It's Spring, and with Spring comes new life - and a renewed desire for a fresh start. Spring Cleaning time! These next few posts will be about non-toxic cleaning supplies (both store-bought and homemade). But first I'll tell you a little bit about a) why I have chosen to make changes in my own life and b) why I think you should consider making some changes of your own (a Pep Talk, if you will).
My journey toward Greenness started four years ago in the midst of health and fertility issues. With both situations, I desired an alternative to the solutions the doctors were suggesting. I wanted to know what caused this to happen in the first place rather than just removing the symptoms, which is not a long-term fix. But I couldn't find anyone to help me pursue alternative solutions. The only people offering answers were doctors telling me the only options were drugs or surgery. So I did what the doctors recommended, feeling helpless and frustrated that information and help regarding holistic healing weren't available enough for me to have chosen another option.
Throughout those health struggles, I continually learned about alternative medicine's viewpoint on my issues. I learned about how much our bodies are affected by everything around us. Chemicals, pesticides, food additives, polluted air. Everywhere we turn, we are bombarded by these unnatural and harmful things. We are not meant to live like this. Our bodies were not made to eat foods made in laboratories. We were not meant to drink water that's polluted with things like birth control and antidepressants. We were not meant to eat meat from cows that are living in squalor, injected with hormones, forced to eat things that destroy their internal organs for the sake of making them fatter and feeding them more cheaply (Omnivore's Dilemma or Food Inc.). Doesn't it make logical sense that these things are harming our bodies? When you sit back and really think about it, doesn't your gut tell you that this is just wrong? And that we will suffer for it? And so will our children?
Throughout those health struggles, I continually learned about alternative medicine's viewpoint on my issues. I learned about how much our bodies are affected by everything around us. Chemicals, pesticides, food additives, polluted air. Everywhere we turn, we are bombarded by these unnatural and harmful things. We are not meant to live like this. Our bodies were not made to eat foods made in laboratories. We were not meant to drink water that's polluted with things like birth control and antidepressants. We were not meant to eat meat from cows that are living in squalor, injected with hormones, forced to eat things that destroy their internal organs for the sake of making them fatter and feeding them more cheaply (Omnivore's Dilemma or Food Inc.). Doesn't it make logical sense that these things are harming our bodies? When you sit back and really think about it, doesn't your gut tell you that this is just wrong? And that we will suffer for it? And so will our children?
Micah and I have slowly and steadily changed one or two things at a time over the course of four years, and our lives now look very different than they did when we started. It has been so fun making these changes. The whole "sustainable living" movement is in large part about simplicity - getting back to how things used to be before over-consumerism and all the production and drama of today took over (this simplicity is Micah's favorite part). There is something very healing and centering about eating things that were grown, not concocted in a lab and making homemade cleaning supplies and hanging clothes to dry. Somehow, it makes me feel more alive. More present. More clear-headed and grounded. It literally feels like getting back to my roots - and that feels freeing.
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