Mama’s Musings

An era has ended.  Our eldest has turned 14 and our youngest just weaned.  High School is just a few months away.  This is the first time in nearly 15 years that I am not pregnant or breastfeeding.  It is a strange feeling.  I don’t quite know what to make of my body being my own without directly supporting another life form.

12 years of breastfeeding, 5 years of pregnancy, wow.  I feel a bit satisfied with myself, and a bit sad to see it end.  On to new adventures, new challenges.  They are all growing up too quickly to look backwards for long.  Forward to the next era!

Happy Earth Day. (By saying that am I branding myself a green freak?)  I have been green before green was “in”.  Back in the 80’s I had bags to reuse before every grocery store sold their own, I petitioned my family to buy brown eggs to support the biodiversity of chickens, I tried to recycle anything and everything (including attempting to make a blanket from old Wigwam slouch socks and pillows from old clothing).  I attended a Friends’ (Quaker) school from seventh grade on which was given to liberal sympathies to things like the environment and pacifism.  Some of that surely rubbed off as well as the influence of my best friend Amy and her Quaker family and responsibly green way of life.

I say this because my love of the earth goes beyond the current debate on global warming.  It goes back to an early childhood love of playing in the ocean, exploring fields and forests, appreciation for all things natural.  Raised in a religious home we were taught to be grateful for the beautiful gift of the earth from a loving Heavenly Father.

One thing I learned in Statistics 101 is that statistics are malleable.  (If you think there is no debate check out this out www.youtube.com/watch?v=216v5AoQcFQ )   The debate on global warming really has not changed anything for me, nor will it.  I act out of a feeling of stewardship for what we have inherited and what we will leave for future generations.  One of the most powerful things I took away from Environmental Biology in college came when Dr. Rushforth asked “What decision will you make that will have the greatest environmental impact?”  We talked about choice of cars, homes, recycling, but none of that was the answer, “Your decision to have a child.  Each child you bring into the world is another consumer and has the potential of creating other consumers.”  He was not advocating the abolition of procreation, (that would not be acceptable at BYU!) but wanting us to feel the weight of our responsibility as citizens of the earth and parents.   

I have felt that responsibility deeply, especially in light of the choice we have made to bring six consumers into this world.  Unlike many environmentally-minded folks I do not buy into the population crisis and support a zero population growth.  I have more faith in our God, our Earth, and ourselves to be better with current resources.  We are so incredibly wasteful in so many ways, this is a real tragedy. 

Raising my own crop of future consumers it is my hope that I can teach them the sense of stewardship I feel, act responsibly towards all of the Earth’s resources, question our consumer culture, and be a force for creative change towards sustainability in the future that we may have many years to come of Happy Earth Days.

 I am passionate about many things to make the world a better place.  I try to live up to those things that I believe in and I believe small actions do matter! Do something positive today!