Monday Musings {Resourcefulness}

I love the Container Store. When my husband once suggested we go spend some time there last year, I doubted. Spend some time in the Container Store? As you would spend some time at IKEA looking at all their showrooms or at the park watching little league baseball teams and pet-owners? I doubted, until we had spent an hour scouring every aisle and then were ECSTATIC to find out that there was another entire second floor! I was sold. There are things in that store you never knew you wanted, let alone existed. Some things are confusing, some clever, some completely unnecessary, some genius! We have had lots of fun spending some time at the Container Store.

We went there last Saturday and found these containers, which we have turned into our recycling units for our apartment.

I think the reason I appreciate recycling is because you have the chance to turn otherwise useless material into something useful! I like to think of it as 'resourcefulness', although I am well aware of other platforms that try to encourage recycling for differing reasons. No pushing here. I just personally find satisfaction in recycling. I'm excited to be even better now that we have a system going on in the apartment!

A couple of summers ago, my husband and I went to the Dominican Republic to teach science and technology to a group of excelling high school students. We were prepped on their academic levels and planned accordingly, but I was so impressed with how these students shined! They exceeded my expectations, were incredibly creative, and worked hard in their studies. There is a whole lot to say about the language barrier, the unsanitary conditions, the sicknesses, the adjustments, but none of that is very related to the topic - 'resourcefulness'. I came to appreciate this value while there with the children. We talked about utilizing their proximity to the coast to harness wind energy to provide a power source to the village or using the energy of the sun to cheaply and effectively help them in their everyday routine or how they could work to keep their water clean using resources they had there. We talked about attacking their problems from a different angle - turning otherwise unused material into something that was in a real way important in their lives. Resourcefulness! We talked about it, brainstormed, experimented, found some failure and found some success. I loved that experience - the teaching, atleast. The living was difficult, but the perspective I gained there has greatly impacted my life.

So I'll leave you with that. Resourcefulness - what does it mean to you?