back to the basics

Grassroots health and wellness movements are sweeping the nation.  In food, we see the nutritarian, paleo, vegan, raw, locavore, and traditional food movements rising.  In our communities, we see a bend towards sustainable, local, and organic ways to live and produce food.  And in the parenting world, we are seeing a push towards attachment parenting and extended breastfeeding.

I was thinking about all of these seemingly diverse “movements” and realized that the core of every single one of them is the same.

People are looking for an authentic way to live; we are searching for that ancient wisdom that for so long was passed down from generation to generation, but has altogether slipped away in a post-modern world.   

We live in a world where the media, the food industry, the government, the health care industry, and the internet tells us what to eat, how to take care of our kids, how to care for our health, and how to build a community.

Our modern day world is seductive.  It’s easy to eat out of a box or out of a can.  It’s easy to lose our selves online, creating a virtual community, library, career – an entire life, without  ever getting up from our seats.

While technology and industrialization have afforded us many benefits, what we have lost in the mix is the essence of life- those tangible and tactile experiences that fulfill us, take our breath away, and make us marvel at the world around us.

At the end of the day, we are flesh and bone.  Our hands were made to work, our bodies were made to move, our mouths were made to eat and chew real food, and our hearts were made to share all of our labors, joys, and sorrows in community.

 So, turn off the TV, get off the internet, go outside, take a deep breath, spend time with your family, meet your neighbors, move your body,  eat food from the garden, and be nourished.