Simple Suggestion #203... Share your knowledge

Sometimes I think it would be neat if we all walked around with intangible, transparent bubbles (or something) floating around us that let others know about interesting things that we know. Sort of like this:

Since that stick person represents me, I could add more bubbles, like, mother of adolescent/adult daughters, administrative assistant for L'Arche, composer, photographer, volunteer, Voluntary Simplicity practitioner, etc. If everyone had bubbles like this it would be easy for us to find people who know things that we would like to learn, or for other people to ask us about our knowledge.

I'm moodling about this today because I spent Tuesday evening with an inspiring group of people who are most anxious to share their new area of expertise, the City of Edmonton's newest crop of Master Composter/Recyclers. They've been through an intensive course and have knowledge to share about our city's incredible waste reduction efforts as well as being able to help with questions about composting and recycling in our region. And they're most willing to help their neighbours and friends by offering what they know, encouraging others in their efforts to reduce the load that our planet bears because of human consumption.

My MCR class of 2014 colleagues and I (class of 2007) took the course so that we can help others learn about the benefits of composting (turning kitchen scraps into black gold to enrich the earth's soil) and vermi-composting (the same thing using red wiggler worms). We can assist people to understand the benefits of grass-cycling (leaving grass clippings on your lawn as a wonderful natural fertilizer and mulch rather than creating more fossil fuel emissions when they're hauled to the dump), and we can teach them what to do with other household waste, directing them to ecostations for hazardous materials that don't belong in the landfill, or larger appliances that can be dismantled and recycled, or to the Reuse & Recycle Directory to aid charities in need of gently used housewares and furniture. And we can tell folks about the City's wonderful Reuse Centre, a place where we can take various household items for reuse, and can purchase items as well. Have any wicker baskets languishing around your place? Buttons? Bubblewrap? Bookmarks? Unused craft supplies? Take my word for it --it's a crafter's paradise!

There are now over 700 of us MCRs who have made reducing waste one of our areas of expertise. Just the other day, my friend from university days and Edmonton's King of Compost, Markster Composter (a clever combo of his first name and his work) was on Tuesday morning's Breakfast Television explaining how to "wake up" a compost pile. It was a great little clip (no longer available, sorry) and I'm so glad the Breakfast TV people are sharing Mark's expertise with their viewers, because the more compost we make, the better our soil and the less we send to the dump.

But sharing knowledge can be done a lot more simply than going to a TV studio and shooting a segment like Mark's... a five minute conversation during coffee break, a chat with a neighbour over a fence, or a question answered in the course of another activity or event. I suspect my new MCR friends will use Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and other social media methods I barely know to share their knowledge! And it's all good.

So... my thanks to the Class of 2014 Master Composter/Recyclers for inspiring today's moodling, and today's challenge: Consider your areas of knowledge/expertise... And how can you share them with others?