For some reason, though, I can’t seem to really get into the spirit of spring. Oh, wait, maybe it’s because, in addition to all the usual pain and suffering in the world, the inequities and injustice, the fact that much of the rest of Canada is still buried under a mountain of snow and too many of them are homeless or impoverished, there’s that unfortunate little reality we call Fukushima. Plus the fact that just yesterday I was bundled up in a winter parka and toque, and today it’s t-shirt and shorts weather. I had resigned myself to the unpredictability of climate change, each day a new surprise, but this new nuclear meltdown invites an entirely different level of consideration.
It’s nine days since the massive tsunami (sparked by human or natural causes as yet unknown) devastated northern Japan, and the power of the human will to reject what it finds distasteful is proving to be, once again, astounding. Of course the good people of Canada empathize with the plight of the Japanese, they’re opening up their pocket books and pouring millions of dollars into aid agencies … again, even though we’re still not sure how much of the aid we bought actually made it to the people of Haiti. We’re a generous people, we know what suffering is (many of us having survived at least a few Canadian winters), but for some reason there’s a river of denial when I suggest that we’d best be taking precautions ourselves as the nuclear fallout reaches our shores.
Thankfully there are other brave souls out there, willing to accept the reality of the situation. Most of my friends are plugged into truth of various sorts - corporate and government scandal and corruption, the ways clearcutting and industry contribute to climate change, inequality and injustice and the associated cruelty resulting in homelessness, poverty, destitution, depression - and we’ve had serious conversations about Fukushima and its long term consequences. I realized there are others who accept the reality of nuclear poisoning as I began my search for antidotes. I’ll admit that I hadn’t really thought about the implications of nuclear fallout, all this way across the sea, until a friend suggested it a week ago, but once I began to connect the sensations I was feeling in my thyroid region with the research I was finding on the internet, I took my trusty card to the local health and vitamin shops and loaded up on supplies.
All the kelp tablets were sold out, so I invested in dried dulse, bull kelp, chlorella, vitamineral greens, and a heavy metal cleanse supplement. I began eating a daily bowl of miso soup, adding engevita yeast, cayenne pepper, and sea vegetable sesame sprinkles to it. I’m drinking mineral tea, and another herbal tea mixture especially designed to help adrenal glands. I continue to eat organic and vegan food, minimal sugar, and of course no meat (these latter two enhance the ability of cancer cells to reproduce). I put my name on a list to receive a potassium/iodine mineral supplement a local store specially ordered for the occasion, and since it arrived have added it to my regime, along with daily salt, clay, and scrub baths.
When I’m at home, with rosemary or lavender essence in the air, and the ability to relax or stimulate my thyroid via various yoga asanas, I feel mostly okay. But my thyroid region now feels perpetually awakened, a constant reminder that all is not well. When I leave here and venture into the world, like yesterday, I end up with a rather significant headache, tired burning eyes, tingly and dry lips, feeling fatigue and with no appetite.
Textbook symptoms, these, though when people ask me how I am, and then agree that yes, they really want to know, they respond with disbelief. It’s probably just a flu, they say, and laugh, stay away from me! Or, you don’t really believe it’s connected to that, do you? It’s too soon for anything to have reached here. And my favourite so far – oh don’t worry, there are radiation leaks all the time.
Are you freaking kidding me, I want to say, but don’t. At first I was offended, or surprised, or both depending on who I was speaking with. I’ve since learned to brace myself for their responses, and now remain as calm as is possible while explaining that yes, if you look at the jet stream, we are in fact on the radar. We’re not receiving the bulk of it, that’s going to California where much of our food supply is sourced, but the earth’s a closed ecosystem and the winds do blow across the sea. And yes, I really am feeling this. I tried to deny it for the first couple of days, but now it’s just impossible.
My thoughts are with the people of Japan, the people of Libya and Bahrain and Yemen. If I believed in god I’d pray to her. We are all merely trying to survive. We want true democracy. We want to live on a planet that hasn’t been irreparably poisoned. We don’t want any more stinking kings and queens and presidents and dictators imposing their quest for power and control on all the rest of us. One friend of mine, also loading up on vitamin and mineral supplements even though she’s way off the radar in Texas, said “there’s a lot of evil in the world.” I said I don’t think there’s a lot of evil in the world, I think there’s a very small amount of it, but for some reason our human ancestors have allowed to it be concentrated in positions of power and dominance. And the small number of people who fill those positions, their decisions impact all the rest of us. My friend agreed, and reminded me that none of us are off the radar.
And now they're playing their war game$ in Libya, under the pretext of protecting civilians. It's always about protecting civilians, and it's always the civilians who end up dead at the hands of their stupid boy toy$.
Last night, as the first rain for days began to fall, I covered my balcony plants with plastic. Today I gave them a good dose of kelp food. Tomorrow I’ll do my best to source food that hasn’t been contaminated by human greed and hubris. Right now I'm going to hide under my blankie and hope that somewhere in the universe there's a better, saner, world.
Click here to learn more about natural remedies for radiation and toxic overload.
Click here to see the jet stream.
Good luck.
