Wishes for the city

oh, how I would love, love, love something like this. It literally makes me ache with longing.



I love the idea of cities creating space, right in the center, for pedestrians and unmotorized life. More interested in beauty and well being than getting folks in cars from point A to point B.

I am hopeful for Birmingham.

Whole Trends

There is a movement that is growing rapidly, perhaps you have seen or heard about it. It is called many things; "Green", "Localvore", "Slow Foods"....you know, Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver and CSA's and growing your own food, etc. An argument I have heard often against this is: It's so trendy. People are only into it because it's cool.

My response-So what?

If it is cool to eat well and support local economy and wonder where your lettuce comes from, well, I don't have a problem with that. Sure, the name Michael Pollan is thrown around...and the word "organic" has been raped of it's original meaning. I know that there is also a growing trend of Industrial Organic farming (meaning feed lots and no grazing, but 'organic' feed and grains) and that Whole Foods gets the majority of it's food from a few huge farms, but I am still hopeful. I think that the reason this trend has caught on is that it is what our society is longing for. It feels good, it connects us to things bigger than us (that does not have a CEO).


It is bigger, yet smaller. The world is huge now, much too big for me to grasp. Aren't we made for community? I see so much community in talking to a farmer about his land as you buy eggs and radishes from him. Seeing their children, the ones they are supporting with the vegetables that they refuse to poison on the land that they don't want to sell to an Industrial Farm. Knowing that the peaches you eat are grown just a few miles from your house and the honey you put on your toast is from a hive that has not been lost in Alabama. Sure, that means that I haven't had grapes in a while, and I do miss that. But I will not be eating a tasteless peach or homogenized honey.

This is not to say that I am against eating all things not grown here. I do it all the time. However, each time I shop, I think about my food and my body. I wonder how tasty a tomato that is just now ripe in the stores, clearly picked weeks ago and ripened in a truck is going to be. I normally pass it up. There are some (many) things that are not produced here, and I am thankful that I am able to get them if I so desire (coffee!).

Here is my point (and I do have one)-If everyone who is following this 'hip new food trend' wondered about their food, a difference would be made. I believe in grass roots movements and small change. I believe that my shopping trends and eating trends have an impact. I believe that our families will be healthier and our children more respectful of their food and community. I believe it is better for my health (both body and mind) to eat good, wholesome food that I or someone in my community has grown. I know that homemade stock if better than store bought, sue me.




In the words of a good friend: F*@k cornsyrup.

You say you got a real solution

What.on.earth.?



Haven't you heard...Larry Langford is like the King of Ninevah?!

I am all for prayer. Believe me. Recently, it has been all I can cling to. But this seems, I don't know, gross. I am trying to put my finger on why. It gives me the heeby jeebies.

Our city is going to be joke soon. A bankrupt joke.

I will probably be imprisoned for treason against the king tomorrow. That is how effed up and ridiculous it is becoming.

Dirt manicures preferred

I have been spending my lunch break reading Farmgirl Fare, a blog that chronicles a 26 year old (then married) woman's journey from urban Cali to a huge farm in Missouri. See also Writings from Woodridge Farm, the newsletters from the very beginning.

I want to follow her. My coworkers make fun of me because I want a goat and 2 chickens. Really badly. My back porch has no room for a table with all of the pots of vegetables growing. My Dad laughed when he saw the tray of seedlings growing on top of my washer (hey, it's warm there!).

As I consider the Great Wide Open and where life may take me (both physically and emotionally) in the days and years to come, I am starting to wonder if I need to go where the Buffalo Roam (or the Lemon trees grow...whatev). Can I do both...urban and country? do I want to?

I don't know where God is leading me, but it seems that it is somewhere where the air is clean and people don't scoff at bike commuting and maybe, just maybe, a chicken coop in the backyard is ok.