Holding back the floodwaters

We here in the Red River Valley have certainly seen the awesome force of the Mighty Red, but I have also seen firsthand that same liquid force through the Missouri River in Bismarck/Mandan and beyond. It starts way up in the mountains, or is it the ocean, or somewhere? Then it gathers liquid as it flows, from all different sources and tributaries, growing as it continues its journey until it becomes too much - it starts to overflow its banks and its accepted channels that have been dug for its flow. How much do you need? A lot? Then the banks are steep and the channel deep. Not so much? Then your river is not so wide nor so deep - it doesn't need to hold as much volume of water energy.

But what happens, then, when the volume exceeds what you've planned for, what you can handle, what you need? BAM! Flood Time! I've stopped spending money. I've stopped buying unnecessary things. I've cancelled some online purchases that hadn't been shipped yet, I cancelled my website upgrade and my Lifetime Weight Watcher's membership. I downgraded my Netflix account. Great - I think - I'm so good! But then the dentist's bill comes - $1500! Crap. Then the food I'd ordered from before arrives, along with the vegetable spiraler, and the cardboard boxes are starting to pile up again. That's my sign that I'm buying too much - too many boxes in the garage.

I look at my credit card balances and see temporary authorizations have gone through - I forgot I bought that, I say. Must've really needed it. So even though I've stopped the water flow at the source (hopefully), I feel the energy of consumerism still flowing through my veins and my house and my life. I took some money out of savings to pay off one of my credit cards.

"I love you more than life itself," my sweet husband says to me this morning, "but don't use this money to buy more stuff, okay?" He is THEE kindest man in the entire UNIVERSE. Other men would be like, "Yo - knock that buying crap off - enough already!"

"I'm not buying anything anymore, remember?" I say.

"Good."

I'm not sure if he believes me. I can understand why he'll need to see me transforming for a few more months. I think he's kind of interested that I'm not eating red meat or pork anymore, but it's not affecting him at all, so no worries, anyway. My 11 year old is leaning away from the cow/pig thing, too, which secretly (well, not so secretly - openly) excites me because I think it IS better to not ingest that stuff, and don't even GET me started with the antibiotic/hormone/parasite factors of those meats. We've always strived to eat Lynn Brakke's amazing organic beef, and organic pork when we could find it, but still...

I've set the end of this year for this grand experiment, but I'm already thinking that's not near long enough, and why in the world would I NOT choose this lifestyle permanently? Do we EVER need unnecessary things? Do we ever NEED to eat cows and pigs? Well, I'm still researching the whole B12 thing, but I'll get back to you on that, I promise. In the meantime, I'm so thankful the water didn't damage our river home in Bismarck, just as I'm thankful my life hasn't been damaged by my own over-consumerism. Likewise, my health hasn't been damaged by my carnivore tendencies. For all of that, I am most thankful. I have built the Channel for my life energies, and I watch the waters stay safely in their banks, just as our money is now staying safely in the bank.