Ty’r Eithin ~ again

I think many of the pressures that trigger anorexia, bulimia, depression, etc. come from a lifestyle that is not really human.

Through thousands of years of human history, when – before now – have we been so divorced from nature?

 In our everyday urban life, how much do we see of reality —of death and birth, of the seasons and the earth and growing things? (When I eat applesauce, I rarely consider the trees that spent a whole year quietly growing my food. Or when I eat bacon, I don’t usually meditate on the pig that gave its life for my breakfast!)

We have insulated ourselves against the hardship and labour —and beauty— of a real, human life.

If I don’t know what real life is, how can I know what a real woman is? What is to stop me starving or torturing myself into some impossible shape, based on an arbitrary ideal?

If we live in an artificial world, no wonder we feel compelled to make ourselves into artificial people!

We can’t all own farms or go wwoofing. But we can all get back in touch with the earth.

As an alternative to (or at least supplement to) supermarkets, we can do urban gardening, support local farms and small businesses, attend farmers’ markets.As an alternative to consumerism, we can support charity shops, and small businesses —our creative and entrepreneurial neighbours—or hand-make items ourselves, establish swaps and barter systems. There is so much we can do! It is so exciting!

And at the very least, we can start treating ourselves as human beings —organic, good, part of the natural world.

You and I are animals. And —as any good farmer will tell you— in order to be healthy and happy, an animal must be loved, cared for, and respected, according to its nature.

It must not be battered into a shape that was never intended for it.