My friend Erica recently began to label herself as an environmentalist (from her blog ):

I have recently discovered that I care enough about the planet to label myself an environmentalist... In short, I guess I'm just a person on a journey. This journey requires me to break old destructive habits and form new productive ones before God can even begin to show me where in this world he will take me.

One of her posts opens with:

I've denied it so far and I still hate to admit it: I've gone through my life as a consumer, without giving so much as a thought to what my wasteful habits have done to the environment. I now stand convicted. Seriously, I feel convicted and now I have to take responsibility for the damage I've done and start looking for active ways to put a stop to it (I doubt I can undo what's already been done).

When I first met Erica, I was convicted by her conviction. I found a renewed sense of environmental mission and pretty soon I left her house with some homemade laundry detergent, which convicted me even more.

The fact is: I know I should make my own detergent. It's something I think about every time I throw in a load of laundry. But I just don't do it.

And so, for me, making detergent has become a symbol. I've realized that when it really comes down to being an environmentalist, when it takes 20 minutes instead of 0, when I have to do more than take the recycling to the curb, I'm only barely a lackadaisical environmentalist.

Fortunately I don't need detergent right now. But I will soon. So I just got the recipe from Erica, which prompted this post. Hopefully I'll get some energy and inspiration (and a 5 gallon bucket) soon.