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Summer's Ending
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A Fall Cleaning
September 2006
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Celebrating the Fruits of our Labors
The heat and monsoons are coming to a close. Beautiful fall weather is at our doorstep. Aspens are changing in the north country. It is time to reap the harvest we have planted and nurtured.
Unfortunately we are harvesting many toxic effects that our civilization has planted for us. This newsletter examines ways to detoxify our environmental living conditions. Next month we will focus on our bodies.
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Detoxifying our World
We live in a toxic world.
In the last century the "civilized" world turn the beauty of Earth into a cesspool that we now live in. Our challenge in this new millenium is to clean up the mess we made.
We are beginning to do it ever so slowly. Organic produce is becoming more available. Green industry is growing. People are recycling.
We have a long way to go, but our species has been gifted with intelligence and ingenuity. We can use our creativity to bring Earth and ourselves back to a healthy balance. If you want ideas for what you can do check out websites like:
care2.com
Green Sangha
Coop America
There are many others sites out there that will help us heal the wounds that Earth has suffered.
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Pollution Prevention Week, Sep 18-24
National Pollution Prevention Week is September 18- 24, and this year's theme at the Environmental Protection Agency is "The Future Is Now - Prevention Begins with You!"
Our indoor air quality has deteriorated with the increased use of organic chemicals, well-sealed, draftless homes, and mounting dust and molds. Childhood asthma has become epidemic. Many people experience watery eyes or burning sensations in the eyes and throat, nausea, and difficulty in breathing related to indoor air pollution.
Learn how you and your family can prevent pollution and conserve resources with helpful tips on a variety of topics such as how to use less gasoline or how to garden in an environmentally friendly way. If each of us takes personal responsibility for even a small change, the impact would be tremendous. preventing pollution leaves our homes, schools and workplaces cleaner and safer.
Find tips for preventing pollution at home, at work, and on the road from the EPA website . . .
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Plants to Help our Indoor Air
Formaldehyde, perhaps the most common indoor air pollutant, is widely used in building materials and numerous household products. It is also a by-product of cigarette smoke. It is used to add permanent-press qualities to clothing and draperies, as a component of glues and adhesives, and as a preservative in some paints and coating products.
Pressed wood is probably the biggest polluter, including: particleboard (used as sub-flooring and shelving and in cabinetry and furniture); hardwood plywood paneling (used for decorative wall covering and used in cabinets and furniture); and medium density fiberboard (used for drawer fronts, cabinets, and furniture tops). Medium density fiberboard contains a higher resin-to-wood ratio and is generally recognized as being the highest formaldehyde- emitting pressed wood product.
How can you protect yourself?
- Buy more solid wood products.
- Use "exterior grade" pressed wood.
- Lower temperature and lower humidity reduces the rate of off gassing
- Buy plants that naturally clean the air in your home.
A NASA study showed that gerbera daisys and chrysanthemums remove benzene, golden pothos and philodendrons remove formaldehyde, pot mums and peace lilies (spathiphyllum) removed trichloroethylene. A 1989 NASA study states that houseplants were able to remove up to 87 percent of toxic indoor air within 24 hours. Other research reported that one spider plant could, in six hours, detoxify a 100 c.f. room polluted with formaldehyde.
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Celebrating the Harvest Bounty
Warming the heart and cleansing the body
The following soup recipes utilize fall vegetables to provide healthy healing meals.
Pureed Beet Soup
Vitamin C, potassiuim and antioxidants.
3 medium beets
2 medium carrots
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup orange juice
chopped fresh chives
- Boil the beets until tender, about forty minutes. Add carrots after the first twenty minutes. Reserve 1 cup of broths. Let the vegetables cool, then skin the beets, and cut the vegetables into 1/2 inch chuncks.
- Combine the buttermilk, sour cream, orange juice and vegetable broth in a medium sized bowl.
- Puree the beets and carrots in a processor, slowly adding the buttermilk mixture.
- Transfer the pureed mixture to a pot and warm over medium heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Garnish individual servings with sour cream and chopped chives.
Dilled Cabbage Soup
This is a sweet and sour delight that fights cancer and heart disease.
1/2 medium cabbage chopped
2 large onions chopped
1 teaspoon dill seed
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon white vinegar
3 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups tmato juice
1 large potato, diced
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
- Use a three quart sauce pan. Saute the first four ingredients in olive oil until the cabbage is wilted and translucent.
- Add the garlic and vinegar and cook one more minute, then add remaining ingredients except for parsley.
- Cover and simmer about fifteen minutes until the potatoes are tender. Add parsley before serving.
More recipes . . . . |
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Thoughts to Live By
Hildegard von Bingen was a Christian mystic, nun, writer, philospher, musician, healer, who lived in the Rhineland of Germany in the 1100's. Her words are still powerful today.
The more one learns about
that which one knows nothing of,
the more one gains in wisdom.
One has, therefore, through science,
eyes with which it behooves us to pay attention.
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it.
Without it we can not survive.
As often as the elements,
the elements of the world are violated by ill-treatment, so God will cleanse them.
God will cleanse them thru the sufferings,
thru the hardships of humankind.
The high, the low, all of creation,
God gives to humankind to use.
If this privilege is misused,
God's justice permits creation to punish humanity.
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At Dynamic Pathways Wellness Center we realize that we are what we eat and we become whatever our energy is focused on.
If you are eating a healthy balanced diet, you will be transforming the energy of that food into health and balance in other areas of you life.
If you are focusing on positive people, positive activities and positive happenings, that is what you will find.
Be well until our next visit
Tom Stempel, Cory Lemberger and Nathan Shannon
Dynamic Pathways Wellness Center
phone: 602.254.0071
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