Water is Life II

Water means many different things to many different people. Fisherman, travelers and surfers all have one thing in common. Water, holistically, is life. 

Life travels have taken me from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the deep snow of Wyoming mountains. Moving to the West Coast in 2008 to further personal and professional life, I landed in Venice, CA. As mentioned in the first installment of "Water is Life", I loved it. I still love it and return for work and play as much as possible. 

Tap Water

This is a first world country and we are immensely lucky to be provided with clean-er and easily accessible drinking water. Something we totally take for granted.

But have you investigated the tap water in major cities? Tap water was quite the topic in Los Angeles. My friends in my wellness and yoga communities, most being affluent and able, were borderline obsessed. And for good reasons. Anti-Depressants among other lovely ingredients are apparently on tap.

Yeah, yeah - like with anything these days, we can find both sides to any argument with Google.

But who is paying attention to how long term usage of what we perceive to be clean tap water, the tap water of 2018, will affect us? Around the world, coming from now chemical-laden lands, old pipes, and “treatment” to make it “consumable”, how much are we considering the true outcome of today's tap water? 

How many people in this great first world country of the United States are aware of the pH levels in our tap water? The pH levels in our own bodies?  The pH levels in the seemingly healthiest of humans? And the relationship between the two? 

I worked in the upper echelons of food and wine, serving those in the wealthiest and most well-educated counties of the nation. Guests would proudly state, night after night, that they preferred tap water from the local reservoir. To some degree this is great as most bottled water is proven to be no better, especially when bottled in plastic. But given their responses and reasoning, if this wealthy educated population is not informed, then how can the general public be informed? 

Consider that pharmaceutical and over-the-counter drugs are regulated, too. Yet how have they affected the well-being of the United States of America?

I’m no water pro, but as a holistic health coach, the first thing we put an eye on is food and water consumption. The quality of both matter. I’ve spent my fair share of time educating myself and others on these topics toward healthier lifestyles. This work is about shifting our minds and bodies for the better. This progression allows us to provide positive support of family, friends and teams on all levels.

I will never forget the color of my grandmother’s tap water in New Orleans. Yellow. Seriously. When we drew a bath, it was yellow. 

I don't know for sure what the correlation is between the diseases in my immediate family and grandparents and the water. But Cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and A.L.S. seems like too many major diseases for only eight people. A few variables to consider would be the food/water consumed, breast fed vs bottle fed, vaccinations, antibiotics, and swimming in ditches as kids with chemical plants located just around the corner. But I can certainly take a well-educated guess based on what scientists now offer today.

Yellow tap water. How is this any different from a Third World? Because it’s been treated - with what?! Yes, of course there are differences, between New Orleans and Haiti, but with population alone moving at an ever-increasing rate, where are we headed? I find it to be a bit of a concern given decades gone by. Populations exploding, over-consumption of everything, doctors doling out anti-depressants like candy... we are still asking…  where are we heading?

Too Close To Home

In May 2018, I found myself back in Louisiana due to loss of my sibling to A.L.S. In speaking with my childhood babysitters, they anxiously shared information about not only the well-known increase of cancer cases in Cancer Alley, but even another case of A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, within blocks of where we grew up. Hearing this at the services for my sister was too much. It led me into a tailspin again eventually leading to this writing. 

Again, I dove into research, trying to pin down how to create awareness around such outrageous happenings. Overwhelmed, I again set it aside. Yet today, I've reopened this vault and remain open to ideas, opinions, and teamwork as strength in numbers is everything.

This article, Cancer Alley: Big Industry, Big Problems highlights: “Clusters of poverty and sickness shadow America’s Industrial South”.

Shouldn’t we have heard a lot more about this by now?

Admittedly, I haven't lived in Louisiana since 1993. Perhaps it is a hot topic, but from what I can tell, it is swept under the rug much like the patriarchal tendencies. If you know differently, by all means reach out.

Had you heard of the depth of the poverty akin to a Third World country in the greater New Orleans area prior to Hurricane Katrina?

Yeah - maybe that's why we have heard so little...

The bottom image above is a vivid reminder of what I grew up breathing. Striking compared to the top image where I picked up and moved to in 1993, and where I reside part-time today. Clean air so sharp it shocked my lungs when I arrived. On the contrary… Chemicals. In the air. In the ground. In the water. Water that waters everything we ate. Water we swam in during hot humid summers. No escape. 

But hey - best sunsets in the world.

No matter whether your family comes from Uptown New Orleans or out in the 9th Ward, gritty Venice Beach of yesteryear or Beverly Hills, we are all consuming chemicals in immense quantities. The map below represents the realities of chemical plant emissions along the river from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Whoa.

Given what we are all facing, growing exponentially in the last two years with our oh-so-great, so-called leader of the free world straight up attacking our environment, what can we do?

Small, local steps are awesome. But is it enough? 

Will change happen quick enough? For your kids? For your nieces and nephews? For any of us? 

The time is now. It is up to us. 

Everything is up to us. 

It is actually so far past time that we take matters into our own hands. 

Yes. Creating change is a lot of commitment.

Not only for oneself, but for the impact that ripples out from ONE person deciding to commit to change.

What do you want to CHANGE? 

For yourself? Your family? Your team?

If you don’t change, what will it COST you?

What will it cost them?

NO-BRAINER pro-environment baby steps dating back a few decades…

Bring your own coffee mug to the coffee shop.

Bring your own grocery bags to the grocery.

Say no to plastics of all kinds.

Say no to styrofoam. (The South loves styrofoam - WHY?!)

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. 

Pick up trash you see on the freaking ground!

VOTE. Vote with your purchasing power. Every penny counts.

Water is life.

Soil is life.

Holistic health is our birthright.

I hope to meet more people interested in telling these stories that matter. 

Water is Life I

Water is a reoccurring theme. It keeps reappearing, so I keep paying attention.

Holistic health includes all realms of life. As a holistic health coach and consultant, we cover this long list beginning with consumption: intake of food and water with a keen eye on quality. What it comes down to is that food and water is medicine, lifestyle is medicine, and by re-framing this, much of the physical, mental and emotional rebalance toward optimal, and then extraordinary living takes place.

First, I must address Cancer Alley.

Second, Water is Life II, will address what was shared first-hand from my childhood babysitters and neighbors in May 2018 who are still living in Cancer Alley today. Stories of not only cancer, but mysterious disease and even another case of ALS in addition to my sister’s in our same small neighborhood.

Third, Water is Life III, ties in freedom. We can lead horse to water, but we can’t force him to drink, right? But when there is a will there is a way. We then create opportunity.

CANCER ALLEY

Cancer Alley is a 150-mile stretch along the Mississippi River in South Louisiana from the capital of Baton Rouge down through New Orleans, home to over 100 industrial plants producing one quarter of our nation’s petrochemicals. Cancer Alley is where I grew up.

To quote activists within this realm…

"... taken from the book Petrochemical America by photographer Richard Misrach and landscape architect Kate Orff (2012): For the past 50 or more years, society has been increasingly reliant on the products of the organic chemical industry to supply the clothes we wear, the food we eat, our health, housing, transportation, security, and other commodities. Approximately 92% of organic chemical products are produced from petroleum, that is, fossil, or mineral, oil, and gas. In addition, these same resources are generally used to provide the large quantities of process heat and power needed by the industry. In the modern petrochemical industry, oil and gas inputs for both raw material and process energy compose around 50% of the operating costs. The result is that not only is the chemical industry (including petrochemicals) the industrial sector with the HIGHEST EMISSIONS WORLDWIDE, it is also very vulnerable to variations in fossil fuel prices and carbon prices.”

To state what I hope is rather obvious… if all of these chemicals are in the air we breathe, the earth, the food and water we consume, then what is becoming of human beings? 

Essentially, we are Cancer Alley.

Now the greater theme of this Water is Life series stems from my early days of breaking societal norms, leaving the expectations of others behind, thinking outside of the box, dropping fears and stepping into the great unknown, walking less accepted paths.

The story rolls from Cancer Alley to living in the lands of the free and the brave with room to roam and room to breathe, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I grew up in the Deep South of New Orleanian culture, firmly rooted in its European past alongside its revelry, layered with extremely conservative traditions and overarching patriarchal tendencies. Tendencies being a loose term. A culture of mixed messages laden with massive doses of guilt to keep its people in line. It was suffocating and challenging to navigate beneath the masks of manners and southern hospitality. It never felt free to me in any way. Oppressive would be more appropriate.

Being raised to “figure it out” on my own was another severe contradiction while saluting the culture's strict guidelines at the same time. None of it made sense. By the time I graduated from college I was beyond ready to run for the hills. And that is quite literally how it played out.

Folks from the South often say to me, “You are so lucky.” I never understood that luck had anything to do with it. I apparently channeled free will, climbed into my little beater car, stuffed a couple hundred dollars saved from my full-time “acceptable” minimum-wage job into my pocket, and rolled out.

No bragging or boasting here… I was only 22. I was financially on my own so did not feel indebted to anyone, trusted my gut and did what I suppose I needed to do so that I could breathe. So what does this have to do with water?

Well, my parents regularly reminded us that that my father had moved his family away from Cancer Alley to a healthier place. As a competitive child athlete, I became naturally inclined to focus on health, luckily escaping the eating disorders of other kid gymnasts and dancers. So while I understood what my father had deeply ingrained, I didn’t see much healthy living happening around us within the land of "laissez les bons temps rouler". Outside of the fact that my mother was a nurse who made sure we always had well-balanced meals with a salad on the table every single night, the general population is not health-conscious.

“Laissez les bons temps rouler” means Let the Good Times Roll, with a healthy dose of Catholic church services every Sunday, plus weekly Catechism classes to balance out the partying. Sin today, confess tomorrow. Then we’re allowed through the Pearly Gates at the end of life. No worries about how that much hedonism accompanied by massive guilt might affect the mind, body spirit. Insert eye roll.

College days, the most freeing time of my life, were also far from healthy. Partying at a massive SEC school at all hours most days of the week was the norm. Classes were not challenging and professors didn’t bother with roll call, so skipping class and passing was a breeze. Cheating and gaining copies of tests that never changed year after year was not only fine, but totally encouraged. Those days were a trip. 

Running for the hills, driving first to Colorado then Wyoming, my gut and likely my liver were yelling, “Hello. Can we please detox?!” My body spoke and I listened. While detox didn’t happen all at once, the shift happened. My nutritional consumption and lifestyle transitioned to far opposite of my homelands. Sticking to what was cutting-edge including vegetarianism and veganism throughout the 90’s, I transformed back into the athlete who excelled. As the years went by, additions of daily yoga and other progressive practices combined with continuing education proved effective. I even healed severe environmental allergy issues, sinus infections and exercise-induced asthma. Afflictions that had previously made life miserable. 

When you can't breathe on multiple levels, how can you feel free?

What does this have to do with water?

Our bodies are comprised of up to 70% water. Everything we consume that is best for us needs water to exist.

As a holistic health coach, I became amazed at the number of clients who did not realize basic water consumption was a massive component to cleaning and clearing their biological systems. Hydration was often key, but ignored in reaching their most basic goals such as losing those last 5 pounds. Quality and quantity of water consumption is one essential key to feeling less drained, run-down, hungry, and more clear-headed on a daily basis.

In 2007, I started having dreams about the ocean constantly. I was craving diving into salty ocean waters to the point that I could taste it. I had been land locked for over a decade. Blue waters beckoned. 

I co-founded a fashion line in 2006, so a move to the West Coast made sense not only for business, but in personally trusting my gut in support of my mind, body, and soul. As “woo woo” as that might sound, I packed up and it proved to be the best change I had made in years

While a lot of tumultuous events occurred given the 2008 Recession, to this day, Southern California is by far my favorite climate. The diversity and culture of Venice before it shifted to the more typical L.A. that is is today was almost as amazing as where I grew up. It will always be one of my favorite homes.

But it’s also crowded, polluted Los Angeles. The tap water quality is questionable at best. My friends in the wellness community I rubbed shoulders with in packed yoga classes daily were constantly geeking out on water quality, the pineal gland’s relationship with water quality, and all sorts of newer-to-me info hailing from Louisiana and the Rocky Mountain West. They were always just ahead of the curve and I soaked it up like a sponge. 

While on break from city life, grounding down back in the Wyoming mountains where I had spent my 20’s, life handed me yet another change of course. A freak accident resulting in a severely broken leg turned my break in the mountains into a full halt. I said, "OK, well if this is what’s happening, it is what it is.” I trusted the process. Thankfully, I was able to navigate what ensued including a second surgery a year later.

During this time, “Water is Life” was revived in my being with the Dakota Access Pipeline situation at Standing Rock in 2016. 

That movement moved me to tears daily.

Cancer Alley was refreshed in my being. The land where oil business is king and chemical plants are queens sitting within some of the most poverty-stricken areas of the United States. We don’t need to leave the country to see the Third World, folks. Livelihoods depend on the oil industry and the chemical plants. But many of the people are in denial or uninformed to this day of the cost. That cost being human lives. The health, wellbeing, and literally the lives of local residents are simultaneously being supported and stripped away.

I became obsessed with the unacceptable.

Living in affluent hyper-bubbles in Wyoming, Colorado and California, I felt far away, small, and even in trying to make change happen within my local community, somewhat disempowered. My community was alpha, highly competitive, and seemingly unable to identify from a small town where “co-opetition” wasn’t a concept I could communicate nor effectively embed even within the wellness industry.

But water quality is far from a new fight, right? Remember Erin Brockavich?

As for the manly men currently taking up space in the White House - the last couple years have certainly confirmed that they do not have our backs nor our best interests at heart. Entitlement is all around us.

Making shift happen is up to us. The time is now.