“When the sun is
warm but the breeze chilled with the end of summer, I mostly want to nap
outside. Sleeping outside brings peace to my soul said the accidental tree-hugger
that is me."
– Shannon
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| Hills of Kentucky |
My random Facebook status this afternoon left me feeling
philosophical and thinking…could be a dangerous combination for sure... What is
it about nature that talks to my soul? People are comfortable in their houses,
their shelter, and their beds even, but for me, I am comfortable outside on a
nice day. There is no place I would rather be. This is not how I have always been. There was
a time in my teenage years I would have said I was most comfortable at a
shopping mall or driving back roads in my first car. Going even younger, I
would have said I was most comfortable at home in my bedroom. My transformation
to nature girl or more like nature appreciator happened mostly after I had my
first son.
Maybe it is the act of becoming a mother that brought me
closer to nature, maybe it was just part of growing up, it’s hard to tell. I
have always loved camping, hiking, horseback trail rides, and water, whether
swimming or boating or just beach sitting. Outdoors was always about fun and
doing things, being on the go. Now, outdoors is my solitude. It is where I like
to be silent, to collect my thoughts. It is where I want to read a book or take
a nap. I want to feel the sunshine on my skin and the breeze in my hair. I want
to smell the fresh cut grass or that wonderful smell of wet after a nice rain.
 |
| Shores of Lake Superior |
This love of outdoors and nature is what got me into
gardening, the turning over the earth cultivating my little plot of soil and
growing food. At first, I was content with just growing food that my family
would eat as it ripened. No thoughts were given to trying to preserve my
bounty. In time, I realized that grocery store foods just didn’t taste as good
as the ones that I grew. That lead me down a road of wanting to know what was
in the food that I was serving to my family.
I am lucky that my children have always been good eaters. They enjoy
eating fresh fruits and veggies far more than processed foods. Well, aside from
popsicles and ice cream, but we all have our vices don’t we?
 |
| Hiking trails in Tennessee |
From being the girl who liked to shop and eat greasy pizza
from a Mall cafeteria I have become a wife and mother who is greatly concerned
with food and its origins. Factory farming and the overabundance of GMO foods
in our food chain concerns me. I am following the campaign to label GMO’s in
California and I am rooting for the Proposition
37 to pass. I hope that California leads the way to sweeping legislation requiring
GMO to be put on food labels throughout the Country. I hope the corporate greed
and their greatness of wealth do not win in the battle to know what is in our
foods.
To eat and to feed our families is such a basic need. It
dates back to before the “Common Era” or recorded time but to the act of
survival of the first species. Food is a necessity and this campaign is not
asking for an outlaw to GMO foods, it is instead asking for labels to be put on
foods so that consumers, the American people, can choose what is best for
themselves and their families. This is a basic principle and I have a hard time
seeing the other side of this argument. Why is it so harmful to label the
foods? I do not get the backlash at wanting labels. They already have to label
for calories and ingredients, this is just one more line on the label already
in place.
In the end, I find myself today, an accidental tree-hugger,
accidental activist, a completely on purpose gardener and nature love. Girl
evolved… Girl involved...
 |
| Image from http://www.cheeseslave.com/prop-37-on-california-ballot-vote-yes-to-label-gmos/ |
To read more about this legislation, check out this site at http://www.carighttoknow.org/
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