let it inside as much as I could. This goes the same this winter months for me. I have turned to my sweaters for comfort and minimized relying on my heating. I mainly turn it on only once or twice daily, and try to enjoy my time indoors with my sweaters.

Obviously, any amount of consumption has negative impacts to our environment and society, but I think it’s important that we find ways to continually reduce the negative impacts of our consumption. And on that note, I hope that my changes metamorphose into a positive change for someone else. Think butterflies.