Natural Clothing Blog

“Mom, why do they keep talking about the war? Is it coming?” I remember asking anxiously. It was  Cold War and living in communist Poland, nothing was granted. My parents, my teachers, my neighbors has still not recovered from going through devastation of Second World War, my grandfathers were dead, killed there. I remember that in my grade school class there were a couple of “odd” kids, who had still living grandfathers. The rest of us had just grandmother and that was a norm. Our grade school teacher survived Auschwitz concentration camp. The warnings about what to do if you find an old grenade, were part of our education – many years after the war ended.

Not that the Poland was a stranger to war. Located between Germany, Russia and Austria through history, it spent its thousand years of existence  involved in more wars than one wished to remember. One thing is quite clear to me: no matter who was the attacker and who was a defender, since the roles changed a lot, nobody really won. The atrocities stopped occasionally but the memories in people’s mind did not. It continued into other generations.  Just like the war did not die for our soldiers coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan, did not die for parents of the ones who has not returned.

21^st September is an International Peace Day.  It was set up in 1981 by United Nations and devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace. The slogan “Peace = Future” says it all. Probably every single economic, social and moral problem could be resolved if we took our attention away from fighting and proving others wrong and turn to true solutions in peace.

Celebrate that day and make it known. Let’s all put together our strong intentions for Peace.  You can check out International Day Of Peace.org for a list of events in your area. If there is none – make it! Organize the get-together in your town. It does not have to be a huge campaign. Print a poster, put it in the window of the car. Tell a friend and neighbor. Get together. Wear Live in Peace Tee shirt. Take any small action you can.

Every newspaper, TV and radio is filled with “the news” about the violence and crime. These are not true news. Let’s fill it with real news – news of Peace.

One can say – nothing; we say – everything. There are probably millions of us around the planet, aghast, upset and worried about the amount of devastation caused by Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Our technological incompetence in face of true catastrophes, the loss of lives, both human and marine, strips away the temporary narcissist faith in our control over the universe.

We were celebrating the Earth Day with our company in our small town, when the news reached media, 41 years after the 1969 Santa Barbra oil spill, which contributed to founding Earth Day itself. Together with number of local organic farms, businesses and organizations, we were acknowledging the accomplished progress in protection of the environment. The oil spill put a different perspective on that – are we really moving forward? There are some, like British The Dark Mountain movement, which see this civilization already past the point of return. As much as unreal this seems – look at the gone ancient cultures: ancient China, the pyramids, the Coliseum in ruins. Civilizations do rise and fall and mostly they destroy themselves.

Nature and our relationship to it are worth a double look each day. Acts of nature are often unpredictable, acts against nature are not. Drilling through 5,000 feet of water and then 13,000 feet of rock are acts of greed, arrogance and unfounded confidence in the superiority of our technical knowledge and equipment. There is nowhere else to point the fingers than ourselves. Our blind love of oil, which Dana Lyons sings about in “Lubricate the Red, White and Blue” feeds 97% of our cars, trucks and plains. When we walk around in conveniently non-wrinkly, easy to wash polyester derived directly from oil, carry our oil derived shopping bags, we condone the price of the event like this one over and over again.

We have reached the state of the illusionary technical expertise which cannot answer the most basic question: “How do you reverse it back to the way things were?” We are so smart combining the chains of polymers but once synthesized, we don’t know how to degrade them. We can split an atom but we have never figured it out how to put it back together. We feed our children Genetically Modified foods, ignoring all the warnings. We give the free ticket to mad scientists to combine plant DNA with fish DNA, spike our soy, corn, wheat, sugar with cancer producing insecticide molecules and most of the time don’t even know it and don’t ask. There is no one on earth able to reverse the loss of 96% of our soy, large percentage of cotton and corn to GMO crops. Most of us don’t even know that we are not eating food anymore, we are eating the largest science experiment in history of humanity, only called “food”. Our grandchildren will tell us if we gambled right. In a meantime, we observe with astonishment the rising of illnesses, “food” intolerances, rash and eczema where our chemical laden clothes touch the skin. Just like when Chernobyl blows up, when drilling rig explodes, we look with surprise at damage created, saddened and always clueless how to reverse it.

At this point there are no perfect solutions, only compromises but first, it is crucial to recover our lost reverence to nature, our respect for natural resources. We need these for thousands more years. Maybe we should not drill the hole if we don’t know how to plug it. A petroleum engineer involved in the spill supposedly said in a radio interview “It just seems like every now and then, you can’t win against Mother Nature.” Correction – you can never win against the Mother Nature. That’s not the direction we want to keep going.

Please, keep doing your part in taking steps, no matter how small or challenging they might be in supporting the eco-friendly efforts and groups which try hard to not work against Mother Nature. We are in it together.

Do you remember the 70’s  - with leaded gas cars, polluted skies, and when rivers caught fire?  Look how far we have come! When Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson created this movement in 1970, 20 million Americans joined the protest. Today Earth Day Network expects 1.5 billion people to be part of global events and programs.

The green community of Snohomish invites you to join us in celebrating Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary. On Thursday April 22nd, 1 pm – 6 pm, local green businesses, farmers, and organizations will display their products and services in KlaHaYa Park, right off historic First Street by the Snohomish River. Various businesses along First Street will also be participating.

Recycling Queen Karen of Snohomish Farmers Market, Full Circle Farm, Flying Tomato and Caruso Farm will present their green ways and eco-friendly methods. Cedar Grove Compost will share secrets of successful composting and Earth Wise Excavation explains how earth work can be done sustainably with care for the environment. Natural Clothing Company will display organic clothing of hemp, organic cotton and other natural fibers, along with information why are organic textiles important for you and even better for the planet! The Boys and Girls Club will display art made from recycled materials. Sip organic coffee from Java Inn while sampling certified organic skincare products from NYR Organic Skincare. Rowdy Rascals Toy Store will demonstrate which toys are safe for your youngsters. Come and meet Chris from Wolf College as he describes his fascinating camps and classes on survival skills and his fascinating camps and classes on surviving in the mountains, wild cooking and herbology and more. SongCroft is a self sufficiency school and a family farm run by Marilene Richardson, who is not only Master Gardner, Certified Permaculture Designer but also an originator of Foundation for Sustainable Community. Check out www.NaturalClothing.com/Earth_Day for a other exhibitors, like Esoterica Candles – all natural soy wax candles, hand-crafted locally.

Each exhibitor will answer the question: how is your business/organization sustainable? The answers might be as varied as the issue. Is it organic? Energy efficient? Recyclable? Reusable? Compostable? Helpful to future generations? You can ponder on that and your own definition at Grilla Bites Cafe, which offers delicious food with lots of organic choices and non-gluten or non –diary options. Grilla Bites composts its trash, serves as a pick up place for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and is a great gathering spot for the community. Join us there after the event for great food at a special Earth Day discount and appropriately enough – Dirt Cake! Also, a showing of the 20 min video by Annie Leonard “The Story of Stuff”, will be a great finale for an amazing day!

Thursday’s Earth Day event is sponsored by Natural Clothing Company and Grilla Bites Café with help from City of Snohomish and Historic Downtown Snohomish.

Don’t forget to join us on Saturday, April 24th, 9 am to 4 pm – for the City of Snohomish Spring Clean-Up. Join us at the Boys and Girls Club, 402 Second Street, for sign up and assignments. Bring gloves, rakes and enjoy a day of fun and community spirit helping to make the city more beautiful. This yearly event is sponsored by City of Snohomish, Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Kiwanis Club and the Snohomish Parks Foundation. There will be lunch served by the Snohomish Lions Club. The Household Clean-Up is held at the City shop yard, 1801 First St where City of Snohomish residents can dispose of household waste items.

There might be no uniform definition of “sustainable” but it is simple to recognize when one really cares about their environment. Our community certainly does –come and see!

In our not-so-natural anymore world I ask myself this question a lot: how much technology do we really need and want in our life to live better?

It is a very interesting question. Nano-technology fascinates many by binding particles like silver, with its anti-bacterial properties, with common materials presumably for our benefit. But there are also serious opponents of that technology with valid concerns about possible health dangers.  As the owner of Natural Clothing Company, I come across much of different and often very interesting information, which does not have a clear cut answers.

Take for example the Chinese Hebei Metals & Minerals Corp, a producer of fiberglass insulation, mineral wool and calcium silicate insulation. These products make an organic person like me shiver… But let’s look. The company is exploring other hi-tech applications as production and sale of the anti-electromagnetic radiation fabric, anti-static fabric and apparel. Their anti radiation material was used by for astronauts.

As many holistic people confirm, there is a growing concern about the effects of electromagnetic wave (microwave) and increased by it cell temperature on human organisms. Hence the concept of anti-electromagnetic radiation fabric was born, shielding 99.99 percent of harmful electromagnetic waves.

Hebei  other path of research involves two naturally occurring materials like bamboo fiber & silver, then spinning and weaving together. The result is an anti-bacterial fiber, which retains its properties with washing, sun etc. On a surface, sounds like natural product. Is it?

OK, my actual question is: can we really protect ourselves from ill effects of technology by increasing our use of the technology itself? Are we playing catch-22 with ourselves?

Hemp, bamboo, even soy  have inherent anti-bacterial properties serving us, as in case of hemp for thousands of years. Well, does it protect from  electromagnetic waves?  Who knows… I know the vibrations of natural fibers do increase our well-being, consciously or subconsciously.  When you put on natural fiber clothing,  your body registers something, a vibe of goodness, a breath of relief.  Maybe a solution is  a “middle path”:  we limit the offensive forces in environment, while we work like crazy to grow and process natural fibers organically. If we fast enough we might repair some of the damage to our earthly home and ourselves.  What do you think?

Have you ever wondered about huge rise of compostable tableware and containers from corn? I did. Majority of corn is Genetically Modified by now – thanks to the companies that are definitely not our environmental friends, making it bit questionable how it eco-friendly they really are. And then – how long do they take to actually decompose? Thank You Umbra Fisk for your article in www.grist.org clarifying a bit what really happens with that corn.

I found out also, what I really wondered about: “yes, the cups are biodegradable, but only in commercial composting facilities or other composts that reach 150 degrees with 90 percent humidity”. We have quite large compost piles for our few acres of veggies but we don’t get that temperature at all. No corn forks go there! Read more at http://bit.ly/BQRSB

The best part of our green business, Natural Clothing Company, are people we meet. Anne from San Francisco introduced us to the project building a new medical center at the base of the Himalayas between Nepal and India. When our family moved away from Seattle few years ago, our son was in a serious health condition. We measured prospective homes in terms of how long would it take us to get him to the Children’s Hospital in emergency. For kids in Jambange a trip to medical help might be impossible right now.

Here is what Anne says: “As a yoga instructor, and customer of the natural clothing company I support the Jambange Project. We are raising funds to build a medical center at the village, and we hope to see in the future the village becoming sustainable by itself. Donating a contribution to the Jambange Project will help all the people at the village to get medical care. You can contact OmGuru for donations. Check out the Jambange website! www.jambange.com . Thank You all!”

Another beautiful part of green movement is that Anne is French, I am Polish, you are who you are. The project is in Himalayas and there are no boundaries to compassion.

I finally got to read “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman. What a book! I heard a lot about it, so I expected somewhat of a dry preaching about the state of planet, how messed up we are and what exactly will happen to each species. What a surprise! The book is not like that at all.

It is wonderfully easy to read, elegant prose that taught me many things that I have never heard about. I learned about the ancient 18 stories deep underground dwellings in Turkey, provided shelter through thousands years of conflicts since 700 BC. I read with interests about place close to my heart – a 600 bison preserve in my native Poland. Alan Weisman writes about hundreds of small colorful details but paints them so lightly that you don’t feel overwhelmed but opposite – intrigued. Alan weaves gently like a painted landscape of  watercolors. As a reader you see different parts and eventually very slowly a bigger view reveals itself. Somewhere within the book, casually, a deeper understanding grows. It is about our role as species in regards to this planet called home. What was here before and what might be after… The nagging question starts to arise – what value did we really bring? What about all art, music, architecture? What did we really contribute here? What is the legacy we would leave? And who will be left to even theoretically benefit from our time limited presence?

It occurred to me that this question is a large scale of the true question that we try as parents to instill in our son’s and daughter’s hearts. “More ice cream” seems fun now. “Play now, work later” seems fun for a while.  ”I’ll try it just once…”, well, we know what happens… It is only if we look at things in magnified terms of long period of time or larger magnitude than ourselves, “what happens if we do all the time?”, “what if all others do the same?” that gives insight and correct judgment on the direction worth taking.

Alan Wiseman presented us that large scale very skillfully, showing gently by facts where we are heading, without the drama or nagging. It is very probable that each of us will take completely different lesson from that book. One thing is sure, we will never will look at the world the same.

Saw a huge eagle circling above the house. Like a good Momma Hen, I ran outside to protect my (remaining) chicken. I shook a stick at the Eagle yelling courageous “Shoo…”. He could care less, of course. The true majesty of his flight, seemingly without any movement, made me jealous…

A tiny town of Kamikatsu, Japan decided few years ago to limit their waste. They started with separating all household waste into 34 different categories designated for recycling. They found it cheaper and more environmentally friendly than alternatives. Look at the picture of their bins!

A bit of work but what if… all the towns do that? What if… all of us did that? The corporations…? What our planet will look like?

On a personal note, since we moved to the country, our joy of reusing material things increased: scraps got to animals, reused paper scraps go to compost, rich compost goes to our soil and we get these awesome vegetables. The unity of this cycle puts the soul at ease.

Many people commented that there was already too much media regarding Michael Jackson. I don’t know, I am not even a huge personal fan of the artist but at the same time, I appreciate the genius of his music. As his art seemingly filled everything last week, I re-watched his video of Earth Song. Why this song is such an environmental rock in Europe but never gained equal visibility in U.S.?  Is it because we wanted to see the features of Michael, the eccentric idol but not the humanitarian, caring deeply about the planet, a founder and benefactor of Heal the World Foundation? Would this not fit the mold we have made for him?

Whatever the case is, re-watch the video. It is filmed with authentic clips and it speaks for all of us.