Our Relationship with the Earth

Recently while watching So You Think You Can Dance on television, I saw an amazing dramatization of a humans relationship with Mother Earth.

In this dance, the choreographer had beautifully shown how many of us, including myself, treat the world badly. When I saw this, it made a lot of sense to look at the issues in our world as the same as those in an intimate relationship.

Think about this. We truly are in the most intimate relationship possible with the planet we live on. We depend on it for everything, food, shelter, holding us, allowing us to flourish, to share with others, to live and die. So if you look at the earth in that context, you have to consider how we treat it.

Would you take, and destroy, and use, and eat up every thing from someone you loved? My hunch is that most of you would say no. Are there ways you could be more loving in return for all that you get from this relationship? My hunch is that most of us could say yes to this, myself included.

I'd like to suggest we all take a few moments to envision our relationship with the earth as if it were the most loving partnership we can have. What would you do differently? How could you show your love even more? What small thing can you commit to today? Now, do that!

Peace and Love,

Marquita

Organophosphate and ADHD

In my last post, I talked about the savings to the planet from buying and eating local organic food. If that didn't convince you that this was a good idea, here is an even more compelling reason. This morning on the Today Show there was a report about the pesticide Organophosphate. Research has found a big link between children having Organophosphate in their bodies, and ADHD.

The recommendation by the Today Show doctor. Eat locally and organic. This is probably one of many issues caused by fertilizers and pesticides when they enter our children's bodies. I know that sometimes the reason people don't choose local organic food is because of the belief that the cost is too high. I'm wondering what the cost of a child with ADHD is. Is it possible that exposing our children to things like Organophosphate costs so much more in medical bills and quality of life than spending a little more at the grocery story?

If you'd like to see more about the findings, go to:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37156010/ns/healthy_kids_parenting/

Peace and Love,

Marquita

Where Does Your Food Come From?

This is a question I have been pondering a lot in recent months. I have known all along that my ignorance in this matter could be allowing all kinds of things into my body that had no business being there. The cost to myself, the planet, and others, also worried me, when I considered how far my food traveled, who made the income from growing it, and whether a forest had been cut down for the farmland.

When I checked out the audio book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and her husband Steven Hopp and daughter Camille Kingsolver from my local library a few months ago, many of my questions were answered. Barbara and her family had decided to spend a whole year being "locavores." This was her word for people who grow their own food, and/or bought everything they ate from local farmers. The book was not only a wonderful adventure through their year of farming, cheese making, egg harvesting, and turkey sex, (yes, I said turkey sex), it was also extremely informative about the costs and problems of eating whatever we want, when we want it.

I decided before I finished the book, that I was going to do all I could to become a "locavore" as well. One of the first choices I made was to start a small organic garden of my own. This was pretty simple. I ordered green prefab garden beds, bought local organic soil, and found organic and heirloom vegetable seeds on the Internet. My husband joined me in this project and we have had some interesting moments, working together on the project. When I walked outside one morning and saw the first seeds coming up, the beautiful broccoli leaves you see in the photo above, my heart swelled. Our property is small and what we grow will not sustain us this year. We are very lucky to have a wonderful farmers market through the fall, and many local organic farms who are part of Community Supported Agriculture or CSA. The adventure will continue as we buy all our fruits, vegetables, and other items from these places as the year moves on.

For anyone considering becoming a "locavore," here are some wonderful resources:

http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

http://www.slowfood.com/

http://www.localharvest.org/

www.biodynamics.com/csa.html

I will keep you posted as I learn more, grow more, and become more.

Peace and Love,

Marquita

Just the Beginning

Learning about the world and world change has been an enlightening, exciting, and sometimes frustrating endeavor this year. What I do know is that each of us can do an incredible amount individually in making the world better for man and beast. I'd like to offer some simple ways to do that this coming year:

Recycle everything. This is so simple to do. You save money, as well as saving limited resources.

Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. They start out costing more and end up saving money.

Buy food locally, either through farmers markets CSAs. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Look around and see if there are any local organic farms that take part in this. It is one way to get fresh, organic, local food and keep the farmers growing.

Turn your thermostat down a degree or two. This can save a lot of energy over time.

If you are going to replace an appliance, buy energy star rated appliances. Like compact fluorescents, they cost more at first, but save in the long run. We are going to replace our hot water heater soon, and we are replacing it with an on demand water heater. This will save energy, space in our home, and work much more efficiently.

Before you purchase anything, consider where it is made, grown, or manufactured. If it is coming from places that use underpaid labor, unknown materials, food products or additives that can't be accounted for, don't buy it.

Consider walking, riding a bike, or using public transport. Doing this even one day a week can save many resources.

Stop voting for people who do not have your best interests at heart. Make it clear to those who represent you that they are working for you, and let them know what you expect from them.

Work for peace in the world. War does nothing but create more war.

Join others in creating the world you want. Take a few minutes to look around in your local area, or check out national or global organizations, and get involved.

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Happy New Year!

Marquita

We Can Change What is Bought and Sold!

What would happen if everyone bought only organic, recyclable, renewable products? I mean everything from toilet paper to clothing, from food to houses. What would happen?

It's simple, goods are sold by supply and demand. That's what we have always been told, when the price of gas goes up in the summertime, and down in the winter. The global economy and large corporations have used this to their advantage, and now is the time for us to do the same.

If everyone bought only certifiably organic, green, renewable products, the demand for those things would go up and so would the supply. In the reverse, as less people bought products that were not renewable, that were full of hormones and pesticides, and God knows what else, the demand and the supply would go down.

I have been challenging myself to do this of late, and have found some great products, from bamboo picture frames to locally grown organic blueberries. Yes, it does at times cost a little more. Yes, I have to dig a little deeper and ask more questions. Yes, there is not as many choices as the mainstream items.

And the big YES is that I feel so much better about how I am living. In my household, we have gotten to where we recycle almost everything, and leave little garbage in our wake. We have stopped buying unless we can find good quality and we recycle everything we replace.

Please join me in a revolution of change by starting right now to only buy organic, recyclable, renewal, good for the environment products. We can do this!

Love and Peace,

Marquita

Signs of Hope

Today as I was taking my morning walk I passed a spot that has been intriguing me for a quite a while. This spot is in the road that winds around the hill where I live, and where a tenacious group of ants has decided to build an ant hill. The road is not well traveled and consists of a pavement made of oil and crushed rock. Apparently the pavement had a couple of small holes in it, about 1/8 of an inch wide, and the ants figured it was perfect and they moved in.

The first time I noticed this was last summer, when a fine dust could be seen around these holes, along with ants, coming and going. I enjoyed walking by checking their progress throughout the summer. During the winter they didn't seem to be around. I don't know whether ants go somewhere in the winter, or hibernate, I just know I didn't see them, and began to forget about them. A few weeks ago, I could tell they were back. It was a warm sunny day, and there seemed to be a lot of activity, and the dust and debris of their home was again evident on the road. There appeared to be a round head of something poking out of one of the holes. I wasn't sure what it was, but pointed it out to my husband the next time we walked together. Right away, he said, "Look there's a horsetail growing out of the hole." The horsetail is a plant that grows in the Northwest in the spring. Today as I walked again, the ants were busy going about their day, and there were several horsetails attempting to break through the pavement.

Seeing the strength and determination of nature to throw off the pavement of man got me thinking about where I and the world are going right now. It led me to the comparison of civilization as the road, and the ants and the horsetail as the parts of the earth that refuse to give up and give in to the weight of what we deem civilization. I can see this in myself as well. I have slowly been pushing and pushing at the weight of social self and the constraints of the society I live in. I see now that I, along with many others have been paved over with thoughts and things, but yet that wild part of us is still there. The ants of my creativity and strength, and the horsetail that is built of my courage and heart, have been working hard to burst through the pavement of my social being. Much of that pavement is cracking away, but it is not easy to keep pushing. I am struck as I write with a thought about looking for the holes to find a way. So I am going to ask myself as well as you:

• What holes have opened in the cement of your social self?



• What ways have your pushed through and opened up?



• What can we learn from both the ants and the horsetail, about the resilience of the earth, and her creatures including ourselves?

I love this analogy and the questions! I am ready to keep pushing and growing. How about you?

Peace and Love,

Marquita

What About February?

I would like to tell you that I have been off on a trip to Africa where I was working to save the world. Or maybe I was so busy recycling that I couldn't write anything. However, I am finding that truth is the most important thing I can give to myself and to others.

The truth is I have been getting clear on my vision for myself and how I am in the world. This has been eyeopening and both joyous and painful. What I have found is that most of the world I live in is based on falsehood. Now, I don't want to suggest that this is necessarily something that is put out there by any one institution or that there is some big conspiracy. What I'm saying is we have become a country of sound bites and beliefs based on many inaccuracies. We believe we are supposed to get up, (the first falsehood), go to work, (another one), get married, (you see where I'm going), have children, (I like them too), and live a certain way. The real truth is every single thing we do every day that doesn't directly affect our survival, (think instincts), is a choice, not a mandate. We have become a society living to keep that society going, even if it doesn't work any more. I think it is time to look at that idea. Just consider it a little, let it rattle around your head for a while and see where it lands. I personally am doing that a lot these days. I am finding that it stands a lot of my beliefs on their heads, and that is a good thing.

Now I did do a few things to coach the world last month. I attended a wonderful free lecture by Michael Meade. Look him up on the internet. He was amazing.

I was asked to share my experience, strength and hope with young women about sexual assault prevention, and really loved doing that. They were a great bunch of girls, and if what I said helps even one of them, I will be most grateful.

So for March, I want to ask all of you to consider each thing you do every day. Ask yourself if it is something you are doing because it fosters the change you want to see in the world, or is something you do just because it is what your social self thinks you should be doing?


Peace and Love,

Marqutia