November 11, 2019

by drplasticpicker

Becoming drplasticpicker meant devoting my free “me” time to taking a quick jog to the beach, taking a walk along the shore and picking up plastic and jogging back. I had no idea that this would cause a cascade in my life to make life simple. Peaceful.

I wanted to share this with you, because it is something that is so easy to do and so powerful.

Friday was a relentless day in clinic and then Saturday afternoon I was on “call” for pediatric urgent care clinic. It seemed every child was complicated and needed some kind of extra study. Eventhough I am loving living this alternate existence as my avatar drplastipicker, I continue to live in reality a normal life working full time and raising a family. In the past, it would have taken me another day to recover mentally from 2 harder days at work. The frustration would have spilled into my parenting and relationships. I would have had churning thoughts during 2 nights of fitful sleep. But now my soul and body knows that as soon as the sun begins to light up the earth, I will get to be down at the beach and picking up ocean plastic. The frustrations are less now and my sleep is more peaceful.

Ocean plastic picking has made life simple and peaceful. These are the reasons. Another list of 5 things, a blogger’s dream post format!

1. I Travel Every Day: Since the ocean and the waves and the experiences and the plastic are different every day, I travel every walk I take. I’m attuned during these walks and I notice the quiet things that are different. This has made traveling outside of my beach unnecessary. It used to take going to Machu Pichu in Peru to generate a sense of awe. But I noticed that on Mr. Plastic Picker and my last trip to San Francisco https://drplasticpicker.com/drplasticpicker-visits-the-sea-lion-center/, I missed my walks and our beach. San Francisco didn’t seem as fun. We are still going on vacations this year, but we are concentrating on local ones based on national parks where we can drive. Dispensing with the idea that we should go to the most exotic location or most expensive polluting cruise saves a lot of time and money! This change in desires came naturally with the walks. And so much cheaper to travel to the beach every day than saving thousands of dollars for a far off and short-lived vacation.
2. Shop Only When I Need: Since I pick up ocean plastic pollution, I see the excess in our lives. Sandals and clothing left on the beach. Food wastage left spoiling on the shore. I found a completely intact cutie buried in the sand right above the waves yesterday. Throwing away a bag of trash in the morning into the bins just makes me value everything I have in our home. I’ve been trying to reduce our shopping and consumption for years, but now magically our food waste has plummetted. We don’t shop for amusement anymore. There is more room in our trash bins due to less waste, less time spent throwing away trash, less time sorting and dealing with our belongings, and less time spent filling our lives with more stuff and food. So we gained back our time.
3. I Talk and Listen to People More: I am sure I was communicating at some point. But now I am actively listening. Since I now notice different plastics on the beach, I actually have begun noticing people more. I find joy in my fellow human beings and their thoughts. Taking more joy in the friends and family around me that I already have. This saves me time because I don’t need to make more friends.
4. I Don’t Look at Myself As Much: I am much more active and getting out to the beach. I average usually 10,000-15,000 steps a day now. I’ve been surprised that many friends and patient’s parents have mentioned to me, “Drplasticpicker, you look happy and glowing! Is that a new outfit/haircut/have you been working out?” After you get past your mid 40s, this generally happens less. And sometimes dear readers, I am wearing an outfit I got from the Goodwill or something I found on the beach! These compliments which I do appreciate also correlate with the dramatic decrease in selfies on my iPhone and more pictures of sunsets and birds. So while I do appreciate these comments, something happened while walking along the beach. Of note, I don’t think I was taking more selfies than the average 40 year old but now in the last 2 months almost none.
5. I Rediscovered Writing: And the greatest part of this whole adventure, has been I rediscovered that I do like to write and communicate. I appreciate correcting my grammatical mistakes and constructing a coherent sentence. I am relearning how to spell after autocorrect had taken that skill away. And with writing, I can do it at home while I’m sitting at my own kitchen table and drinking coffee from my own ceramic mug.

So I am off to the beach now! Read here about another pediatrician who is fighting for our environment https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-young-ho-yoon-pediatrian-and-environmentalist-1/