When all the hoopla about drinking sustainably-produced vodka fades in the afterglow of one more happy hour, the earth will still be here.

Photo | Kathleen Fogarty

And when Earth Day event tents are folded up, and we’ve promised to ride our bikes for local errands, the earth will still be around.

For our family, Earth Day is every day. It’s most true for my husband, a passionate, hardworking organic farmer, whose vision for a better tomorrow starts every morning. By seven, the chickens have to be let out, fed and watered. A little later, no microwave will be heating last night’s pizza for breakfast- we don’t own one. We wait for a sunny day to do laundry; the dryer has not been repaired since it started smelling funky in December, while the sun and breeze are free. We run the dishwasher in the middle of the night. We give our chickens our vegetable scraps and crushed up eggshells. The coffee grounds go to the worm bins in the greenhouse.  I use up last year’s garlic bulbs, grungy as they appear. We recycle as much as our giant rolling bin will handle, twice a month, when John lugs it onto his truck and leaves it at the front of the entrance to Hunt Club Farm.

For us, being green is part of our daily life. But for some folks, ‘green consciousness’ has become almost a fashion statement. There are those who buy from this or that store, or catalog, thinking they are being green, when it really amounts to pursuing a green image. Wearing a brand name isn’t the same as thinking through your purchasing choices. Buying an energy-saving light bulb is a great decision, while remembering to unplug and turn off lights is the follow-up to that purchase.  As cool as it was when Leonardo DiCaprio rolled up to the Academy Awards in his new Prius years ago, it doesn’t mean that everyone ought to run out and buy one, or trade in their older model for the brighter, shinier newer one, though there is that “auto-lust” factor afflicting even farm families. Keeping an older, small car regularly serviced is a good thing. And growing some of your own food can be one of the greenest things you do, even if it’s a couple of tomato plants and some herbs in a pot on your front steps.

Photo | Mac McKinney

I know most people wouldn’t choose to live on a farm, though there are folks who love to visit, and plenty who fantasize about wandering amidst the wildflowers. I’m not trying to brag about how green we are–there are plenty of things we can still change or eliminate.

And so, Earth Day is an annual nudge that we share a planet, even if we don’t share a chicken coop. It’s a reminder that we need to live consciously every day. When all the environmental organizations show up with display boards and pamphlets, and we run or walk around Mount Trashmore, we can make a note to amend some of our household behaviors. Then, we can do these  new things without bringing too much attention to it, until these behaviors become part of our regular daily habits, replacing some that have created more stress and harm to the only planet we know.

Maybe one day, there won’t need to be an Earth Day. Just the Earth, cared for and loved, one simple action at a time.