lapiduli

"The events of her life are like the lapiduli of a grand mosaic: each of them is a small thing, but the combination of them makes such a picture..." {Richard Baptist O'Brien}

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One more thing

I'm fully entrenched in my mostly toxin-free makeup and skin care now. 

I wish the blog could end there and you (all five of you reading this), would know it wasn't as long a process as I thought. Not so much.

As with everything in life, there is always just one more thing.

Really, I'm not bitter. I'm empowered.

On a daily basis I find that something I'm using or considering contains toxins. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to keep the weeds out of my yard without endangering my kids - including one who still eats grass sometimes.

I just keep plugging away at my "little corner of the world," as my friend says. My mother says it's not enough. I should be louder and yell farther. Maybe she's right. 

I just bought my mom a reusable water bottle and shopping bags for Mother's Day. I cleared this with her first because my mother is not the type to want anything practical. She actually liked the idea. I was surprised and pleased, of course, but really it just made me happy that I've made a difference with someone who has taught me so many things. Now I get to reciprocate and teach her something. I'm a mother now, too, so maybe that's fitting. 

I just can't believe that changing one person doesn't make a difference. Every time we purchase something we wield our own force in commerce. How many of us are wishing that (name a hot product that everyone wants and can't get their hands on) never happened? We did that. Marketing experts helped, of course, but we decided to buy it. Had we purchased (insert a not-so-successful product), we would have made some other company very happy. 

Bottom line - We make the decisions. We buy the products. We are powerful consumers.

There will always be one more thing. I'm trying to lessen the number of things I think I need, but it's a hard lesson.

According to someone on Facebook, it's "Pay It Forward Day." I'm all for that. I also think that as long as we're doing what we can in our little corners of the world to make life better for everyone, we are paying it forward. 

Swingtime

I was all set to write about something (this time it was shampoo) when something better caught my attention. 

My God daughter, Maddy, is a pint-sized philosopher of sorts.  At 7, she says things that amaze many adults, including me. 

Recently Maddy's uncle built her a swing, so she said to her mother:

"Mom, you should blog about my swing because it would encourage everyone to make their own swing and that would be splendid."

 Her mother wrote in her blog about how the swing reminded her of summer camp and the quiet moments that most of us forget to enjoy. And like any good story, it made me think of my own memories.

When I was 5, I asked my mother what was the color of the swing sets in Heaven. She told me they could be any color I wanted, of course. I wanted them all to be red, so from then on I would swing and imagine a heavenly playground with red swing sets.

Today, red is still my favorite color and as I glided back and forth with my toddler, Ava, on a red swing tonight, I thought about Maddy's swing and Rachel's memory. I sniffed Ava's little head as I always do when she's sitting on my lap and thought about why I am so determined to make our house, and our world, as safe as can be. The answer certainly isn't a brainstorm, but I realized that I need to slow down a little, stop checking the web for the latest environmentally friendly product and just enjoy the little things that are here now.

So thanks, Maddy. I already have a swing, but you're right - your idea is splendid!

the deep end

I was all set to write about how excited I am to use my Arbonne FC5 cleanser every day now as it seems to be doing a nice job on my skin and smells so wonderful. On the flip side, I emailed Intelligent Nutrients to ask why my anti-aging cleanser smells like band-aids and old mushrooms. It could be the greatest skin cleanser ever, but I can't get past the smell. It sets off my gag reflex every time I use it.

And that's all I have to say about that tonight because in the past two weeks I have learned that two of my uncles have been diagnosed with cancer. One has mantle cell lymphoma and the other has acute myeloid leukemia, the latter cancer may be traced to benzene exposure.

So if I hear one more person say, "everyone is gonna die from something," I'm going to scream. I've done my best to reduce the toxins in my little corner of the world, but it's astonishing how many friends and family members continue to say that I've gone "off the deep end." Just how many studies do we need to convince us that our environment can be toxic to our health? Isn't it worth making a few changes that just might prevent some diseases? I can't be sure everything I'm doing is right. I'm not an expert; but I'm not stupid. And I don't think the people that are questioning me are stupid, either. I think they're scared. I'm scared sometimes, too.

I know that we're all going to die from something someday. I just don't think we should sit around and wait for it to happen. And if that means I've gone off the deep end, I'll make it a swan dive.

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