Debbie Clark Seely had been out of my life for over 36 years, losing track of her once she left Will Rogers Jr. High and went on to high school. Then a couple of years ago she attended one of our LEAD Agency meetings and talked about a dream she had.
She dreamed of developing a housing community for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity who are deemed "Canaries" and fail to thrive in the regular world with all the chemicals there are to be ingested. Think Canaries like the ones used in the coal mines, if the bird died, the mine would be evacuated to protect the miners from carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they hurt humans.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is noted as controversial on the OSHA website or still under debate at Johns Hopkins. But think about it. Chemical companies have power and they certainly would not want that category of disease recognized, as it deems their life's work a potential danger to society. Through the years those suffering symptoms had even been labeled with "environmental illness,” or "sick building syndrome.”
This week Debbie posted a poem she had written, Taken for Granted filled with the whats she would love to do, places she would love to go. She was always a bright and gifted student and still is continuing her education, on-line but longs to:
to sit in a classroom, peruse
the shelves in a library, walk across the
stage to accept my diploma;
As it turned out earlier that same day before reading her poem, Jamie, one of LEAD Agency’s new volunteers lined out what she was planning to do the next day, how she was going to mop and leave the place with a really nice smell. We really value each moment a volunteer offers, but my thoughts went straight to Debbie and others who come to our office as a refuge from added chemicals they must work around. We have tried to make the office be “Kings X” for our Canary friends.
You will catch a whiff of real lemon, cinnamon, fresh baked cookies but not artificial or harsh chemicals at the office. These Canaries reminded me of a soon to be rare bird, the Bluebird of Happiness, the beautiful blue glass birds made in Arkansas at Terra Studios.
About the same time I knew Debbie as a teenager, the Chaplin at Baptist Hospital worked in partnership with me in counseling several youths and their families and out of the blue, he gifted me my cherished Bluebird of Happiness which was probably one of the first ones made. This week the makers of these beauties announced they could no longer make them. They were choosing to no longer make them because of their contribution to climate change.
"It’s time now," James Ulick said. "We can’t wait any longer not if we’re going to protect this wonderful planet that we have for our children and grandchildren." He went on to explain in one year they use more than one-million cubic feet of natural gas to make the birds, which produces a tremendous amount of greenhouse gasses that threaten the earth.
He did not want to be hypocritical and continue the process because it goes against what they stand for — "protecting the planet." During their 37 years they had contributed to greenhouse gasses by using 37 million cubic feet of natural gas, contributing to the threat to the earth.
Protect and cherish those little blue birds and as you do, think about your Canary friends, people you don’t see very often and wonder why. They can’t go to most stores for the bombardment of the odors and smells that they must walk through to shop. They can’t as Debbie said go to church and sing in the choir because of all the shampoos and perfumes mingled in the choir loft. Going out to eat sits you by those lathered with aftershave and freshly applied name brand perfumes that can be detected by a sensitive.
So enjoy your Bluebird, protect your Canary friends, be mindful as the season with the most associated scents. Use real cedar or pine, not artificial. Bake plenty of cookies or bread and quit using the candles artificially scented when you might use bees wax candles produced locally.
And consider the songbirds you have enjoyed throughout your life and understand since 1970 US and Canada have lost 2.9 billion birds including the canaries and blue birds. Their habitats are declining, the quality of our water, air and the availability to find insects gone due to agricultural practices. What affects our "canaries" we must be woke to know can affect us, as Silent Spring author Rachel Carson called out in her book at the beginning of these die-offs.
"If bird populations across all habitats are declining, that means something systemic is happening out there that is no doubt going to be affecting us too," according to John Fitzpatrick, executive director of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Isn't life just better to be having these beautiful things around our yards and over our heads?"
Time has come to change our ways, protect what we have and those who already are allergic to life.
The following is Taken for Granted by Debbie Clark Seely and shared with her permission.
Taken for Granted
I want . . .
to plan a party, open my door to
guests, accept the bottle of wine, pass
a tray of canapés;
to take a bus tour, hike
a trail, walk a shoreline, suck down
raw oysters and champagne;
to go to a movie, immerse
myself at the opera, dance all
night at an open-air concert;
to soak my feet in a bath |
of warm water, get my nails
painted, my hair cut and styled;
to push a cart with a woogedy
wheel, try the samples, buy large
boxes of brightly-wrapped goodness;
to worship in a church pew, sing
from a hymnal, pass the collection
plate and take communion;
to sit in a classroom, peruse
the shelves in a library, walk across the
stage to accept my diploma;
to go to my friend’s parties,
lick sauce off my fingers at
their barbecues, visit their homes;
to crunch frost underfoot, taste
the rain on my tongue, smell
the damp earth at dusk;
to scrunch my bare toes in
the grass, pull a carrot, rake
brightly colored leaves;
to sit under a weeping willow, cast my
jig into the pond, watch children
toss bread to the ducks;
a pat on the back, a
handshake, a massage,
a seduction;
to hug, and
laugh, and touch, and
smile and feel.
Then I will become whole again.
Debbie Clark Seely
Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim
She dreamed of developing a housing community for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity who are deemed "Canaries" and fail to thrive in the regular world with all the chemicals there are to be ingested. Think Canaries like the ones used in the coal mines, if the bird died, the mine would be evacuated to protect the miners from carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they hurt humans.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is noted as controversial on the OSHA website or still under debate at Johns Hopkins. But think about it. Chemical companies have power and they certainly would not want that category of disease recognized, as it deems their life's work a potential danger to society. Through the years those suffering symptoms had even been labeled with "environmental illness,” or "sick building syndrome.”
This week Debbie posted a poem she had written, Taken for Granted filled with the whats she would love to do, places she would love to go. She was always a bright and gifted student and still is continuing her education, on-line but longs to:
to sit in a classroom, peruse
the shelves in a library, walk across the
stage to accept my diploma;
As it turned out earlier that same day before reading her poem, Jamie, one of LEAD Agency’s new volunteers lined out what she was planning to do the next day, how she was going to mop and leave the place with a really nice smell. We really value each moment a volunteer offers, but my thoughts went straight to Debbie and others who come to our office as a refuge from added chemicals they must work around. We have tried to make the office be “Kings X” for our Canary friends.
You will catch a whiff of real lemon, cinnamon, fresh baked cookies but not artificial or harsh chemicals at the office. These Canaries reminded me of a soon to be rare bird, the Bluebird of Happiness, the beautiful blue glass birds made in Arkansas at Terra Studios.
About the same time I knew Debbie as a teenager, the Chaplin at Baptist Hospital worked in partnership with me in counseling several youths and their families and out of the blue, he gifted me my cherished Bluebird of Happiness which was probably one of the first ones made. This week the makers of these beauties announced they could no longer make them. They were choosing to no longer make them because of their contribution to climate change.
"It’s time now," James Ulick said. "We can’t wait any longer not if we’re going to protect this wonderful planet that we have for our children and grandchildren." He went on to explain in one year they use more than one-million cubic feet of natural gas to make the birds, which produces a tremendous amount of greenhouse gasses that threaten the earth.
He did not want to be hypocritical and continue the process because it goes against what they stand for — "protecting the planet." During their 37 years they had contributed to greenhouse gasses by using 37 million cubic feet of natural gas, contributing to the threat to the earth.
Protect and cherish those little blue birds and as you do, think about your Canary friends, people you don’t see very often and wonder why. They can’t go to most stores for the bombardment of the odors and smells that they must walk through to shop. They can’t as Debbie said go to church and sing in the choir because of all the shampoos and perfumes mingled in the choir loft. Going out to eat sits you by those lathered with aftershave and freshly applied name brand perfumes that can be detected by a sensitive.
So enjoy your Bluebird, protect your Canary friends, be mindful as the season with the most associated scents. Use real cedar or pine, not artificial. Bake plenty of cookies or bread and quit using the candles artificially scented when you might use bees wax candles produced locally.
And consider the songbirds you have enjoyed throughout your life and understand since 1970 US and Canada have lost 2.9 billion birds including the canaries and blue birds. Their habitats are declining, the quality of our water, air and the availability to find insects gone due to agricultural practices. What affects our "canaries" we must be woke to know can affect us, as Silent Spring author Rachel Carson called out in her book at the beginning of these die-offs.
"If bird populations across all habitats are declining, that means something systemic is happening out there that is no doubt going to be affecting us too," according to John Fitzpatrick, executive director of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Isn't life just better to be having these beautiful things around our yards and over our heads?"
Time has come to change our ways, protect what we have and those who already are allergic to life.
The following is Taken for Granted by Debbie Clark Seely and shared with her permission.
Taken for Granted
I want . . .
to plan a party, open my door to
guests, accept the bottle of wine, pass
a tray of canapés;
to take a bus tour, hike
a trail, walk a shoreline, suck down
raw oysters and champagne;
to go to a movie, immerse
myself at the opera, dance all
night at an open-air concert;
to soak my feet in a bath |
of warm water, get my nails
painted, my hair cut and styled;
to push a cart with a woogedy
wheel, try the samples, buy large
boxes of brightly-wrapped goodness;
to worship in a church pew, sing
from a hymnal, pass the collection
plate and take communion;
to sit in a classroom, peruse
the shelves in a library, walk across the
stage to accept my diploma;
to go to my friend’s parties,
lick sauce off my fingers at
their barbecues, visit their homes;
to crunch frost underfoot, taste
the rain on my tongue, smell
the damp earth at dusk;
to scrunch my bare toes in
the grass, pull a carrot, rake
brightly colored leaves;
to sit under a weeping willow, cast my
jig into the pond, watch children
toss bread to the ducks;
a pat on the back, a
handshake, a massage,
a seduction;
to hug, and
laugh, and touch, and
smile and feel.
Then I will become whole again.
Debbie Clark Seely
Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim
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