How "Commute for a Cause" came to be

I sold my car in October of 2007 to see if I could live well by supporting myself on a bicycle.

My inspiration was a book titled How to Live Well Without a Car. The premise of the book is this: If you can get to work without a car you don't need one. It's a pretty aggressive stance, but it made sense to me because my world was pretty small at the time.

About a year and a half before going car-free, my job brought me to Santa Cruz from the East Coast. Santa Cruz is a small town, so I never lived more than three miles from work - right there I had met the author's requirements for living well without a car. In addition to living close to work, I was close to the beach, close to the market, and close to my favorite yoga studio. Work, surf, food, yoga - my life in Santa Cruz existed within a 4-mile radius of my home. This car-free thing was really making sense to me at this point.

In addition to making sense on a map, it made sense some other ways, too. I was attracted to the discipline of living without a car. I was attracted to the environmental aspect of living without a car. And I was attracted to the idea of becoming a bicycle advocate.

But before I sold my car, I took the author's suggestion and put myself on a "car diet" for 30 days. I remember the day the diet started....I washed and waxed the outside of the car, detailed the inside, and wrote down the mileage in a little notebook. I put the notebook on the driver's seat and shut the door. Then I backed the car into my parking spot, covered it, and walked away. Every time I used the car for the next 30 days I wrote down the mileage and purpose. At the end of the "diet" I looked at my log. In 30 days I used the car two times! I sold the car the following week.

Fast forward 18 months. I can say that I have truly learned to live well without a car. Supporting myself on a bicycle has taught me to be grateful for my health, to listen to and honor my body, and to really evaluate "things" before I bring them into my life. I have learned the value of planning ahead (no pants at work one day) and consolidating trips ("I'm going to the drug store...do you need anything?").

The bottom line: being car-free has made me evaluate what is really important in my life.

And this little nugget is the impetus for my "Commute for a Cause" movement.

Through a series of very fortunate events since being car-free, I have come to create my own personal mission statement. It's six sentences that sum up how I want to live my life. I carry it with me, and I read it a few times a day.

Having read it so many times, there are a few phrases in my personal mission statement that stand out and started me thinking, "I wonder how I could combine those into one thing?"

So..."Commute for a Cause" is my way of living each day with respect for my environment and community, being a bicycle advocate, volunteering, and engaging in daily physical exercise.

I hope you'll join me in raising money for the Homeless Garden Project.