none for me, thank you

We've had a rainy weekend here and the cat expresses her displeasure every time she comes in. We've been getting rain fairly regularly since September and let me tell you, the mosquitos that didn't bother us all the long dry summer are fierce and abundant out there now. Even when it's not raining you can't stay out for long unless you want to coat your skin with poison. It takes them less than a minute to zero in on you.

I'm not a big fan of poison myself. I've never understood why people spread poison all around their homes and yards on a regular basis. My neighbor, when the kids were growing up, would always warn me when they sprayed their yard and around their house so that I could make sure the kids didn't go over there for a day or two. I also don't get the anti-bacterial craze. I prefer to keep my good bacteria alive and my immune system strong.

When I was younger, in my pre-glass days, I and my then husband bought some poison for roaches from an exterminating place and only read the cautions and warnings after we got home. I was so horrified that I didn't even want to touch the glass jug. We returned it to them, asking for our money back. The salesman/exterminator guy reacted with scorn and derision and by way of demonstrating how harmless the stuff was put a coin in the gum machine, got a gum ball, sprayed it with some of the same stuff and popped it in his mouth. I'm sure my revulsion must have shown on my face as he laughed at us on our way out.

You will never convince me that poisons and neurotoxins are targeted and safe. That doesn't mean I haven't bombed my house a time or two in desperation but I am acutely aware of absorbing the residue.

Because I see something fundamentally wrong with poisoning my home and environment I've become a live and let live kinda gal. My spiritual outlook was evolving too. When you pay attention, it's amazing how many things humans kill in the course of a day, without thinking. Without it even being necessary. I raised my kids to respect all life and to refrain from killing some small creature just because it is there or stripping a tree or shrub of leaves out of idleness. I've tried to teach the same to my grandkids, to not step on that little bug there on the ground that deserves it's own small life just as much as they do, to be gentle and not cause injury to the lizard or garden snake or toad or butterfly that they have caught out of curiosity. It's why I catch insects and lizards in the house and release them outside, it's why I rescue goats from dogs and possums out of rain barrels, why I let the wasp nests stay and encourage the fire ants to bed in the field. I refrain from killing or disturbing that which does me no harm. It's why my property is a no kill zone.

And so, if there is little justice in the world, at least there is irony.

I'm a country girl now. I live in a little neighborhood in the county outside a small town sandwiched between agricultural fields. The crop duster was back the other day zooming low over our house to make his banking turns as he sprayed defoliant on the cotton. Defoliant. Heinous stuff.

I stayed inside thankful that it was, at least, a windless day.

*if you are here via the link from agairupdate, read this one too.