Hello there, Focus Organic readers! It is both a pleasure and an honor to be writing my very first post and I hope to contribute to the great community Stefanie and others have created here. As a person who both personally and professionally dedicates themselves to promoting organic, sustainable lifestyles, I'm thrilled to be writing for a blog that does the same.
I'll be honest though - I haven't always thought this way. It was about 4 years ago when I finally started to recognize that the food I was putting in my body and all the chemicals that came with it were probably not that great for me in the long run. I credit my knowledge of organic and vegetarian eating to a friend who, along with being the sole reason I stopped smoking, also taught me how good it can feel to take care of your body and live more conscientiously.
I took several environmental politics classes in college but it wasn't until about a year ago that I began to realize how significant our impact on our planet can be and how utterly disrespectful we have treated it, particularly in the last one hundred years. We have made huge strides in innovation and development and made travel and medicine and technology at large faster, stronger and better. We have built huge industries, placed capitalism on a golden pedestal and let the market drive our needs and make us think we needed everything. Consumerism on crack.
But something has changed - this recession, for all its hardships and losses, has come at a time when we needed it the most. A wake-up call, slap in the face - what we are doing is completely and totally unsustainable. Unsustainable for the future, for the environment, for the stock market, for our lives.
I've made changes, maybe not huge ones but certainly ones that point to my growing awareness that every single thing I do, every decision I make affects the quality of life for every single person that lives or will ever live on this planet. So I don't drink out of plastic bottles, I buy more local goods that I ever have in my life, I buy less, I use resuable bags all the time, I always recycle, I try to reuse as much as possible, I drive so much less than I ever have. I look at this world as a place I'm renting, a place someone else will rent some day.
Tomorrow’s Child
Without a name; an unseen face
and knowing not your time nor place
Tomorrow’s Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last Tuesday morn.
A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his shining point of view
I saw a day that would see;
a day for you, but not for me.
Knowing you has changed my thinking,
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you.
Tomorrow’s Child, my daughter-son,
I’m afraid I’ve just begun
To think of you and of your good,
though always having known I should.
Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander; what is lost
If ever I forget that you
will someday come to live here too.
-Glen Thomas
May 19th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Hi there, Glen. It is nice to know you. Your poem is beautiful.
I also only recently started paying attention to what I put in my body. I could always get away with eating whatever I wanted with plenty of metabolism to burn, but alas now that I make my living as a writer I am fairly sentient. It has made me ever more mindful of all I am eating.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Welcome and nice to meet you. Congrats on your first post, i really like the sincerity of it. I am sure we will have a lot to learn from you.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Writer Dad - Thanks for the kind words! I'm actually not Glen Thomas, the poem is authored by him and I was inspired to include it in my post. Mindful eating is a very important key to living a healthier life. Kudos!
Kelly Pro - Thank you, it is lovely to be here.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I love your posts and all the pretty pictures of flowers you post. Keep it up! It brightens my day and is a great distraction from saving lives here at the drug rehab.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Congrats on your first post and the poem is great. Any small change makes a huge difference when more people begin to make them. I look forward to learning from your posts.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Well written and I hope to read more from you soon.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:16 am
Ashley, your poem really touching my heart! What's a beautiful poem, would you mind if I share it with my friends?
May 29th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Great first post! Glad that so many people are contributing to this blog. Great picture by the way, I love it!