2019 Life Logs, Day 144: Organic Puppy Food
Date: Friday, May 24, 2019
Weather: Sunny Early, Then Cloudy and Windy; High 69, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
No, I don’t have a puppy yet. But I am getting closer, so today I sat at the computer researching training methods and different types of puppy food. While doing this, I got a call from Jonah asking if he and his had could stop by in about five minutes to pick-up his marsh mucking boots to take with him to Maine for the weekend. So, I got up from the computer to get the boots and some snacks ready for Jonah. When they stopped by, Jonah must have walked by the computer because as he left he said, “I see you are looking at organic puppy food. Oma, are you getting a puppy? And are you really going to feed the puppy organic food?” I explained that I am getting closer to making a decision on a puppy, and that yes, if and when I get one, I will feed it organic puppy food. He looked at me with a puzzled expression and then he and Jed were off for Boothbay. They will spend the long weekend opening Jed’s mother’s Maine home for the summer and doing some outdoor projects for her. After they drove off, I kept thinking about Jonah’s question about feeding a puppy organic food. Then I left to go to the gym to ride the stationary bike. While riding, I started a new book, Michele Obama’s BECOMING. In the Preface she writes, “There’s a lot I still don’t know about America, about life, about what the future might bring. But I do know myself. My father, Fraser, taught me to work hard, laugh often, and keep my word. My mother, Marian, showed me how to think for myself and to use my voice. Together, in our cramped apartment on the South Side of Chicago, they helped me see the value in our story, in my story, in the larger story of our country. Even when it’s not pretty or perfect. Even when it is more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.” What a profound statement. I think many people don’t realize they have their own story. But I know I do and this afternoon between Jonah’s comment about organic puppy food and Michelle’s comment that everyone has a story, I realized that a great deal of my story deals with food. I had never thought of ‘my story’ in that way before. When I think of my story, I think about growing up poor in West Virginia. I think about going to and graduating from college with no monetary help from my parents. I think about my adventures with Mark—building a cabin in the mountains of Idaho, building a home and farm in Minnesota, building a bigger home and a bigger farm in southern West Virginia. I think about sailing around the world. And I think about our children and how all of our life decisions were made based on what we thought best for them. What I hadn’t thought of before this afternoon was that those beginning adventures with Mark were driven by an intense desire to live self-sufficiently, growing our own organic food. Even the first adventure, building the cabin in Idaho before we had children, revolved around food. I insisted that before we build the cabin that we clear enough ground for a garden and get that fenced and planted before cutting the first tree for the cabin. That took us six weeks, but we did it! So, Jonah’s comment about feeding a puppy organic puppy food sure brought forth a lot of my story that I hadn’t thought of before. My search for finding a way to eat healthy food started in 1974 and is continuing today. I believe that the most important decision we make three times a day, every day, is what we decide to eat in order to fuel our bodies. I believe, based on lots of evidence, that eating genetically modified foods and foods grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with poisons, is certainly not a healthy choice. So whenever possible, I eat only organic and verified non-GMO (genetically modified) food. And I certainly wouldn’t even feed a dog anything different. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
