WORK IN PROGRESS

rainbowsunset

The winds of change are blowing strongly through our hillside palace by the sea, and lots of things are bubbling and simmering, chickens included, and the next few months are sure to be educational and transformative in equal measure.

I spent the morning in an Introduction to Ancestral Cuisine class, led by the lovely Annie Dru of Lard Mouth. I laughed, I cried, I cried some more, and mostly I did a lot of nodding my head. I scribbled notes furiously in my notebook as I sat there and listened to her tell me the reasons why consuming animals is essential to not only human health, but the very health of the Earth herself. For a person who has lived nearly her entire life as an eater of plants alone, this can be very unsettling. And yet, for me, as unsettling and icky and sad as it is, it is also primitively true.

But it is sad, which is why I cry. Often.

As I was driving home from the class, I was on the phone with my ex-husband coordinating today’s pick-up, and I couldn’t help but enthusiastically repeat to him some of what I’d just absorbed. And he said to me, “I’m proud of you for having an open mind to hear these things. Because sometimes when you strongly believe in something, it can limit you from your own personal growth.”

I’m not sure where exactly I am dietarily other than that I am on a journey to learn as much as I can about feeding my family as nutritiously, sustainably, and compassionately as possible. For as long as I can remember, I have believed in what Hippocrates said, that food is medicine and medicine is food. This is why my eldest child, going on twelve, has never been on any sort of medication. Even for a cold! I rely exclusively on the healing forces of plants and herbs in various forms and methods of delivery to keep our health as robust as possible, and this includes, most importantly, the things we eat.

I have been lucky in that we have always been of strong constitution. That is, until this last year, when suddenly I found myself and my brand new infant in the middle of our very own health scare. And after trying virtually everything else, I’m changing the one thing I haven’t yet. Our diet.

All of this to simply say, I’m learning as I go.

Also, I’ve noticed a few things on this site of mine are not working, some link and sidebar functionality issues, as well as a couple other things here and there that need addressing. Bear with me as things are tinkered with and updated.