My fondness for Southwest Airlines has been growing of late – yes, I know some people are pretty upset with the delays and such, but I value their flexibility – I like being able to change my itinerary when I need to. It has removed a whole layer of anxiety and stress surrounding purchasing plane tickets. The other day, their newsletter landed in my inbox and in it, they detailed their update of all their cabins, which left them with 43 ACRES of seat leather, which they decided to utilize to make someone else's life better. They gave that leather to micro businesses in Kenya to make shoes and soccer balls for children. If you want to feel like something is going right with our planet, watch this (it's 4 min).
There is a line close to the end of the video where a spokesperson says something to the effect of : 'Businesses feel like that have no choice but to throw away their waste, and that's just not true. You have to dig a little deeper to find a solution, but it is out there.' It made me think of all the ways we tend to feel stuck and think that there are no viable avenues of choice.
We each would do well to acquire the skills of being more creative, of digging deeper. Because there always is another option – you just have to learn how to see it.