here comes the sun

the solstice is almost upon us. in only a few short weeks the daylight will begin to lengthen. nature's yearly promise that although the coldest days of winter lie ahead, spring is never too far behind.

for me, this particular day and the symbolism it engenders is what i choose to celebrate each winter. it’s a personal thing. nobody actually says “happy solstice!” so merry christmas works fine. besides, christmas is my family’s tradition and that’s good enough for me.

a few things we’ll be talking about as the days grow longer:

clean and green before it was cool - that's what 2009 will be all about for duross & langel. seems like everyone has a bar of soap to sell these days. what we do here is about more than looking pretty or smelling good. we promise to continue offering only the most gentle, moisture rich earth-friendly formulas with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

consume less and recycle - you can throw away a plastic bag but like diapers, they are around forever. eventually the birds eat them at the landfill, choke and die. please reuse your paper shopping bags. when we switched to recycled no-dye shoppers, we worried that perhaps it was a bad marketing decision but many of you shop with reusable bags anyway so in the end we all win. we are extending our "green" status this year with the addition of "bio bags". for years james and i have used these compostable, biodegradable bags for dog waste. now it's time for them to hold our precious bars of soap. they are not the prettiest bags but boy how they change the world for the better.

buy local - whenever possible. the act of buying locally produced goods changes the world in amazing ways. it grows the local economy, creates neighborhood jobs, allows for lower costs to consumers and creates a smaller carbon footprint.

gratitude - in a world that wants to be up-scale, luxury and high-end, i am grateful that we are who we are. we are grateful to be more for less. we aspire toward quality over quantity, substance over style. at the end of what can only be described as an extraordinary year, we look back at how far we've come and smile.

a great deal is being said about the year to come. like squirrels gathering nuts for the winter, we have been preparing for whatever will be. in my imagination, the new year and the new economy loom like the solstice. the coldest days may be ahead but so is plenty of sunshine.