The "Free Range" Myth

So, I mentioned a couple days ago that I had started buying free range chicken and eggs to cook with. I was feeling good about it, thinking (like most people do) that I was buying meat and eggs from happy, healthy chickens who, while they still had to die for me to eat, at least lived natural lives. Last night I was tranquing out on YouTube and somehow a search that started with drop spindle spinning demonstrations led to some videos of factory farmed chickens. I did not subject myself to these – I’ve seen the beak clipping, the disposal of male chicks, the over-fat chickens, etc. So, to make myself feel a little better, I searched for “Free Range” chickens, and I was surprised and saddened by what I found.

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Morning Walks

I have made a habit of setting aside time every morning to go for a 20 – 30 minute walk around my neighborhood. It started a couple months ago when we had a really windy day. The trees were whipping and the wind could be seen sweeping across the grass. I stepped outside and the air felt so alive with energy that I just had to be out in it. I went for a walk and instantly remembered all these carefree times in my life when I really felt in touch with my higher “self” and nature and all that good stuff. I thought about it and realized that many of these moments were as a kid or a teenager, walking to and from school, listening to music like the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Doors, Joni Mitchell, etc (I thought I was living in the 60’s back in highschool – it was actually during the late 90’s). I had such a powerful experience on that first walk I decided to make it a daily habit.

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You mean I'm not the only one?

For the past few weeks the pressure has been building… I’ve been re-reading the Ishmael trilogy by Daniel Quinn, which is always an eye-opening experience for me. I got the latest of the three, My Ishmael, for Christmas and I guess that’s what started this most recent bout of restlessness for me. This book really gets into the origins of our culture of working our whole lives for food, money, security. It turned my attention to my life, to the last 10 years or so that have flown by while I worked one meaningless but tolerable job after another.

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Time for a change…

This is my first blog… took me a while to jump on the band wagon, but hey better late than never, right? It’s coming at a good time for me anyway. In about 2 weeks I will cut back to part-time at work and focus on getting my guitar studio going again, and on my crafts.

I think this blog will be a great way for me to document the upcoming months, during which I hope to build some momentum for myself, doing the things I love to do, and enjoying life more day to day, not spending the majority of my waking life in an office. More and more lately it has seemed to me that this is not a natural way to live, at least not for me. The voice in my head has been screaming, “Run! Get out!” and I’ve been increasingly aware of the passing of time… it seems to be going faster and faster everyday. I’m fortunate enough that my employer has agreed to me working part-time so I can take this leap of faith without having quite so far to potentially fall.

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