We Are Water

(first published KC Wellness Magazine 2008)

We are water. 70% of our being. This essential element makes up 83% of our blood, 70% of our brains, and 90% of our lungs. It aids in digestion, waste removal, controlling body temperature, lubricating cells and joints, and the transportation of important nutrients, minerals and chemicals in biological processes. We need it for cooking, bathing, gardening, and a nice cup of tea. Water is life.

The earth is water. 70% of our planet’s surface. 97% of this essential element is salt water. Only 2.5% is fresh water and most of that is trapped in polar icecaps or in underground aquifers. Fresh water feeds our lakes, rivers and streams enabling life upon this planet. This precious resource allows us drinking water, agriculture, transportation, recreation, electricity, a home for our scaly friends and rainbows. Water is life.

We are the Earth. If her waters are threatened, we are threatened. By 2025 the world’s population will have increased by 30% and yet access to safe drinking water will be greatly reduced. Fresh, clean water is a finite resource. Let’s preserve it.

In the Home - Begin changing your cleaning paradigm. Products do not have to burn the hair off the inside of your nostrils to be effective. There are natural ways to create a clean and safe living environment. Shaklee, can be found online. Earth friendly cleaning supplies and laundry detergent are now readily available in every grocery.
Or, make your own cleaning products that don’t pollute, save money, and they work! With baking soda, white vinegar, lemon juice and tea tree oil, you can clean your whole home!

Just go online and check out natural cleaning methods and you will find recipes that will clean bathrooms, floors, windows, polish silver, sterilize counter tops. Safe for your home. Safe for the drain.

Laundry - Choose detergents free of perfumes and dyes. Fabric softener? It’s gotta go. And those pesky dryer towels. What? Give up my Fresh April Breeze? It’s toxic. Instead, to soften add 1/4 cup baking soda to wash cycle. For cling, add 1/4 cup white vinegar to the rinse.
Yard & Garden - Stop using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Just do it. Go organic. We are killing the birds, the bees and our soil. Run off from our perfect green, sterile lawns are killing our aquatic friends.

Conserve- Take shorter showers. Do full loads of wash.
Rain Barrels. They just sound like fun! You can find affordable rain barrels kits for your garden at the 3 Trails/Bannister Recycle Center. Go to bridgingthegap.org. Talk with Beau. Check out the Re-store, where you can get new and used building materials at bargain prices, as well as Rain Barrels. Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity. Go to restorekc.org.

Recycle Contaminants - Do not mindlessly pour out old paint, thinners, car oil and other toxic waste to be carried off as run off and end up in my little lake. Please. Take these items to the Household Hazardous Waste recycle center. You have to make an appointment. You can do it. Go to marc.org/Environment/SolidWaste/HHW/hhwfacilities.htm for a center near you.

It is written, "If the river flows clearly and cleanly through the proper channel, all will be well along its banks." Be well.

I originally wrote this for the Green Column for KC Wellness Magazine (love you Jeanette)
Since writing that column I have discovered the joys and joys of cleaning with baking soda, a bit of dishwashing liquid and a splash of vinegar. It makes a wonderful expansive science experiment...fun, smells great and will not melt your skin. If you need to scrub something...make it into a paste. Also I find lemon juice and baking soda work well to scrub a porcelain sink back to white...It takes more work but it is worth it.

Here is a recipe for polishing silver. I use it every winter in the Holiday season. Works for jewlery as well. It is a miracle.

Large Pot, 1/4 cup baking soda, 1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup liquid dish soap, 1/2 gallon water, aluminum foil

Take a large pot, line the inside with aluminum foil. pour all ingredients into the pot and stir with a plastic spoon. Collect silver want to clean. Bring to low boil for a few minutes. Then turn off the burner and let it sit for another couple of minutes. Then dip your silver into concoction, (careful not to burn yourself. If you have a small colander you can use it to lower silver into pot). Take it out and be amazed! Rinse with cold water. voila!
Let's make every day Earth Day.