My name is Angèle, I am 30 years old. I live in Caen and I have been married for 8 years to Nathanaël. We have 3 children aged 7 to 4.
To get to talking about ecology, I will start by sharing my spiritual journey with you.
I grew up in a practicing Catholic family. My parents walked for a time with the Chemin Neuf community and I also did so through youth camps from the ages of 14 to 20. I grew a lot spiritually in this companionship, enjoying the joy of the songs and dances of the charismatic renewal, the friendship with other believers my age and the depth of the teachings.
At the age of twenty, I spent a year at the École de la Foi in Coutances, a school supported by the 12 dioceses of the West, now closed. A year to train and grow in one's 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 consultancy firm for the promotion of disability in Normandy companies.
Nathanaël is a carpenter by training. Following the closure of the last company he was in, he was an employee entrepreneur in an Activity and Employment Cooperative for a year. After which, a friend with a motor disability arrived in Caen and needed home helps… As sensitivity to disability is shared, he has worked 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. Lots of changes that made us realize everything we have accumulated over the years… often “just in case”.
In 2016, I chose to take parental leave when my third child was born to be more present at home. And it was during these first months at home that I fell into the ecology pot… via homemade products 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 personal spark... Discovering that I could become independent by making my own household products 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 brought us together in Lisieux, we had a teaching on the importance for Christians to be witnesses in the world, for example by getting involved in politics.
And also by committing to environmental protection.
It resonated so much with what we had been concretely implementing for months, that we felt a great invitation from the Lord to continue and to bear witness.
When my consulting firm announced a layoff plan, I volunteered at first. I wanted to promote ecology in my work. I first gave zero waste workshops voluntarily and then created Effet Colibri!
It is a company that supports the zero waste approach, particularly through conferences and workshops in Caen. I am keen to show 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 Green Church label in 2018.
Another milestone in our ecological journey was the self-construction of our Tiny House (a wooden house on a trailer of 5 m².) It led us to think about our essential needs. It was a great adventure. We are not going to live in it full-time, 5 of us, but will be there on weekends and holidays. We bought a small plot 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 anyone who would like to go " green " for a day or a weekend.
We have in our hearts to travel with her, to go and meet eco-places and Christian communities involved in ecology… I hope that this will come to fruition in the years to come!!
The Pope's encyclical put into words what we experience every day!
“Sobriety that is lived freely and consciously is liberating.
It is not less life, it is not a low intensity of life but quite the opposite; 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 do not have, and who experience what it is to value each person and each thing, learning to get in touch and knowing how to enjoy the simplest things.
They therefore have fewer unsatisfied needs, and are less tired and less tormented.
We can live intensely with little... Happiness requires knowing how to limit certain needs that stupefy us, thus making ourselves available to the multiple possibilities that life offers!"
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