Today, the 21st (the beginning of the Earth Day festivities in Austin), we went to the Austin Farmer’s Market at Republic Square downtown. We had been wanting to take the bus as a family into downtown and get some exercise plus get the chance to meet people and see the city from a different perspective. Plus, being Earth Day Weekend was a great day for us to experience this.

The Famer’s Market was kinda neat:

  1. The LÄRABAR people were there giving out free samples (I’m all about free samples). Zoë did not care for those much, but I finished hers (it was the chocolate orange bar) and it was quite tasty.
  2. ClifBar was there giving free samples as well… really liked the LÄRABAR’s better.
  3. There was some fuel additive named Ethos FR that looked interesting
  4. Bought some chocolate from CocoaPuro that seems promising (triple chocolate covered, roasted cocoa beans… sample was yummy) – plus some hot chocolate with a “spice” coin… looking forward to sampling it.
  5. Some cool handmade necklaces that Jana really liked that had an Asian flair to them (sorry can’t remember who they were).
  6. A smallish array of fresh, organic produce, of course.

Isn’t it sad that we need an “Earth Day?” We actually need to be reminded that we’re destroying our environment every day… and on one day a year we get that reminder… and most people ignore it. Austin is one of the most green-minded cities I’ve ever lived in and the Earth Day farmer’s market was very… non-crowded.

I get it though… I used to ignore Earth Day as some kind of weird holiday for fanatical tree-huggers. While the fanatical tree-huggers do come out of the woodwork on these days, it’s really not designed for them. People like you and me – we’re the ones who need to understand that caring for the environment is actually something that reflects Christ. If you don’t think so… I understand - really, but I challenge you to consider whether that opinion comes from the pro-business pro-Republican rhetoric that laces our churches or from the Scriptures themselves. It’s a question I asked myself and was very surprised at what I discovered.