Sustainability is a hot topic these days in the world and it’s no different at our house.

As  the world gets more and more concerned about global warming and the environment, it raises issues like resource management and being able to sustain ourselves while providing a legacy for future generations.  As a broader society, we’ve begun to think more about conservation, recycling, renewal and being less wasteful.

Green is the new black.

It’s gratifying to see it in action finally and ironic too because when I was a teenager in the late 1970s, ecology and conservation were very high profile and top of mind – at least for me and my friends.  We shared a common desire to save the planet.  But perhaps then that concept was the province of kids and hippies, whereas now it has been embraced as a notion that makes good business sense.

The concept of sustainability has broadened as well to embrace the importance of making sure that we can continue to do in the future what we are doing now.  We talk about sustainability all the time now at work, and we have very little to do with ecology and the environment, and more to do with the efficient use of capital, preserving revenue and creating strategies to do just that.

And finally of course, sustainability has become a hot topic at home as well.

Supported by the news that there have been no additional neurological setbacks and sobered by the doctor’s opinion that Mary Elizabeth’s progress has decelerated, I’ve started to think about a shift in perspective, and what we need to do to adjust to this current lifestyle.

I suppose that somehow I assumed that things were going to either get better or get worse, but the idea that they would stay the same for the long-term just didn’t seem like an option.  And yet here we are, contemplating the long-haul.

I’ve talked a lot over the last 14 months about living in the moment, and not making any plans or thinking too much about the future, because we just didn’t know where we were headed.  But now after more than a year of training my mind to think that way, it’s time to refocus.

Because as I mentioned last week,  it’s like we had to get off the train before our stop.  But now that we’ve had a chance to look around a little bit, it’s not that bad – like anything, we just have to get used to it.

So I feel like we’ve been given permission to think about the future. While it’s a little frightening, it’s also a little liberating and feels like maybe we have a little more control.

My job now is to ensure that I provide enough sustenance for Mary Elizabeth and our children to carry on well into the future.  What that means perhaps is shifting around some priorities, scaling back in some areas and moving forward in others.  We’ll have to play it by ear and see what feels right.

And what fuel will drive this engine of change?  Luckily it’s completely renewable and we have vast reserves of it:

Love.