Why We Do What We Do

It's pretty obvious that I'm sporadic about my blog post topics. Welcome to my brain! For being a boring librarian (psht, if you believe THAT, you don't know my librarian friends...), I have a million different interests. Things that I'm incredibly passionate about. Sometimes I'll talk your ear off about them; other times, I don't want to come off as a lecturer, so I'm pretty silent. So, depending on what's boiling to the top at the time, it's what I post.

I'd like to have more focus, but ultimately it's important for me to say this: Just because I'm not posting about it doesn't mean that it's fallen off of my priority list. I may be "living it" or quietly doing my thing without telling the whole world about it.

Whenever I do a reader survey, I find out that everyone reads for different reasons - yet another reason I'm sticking to my "variety is the spice of life" posting style. But, I also tend to get questions about things that I might have posted about several years ago. Namely, our green practices and eating habits.

So, today I'm getting into it. Why we make the choices that we make.

We eat (mostly) organic. Currently, we're taking part in a challenge to try to weed out a bit of our processed foods a bit. Why? Several reasons. We're more mindful about the food that goes into our bodies. It has value to us, unlike "Value Meal" items (which degrade the lives that were given for the meal). But, most importantly, we have read and looked into the connection between pesticides/chemicals and cancer rates (and other health issues), and would like to lessen our chances at any cost. So, yeah.

We care about the lives of the animals we consume. Believe me, I only wish we could be vegetarians. I do. Deeply. We adore animals, domesticated and wild. We're trying to get back into a healthier flexitarian diet. But, ultimately, we do our best to buy locally-raised (generally grassfed and humanely treated) meat and poultry, but at least look for a "humane" seal on packaged meat bought elsewhere. It. Just. Matters. An animal died for your dinner. Shouldn't it have at the very least had a non-abusive life lived close with nature? We think so.

We don't eat locally, but we'd like to more. The main reason we don't purchase all of our food locally is probably the reason that a lot of people don't - convenience. With our work schedules and a little monkey to chase after, it's a miracle that I get to Hannaford weekly/bi-weekly (and the rare times that I get to Aldi). Another reason is that it's difficult to get to the infrequent farmers' markets during this cold part of the year. Between hopefully purchasing a CSA share and hitting up the markets more when the warmer months hit, we hope to amend this.

We're conscientiously green. I say it this way because we're not yet to the height that we'd like to achieve, but we're doing our best. We use reusable lunchware and natural toiletries, cosmetics and cleansers. We try to use rags and other reusable items and minimal disposable goods. The list goes on, but we're far from zero waste. 

There are several reasons that I like to think of us as "green family." When I was a teenager, I loved the old hippie movement. I idolized the motivation it took for a vast group of people to stand up for their beliefs (namely, that of equality and peace), despite the opinions of the older generations. I listened to their music, wore their clothes, and allowed many of their views shape my current thinking. I longed for my own movement to support, but nothing concrete showed itself.

As time went on, though, my life became normalized and responsible, and I grew further from the true social issues that have been bubbling and developing. I felt that I couldn't ultimately have a say or truly create the change I had hoped for, anyway.

Instead, however, I discovered my priorities. Along with a husband who shared my views, I gradually learned that those early Earth Day lessons from elementary school had stuck, our opinions about animals were passionate, and our views on all things based in chemical nastiness had no place in our lives (or damaging our world).

***********************************************

I'm sure I'm missing some things that people have wondered about over time, so feel free to leave a question in the comments! Ultimately, our lifestyle has become such a natural one (in more ways than one) that I forget to post about things that have become routine.