STRAIGHTEN UP - Natural Awakenings

LESSONS LEARNED BY
LIVING OFF THE GRID
by Priscilla Short
When I take stock of my life these days—
married, with one child and another on
the way, living in a conventional house in
Colorado—it seems improbable that I spent a year
living alone in an off-the-grid, self-sustaining desert
house in New Mexico. It was a time of solitude, characterized
by cold winter nights, power outages and
water rationing, during which I championed manual
labor and practiced self-reliance.
Back in the mainstream today, I too often find
myself compromising my conservation habits for
convenience. Yet, I’ve been able to happily apply
some off-grid lessons for a more conventional, yet
still eco-friendly, life.
n Eat your leftovers. It doesn’t matter whether they
come from a restaurant or your own kitchen: If you
fully consume every piece of food you buy, you
will buy less food overall and consume fewer of the
planet’s resources.
n Drink only tap water, filtered onsite. If you stop
drinking soda, juice, milk, coffee, tea, alcohol and
energy drinks, you will consume fewer calories,
avoid potentially addictive habits, spend less money
and conserve resources.
n Keep the lights off as long as possible, saving both
energy and money. At sunset, go outside and turn on
all of your senses. Let your eyes adjust to the
fading light as a new world unfolds. Listen to the
birds settling down for the night as the insect chorus
begins and inhale the fresh evening air, feeling its
delicious coolness on your skin. By eliminating an
artificial evening environment lit with electric bulbs,
you are better able to tune in to the natural world
that has been present all along.
n Turn off the TV and anything else involving a screen
and advertisements. Your purchases will cease to be influenced
by the ads—as will the pressure to live beyond
your means—and instead be motivated more by simple
need. When you spend less, you use less of everything.
Priscilla Short is the author of Thrifty Green, journaling
on how to ease up on energy, food, water, trash,
transit and other stuff. Find more at ThriftyGreen
Book.blogspot.com.
22 Chicago North & North Shore www.NAChicagoNorth.com
wisewords
building the bridge
of healthcare
by Darren Weissman
Modern medicine has been able to map the genome,
create cocktail vaccinations to combat disease and
raise billions of dollars in the name of millions of
people that have lost their lives to cancer, diabetes, and many
other debilitating degenerative diseases. It’s a herculean battle,
as we live on the edge of our seats anticipating the next bubonic
plague—the bird flu, autism and antibiotic resistant bacteria live
in the undercurrent of what’s driving people’s choices.
While in the same breath, there is a growing consciousness
today of the application of ancient healing arts and philosophies
being used to support and discover the source of healing that comes
from within. Research has revealed and validated that subtle energy
methods and wellness care such as Chinese medicine, yoga, healthy
eating and energy medicine can enhance and even reverse what
science has said in the past is irreversible. This awareness is now in
the forefront of our culture, enticing and driving us to take action
regardless of the level of fear in our modern day world.
My intent for writing this article is to provide a deeper appreciation
for the contrast and compliment between the western
medical model focusing on eradicating symptoms and disease
and the holistic wellness view aiming toward activating the
body’s self-healing potential. Even further, to create a conscious
vision of a healthy marriage between the two paradigms, bridging
what seems to be other than love at first sight.
The ultimate vision of both perspectives is to improve the
quality and sometimes quantity of life for the patient or client.
The western model is an outside-in approach, aiming to control
the body through biochemical means or surgery. In contrast, the
holistic model is an above-down-inside-out approach, aiming to
open communication and free an innate energy or life-force, empowering
the body to produce the appropriate chemicals necessary
for self-healing. Western medicine tends to be more of a reactive
model, while holistic care tends to encourage clients to recognize