Poetry from Anita Freshair ... "Sad Songs not by Elton John

A Canary's song is sweet

Usually it's true

Her rolling chirps and tweets

So nice to listen to


But Karen sings a sad song

While in her cage she sits

"I can't stay here for long

This place is just the pits"


Crowded out by toxic scents

In a toxic neighboorhood

She must move to the country

Where the air is fresh and good


Karen's song's more sad these days

She'd like to tell you why

It's tough to maintain her chirpy ways

She doesn't want to cry


But one by one

She lost each one

Who once had said

They care


It hurts a lot

Hope's all she's got

They'll stop

Wearing what they wear


Would they ask her to walk

On her broken bird leg?

Or stick sweets

In her diabetic beak?


Would they force her to cheep

With laryngitis?

Give bird blood when she's

Already weak?


She's invisibly ill

So she let's out a shrill

'Cause it seems like

No one can see


Would you care if it was

Your daughter or son?

Would you care

If you were like she?


She awaits her new home

It won't be too long

She'll keep having hope

She'll sing a new song

Daisy O authors a blog about her life with MCS, and the building of a safe haven of a tiny home on wheels.  Her poems penned as "Anita Freshair" are the heart-felt renderings of a young woman in the process of reassembling her life. 

Mahalo, Daisy!

NEW MOON in Aries, tomorrow April 14, 2010 ENVISION NEW BEGINNINGS

The New Moon is a time to purposefully envision new beginnings.  In a wonderful and progressive way, we on Earth can tap into the energy of the celestial goddess and goodness of Mahina The Moon.  Our relationship with Mahina and the vardo sky above us, Pete and I learn to re-align or remember what it feels like to be in the flow with the universe and the hard wiring that was stamped into our natal astrology charts.  A couple weekends ago we were out in one of our favorite towns, Snohomish.  There we know a possibility for enjoying a Snohomish Bakery treat or breakfast in the sunny window seat is better than a kick in the keester.  'Getting out' is one of the major re-alignments that is a slow and deliberate activity.  Two years ago, there was no 'getting out' to join society; too many new experiences was re-tooling our knowledge base.  So, our outings to Snohomish have become a joy and a simple pleasure.

Though the trees had already begun their mating rituals (pollination!) I took a chance and thought a walk along the river would be worth the risk.  It was, at least for several minutes.  There in the middle of a quickly flowing Snohomish River were a quartet of ducks doing what smart birds know how to do:  "go with the flow."  It was instant inspiration and glee to see them.  The pollens were clogging me quickly but not before the birds lent their example to my love of nature's teaching.  It was perfect!

Today's New Moon in Aries is a time for us to get in the flow and set our intension with the added bonus of Aries' fiery energy.  Elsa P. one of my long-term astrology favorites has this to say about the Aries New Moon...

...Aries is the first sign. It comes rushing in so when you set your intention this month make sure to use the most of this inspired, fiery energy. Consider the house in your chart where the new Moon land (24 Aries) and look for a new beginning...
http://www.elsaelsa.com/archives/2010/04/05/transit-watch-new-moon-in-aries-april-14-2010/

The New Moon in Aries lands in Pete's 8th House of shared resources and rebirths.  The New Moon lands in my 3rd House of communication.  What do I envision for us with this next 29 days and nights?

I envision courage to continue honest communication about our needs and wishes for a place to live safely, sharing resources with people who 'get the conditions' of an MCS reality. 

One day at a time, Pete and I and others who live with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities walk a thin line of equilibrium.  Society has created systems that pave over the inconsistencies it would deem in need of control.  The construction industry depends upon pavement to erect its development.  The processes of development are toxic, expensive and costly to the health of all living beings.  This morning, the attached article was posted at The Canary Report.  It's the latest status of our friend Linda Sepp's living situation in downtown Toronto, Ontario.  Linda's eviction triggers the adjustment to my original post for ENVISION NEW BEGINNINGS. 

...For years, she’s been the last resident in an Ontario neighborhood slated for demolition by a landlord wanting to raze the area to build new. The place is decaying, crumbling and frequently vandalized. Linda’s house has a leaky roof and basement, problems with mold, a contaminated water pipeline, and a leaky gas stove (now disconnected). She doesn’t want to be there, but where is she to go?


The problem is, how does a disabled person with acute chemical sensitivity, who’s dependent on government assistance, prepare to move? How does a disabled person with acute chemical sensitivity secure and install a whole house water filtration system so she can bathe and wash clothes properly (not just for everyday health but also in preparation for a move); secure safe clothing and a washing machine in the first place (there is a reason why she’s naked in the photo, she only has about five articles of safe, uncontaminated clothing to her name); conduct a housing search and then properly prepare that house for an uber sensitive person? How does she do that? And if she can’t do it herself, how does she find a knowledgeable advocate to help navigate the entire process?
Link to read the entire article :  http://www.thecanaryreport.org/2010/04/13/lindasepp/

Many of us live on the edge, our precious ledge of safety tetters for any number of reasons, our world of stabilty fragile.  MCS is to a great degree a 'preventable' condition, contingent upon human decisions to step away from choices that do great harm.  My heart goes out to our friend Linda in Toronto.  My energy to continue is a store based on one day's parcel of energy at a time; and yet, I too slip into fear and I lose hold on the courage to dare to believe in something wonderful being in the flow.

How do you envision new beginnings for this New Moon?

The Naked Truth about MCS

I've always wanted to be a poster girl! Earlier this year Susie Collins author and editor of The Canary Report a blog and social network for and about MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES was inspired by Eva Cabelle of Spain. Eva lives with MCS and took her truth to the whirl of disbelievers and challenged all with her naked truth. That inspiration sparked the idea for creating a calendar focused on the real lives of women living with this incredibly debilitating and isolating environmental illness.

The Calendar is out! 15 women are part of this 2010 calendar The Naked Truth About MCS. The calendar and the article about its release are available online from The Canary Report. All proceeds go to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization involved and educating the collective consciousness with the truth about the every day chemicals, the industries that concoct, market and hold us hostage/addicted to the synthetic world of "products", and the governmental process and politics that fuel the cycle of greed and toxicity.

The photo above is me Ms November... Wahine Toa (warrior woman) taken at the back of VardoForTwo while Pete and I lived on the beautiful oxygen-rich Ledge in the woods. I chose to face the camera as I wish I could face the world: STANDING proudly encamped in a pesticide free zone with the phases of the moon and the radiance of a full spectrum sun. I hold my o'o, the walking stick to remind me of the need to be sustained by nature ... holding on for all I'm worth and using that stick as a weapon if the need arises. Around my neck is a lei of tiny shells a gift from my son on my 60th birthday, linking me to the salt water that is me. The golden wagon safe haven built with due diligence and tears is our singularly safe space. Chemicals surround that wagon on wheels 24/7, awareness and transformed choices based on the knowledge that saner, healthier choices are possible remain minimal.

Here's a project that shouts the naked truth. Thanks to Susie Collins and the women who contributed their versions of MCS truth, check it out and tell your friends, families, your congress men, your congress women, your mayor, your neighbors, the managers at your local co-op, your local drug store! MCS is real, alive and closer to you than you think.

P.S. Ruby my magical laptop made posting this photo possible. Thanks, Ruby!!

NEW MOON IN LIBRA: Amass the quality of nurturing not nuking

Before the new moon in Libra moves into Scorpio, I need to get the energy of empowerment and nurturing onto the wall. I felt the despair surrounding me and tried to sleep it off. After an NAET treatment to clear my kidneys and adrenal glands from exposure to a new environment, I started to itch all over. "Unmasking" maybe. Lately my muscle testing has been showing 'Herbicide' sensitivities nearly every day (not today though). I was exposed to DDT as a kid in Hawaii, and with multiple poisonings from Round-up in my adult life, the probability for more episodes of herbicides to unmask and reenter my blood streams (in an effort to detox) is high. And drinking two cups of coffee for the first time in years probably didn't help, either:/

I'm rambling to the point I hope will come soon and to get me there I'm linking to two posts written by my friend Leslie from the Oko Box. They are timely medicine for me, and such an affirmation: "We believe in the quality of nurturing our homes and our selves." On the night of a New Moon the potential to attract the energy you wish to grow in your life, is most potent when the moon appears darkest. A void (darkness) attracts light.

Here are the links to Leslie's two recent posts ... posts that inspire me to get this post on the walls.
Sustainable living
Girl in a (nature)bubble
Both of Leslie's posts ring with a voice of strength that is the other-side of her usually zany and light-hearted creative, elf self. Creative solutions will come from a combination of complex thinking and complexity comes from being able and willing to express a wide and deep understanding of the issues of being human and being human with environmentally induced illness. I celebrate your voice, Leslie. Celebrate your complexity (Libra and all!)

This afternoon Pete and I spent the day with our friends. We headed for a town called Sisters in the Oregon Cascades. Our goals were first, to meet a land owner who might be open to us gathering our three tiny MCS homes on a portion of her land ... to take the next step necessary to grow good community; and second, we were there in that pine forest to hike the land. It has been a very long time since Pete and I have gone on a long hike in clean air and new to us territory. I was prepared with my organic cotton and carbon filter insert mask. I hiked for two hours without it. The experience of being with scent-free friends, talking and imagining all manner of positive community while getting exercise and free high altitude (4,000 ft) air was totally different. The difference was so wonderful both Pete and I admitted tonight, we are afraid of it. Too long has it been since we have had two hours of blissful company and positive experiences. Is that a weird circumstance? To be so far from the experience of happiness that one becomes afraid of it? Fearing the shoe will drop/the rug pulled out.

Our life from VardoForTwo has been such a long string of struggles, the possibility for change is what we seek and yet the familiarity of struggle can wear too deep a rut and we fall too quickly into it. So, this post is a call to the void of Mahina (the moon) during this phase of darkness to commit to the lightness of positivity and possibilities. Teaming up/collaborating with friends who are equally and different motivated and intelligently focused on new solutions spreads the burden of a sustaining effort. Like I commented on Leslie's post on the Oko Box, teaming up allows for the reality that when one of us is down from an exposure or weakened spiritually from the effort, one of us will be less down or even up enough to take the next step or help shoulder the burden.

VardoForTwo is a tiny wagon parked now in a field surrounded by barbed wire. I wrote about that the other day. Metaphorically, the image has a 'concentration camp' vibe that I have just realized I don't like. I'm writing my way through that realization so I can enlist the support of the celestial bodies and maybe make enough sense to those who may read this. We are in this field because there was no other place to go ... for now. There are shortcomings to this arrangement, and yet this is not the final step. Like so many parts of this journey to a satisfied soul, the process is slow. We get tired, discouraged, sad, angry and add to that the looks of judgment that we get because we look different: brown not white, round not thin, dressed warmly not fashionable, and the grief could really start to stack up.

NASA sent United States rockets to the moon earlier this week, in search of water. Earth was a planet with water that could have been enough for all the right reasons and for season after season. Tonight, as the New Moon continues to affect Earth with her tidal magnetism, I leave this rambling post like a prayer flag saying, "This tiny wagon is enough to make a big difference. We are enough, just as we are. Bless us with what we need to make it so. Mahalo Ke Akua. Mahalo Mahina."

Good night, Moon.

A Jumble of Juggling, Sovereignty & Navigating by the Sky with MCS

Anyone who consciously lives with MCS (there are so many more of us who don't yet realize their experiences are an illness/disease and not just a vivid imagination or undiagnosed allergies) knows that searching for safe and supportive community is difficult. Isolation-avoiDANCE the extreme case of independence brought on by the sole 'cure' for this environmental illness can make a dear soul koo-koo. It's lonely without believers and support. Stories of individual human beings and families of beings who live in cars or attempt to live in a safe-for-them haven are showing up in mainstream news. The world is being called to recognize us. So few outside those who live it understand and respond. Thanks to the work of bloggers and social networkers like Susie Collins (The Canary Report) and Julie Genser(Planet Thrive and MCS Safe Homes), MCS community grows in spite of the inconvenience it creates for the mega industries and yet-to-be transformed systems of industry.

During the eleven months of blogging here at VardoForTwo, Pete and I have added two chapters to our six decades of life on the Planet. In Part I (between October 08 and April 09) we chronicled the process of being in one place for more than a few days at a time; and shared our process of building a mobile and mcs-safe mico-home. Once we hitched that micro-home called VardoForTwo to the rental truck in April of this year, Part II began with VardoForTwo on The Ledge in the Woods. Part II is coming to a near conclusion, and gods willing our Part III will begin sometime mid-October. The blog roll written by MCS Canaries has blossomed in the months since we launched VFT. More and more storytellers are getting it down on the page. A great body of work is becoming part of Earth's history. MCS blogs are important stuff. Every story counts, every anecdotal record makes a huge impact on the truth of Earth's condition at present.

I've added two new blogs and added back another blog that was removed when I did some blog-remodeling some while back.

• First there's Daisy O and her husband are building an MCS safe for them Tiny Home. Those who originally starting following our progress to build Kolea Nani (VardoForTwo) might want to give Daisy and KC (her kane) some support and attention as they create their dream. Tiny, moveable or mobile MCS homes is a relatively new subset of the Tiny Home revolution pioneered by people like Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed. Like anything revolutionary, the seeds of change will grow in people/energy fields ripe for creatively and persistently making changes ... not necessarily adapting, surely adjusting though the qualities that translate. Daisy and her husband are one of those new pioneers. Watch them grow.
  
• Another young woman "AMESTRESS" (real name or not) has been blogging since February of 09 ... this just in ... permission to use this description from Amestress's profile: "I am not how I appear. But then again, how would I know? One thing I know is I am very focused on recovering from MCS."

This is a person with the spirit of a dancer, and she dances a lot on her blog. Movement is vital, move it or lose it comes to mind. I've just begun to read her blog and there is plenty to read with more than 800 posts on Life the Final Attempt (not really!) and she has a wit, spunk and style about her that is well ... pure youth. She reminds me of the energy vibe I get when I visit my friend Leslie who blogs on the Oko Box. I can say that with wistful Aunty love from this side of the mountain with more than sixty solar returns on my Brownie Badge. These women give me hope for a sustaining future. Amestress is dealing with the reality of this illness in a way that seems to fit her. MCS is a serious illness that easily flattens the heartiest among us. Discovering those who are living with the seriousness while maintaining their personality(their Sun sign shining through) ... I would guess Amestress is maybe an Aries, Leo or Libra. If I'm lucky she'll tell me and that would be fun. One thing that I'm learning from my jumble of juggling this life is to find wisdom in lots of places: the internet, the common squirrel outside, my kitty Jotz (pure LEO) and for sure, I navigate by the Sky and the wisdom of astrology.

NAVIGATING by the Sky

Saturn(control) SQUARES Uranus(sudden change) and lots of Neptune in my whirl

I am a Hawaiian, and Pete is a Mid-western born Hawaiian in the heart. Someday we will be back on the AINA (on the islands of my birth). One thing is for sure, my culture travels with me and it spills into our Vardo like coconut butter (yummmmm). I am a Hawaiian activist, a believer in the Nation of Hawaii and the rights of Kanaka Maoli (the first people of the islands) as a sovereign and self-governing nation. Our life as wanderers with multiple chemical sensitivites challenges me to maintain my roots. Distance counts for a woman who needs to 'see her people' and MCS creates such a barrier since I can't be near most of my family because they STINK (Seriously Think I'm Not Kidding ... but still aren't fragrance and chemical free). Anyway, I ramble as I juggle. However, I recognize more clearly today the inseparable connection between my life as a woman with MCS and my kuleana (responsiblity) as a Hawaiian sovereignty activist. Both roles are consistent: they seek to be recognized and respected against all odds. There's a lot to be done to have MCS recognized and the solutions in place of the problems; and the Rights of the Kanaka Maoli have been ignored for more than 100 years. What I see in the sky with Saturn and Uranus squaring off during the coming months is an unavoidable shift in the status quo. Things are going to rock! What roots will fly, what flies will root. (watch for this chant in my up-coming fairy tale Tree Skins.)

HOLLOGRAMS: Truth or Untruth

I have been a rabid learner and fan of astrology even though for decades I really hadn't a real clue of what I was looking at when I read my astrology chart. In the early years, I counted on an astrologer to tell me what was on those charts and I tried to understand things, get a feel for the planets, signs. I read "Your Daily Horoscope" bits from the newspaper and then on-line. See, I've always sought answers from the ethers/others and weighed them against my practical (Capricorn) nature. More recently and particularly since we began building our vardo, Elsa P. from ElsaElsa.com has become a first rate astrology teacher. I'm not putting the gal on a pedestal and she would be the first to say DON'T DO IT. Or, if you do it, it's guaranteed you'll be shooting me down when your projection/veil drops. I'm blattering on about who I am, and how I navigate because it's important to me that those who come here know who I really am. I'm an activist. I'm a Hawaiian. Hawaiians are more than an illusion. We are real people who battle to be recognized. Ah, that sound familiar ... We are people with MCS and we battle to be recognized.

Here's where the astrology of things helps me out. I have Neptune (planet of illusion and magic) in my mid-heaven. It's how people see me. That shifts and changes, people see what they want to see and if I'm not sure ... I might let them see what they want even if that's not really me. Confused? Try living inside this gal for 60+ years. (Just kidding, that is not an invitation!) Here's something Elsa wrote several years ago (click there to read the whole article). It illustrates two things: why I like the way she sees astrology in real life, and what it's like to be living with an illusive illness.


...Real unreality is everywhere you turn. You think something is real (Saturn) but hey! Maybe not!

And personally, I am in element. All the sudden I am making sense to people! Intuition (Neptune) is real (Saturn). Magic (Neptune) is real (Saturn) The ethereal is now real and the real is ethereal and it just keeps going back and forth like that.

I began writing fairy tales once I parked myself on the Ledge in the Woods. In my real adult life decades ago I was paid to write corporate training manuals. One old-time friend commented on my blog, "This is the writing that was waiting to be written." Real or unreality?

Ke Ala O Ka Mahina(the Hawaiian moon calendar)

The 'ole days of the moon just past were powerful. Our choice to become more conscious of Mahina's energy (Lunar energy) in our lives, has established a routine of attending to the how and what we have done in small chunks of time. The 'ole days are review times, not more do times.

From the website the HAWAIIAN MOON CALENDAR:

'Ole Ku Kahi, 'Ole Ku Lua 'Ole Ku Kolu, 'Ole Pau (Seventh to tenth nights)

This is an unproductive time, for `ole means 'nothing', 'without', 'unproductive'. The tides are dangerous and high. The sea is rough and fishing is poor. Some recommend that planting be minimal until `ole pau which ends this unproductive period.

In addition to the 'ole days, I considered the retrograde of Mercury (click on that link for some insight) during these 'ole days and weighed the many contacts and communications we've been having or searching out during the last months and especially, the last three weeks.

We have posted ads, responded to emails and gone back and forth with communications since July with people who might have a place for us to hook-up our vardo and create community with us. The process is hard work, a full-time job and the pay ... is invisible, internal. Like blogging where the blogger can never know who will come to visit/comment/be affected most of our contacts with people are 'stranger meeting stranger.' I know, the internet is all about this sort of relationship, all the more Neptune to spread the mischief of pretense. What is valuable for this post is our intent to be honest, respectful and real in all our communication. Smoke and mirrors abound, and if we pretend to be something we aren't, well we're at major risk. Here's a snip from the latest email and reply between a kind woman who was considering sharing her home with us after reading a flier we left on a bulletin board.

I said,

"Thank you very much for these communications. Our life is one of very clear boundaries, without them we are at risk. We have decided based on our communication back and forth, to pursue other options. Good luck with your search for congenial and trustworthy folk to share your space. I'm happy to learn you are making conscious scent/chemical free choices (she has consciously decided not to use pesticides on her land/home), and wish your daughter safe and gentle times. We are very good people, and you sound like one fine person and a very responsive/loving mom. (Her daughter is fragrance and chemical sensitive). MCS folks are not always as fortunate to have understand and responsive family."

She said in reply,

I have appreciated our communication, and wish you best of luck in your search for the right spot for you both. I have been a bit inspired by the room you built, and am interested in many aspects of healthy, sustainable living/dwelling. It feels like we are so off on the wrong foot in much of our culture, and our immune systems are less able to handle the onslaught. Wishing you fine people good health and happiness.

Mercury continues to be retrograde until the 29th (tomorrow) and there are options for winter space pending ... the options are in our IN BOX, and we're waiting while doing what can be done. This post is something I can do to make my intentions and my identity as honest and real as I can. It will be important as the next chapter of our unfolding lives offers up a blank slate. It is very possible this blog will change significantly when we leave the Ledge. Perhaps with that in my intuitive mind, I wrote Part 2 of the fairy tale WOOD CRAFTING so I'd remember what it was really like to live with fairies, the nature of trees and the possibilities of magic.

From the floor in VardoForTwo on the Ledge in the Woods,
Mokihana


Photo Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Egypt.jpg

POST 101: A new look

Aloha,

VARDOFORTWO has a new look. A 'minima' look (it's the name of the template I've chosen) to begin post # 101. When we lived in homes with foundations attached to the earth I was a room changer ... that is I'd shift the furniture, pictures, do-dads around. Pete never knew what he'd find when we came home from work at night. I've loved doing that in my past lives, and now life is a little different. So, I thought a change on the blog could substitute. Hope you like it.

My internet fast and recouperating time has been good. I am feeling less jittery, a bit more restored, and there are things I can do a little differently as I move forward with life and the world of blogging. I began blogging with usual zeal and determination, the sort that has been characteristic of my decisions throughout my life, and before I knew it I had written more than 100 posts (on three blogs) in less than four months. Like my fav astrology said today on her blog, 'it's the way I comb my hair' and what would you judge the way a gal combs her hair? What I did discover as I combed my hair during my internet fast and recoup time is ... some topics fry my wiring, not because they're BAD, rather they fry my wiring because it sends my anger-and-outrage meters over the top. And, for a gal already living with a system over the top from x,y,z,a,b,c and d ... at sixty-one years in this body, I need to part my hair on the other side for awhile.

Being an activist is righteous work, and necessary to the balance of things. I have done more than my share of it. For now, I need to let some issues and battles be fought by others. Pete and I have so much on our plate, and in our soup bowls already. Finishing VARDOFORTWO as a safe and liveable home is a big job. So, as as I write Post #101 with a new look to the blog, I practice a bit of the Zen Habit (thanks for the reminder Leslie) and simplify my focus here on VARDOFORTWO. I need to stay away from the "P" word ... I'll not even write the word out. I know there are capable sisters and brothers out in the blogsphere who are communicating the issues that affect EARTH and ALL THAT IS, and they are raising A GRAND STINK ABOUT IT I GOTTA TELL YA! Thank you all for your work and your energy. The shift for me may be subtle or dramatic, I am not quite sure how it will play out. You decide for yourself as VARDOFORTWO the blog evolves. I will listen with my whole self and see how I hear.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities manifests in each of us in different ways, and in as many different ways, we are activated to be a model for change. I recently asked a sister blogger and MCSer how activitists sustain for the long haul ... activitists for any number of reasons ... I think we came away with no answers. Perhaps the answers will come as I continue my journey to be at peace with my nature, and my journey. It's nice to be back.

Mahalo, Mokihana

PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK

Yesterday an issue relating to the life of bees turned me into a little volcano. Susie Collins over at The Canary Report was the messenger of the story that caused the volcano-making. Here's the link to that story about the state of Hawaii Department of Agriculture's decision to poison all the wild bee hives in Hilo Town, on the island of Hawaii.

Here is an excerpt from the article appearing in the Honolulu Advertiser:

The state Department of Agriculture plans to poison wild honey bee hives in Hilo as an emergency measure to stop a growing infestation of bee-killing varroa mites, and warns the public against eating honey from wild hives over the next three weeks.

The department is using a “crisis exemption” to deploy the insecticide fipronil at about 200 baiting stations within a five-mile radius of Hilo Harbor.

Pesticide is never, in my opinion, a solution. I know there are always opinions in very high places (not heaven) that argue against my opinion and yet, pesticides repeatedly are the source of physical break-down in my thyroid gland and brain cells. Those of us disabled with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities know without doubt the malignant effects of the 'pesticide solution.'

As part of my volcanic condition yesterday, I sought guidance through my prayers and meditative walks along the shore praying for "the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." I found peace with my volcanism -- the part of me that knows courage comes from the fire of transformation. Then I took action: I made calls, sent emails and sought other opinions.

I have emailed Beyond Pesticides to ask if their organization is aware of the state of Hawaii's decision to use fibronil. I have yet to get a reply. A phone call to one of my dear friends here in Washington who is also MCS offered me other avenues to learn more and perhaps abate this action.

Last night I get this email from Bobby McClintock in Honolulu. HERE'S A SOLUTION, and a way to abate the irresponsible and arrogant belief that "pesticides are the solution."

"This is too important an issue to not pass on. Please sign on to this petition from the Pesticide Action Network. Those disabled with MCS will be particularly interested in the N statement in the A through Z categories. Please move down to see N in its entirety from just the statement. Please also pass this on to your entire network.

Thanks! Bobby"

NEWEST POLL: HEALTH CARE for FOLK living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

RE: HEALTH CARE POLL ... vote for as many answers that apply to you.

I have just posted our newest poll, and it's a question that I am boggled by every month ... every time it comes time for me to mail a check to pay for my health insurance. My relationship with the existing traditional western medicinal system is difficult. I have very little trust in the system as a whole and yet I have continued to pay nearly $300 a month for a service I fear. Is that a sign of disfunction or what? Susie Collins over at The Canary Report has once again been stirred (thanks to one of our vigilant sister canaries, Linda) to raise the issue of safe services or not so safe services of the medical variety. There are two very important posts on Canary, and rather than repeat them here at VARDOFORTWO, I encourage you to read the articles and comments Susie has collected.

The poll I have created is a way for me to sort through the contradictions I feel about health care, health insurance and the risks involved in using facilities/services/products that are known to make me sick or sicker. There are patient advocacy and preparedness steps sited in Susie Collins' post about MCS in a hospital setting, that can be made in advance, and I will review them to see how I could reassure myself. The experience of being on the continent where Winter snow and ice presents further challenges to remaining 'safe', adds to my swirl of confusion. One of our Canary friends slipped while on a wintery walk last week, and broke her ankle. Her sensitivities did not prevent her from managing a hospital stay and surgery to repair the break. I'm not sure I could make that same choice?

How do you choose to care for yourself when it comes to medical-hospitalization and wellness decisions? Your vote on the poll and any comments and experiences, or your email on the subject would be so appreciated.

When a shed is a home

Elizabeth Feudale-Bowls of Allentown, Pennsylvania lives in a steel shed near her home because she has multiple chemical sensitivities. The shed is a safe place for her. Her neighbors think it's "a eyesore" and the judge has ruled that because Elizabeth Feudale-Bowls and her husband did not comply with building code, the shed will be taken down at the end of the month. Stories like these attract the attention of all of us with environmental illnesses like Elizabeth experiences. The article in Mail Online the internet version of the UK Daily Mail notes that "simple things like laundry dryer sheets and ...." make her sick.

Friday, November 7, 2008

I began this post two weeks ago when VardoForTwo was just being born.(This post shows the date of my original draft) I wasn't sure how to include Elizabeth Feudale-Bowls' story, yet. Now, I do. As I rested and recouped from the affects of a toxic exposure to dryer sheets I tracked down a followup story about Elizabeth. She is appealing the judge's ruling to tear her safe place down. The attention she is getting is a double-edged sword (geez I don't actually like that image, but ... perhaps you have another way of putting it). She is fighting for her safety and getting a lot of negative/positive attention. It takes a lot to do what she and her husband are doing. I've posted a comment on the Seattle Examiner on line article that invited feedback.