This is #3 in a series of blog posts called A Year of Tiny Improvements.
This week is all about swapping. One of the best things (maybe the best?) about living where we live is the wonderful group of friends and neighbours we’ve made. There are folks we see most weeks, folks we see every now and then, and lots of people who we know we can call on for certain things - tools to borrow, brains to pick, produce to buy/exchange, a helping hand or simply brute force! And vice versa. At least I hope we have something to offer in return, even if it’s just half a day of labour in exchange! (Mauro says I need to stop paying for things with my body 😂)
Last week, contemplating how long it might take me to naturally produce enough rags to finish my rag rug (I tend to wear clothes until they fall apart, so we’re probably looking at decades if I’m being honest) I decided to put a shout out to our group of friends and ask if anyone wanted to swap oranges, which I had in abundance, for rags (which I had in not abundance). I was also open to any other offers, and I’m pleased to say that so far I’ve gained a bottle of homepressed olive oil, a bag of bakery treats, and a big bag of rags, with several more bags of rags still promised to me.
I also made another swap this week - a favour earlier in the year and half a day’s work helping harvest canes for the lending of a woodchipper. I’m super happy with this swap because a woodchipper is a big investment for something that only needs to be used once a year. Finding something you can exchange in return is such a great option for things like this. Seeking out exchange opportunities can not only save you money, it can also teach you skills and it definitely helps build community. Building community happens when you actually do stuff together, rely on each other for things, ask each other for things and have your requests answered. It doesn’t happen by just being part of a Facebook group, or occasionally meeting up for a coffee. It might feel uneven at times - sometimes you feel like you give more, other times you feel like you owe more, but in a real community the score is kept very loosely because everyone knows (not just “tells themselves”) that kindness and help will always come back around some time. It’s hard to break the mindset of thinking everything needs to be accounted for and fair, because that’s the culture we’ve grown up in (“I get this round, you get the next”) but it’s one of the internal changes that I think is really important to work towards and start fostering in our communities right now.
As this blog series hopefully highlights - it’s the habits that matter, the habits and conventions that we need to change. And swapping is a great place to start!