But Honey, We NEED Organic Sheets!
October 2017
I’ve been juice fasting for four days. The detox headache that bashed against my temples yesterday is finally, mercifully gone. My cells have adjusted to the absence of solid food so I’m no longer starving, and in pursuit of more ways to do right by my body--and lack of energy to do anything else--I’m watching documentaries.
And I’m bawling.
I just finished watching a speaker talk about hidden dangers in our world. I already knew our water was contaminated, our was food laden with pesticides, the air was polluted, and our chemicals were toxic. I didn’t know that the couch I was sitting on, the TV I was watching, the sheets on my bed, even the placement of my house on this earth were hastening my imminent death through electronic waves and chemicals I wasn’t aware existed.
Until now.
Everything’s toxic. It’s a miracle I’m still alive.
My husband, driving home from a trip to Denver, was unimpressed by this miracle when I called to cry about the organic sheets we suddenly needed to buy. Like a man familiar with these kinds of outbursts, he listened with strained patience, then said, “Honey, no more documentaries.”
I felt as crazy as I sounded. My own home was no longer safe. It was no wonder kids were sick and everyone had cancer when we were literally sleeping with invisible enemies. The real miracle was that more people hadn’t died yet. Was it even possible to live healthily, or were we kidding ourselves?
I would’ve started a bonfire in the backyard to burn the flame-retardant furniture if I hadn’t collapsed in a driveling pile of tears and fear. I didn’t know how to go forward in this terrifying world other than to start from scratch: move to the country far from power lines, build a shack with untreated wood, grow our own food from non-genetically-modified seeds (did they still exist?), hunt our own meat or raise or our own animals, and live completely off the grid. Drastic but necessary with masked assailants lurking around every corner and within every couch cushion.
Knowing my hubs would hardly splurge on organic sheets, let alone pack up our entire lives, I called upon the solitary nugget of sanity that hadn’t yet been squashed by fear, and asked, “What can I do instead?”
Thankfully, amid the overwhelm, a comforting idea emerged: it can’t really be this hard.
I am still alive. We are still alive.
Deep breath…OK. So what now?
Our bodies might not have been built to thrive in this unnatural world, but we survive by adapting--not by scaring ourselves silly (ahem) and adding the energy of fear to an already crowded equation. There are things we can do in our daily lives to not only limit our exposure to toxins, but strengthen our bodies against them.
Here are some of the small measures we’ve taken at home—somewhat begrudgingly—to “clean up” our act.
Buying only organic chicken at the grocery store
Replacing chemical cleaning products with their natural counterparts
Eating more veggies
Growing our own veggies and herbs
Using dye-free detergent
Replacing some medicine with enzymes and essential oil products
Action and accountability have taken the place of fear. While a house in the country is a few years off and my backyard isn’t swarming with free-range chicken (yet), we are being more mindful of where our food comes from, and what chemicals we use in our home. Small, deliberate steps are manageable…and affordable.
And a whole lot easier than starting from scratch.
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