Discovery

Sometimes in life the path to self discovery is convoluted. Sometimes it takes something that you would have never imagined to make you realize your true self. In my case it was the birth of my son.

I have always been an environmentalist in my own right. When I was a child I started a "give a hoot, don't pollute" campaign in my neighborhood, gathering my friends to clean up the neighborhood retention pond and posting signs (although in hindsight, putting nails in the trees was probably not the "greenest" choice). I have always been a recycler, champion of politicians promoting environmental causes, composted my food waste, ate a few organic foods and even attempted multiple organic gardens-which failed I believe, not due to their organic nature, but my inherent black thumb. I knew, from a young age, that if I were to have children they would be breastfed, use cloth diapers, and I would give birth medication free, mostly from an exaggerated idea in my head that this is what my mom did with me...and I turned out pretty well, right?

So then comes pregnancy. All of the sudden what I put in my body and my environment did not only affect me, but the growing person inside of me. I read The Complete Organic Pregnancy from cover to cover, refused to help paint our remodel in the basement due to VOCs, stopped painting my toe nails, increased the amount of organic produce I ate, especially those that had higher amounts of pesticides, and gave up all the things that might possibly do harm to my unborn child, including caffeine! I found Mountain Midwifery Center and was hooked on the natural parenting lifestyle. There were other women out there who, like me, believed that the female body knew how to birth a baby if given the opportunity and didn't think that breastfeeding for a year plus was taboo, or that carrying your baby and responding to their cries was wrong. I am not alone!

So just when I think I have found my groove, my people, Peyton is born. It is a fabulous birth, done exactly as I had imagined it in my birthing dream (which I had written out prior to my labor and delivery in my hypnobirthing classes). No drugs, in the water, short labor, immediate bonding and breastfeeding with my child. I was on cloud nine. Little did I know that my life would change forever after that moment. I would no longer work full time. My life would now be completely and utterly about giving to this child a world where he could not only thrive, but be given the tools that would get him through life happy, healthy, and with a feeling that his generation can change the world for the better.

Thus began my self discovery. I studied things I had heard about in passing and filed into the back of my brain, like Elimination Communication. I found a diaper service and eventually moved to washing my own cloth diapers. I learned that attachment parenting is actually a term and a lifestyle and discovered that one can never try too many slings and baby carriers. I became an advocate for midwives and becoming a champion of the female body, ridded my house of chemical cleaners, put my child on an alternative vaccine schedule, and used all hand me downs for Peyton's clothing and then decided to share the wealth with posting items that would otherwise end up in the landfill on freecycle. I discovered that although I thought I was an environmentalist before Peyton was born, there was so much more I could do. And not only is being an environmentalist good for the planet, it's good on the wallet, especially when it comes to baby. I learned making baby food is easy peesy and way cheaper than buying the jarred stuff. Not only that, but it makes for a more adventurous eater. How many one year olds do you know that eat edamame and quinoa?

Little did I know that having a child would not only teach me how to be a mother, but how to be a better steward to mother earth. How far will we go? Only time will tell, but the less of a footprint we make now, the better I'm leaving the planet for my child.