fear of the perfectly natural: random musings

This morning I was out on our balcony tending to the garden.  A wave of frustration hit me when I discovered a bunch of caterpillars on my precious basil plant.  I blasted the thing with my homemade insect repellent (Dr. Bronner's mint soap and water) and pulled off all the leaves with holes, hoping that would be the last of that.

Then it hit me: that is so typical of our culture.  We get grossed out or terrified by things that are perfectly natural.  We're conditioned to be repulsed by insects just doing their thing.  We're so ashamed of perspiration that we slather on antiperspirants loaded with toxic chemicals in hope of suppressing a perfectly natural bodily response to warmer weather.  Justin and I were talking about how there is such intense fear of pain nowadays, particularly pain in childbirth.  Rather than try to work with our bodies, we try to numb ourselves up at the first sign of discomfort.  I'm not saying we should never use pain relief.  It's just stunning how much we've all grown to depend on it.

I think one of the things that can make life simpler is not trying so hard to work against the way God designed things.  It's not the most profound realization I've ever had, but at the same time I think it'd make all the difference if we could really put it into practice.

Back in the saddle!

Sorry I've been so incommunicado!  Due to massive technical difficulties, we only JUST got Comcast here at our apartment.  

It's been a busy couple of months to say the least!  Our balcony garden is in full swing.  We're looking forward to having tomatoes and zucchinis.  I've been trying my hand at "companion planting", that is, planting herbs alongside vegetables as an organic pest repellent.  Been having moderate success with that.  We just bought a huge basil plant at the farmer's market, which smells heavenly!

I have been trying to figure out how to balance plain clothes with keeping cool in this hot weather.  Lately it's been so hot that I really don't want to wear much clothing, so I've mostly been wearing modest tanks with skirts.  On very hot days I haven't even wanted to bother with wearing a kerchief.  It's something I've been continuing to pray about.

I'll try to hop on here in the next few days and write about what's been going on spiritually.  I just wanted to hop on quick and assure you all that I have not disappeared off the face of this earth :).