Heard it All before

First some notes on my writing. Please note that in all of my diatribes I am speaking for only myself, not for my co-blogger or my partner (husband), my family or my friends, my religious organization or my work. I am expressing myself in that moment. I am, above all things, changeable and often express myself with great enthusiasm or passion about a subject, only to find that once my emotions have cooled down, that my strong feelings once tempered are more forgiving and less strident. I usually try to wait on those types of posts, but this month you may get a few of those. Please accept them with my deepest apologies. Also it is okay if we do things differently. We don’t have to be exactly alike in order to be compatriots. As always feel free to leave a comment if you wish or send me a msg in an electric bottle at me at XgitanaX at Xgmail dot com.<– remove those X’s of course or else it will not work

One of the things that takes up a great amount of my personal processing power is my concern about everyday toxins. For this reason, we eat a predominantly organic diet, which we are very fortunate to be able to afford (for now), we try to avoid plastics in bottles, food storage, toys, and miscellania, we do not use pesticides, when we paint we use low VOC paint, we try to avoid cleaners with too many synthetic ingredients, we use soaps for body and clothes that eschew petroleum products and avoid chemical fragrances, we use only beeswax candles (while not perfect are better than some of the other wax substances), and blah blah blah. On the surface this might seem to some an awful lot of effort for uncertain gain. However, I do gain a certain peace of mind from knowing that my choices are conscientious choices. I am aware and I try to use this information for the welfare of my family. Again I have a tremendous amount of privilege in that I have the time and the wherewithal to do this.

I think much of this is a product of growing up in Northern California and being made aware at a very young age of our responsibility as consumers of this vast military-industrial complex. From adopting recycling in elementary school and watching our community deal with Malathion spraying, I learned that our choices when we swipe our credit cards engenders change at the top. I have come to see more and more that change only happens from the bottom up. Therefore I try to use my discretionary shekels to “vote” for a less toxic environment. I think each one of us has to come to awareness in our own ways. I only hope that more people recognize their power and start using it and stop cutting their own throats in the long run in order to “save” money in the short term.

One recent experience that cemented my devotion to natural cleaners happened when I was newly pregnant therefore we hadn’t really announced it to anyone yet. I went to visit a friend on the morning that her house cleaner came to clean. We were sitting around chatting when the housekeeper started mixing up her bubbles to clean up and this cloud of vapor escaped from the kitchen and surrounded us. My eyes started watering, my throat closed up, I started choking and I needed to GET OUT right this minute. I realised that in my own way, my body had sent me a message that those chemical were VERY VERY VERY bad. To this day I remember my hasty departure and I think that no matter your condition (i.e. pregnant or not) those chemicals are not very good for the human system.

Of course, I am human, so if you come over to my house you can probably show me a million ways in which I am a hypocrite like the pressed board bookshelves from Junkea, which emit formaldehyde or our olde house, which probably has lead paint or our older cars, which are not SULEVs, but we all are fulla contradictions, no? Aware of these problems in our personal universe, we try to mitigate what damage is done by choosing our plants on their ability to scrub the indoor air, working on removing as much lead paint as possible, and limiting our driving. We are human and therefore not perfect. Selah. In other words, please don’t think that I don’t think my sh1t don’t stink.