Sooo, You’re All “Natural” Now, Huh?

I have a confession to make—lately I’ve been making my own toothpaste. I think that’s the sort of thing that when said aloud signals the “Oh, you’re becoming that type of person” look, and they aren’t far from being right. I’ve always been interested in ways to eat healthier and try to get in enough movement during the day, but that’s been about where it stopped. I think as I turned 30 last year though, something started to shift a bit for me. I would wonder more than usual what was really in my food or beauty products. I would feel really guilty every time I threw something away that I could recycle. I started to really think about how I was living my life: what I was consuming, how I was consuming it, and who I was supporting with those decisions.

I don’t know if it was totally the age thing or not but I did have this burning desire to become more responsible about the things that I could control and make decisions about my life and health on purpose rather than just doing what was easiest. I had already started down a path to be more intentional about daily choices when I heard a talk given by Lindsay Leigh Bentley (local blogger and band wife) a few months ago about all the different things that they do to keep her family living a healthy and responsible life. I feel like that speech was exactly what I needed to hear at the right time and since then I have been so interested in researching as much information as I could on as many subjects as I could. I will be the first to admit that diving into a life overhaul like that is overwhelming. The sheer amount of information about everything you are doing wrong is potentially really discouraging to say the least. It feels like a mountain that you will never be able to climb (or be able to afford to climb if we are being honest—living healthier is expensive!!). I had to keep reminding myself to tackle one thing at a time, slow down and not rush into big decisions, and take a break from researching when needed.

In addition to trying to remove as many toxins from our products, food, and environment as possible, there was also a desire to be more eco-conscious as well. I realized eventually that all the “guilt” I was feeling by not recycling, etc., was really more of a growing conviction that I wasn’t treating the earth as kindly as I could be. I fully believe that God created the earth, beautiful and complex, and we are to be caregivers of that earth, to cultivate it, and to protect it. Can I totally save all the damage being done to the planet by myself? Nope. But, I can do my part and sometimes right actions will inspire others to do the same and thus actions can have a ripple effect that really does bring change.

Now, having said all that vague information about health and environmentally friendly living, I also whole heartedly admit that I am not perfect. I don’t live in a 100% green energy house or drive a Tesla or weave all my clothes from sustainable grasses in the backyard or only eat local in-season organic produce for every meal. If you are looking for things to point out that I am dong wrong or could do better, well, it’s not going to be that hard so don’t count on any gold stars for that one. As we can afford to I am slowly making small changes (although exciting ones) to how we live and eat and trying hard not to be wasteful with the resources we do consume. So anyways, I just wanted you to be aware that you may see or hear me talking more about natural products or ways to walk a little more gently on the earth. Oh, and that whole making my own toothpaste thing? Yeah, we’ll talk more about that soon…

xo. Laura