Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle, Re-Gift!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Holidays almost over,
But friends still come over,
Unexpected cheer
I'm so glad re-gifting season is here.

There'll be parties for crashing
And tastes for the clashing and
Some gifts that just aren't a score.
So carefully repack them and
Watch it unwrap, it's the moment you
Didn't work for.

Taking credit for gifts you didn't buy
Yes, it once was a secret
Now every one gets it
There's no taboo here,
It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Holidays with Love, from Eve

Eve’s top 10 ways to Curb Climate Change

The Internet is now blooming with tips on ways to help curb climate change.  This trend is reflective of an exciting change in our thought patterns!  Please read on for a snapshot of Eve's top 10:

1. Forgo Flesh Foods. According to a 2006 United Nations report, Animal Agriculture has outpaced the transportation sector as the number one climate change contributor.
2. Bypass the Byproduct. Kin of the meat industry is the dairy industry.  Consuming animal byproducts supports its evil cousin,  planet scorching animal agri-business.
3. See the Sinister Side of Seafood. The near-depletion of certain fish species, dead zones, coral bleaching, mammals such as whales and dolphins going kamikaze on our beaches... skip the seafood.  Besides, it's largely contaminated with mercury.  And now that you're a vegan,
4. Share your earth-friendly diet with others and create your own support network.  Our culture values it's traditional and familiar habits.  By sharing with others the beneficial knowledge of choosing plant based foods, you are creating a supportive atmosphere for positive change for yourself, your friends and family and for the entire planet!
5. Buy Organic, Support Organic whenever possible.  The health of our soil determines the quality of our food, which determines the quality of our heath!   In recent years we have seen the demand for organic food and goods rise dramatically. Sometimes, when I pass the organic produce section of my local Wal-mart, I silently thank the persons who supported organic goods before me, who paid the higher prices and led retailers to provide better options and drop organic prices.
6. Drive a hybrid. The transportation sector is the second largest contributor to climate change.
7. Plant trees. Trees absorb carbon.  Preserving forests is just as important, also trees help mitigate the effects of local climate related disasters by holding on to soil, absorbing the impact of waves, winds, etc.
8. Take your head out of the sand. Climate change is frightening, let's look our fears in the eye.
9. Green your thinking. Take the time to consider the impacts of every small choice.  Also, think positive!  We'll get through this, with a lot of hard work, together.
10. Have faith. Whatever your's is, now is the time to have it.

Breastfeeding is good for the environment too!

There are many important decisions to make when preparing for your new baby.  Numero uno on the eco-mamma's list of concerns is preserving the stability of our planet which will be her lifetime home.  In years past environmental issues have taken a back seat to seemingly more pressing concerns, but with climate change creating rampant chaos around our globe, the integrity of our atmosphere has found itself a seat at the head of the table.

As with most modern comforts, there are hidden environmental costs to the most accepted form of feeding your baby.  Bottle feeding is so widely practiced that it's almost expected of each new mother, that she will give her baby formula from a bottle: synthetic mother's milk from a pretend breast nipple.  It seems a little strange when you stop to ponder it, but let's really dig deep, shall we?

I was just reading that the average bottle-fed baby will go through 8-10 cans of formula per month.  Even at $25 per can, that's a couple hundred bucks a month at least...wow.  Well, that's hard on the pocket book, but let's take a look from the earth's viewpoint:

• The base of most formula begins it's journey inside a non-organically fed dairy cow's painfully enlarged udder.  After consuming 30 gallons of water and 100 lbs of grains each day, some of her milk may be reserved to make formula for human babies.  First the milk is heat pasteurized to kill any offending bacteria the antibiotics might have missed, which also kills the enzymes that would have benefited her calf (or the human baby) in digesting her milk. The milk is then dehydrated and enriched with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids (if you buy the more expensive kind) and all the other healthy things that human mother's milk naturally contains.  The powdered formula is then packed in cans (most likely) lined with BPA, a known hormone disruptor that may leach into the product.  The packed cans are shipped by carbon emiting diesel trucks to the local grocery store.  The new parents will purchase the formula on their weekly shopping trips, bring it home, mix it with sterile water and put it into sterilized (maybe plastic) bottles which will be slightly warmed by some means of energy production before being fed to the hungry baby.  Whew!
   
  
• While there are some soy formulas and some "organic" cow's milk formulas, the majority of baby formula has a conventional cow's milk base.  All cows produce methane; a greenhouse gas which is 260 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming our atmosphere.
   
  
• Another environmental concern is that of water shortage.  It takes 2,000 gallons of fresh water to produce just 1 gallon of cow's milk., when considering the amount of water she drinks as well as the amount needed to grow her food.  (Source: Natural News)
   
  

Now, barring any unforseen circumstances... baby can count of a constant supply of nutrition.  But, as we have in recent times, global warming has made it hard to pedict our Earth's behaviours.  What if there is a natural disaster in your area?  What if the water treatment plant shuts down and the stores sell out of bottled water?  What if there is a problem with the transportation that delivers the packed formula?  What if you or your family becomes stranded in a vehicle or even in your own home for an unspecified amount of time?

It's been two years since, but I'm still inspired by the story of Kati Kim, a mother who kept her baby and 4 year old daughters healthy and well for 9 days while trapped in a snowbound car in the wilderness.  When they were rescued, the trio was in excellent condition given their ordeal. (Source: abc News)

My obviously strong position on the matter of breastfeeding is this:  I feel that all women should be given unlimited educational and personal support to protect the nursing relationship between mother and baby.  I have found in my conversations about breastfeeding that most women want to nurse or try to nurse their baby at first but many don't continue due to lack of support.

I've  learned to type one-handed as my free arm frequently cradles my 15 month old nursling.  All children are creatures of habit.  Mine have an impulsive need for attention as soon as I sit down to write.  For the youngest, this means climbing into my lap for a little nurse and nap session.  He must get that snuggle-down feeling as soon as he hears the click-clack of the keyboard.  Sweet dreams, little guy.

By the way, I really regret that delivering information is such a somber mission somtimes.   Unfortunatly though, we are inheriting a system permiated with short-sightedness.  For environmentally conscious persons who are trying to live life in a more simple and sustainable way... the art of inspecton can be a dampering ordeal.  When it comes to children though, and their safety, their futures, their right to purity; I try to speak up whenever possible.  Thanks for listening!

How I found fair trade…

They say Christmas is the time for reminiscing.  Each year, while decorating our Christmas tree, I'm reminded of a dinner party that I attended in January of 2005.  It was a potluck/going away party for a yoga teacher friend of mine who was moving from our small trendy part of Cincinnati to an even smaller part of rural New York state called Ithica.  We sat around on hard wood floors in a sparsely furnished apartment.  Yoginis never ask for chairs or ice cubes for their water as it imbalances your vata (the ice, not the chairs).  Which is good because the ice cubes would have been especially deranging for our collective vata, given the fact that we were sitting on drafty floors on a cold winter night.  (Any Ayurveda aspirants in the house?)  Being a group of young women in our childbearing prime, there was a narrow age range of offspring floating around, from embryo to toddler.  We considered ourselves like minded in ways that are important like, sharing basic ethical viewpoints and wanting to make the world a better place for our children. 

Composing the scene was a candle lit table of very healthy food options (because no matter what yogis eat at home, they almost always bring vegan food to parties), various tapestry wall hangings,  a small sofa with rattan footstools and a coffee table supporting only fanlike spread of magazines... wait those aren't magazines... they're catalogs:  Seeds Of Change, Nova Natural Toys, Living Arts, an array of eco-conscious options for the Peaceful-Warrior-Yogini-Goddess in all of us.  Looking back now, I see the seeds of thought-change that were planted in me that night. 

The conversation was largely child-centered, although we did all join hands and chant some sort of blessing for the hostess' relocation and new chapter in life at some point.  This was also the night that an innocent looking girl, eight months pregnant, caught my attention and within moments of our meeting was given a full discourse on cloth diapering options.  Little did I know then that her unborn baby girl would turn out to be the best friend since birth and apple of my then 2 month old son's tiny eye! 

While I'm sure I did most of the talking when I wasn't thumbing through the catalogs I was sure would enrich my newly domesticated life, one phrase I overheard that night became stamped on my brain "...and that's why it's never okay to buy anything made in China." 

What?  Why?  I didn't ask.  I should already know all this... and if I ask then for sure my lady friends would frown upon my unknowledgeable consuming habits.  Something to do with children... is everything made in China made by children?  I wasn't sure, but I trusted that my source had done her research and so I stated when I returned home to my mate "I'm never buying anything made in China ever again."  Besides, after looking at wholesome, upscale, enviro-logues all night I had other ideas about the things I wanted to buy.

 The very next day, my husband and I went to Baby'sRus to fulfill one of the many percieved needs of our tiny new dependant.  As it happened, a seasonal Christmas store was in its final days of business and had a sign posted in the window boasting "90% OFF EVERYTHING!" 

"I'll hold the baby, you've got 10 minutes" my gracious mate agreed after sensing my excitement.  I darted in the store and flitted about like a sugarplum fairy drunk on hot-chocolate.  Before long my arms were full and my time was up.  My husband appeared and payed the saleswoman "twenty dollars, please."  What a score!  I'd just purchased a plethora of fancy trimmings for our entire tree with only 20 bucks! There were die-cut mourning doves, beaded satin wrapped bulbs, pose-able circus animals in festive clothes, baby blue angels with harps, an ascension of sparkly stars, etc...

I was stepping peppy with after-Christmas cheer when my husband spoke up  "Are you sure none of those decorations you just bought were made in China?"

 I stopped suddenly, precariously poised atop the sticky remains of my burst bubble.  Should I take them back?  What did he think of me?  What did I think of myself?  Could I really enjoy my cheaply made treasures now that I'd compromised my values?  I wanted to cry.  (Probably new mom hormones at work.) 

When we got home, I stuffed them in the already packed sterilite bins and tried to forget my shame. 

Then next year, when my one year-old's face lit up with wonder at the overflowing box of colorful glittery objects which we carefully hung on the bottom third of the tree, I had all but forgotten the self-induced loathing which plagued a brief moment of my Christmas past.

In the past few years my seedlings of thought change have grown along with the public demand for fairly traded goods.  Online stores selling whole world handicrafts are growing in number.  While paying a fair price to a skilled artisan rules out the option of decorating your entire tree on twenty bucks, it's a much more transparent transaction.