My name is Angèle, I’m 30 years old. I live in Caen and I have been married for 8 years with Nathanaël. We have 3 children from 7 to 4 years old.
To get to talk about ecology, I’m going to start by sharing with you my spiritual journey.
I grew up in a practicing Catholic family. My parents walked for a time with the Chemin Neuf community and I also through the youth camps when I was 14 to 20 years old. I grew a lot spiritually in this companionship, appreciating the joy of the songs and dances of the charismatic renewal, the friendship with other believers of my age and the depth of the teachings.
When I was twenty, I spent a year at the École de la Foi in Coutances, a school supported by the 12 dioceses in the West, which is now closed. A year to form and grow in his faith. I met my husband there and deepened my taste for helping others. In particular, we had a “pastoral insertion” every week, I met elderly people in retirement homes.
I also spent several weeks in a home at l’Arche in Trosly Breuil that year. During my studies, I also worked in a retirement home. I then worked in a consulting firm for the promotion of disability in Normandy companies.
Nathanaël is a trained carpenter. Following the closure of the last company in which he was, he was a salaried entrepreneur in an Activity and Employment Cooperative for a year. As a result, a friend with a motor disability arrived in Caen and needed carers… Sensitivity to disability being shared, he has been working part-time with him for 4 years.
Our children arrived in 2013, 2014 and 2016, all very close together. This led us to move 3 times in 3 years. Many changes that made us aware of all that we have accumulated over the years… very often “just in case”.
In 2016, I chose to take parental leave at the birth of the 3rd to be more present at home. And it was during these first months at home that I fell into the pot of ecology… via home-made and the zero waste approach.
I had of course followed the events of 2015: COP 21 and the publication of Laudato Si’ , but I hadn’t had the click personally… Discovering that I could become independent by making my household products myself or by discovering easy bread recipes, etc… A field of possibilities opened up !
In 2017, we followed a diocesan training called the ” Nicodemus Journey ” to walk with other families in the faith. During a weekend that brings us together in Lisieux, we had a lesson on the importance for Christians to be witnesses in the world, by getting involved in politics, for example.
And also by committing to the protection of the environment.
This resonated so much with what we had been implementing concretely for months, that we felt a great invitation from the Lord to continue and to witness.
When my consulting firm announced a redundancy plan, I initially volunteered. I wanted to promote ecology in my work. I first gave zero waste workshops on a voluntary basis to then create Colibri Effect !
It is a support company with a zero waste approach, in particular through conferences and workshops in Caen. I am committed to showing that a simple life aligned with one’s values is possible.
My parish was the first place where I gave a conference! He started the Eglise Verte label in 2018.
Another milestone in our ecological journey was the self-construction of our Tiny House (a wooden house on a trailer of XNUMX m².) It led us to reflect on our basic needs. It was a great adventure. We are not going to live there at 5 full time but to be there on weekends and holidays. We bought a small piece of land on which we are going to make a vegetable garden. We would also like to offer it as a hermitage near Caen for all those who would like to go ” green ” for a day or a weekend.
We have in the heart to travel with her, to meet school children and Christian communities committed to ecology… I hope that this will materialize in the years to come!!
The Pope’s encyclical has put into words what we experience every day!
“Sobriety that is lived with freedom and in a conscious way is liberating.
It is not less life, it is not a low intensity of life but quite the contrary; because, in reality, those who enjoy more and live each moment better are those who stop picking here and there always looking for what they don’t have, and who experience what it is to value each person and everything, learning to get in touch and knowing how to enjoy the simplest things.
They thus have fewer unmet needs, and are less tired and tormented.
You can live intensely with little… Happiness requires knowing how to limit certain needs that stupefy us, thus making us available to the many possibilities that life offers!
