About

Upcycle: v. - to create something new from once-useless items

Upcycled Love embraces mindful sustainability as a path to personal empowerment and cultural transformation. It envisions love, compassion, and acceptance as the foundation for sustainable transformation, because lasting transformation is not just what you do, it is also how you think and feel.

Upcycling is valuable not only as practical waste-saving solution, but also serves as a rich metaphor for processes like uncovering ancient wisdom for contemporary application, or the composting of fear and guilt into something nourishing. It sees the beauty in the darkness.

My mission is to offer a multi-faceted exploration of simple green living, conscious business, personal growth, and social change. I aim to share stories of inspiring people and projects, and utilize the digital platform to build community around a shared set of values.

Follow me on Twitter and Google+. Shoot me an email at l [@] lynnfang [.] com

My Story

I fell in love with food and farming after reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Thereafter I learned as much as I could about sustainability, including the state of our food system. As my knowledge grew, I felt a need to embody this wisdom, so I volunteered on several organic farms and began to garden in the community. I discovered the blogosphere and the minimalist movement by way of another food blogging friend, Jessica Reeder. Inspired by the potential of minimalism and voluntary simplicity to effect cultural transformation, and in need of support and motivation for my desire to live more sustainably, I started this blog in 2010. I now also write for Green Living Ideas, whose title is a very accurate description of what happens there. For those of you interested in learning sustainable lifestyle skills, check out Green Living Ideas for practical inspiration. My list of habits & changes in 2010:

• stopped buying new stuff
• shifted from disposables to reusables: water bottle, coffee thermos, rags for cleaning, cloth pads and a Keeper cup
• switched out toxic cleaning agents for non-toxic ones
• reduced my waste via composting, mindful consumption, and reusing packaging containers
• learned how to grow my own food
• upcycled my old T-shirts into pouches, shopping bags, napkins, and cloth tissues
• made a conscious effort to buy all-organic products

I was motivated by the idea that, while my own personal transformation wasn’t going to stop planetary destruction or biodiversity loss, a large group of people engaged in the same pursuits could actually have a big effect. This was evidenced by the blossoming of minimalism.

As I explored a sustainable lifestyle, I came to see the importance of thoughts and feelings in motivating behaviors. True, lasting transformation can only come about through a holistic approach, incorporating body, mind, spirit, culture, and community.

My Other Story (the semi-frivolous version)

I am a geek. I love board games and old school video games. I love RPG’s but never get very far. I played WoW but never got past level 55. What happened? I’m a dabbler and can’t commit to any one thing. I like epic fantasy stories – my absolute all-time favorite fantasy story is Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. For many years I was in love with obscure indie electronic music. I believe creativity is everywhere – in the food you cook, the books you read, the thoughts you think.

I played violin for 10 years. I played in youth symphonies throughout high school and traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe on tour. I’ve performed at the Sydney Opera House, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Royal Concertbegouw in Amsterdam, and many other renowned, historic concert halls.

I worked in molecular biology for 3 years before leaving to transition to agricultural ecology and soil science.

 

Upcycled Love by Lynn Fang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at lynnfang.com.