Faced with the task of developing a blog for Care2, I almost succumbed to full-blown panic. My insecurities all came out of the woodwork, little voices asking me who do I think I am to write a blog about green living? Do I have any “green cred”?

But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed perfect. I am certainly not like Annie B. Bond, the executive editor of this very site, who lives a 100 percent non-toxic lifestyle and has been writing about it for decades. I am nothing like my co-editor Melissa Breyer, who cooks homemade, healthy meals every day from organic ingredients she buys at her local greenmarket and churns her own butter! I am never going to build my own recycled steel-frame and straw-bale house with a rooftop rainwater-harvesting system, like a Northern California couple I read about recently. And I am certainly no Ed Begley Jr.—pedaling for 10 minutes to charge the toaster for my morning breakfast.

But there are shades of green. I chose every single car I ever owned with good gas mileage in mind and now drive a hybrid, I have always recycled and I have an enviable collection of reusable cotton grocery bags that I actually take to the store with me and use almost every time. I usually buy fresh, locally grown, organic produce at my local Whole Foods, but I have also been known to eat a bag of frozen lima beans for dinner. I tend toward the natural shampoos and beauty products but was recently appalled to learn that some of the things in my bathroom cupboard have some seriously nasty chemicals in them. I am down with the idea of reducing consumption as a theory, but in practice, well, I have a slight addiction to buying new purses.

So what I am, I decided, is just like a lot of you. I am green-minded with lots to learn and a sincere desire to get better and help save the Earth one small step at a time. Let’s do it together, shall we?