A few years ago, a small video of a child asking “what do you practice?” went viral all over the world.
With his expressiveness and eloquence he managed to get many people to pay attention to the message, simple but deep: based on practice you get to become an expert in anything; if you practice joy and happiness you will be joyful and happy; but if you practice anger or disappointment you will also be very good at it and you will be able to find reasons for anger at all times.
If you do not know the video, it is worthwhile to click on the link, dedicate a couple of minutes to see it and then take a good walk to think about the idea, because we can all always learn and improve.
The content of the message is not so recent, it is from the famous Indian guru Prem Rawat, who has been spreading messages of peace and well-being throughout the world for fifty years and leads a foundation for development.
The message is also especially important for those who are parents because their children often follow their example and learn through what they see them doing. It is estimated that about half of the abusive adults witnessed or suffered situations of abuse in their homes when they were children. It is a terrible statistic. But it also has the other side, which does not appear on the news, and is infinitely more numerous, all those parents who have been a good example for their children and have managed to instill positive values.
Well, today’s entry seeks to make better known a very interesting initiative, in which we can all participate and give a positive example for future generations. The idea started in Sweden in 2016 and has spread rapidly throughout Europe. It is called plogging, a word that comes from combining the term jogging and the Swedish expression plocka upp, which means collecting litter. It is that simple, it is just about running and carrying a bag, so if we see some litter we can make a squat, pick it up, and keep running. Obviously, the goal is not to collect a lot of garbage, but that little by little we all become aware and avoid generating and dispersing so much waste. And that one day, when going out to run, there is nothing to pick up.
There is a Facebook page as a platform to facilitate meetings and photo-blogging, but in parallel there are now also many local initiatives, organizing meetings and activities in each area.
In a similar line, in Portugal, it is very remarkable the activity of the Brigada do Mar organization, which carries out cleaning campaigns on beaches and has had more than 50,000 volunteers taking part. And public-private initiatives are also emerging, such as those with the company Sirplaste of Porto de Mos, or Revalor in Alcobaça, which are collecting, recycling and giving new uses to tons of plastics collected in the sea and beaches. But success will really come when our children see that we try not to generate so much waste and that we treat correctly the waste we generate and never litter nature. And then, to the question “what do you practice?” we will be able to answer that we try to take care of the planet in which we live. Because as the popular slogan says, “there is no planet b“.