I had a religious experience today! Because of an inspiring post at Miss R's new blog,I now have a clean window on my wood stove. Wow! What a difference. How did I achieve this, you might ask....? Every morning I mix up a concoction of effervescent vitamins and minerals, fresh squeezed lemon juice and water. The empty half of the spent lemon was what I used to clean the glass on the wood stove window. Just rubbed it over the surface without the need of any special cleaning cloth or elbow grease and presto! A clean window. I don't know if this would work quite as well with regular window glass, but vinegar has always been a woman's cleaning friend for that. The thing is, I love our Mother Earth, Gaia. Living here on the Central Oregon Coast and blessed with an ocean view, I am daily reminded of the power of the forces of nature. Yet, there is a fragile side, too, and I recognize that I am part of a species that acts in many unconscious and destructive ways towards the very womb in which we live. I tried composting my garbage, just like my father has done ever since I was very young and well before it was fashionable to do so. I gave up on it, however when the marauding raccoons regularly rifled through it scattering to and fro and making a nuisance of themselves all over the neighborhood. They would sometimes come in packs like little tattooed, gun totting gangs looking for trouble. That's when the kinship model breaks down and you find yourself dreaming up ways to scare them off. Then there are the insects...I once had swarms of sugar ants, tiny little things coming in droves. After making sure the counter tops were spotless and having no luck, I tried borax and cayenne pepper, which didn't seem to deter them. I even resorted to pleading with their queen on a telepathic dimension, hoping we could strike a truce, but to no avail. One day while inquiring at a hardware store what their advise would be, the line of men behind me at the check out stand fell over laughing, when I mentioned trying to talk to the queen ant looking for a reasonable solution. The clerk rolled his eyes and handed me a bottle of "Terror." I admit, I was desperate and succumbed. Everyday I pray for forgiveness for any harm or malice I have ever had for one of Gaia's little children. Some days I feel stronger than others in my resolve and outward actions in living in harmony with the others with whom we share our planet, Gaia. I am thankful, today I was just a little bit greener.....amen.
6 comments:
I love her new blog. She is so creative! I think you'll be forgiven :) !
you sound like me with the snails.. I feed them to my chickens.. surely that is ok? sometimes, I thank God that I am not Buddhist!
Your racoons sound like our possums - they dig in the compost heap too, but I have fixed that by getting new plastic ones with lids.. that stops them!
Oh how I wish I'd heard of the lemon trick several years ago. We used to have a wood stove and I'd spend many dirty hours trying to get that window clean.
I came over this morning after reading Miss R's post. It was very uplifting!
This is my favorite time of year to try green things...all that new life and energy for inspiration.
I'm going to get my compost going again...and pray that no racoons find it. (our neighboring yards have dogs, so I don't think racoons will come!) My daugher lived in Oregon for a bit and she gave us a bin for composting as a gift one year!
My dh and I considering buying a composter - probably more $$$ than we should be spending at present, but how I would love it. And we don't have raccoons to bother it. Living with nature is something that has become a paramount goal of mine. Most of my life I have tried to conquer and tame nature, both outside and within myself. Now I just want to be at peace with nature.
I once volunteered at a non-profit veg restaurant run by a former Zen monk and former Jain. He put tubs and other shallow containers of water under his tubs of molasses, etc. to deter ants. He had so many tricks for non-violet vermin control. I should have written them all down.
Post a Comment