(This piece was first published in the June 2013 issue of Country Wisdom News.)

There’s a bold group of pioneers working with great creativity in the sustainability movement. You’ve probably never heard of them–yet many of them are your neighbors here in the Hudson Valley. And maybe one of them is you. I’m talking about the growing numbers who are embracing a sustainable lifestyle on a shoestring.

It’s no secret that we’re in the midst of a worldwide transition toward a more viable future.  More and more people are keeping the health of the planet, their families, and themselves in the forefront as they decide how to spend their resources. They’re building homes with smaller footprints, driving hybrid cars, buying fair-trade items at local shops. Spending choices like these have entered our collective imagination, adding up to a composite image: This is what sustainability looks like. But is the picture complete?

What about people whose resources barely cover basic expenses? Those for whom a simple car repair is much more than an annoyance, or even those whose daily choices may include whether to keep the electricity on or buy food staples?

It seems obvious that as financial resources shrink, choice narrows. What’s not so obvious is that in the face of daily bill-paying struggles, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, people with no discretionary income are choosing anyway. Choosing in favor of planetary well-being. Choosing to honor basic human values like fun, health, meaning, and service. Choosing to abandon the just-getting-by paradigm for higher ground.

It’s not easy. The just-getting-by paradigm is stronger than quicksand and those who eschew it in favor of a truly vibrant life must use all the cunning and tenacity the human soul can muster. Just managing life’s daily details on a shoestring involves more time, energy, and creativity than a person who hasn’t tried it can fathom. Sustainability seekers add extra factors to an already-complex equation.

There are people in this region who buy higher-priced organic food for their families even when they’re not sure where their next grocery money is coming from.  There are those who refuse to shop at stores like Walmart even though they can’t afford to buy necessary household items anywhere else; they somehow create an alternative or do without. Solo entrepreneurs who barely cover their own expenses still find a way to pay a living wage to the help they occasionally employ. Organic farmers, artists, and healers persist in offering their gifts toward a better world, though those gifts don’t usually bring a regular paycheck.

Each individual’s choices are different based on their own focus and concerns, but the point is that with scores of these decisions intersecting in a life short on cash, the time commitment, resourcefulness, and complex strategizing required are impressive. This is guerrilla sustainability.

Folks who live this way also defy, usually unintentionally, a deep cultural belief that it’s wrong for people at lower income levels to make certain “luxury” choices: to buy organic food, seek holistic health care, give up an income to care full-time for an elder, and many more. In fact, both money and sustainability are lightning rods for judgment from all directions; when combined, they attract extra criticism.  It’s not surprising that this can provoke guilt and confusion in people who are simply trying to live by their own values around a thriving planet and culture.

Those who choose this path can feel like isolated bushwhackers. If you’re one of these–as I am–you might be interested to know there’s a new local support group starting on June 19: Stone Soup: Living Sustainably on a Shoestring. Anyone who identifies with this lifestyle is welcome–no matter where on the shoestring or the sustainability continuum they currently find themselves.

The group meetings will provide a judgment-free zone where members can support each other’s journeys and values. Participants will share information about resources as well as offering their own goods and services, as desired, in a community of exchange.  The group may also serve as a laboratory for exploring and inventing aspects of the new economics.  Who knows where the “Stone Soup” synergy will take this new group as we move toward an economy that works for everyone.

The group is modeled on the old “Stone Soup” story. In that folktale a trickster character and a group of dirt-poor villagers magically transform a pot of boiling water with a stone in it into a delicious, nourishing soup. When each individual contributes what seems like a small and insignicant ingredient, the whole turns out to be bigger and better than the sum of its parts. And the villagers have a lot of fun in the process!