Plastic Free July Day 17

I started out today expecting to come home with plastic.  Hoping not to.  But I knew it was a possibility.  Because I needed to buy some chicken wire, and that usually comes with some kind of plastic.  Either straps or plastic film packaging around the outside.  So I was really gratified when I went to the farm store, and found 50 feet of chicken wire with no plastic at all.  That gave me hope and encouragement

But the straw came with the dreaded plastic straps.  Not even good ol' plastic hay twine, which can be recycled, but plastic packing straps.  Even strapped, straw is a material that manages to go flying all over the place.  I was  bummed. I wasn't expecting that kind of plastic.  But I see why they do it that way. (sigh)

But the real downer today was when I went into town for bread to the local bakery with my bread bag, and decided to order sandwiches.  One sandwich was wrapped in paper--non plasticized paper--yay! but tied with plastic raffia??? --really? Shite! The other sandwich was a total fail. It came in a brown paper box, lined with shiny plastic. Worse! Tucked inside the box was plastic utensils & a plastic cup with mustard in it.

Oh come on!!

I am starting to lose ground here.  Even when I try as hard as I can not to get plastic, I still get plastic.

Some kind soul comes for a visit bearing dessert...it's ice cream encased in disposable plastic, which looks like paper.  The plastic seal was so tough, I had to use a hefty knife just to whack through it.

This is the reality of the situation.  Honestly, it makes me want to cry.

So I'm going to have a little rant here.  Just a little one, and then I promise, it will turn positive.

Here's the things I'm sick of.  I'm tired of not being able to eat almost anything, because I don't trust food anymore. Between GMOs and artificial ingredients (made from the gmos), and toxins, and hormones, and animals that have been tortured and fish swimming in polluted seas, filling their bellies with plastic.

I'm sick of having to examine everything I buy under a microscope to find out if it was grown, or manufactured under organic, humane, safe, ethical, fair trade practices...

You know what? I'm just gonna stop right there.  Because I could go on about all the things I'm sick of and it would fill pages.

And I did promise to make this a little rant.

The truth is, that all the things I am sick of all have the same root cause.  There are too many greedy, sick, twisted, monstrous, psychotic, sociopaths running things.  There! Rant-in-a-nutshell.

I believe in telling the truth and speaking my mind.  So now that I wrote the words, what does that all mean?

It means, I see it.  I see it all.  I see all the things that make me sick, and in spite of how overwhelming it all is, I  will continue to live as I have been.  Doing the best I can, and breaking the cycle whenever I can.

And I will try to remember that we're meant to experience love and joy and peace and reverence and gratitude and abundance on Planet Earth, as well as taking a hard look at the experiences that contrast those things.  By holding those things up to the light, we are able to see them for what they are.

My heroes are the ones who live their lives fully with integrity and authenticity, in spite of what the rest of the world is doing.  So I try to follow their example and just get on with it.  Even when it seems overwhelming.

Can I get an order of love to go with a side of joy? Hold the plastic, please.  I'll pay for that with a hug and a smile.