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thegreenthepeacetheorange · 5 months

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The Masterlist of Katniss's kisses with Peeta and Gale

(I'll put Gale kisses in red to differentiate and my thoughts/general analysis right at the very end)

Book 1:

“I’m sure they didn’t notice anything but you. You should wear flames more often,” he says. “They suit you.” And then he gives me a smile that seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me. A warning bell goes off in my head. Don’t be so stupid. Peeta is planning how to kill you, I remind myself. He is luring you in to make you easy prey. The more likable he is, the more deadly he is. But because two can play at this game, I stand on tiptoe and kiss his cheek. Right on his bruise.

Impulsively, I lean forward and kiss him, stopping his words. This is probably overdue anyway since he’s right, we are supposed to be madly in love. It’s the first time I’ve ever kissed a boy, which should make some sort of impression I guess, but all I can register is how unnaturally hot his lips are from the fever. I break away and pull the edge of the sleeping bag up around him. “You’re not going to die. I forbid it. All right?”

“Peeta!” I say, trying for the special tone that my mother used only with my father. He’s dozed off again, but I kiss him awake, which seems to startle him. Then he smiles as if he’d be happy to lie there gazing at me forever. He’s great at this stuff.

Getting the broth into Peeta takes an hour of coaxing, begging, threatening, and yes, kissing, but finally, sip by sip, he empties the pot.

I’m about to leave when I remember the importance of sustaining the star-crossed lover routine and I lean over and give Peeta a long, lingering kiss.

“You will. I promise,” he says, and bends over to give me a kiss.

“Then I’ll just have to fill in the blanks myself,” he says, and moves in to me. This is the first kiss that we’re both fully aware of. Neither of us hobbled by sickness or pain or simply unconscious. Our lips neither burning with fever or icy cold. This is the first kiss where I actually feel stirring inside my chest. Warm and curious. This is the first kiss that makes me want another. But I don’t get it. Well, I do get a second kiss, but it’s just a light one on the tip of my nose because Peeta’s been distracted. “I think your wound is bleeding again. Come on, lie down, it’s bedtime anyway,” he says.

Discomfort causes me to move. I scoot over and shake Peeta’s shoulder. His eyes open sleepily and when they focus on me, he pulls me down for a long kiss.

“Come on,” I say in exasperation, extricating myself from his grasp but not before he gets in another kiss.

Haymitch has probably just about had it with me. And as for the audience . . . I reach up and give him a kiss. “Sure. Let’s go back to the cave.”

I pull the sleeping bag up to his chin and kiss his forehead, not for the audience, but for me. Because I’m so grateful that he’s still here, not dead by the stream as I’d thought.

Peeta leans down and kisses me once, very gently. “The count of three,” he says. We stand, our backs pressed together, our empty hands locked tight.

Then there’s Peeta just a few yards away. He looks so clean and healthy and beautiful, I can hardly recognize him. But his smile is the same whether in mud or in the Capitol and when I see it, I take about three steps and fling myself into his arms. He staggers back, almost losing his balance, and that’s when I realize the slim, metal contraption in his hand is some kind of cane. He rights himself and we just cling to each other while the audience goes insane. He’s kissing me and all the time I’m thinking, Do you know? Do you know how much danger we’re in? After about ten minutes of this, Caesar Flicker-man taps on his shoulder to continue the show, and Peeta just pushes him aside without even glancing at him.

I can feel Peeta press his forehead into my temple and he asks, “So now that you’ve got me, what are you going to do with me?” I turn in to him. “Put you somewhere you can’t get hurt.” And when he kisses me, people in the room actually sigh.

Book 2:

So between the ceremonies and events and the reporters documenting my every move as I presided and thanked and kissed Peeta for the audience, I had no privacy at all.

Then suddenly, as I was suggesting I take over the daily snare run, he took my face in his hands and kissed me. I was completely unprepared. You would think that after all the hours I'd spent with Gale—watching him talk and laugh and frown — that I would know all there was to know about his lips. But I hadn't imagined how warm they would feel pressed against my own. Or how those hands, which could set the most intricate of snares, could as easily entrap me. I think I made some sort of noise in the back of my throat, and I vaguely remember my fingers, curled tightly closed, resting on his chest. Then he let go and said, “I had to do that. At least once.” And he was gone.

I tried to decide how I felt about the kiss, if I had liked it or resented it, but all I really remembered was the pressure of Gale's lips and the scent of the oranges that still lingered on his skin. It was pointless comparing it with the many kisses I'd exchanged with Peeta. I still hadn't figured out if any of those counted.

In my head I hear President Snow's directive, “Convince me.” And I know I must. My face breaks into a huge smile and I start walking in Peeta's direction. Then, as if I can't stand it another second, I start running. He catches me and spins me around and then he slips — he still isn't entirely in command of his artificial leg—and we fall into the snow, me on top of him, and that's where we have our first kiss in months. It's full of fur and snowflakes and lipstick, but underneath all that, I can feel the steadiness that Peeta brings to everything. And I know I'm not alone.

I look at Peeta and he gives me a sad smile. I hear Haymitch's voice. “You could do a lot worse.” At this moment, it's impossible to imagine how I could do any better. The gift ... it is perfect. So when I rise up on tiptoe to kiss him, it doesn't seem forced at all.

During ceremonies, we are solemn and respectful but always linked together, by our hands, our arms. At dinners, we are borderline delirious in our love for each other. We kiss, we dance, we get caught trying to sneak away to be alone. On the train, we are quietly miserable as we try to assess what effect we might be having.

“I'm so sorry,” I whisper. I lean forward and kiss him. His eyelashes flutter and he looks at me through a haze of opiates. “Hey, Catnip.”

What do I mean when I say I love Gale? I don't know. I did kiss him last night, in a moment when my emotions were running so high. But I'm sure he doesn't remember it. Does he? I hope not. If he does, everything will just get more complicated and I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite. I give my head a little shake to clear it. “Where's Peeta?” I say.

“What, because we're right?” Peeta wraps his arms around me. I give a small yelp of pain as my tailbone objects. I try to turn it into a sound of indignation, but I can see in his eyes that he knows I'm hurt. “Okay, Prim said west. I distinctly heard west. And we're all idiots. How's that?” “Better,” I say, and accept his kiss.

I pause, not knowing what to say. Where would I be with my pretend cousin who wouldn't be my cousin if it weren't for Peeta? Would he have still kissed me and would I have kissed him back had I been free to do so? Would I have let myself open up to him, lulled by the security of money and food and the illusion of safety being a victor could bring under different circumstances?

I don't know what I expected from my first meeting with Peeta after the announcement. A few hugs and kisses. A little comfort maybe. Not this.

Cinna and Portia arrive with the dawn, and I know Peeta will have to go. Tributes enter the arena alone. He gives me a light kiss. “See you soon,” he says.

“Hello, again,” he says, and gives me a kiss. “We've got allies.”

“I do,” I say. “I need you.” He looks upset, takes a deep breath as if to begin a long argument, and that's no good, no good at all, because he'll start going on about Prim and my mother and everything and I'll just get confused. So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss. I feel that thing again. The thing I only felt once before. In the cave last year, when I was trying to get Haymitch to send us food. I kissed Peeta about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more. But my head wound started bleeding and he made me lie down. This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind.

He puts the chain with the locket around my neck, then rests his hand over the spot where our baby would be. “You're going to make a great mother, you know,” he says. He kisses me one last time and goes back to Finnick.

I take Peeta's face in my hands. “Don't worry. I'll see you at midnight.” I give him a kiss and, before he can object any further, I let go and turn to Johanna. “Ready?”

Book 3:

I feel around for the parachute and slide my fingers inside until they close around the pearl. I sit back on my bed cross-legged and find myself rubbing the smooth iridescent surface of the pearl back and forth against my lips. For some reason, it's soothing. A cool kiss from the giver himself.

"Have to be dead to forget. Maybe even not then," he tells me. "Maybe I'll be like that man in 'The Hanging Tree.' Still waiting for an answer." Gale, who I have never seen cry, has tears in his eyes. To keep them from spilling over, I reach forward and press my lips against his. We taste of heat, ashes, and misery. It's a surprising flavor for such a gentle kiss. He pulls away first and gives me a wry smile. "I knew you'd kiss me." "How?" I say. Because I didn't know myself. "Because I'm in pain," he says. "That's the only way I get your attention." He picks up the box. "Don't worry, Katniss. It'll pass." He leaves before I can answer.

I'm light-headed with giddiness. What will I say? Oh, who cares what I say? Peeta will be ecstatic no matter what I do. He'll probably be kissing me anyway. I wonder if it will feel like those last kisses on the beach in the arena, the ones I haven't dared let myself consider until this moment.

Gale's not supposed to visit me, as he's confined to bed with some kind of shoulder wound. But on the third night, after I've been medicated and the lights turned down low for bedtime, he slips silently into my room. He doesn't speak, just runs his fingers over the bruises on my neck with a touch as light as moth wings, plants a kiss between my eyes, and disappears.

I find myself wrapped in his arms. His lips brushing the faded bruises on my neck, working their way to my mouth. Despite what I feel for Peeta, this is when I accept deep down that he'll never come back to me. Or I'll never go back to him. I'll stay in 2 until it falls, go to the Capitol and kill Snow, and then die for my trouble. And he'll die insane and hating me. So in the fading light I shut my eyes and kiss Gale to make up for all the kisses I've withheld, and because it doesn't matter anymore, and because I'm so desperately lonely I can't stand it. Gale's touch and taste and heat remind me that at least my body's still alive, and for the moment it's a welcome feeling. I empty my mind and let the sensations run through my flesh, happy to lose myself. When Gale pulls away slightly, I move forward to close the gap, but I feel his hand under my chin. "Katniss," he says. The instant I open my eyes, the world seems disjointed. This is not our woods or our mountains or our way. My hand automatically goes to the scar on my left temple, which I associate with confusion. "Now kiss me." Bewildered,unblinking, I stand there while he leans in and presses his lips to mine briefly. He examines my face closely. "What's going on in your head?" "I don't know," I whisper back.

"Later, there's a lot of kissing. Didn't seem very genuine on your part. Did you like kissing me?" he asks. "Sometimes," I admit. "You know people are watching us now?" "I know. What about Gale?" he continues. My anger's returning. I don't care about his recovery--this isn't the business of the people behind the glass. "He's not a bad kisser either," I say shortly.

Gale catches my arm before I can disappear. "So that's what you're thinking now?" I shrug. "Katniss, as your oldest friend, believe me when I say he's not seeing you as you really are." He kisses my cheek and goes.

It's a long shot, it's suicide maybe, but I do the only thing I can think of. I lean in and kiss Peeta full on the mouth. His whole body starts shuddering, but I keep my lips pressed to his until I have to come up for air. My hands slide up his wrists to clasp his. "Don't let him take you from me."

"She loves you, you know," says Peeta. "She as good as told me after they whipped you." "Don't believe it," Gale answers. "The way she kissed you in the Quarter Quell...well, she never kissed me like that." "It was just part of the show," Peeta tells him, although there's an edge of doubt in his voice.

Peeta and I grow back together. There are still moments when he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake screaming from nightmares of mutts and lost children. But his arms are there to comfort me. And eventually his lips. On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger that overtook me on the beach, I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that. So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?" I tell him, "Real."

My thoughts putting this together:

i tried to add some more contextual bits to kinda frame the kisses because they need it frankly

funnily katniss is the one who starts the whole kissing thing with peeta. first the (seemingly petty) cheek kiss and then she's the one who initiates the first few kisses in the cave. so of course then peeta follows her cue. and she's all "oh he gets in another kiss etc" later on but like.. you started it girl!

katniss and peeta's kisses, and the offhandish way in which katniss mentions them, make them seem like they were just natural and a part of their harmonious routine. they kissed like it was nothing most of the time. like it's just their thing. i think @thesmileykate mentioned how in her last kiss with gale she mentions that kissing is "not their way" and it's so true because it's not her and gale's way - but it is hers and peeta's

there's actually such a stark difference in the kisses she shares with peeta and with gale. there's really not much romantic about her kisses with gale at all. if at all actually. i think the only time there might be a slight hint of genuine romantic feeling is in her first kiss with gale but every kiss after that she either wishes it didn't happen or notes how miserable/not right it is.

real or not real is so valid because her kisses with peeta really completely blur the lines between real and act. it's so hard to tell. and she seems to enjoy kissing him which makes it even more confusing. like when she kisses him for the first time in catching fire. she starts it with the disclaimer that she needs to act up for the cameras but then she just falls into kissing him and says how under all the flashy lights and makeup etc, the heart and steadiness of him is still there. which completely complicates her kissing him

for petty reasons, i had to include the bit where after she kisses gale and thinks about in what way she loves him and then she's like nope, not doing that, but uh how about peeta though?

she only ever feels 'that thing' in her kisses with peeta and it's established in every book: in the cave in the first, on the beach in the second and at the end of the third book when they grow back together.

when hijacked peeta asks katniss if she liked kissing him, she says sometimes. when he asks her if she liked kissing gale, she actually doesn't really answer when she says "he wasn't a bad kisser either" and we know it's because she's being stubborn because she's angry that this conversation is happening with people watching and she doesn't want to be open and vulnerable about her feelings with that going on.

her kisses with gale are actually kinda pitiful...

a lot of the times when katniss kisses gale or he kisses her, it's like she's just reacting, not an active participant. but she's very much a participant in most of her kisses with peeta

her and peeta's kiss right before they go into the second arena is actually their first 'private' kiss because i don't think cinna or portia are in the room when it happens.

and while most of their kisses happen in front of cameras/other people, you can tell the ones that are genuine despite that. especially from the second book.

as i was making this, i also came across the bit in CF where she realises about the rebelling in 8, and she realises that all her acting up for snow didn't matter because the fire of rebellion was still raging - that's a turning point because i really do think she starts thinking of her kisses with him completely differently. they're not for the capitol or snow because that doesn't really matter anymore. which is why when she's confused about why he's not comforting and kissing her after the QQ announcement, that's purely her and her wishes shining through. because why would he be kissing her if there's no cameras around and she's 'chosen' gale at this point? but that's their thing. and that's what she expects. like from that moment on, her realising her acting is not gonna change a damn thing happening politically, she fully embraces kissing him and never again mentions doing it for the cameras or any other reason. it's for her

#everlark #thg #the hunger games #katniss x peeta #katniss and peeta #peeta x katniss #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark

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gatheringbones · 2 months

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["Legal scholar Robin West calls consensual but unwanted sex a personal, social, and political problem for women everywhere, from college campuses to long-term marriages. The resulting condition—that is, what happens to a woman after repeated engagement in this kind of sex—she calls consensual sexual dysphoria. Dysphoria means a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life. In West’s analysis, unwanted, unpleasurable sex undermines a woman’s dignity, her sense of self-worth, her subjective happiness, and her ability to assert her equality. West’s work is relatively new. In her writing, she notes the limited empirical research available on the subject. She couches her conclusions in words like “it’s likely,” “it must be,” or “it’s hard to imagine.” For example: “It is simply hard to imagine a healthy sense of one’s own agency either developing or being sustained over the course of an adult life in which a woman as a matter of identity and habit bends her will regarding her own body for the sake of another’s physical pleasure.” I’ve discussed the issue with female friends—all of them fierce, funny, smart, independent women—and yet nearly without exception we’ve all done it. Once a year, once a month, or every goddamn night. We grin and bear sex that we do not want and do not enjoy. We follow a tradition laid down (literally) centuries ago by women without our legal rights, education, or consciousness. Why? We do it to keep the peace."]

tara conklin, from allergic, from wanting: women writing about desire, 2023

#tara conklin #brainspace #currently reading

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stuckinapril · 5 months

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i’m finding it so difficult to detach myself and cut off a person who i am very much still in love with but who has repeatedly hurt me and strung me along only to dump me when reality hits and they remember im a real person with flaws and emotions and not some fantasy they created

i’m about to be really mean but this person doesn’t give nearly as much of a fuck about you as you do about them. you’re probably romanticizing them, playing a highlight reel of their best qualities in your head, rewinding all the good moments you might’ve shared w them. meanwhile they weighed your best qualities, replayed your best memories in their head, considered the value you add to their life as a person—and still decided it wasn’t enough and chose to dump you.

this was my biggest blind spot when i was going through things like friendship fallouts or my breakup w my ex. i was like but how can i live without them now!! as if they didn’t choose to severe our connection w their whole chest. you might be like “but they might’ve really struggled to do it” and it’s like okay, but they still chose to go through w it. their reasoning to them was more important than having you in their life, regardless of the tremendous energy and emotion that got expended into the decision. that or it took no energy at all, which just means that they were playacting their care for you and never actually gave a fuck. far more sinister.

from the way you described them, they’re still not mature enough to realize that love is hard work. that it’s not just convenience and feeling good all the time. why do you want someone like that in your life? someone who always goes into fight or flight whenever push comes to shove? not sustainable whatsoever. they literally did you a favor by walking out of your life. they saved you more wasted time and effort and pain that would have no doubt stemmed from their avoidant, erratic, wishywashy nature.

you have to get into the habit of not wanting people who don’t want you, whatever the context. i feel like a bit of narcissism is healthy when it comes to this bc i legit don’t care what a person’s attributes are; to me that’s such a fundamental difference in thinking between us bc i’m the dopest bitch i know. and they still don’t want me in their life ?? like ik what i bring to the table and that would be such flawed, ludicrous logic to me. it just gives me the ick and makes me lose interest in them as a person instantly, even if they were great listeners or had a good music taste or were funny or played the guitar really well. doesn’t matter, they still were shortsighted enough to think a life without me in it was a good choice. romantic and platonic breakups do bother me, simply bc i’m very honest w my love and i genuinely value the people in my life, but these days i’m not hung up on anyone for more than a day bc i will never want someone who doesn’t want me. never never never. i don’t have the compulsive urge to make people who don’t like me like me. i have such a don’t let the door slam you on your way out mentality about it. i’ll simply find someone who’s funny and a good listener and plays the guitar well and still cares enough about me not to dump me when it gets hard. doesn’t have to be one or the other.

also do yourself a favor and don’t fill the gaps for them or try to guess what’s going on in their minds. they dumped you? okay they don’t care about you. they cut you off? okay they don’t care about you. they’re not trying to send you subliminal messages on their ig story about how much they still care—and on the very small chance that they are, you shouldn’t want that. you shouldn’t want someone whose peak effort when it comes to you is posting a sad quote about how lonely they are without actually putting the effort into approaching you, apologizing, owning up to their mistakes. until they actually act on it, their feelings pretty much irrelevant & it’s best to assume they just don’t give a fuck. you don’t want someone in your life who always prioritizes their comfort over maintaining their connection w you. ruthlessly remind yourself of that and move on to someone who doesn’t just give you breadcrumbs, if anything at all.

#as someone who attaches to ppl very fast i totally get u #but it’s been wearing off bc most people really do fucking suck lol #i hope this helps !! i tried to talk to u the way i wanted someone to talk to me whenever i went through things like this #ask

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askganon · 1 month

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Great King, I need encouragement. I have not had an easy life. Any form of abuse besides sexual my parents committed against me. Any time anything is left to chance the worst possible outcome is chosen by the gods, even should I do everything right. I have more mental illnesses, mental and physical disabilities than I can count. I cant do many jobs and can hardly hold most of the ones I CAN do down, on account of the disabilities. My family comes from the worst poverty possible and its grip on me is so strong I know I will never be comfortably free from it. Everyone I've ever known has abandoned me and those that came back keep me at a healthy distance as fair weather friends. Simply put, I'm a survivor, and I intend to survive as long as there is sand in my hourglass. When I am knocked down, nails bloodied and gone, nose broken, I spit my teeth and blood out of my mouth, wipe the dirt out of my eyes and get back up only to get punched back down to the ground just to get back up again. I take pride in this fact, should the whole world and even the gods/goddesses and even lady luck herself be my enemy I will. Not. Succumb. But I am tired... I tired of being strong, I tire of pain, of being offered relief or a mercy only to have it snatched away from me at the cruelest moment against all odds, of having every bit of happiness locked behind one paywall I can never hope to meet, of having everyone like me but never cherish me... I tire not of life but never having lived. I tire of only ever surviving. I dont know what to do, where I can find relief, when or how I get to rest even if just for a moment. I know I must continue on and I know that I will but I have no desire or motivation to do so. Any words of advice or encouragement from you would be a gift, I have admired you since I was young for you have lived a similar life.

There is little I can add as endearment, for all that I would say you have already stated in your resolve.

But you have come to Demon King Ganondorf seeking wisdom. So, it is Demon King Ganondorf's wisdom you shall have.

First, I will make a wound and force it to bleed. Then, I will put salt in that wound, and make you feel the sting of truth. It is only with calm and mature reflection can one see the purpose in the words beyond appeared insult.

First, the wound.

Life is not happiness.

Life is struggle, trial, failure and pain. It can be torment and relief, beautiful and ugly, but it is never happy. Any who speak otherwise are either fools or devils.

It has been said that life is the pursuit of happiness. This is a dream for the mad.

In truth, a "good" life, or one lived well, is one not driven by happiness, but by contentment.

To achieve this, a choice must be made. It is only one choice, but it is the same choice one must make eternally. That is to choose between compromise and suffrage.

In short, will you compromise to be content, or will you suffer for it?

To place this into an example, I could have compromised as King, living content with "It could be worse." Or I could have suffered for contentment with "It could be better."

Which do you think I chose?

Now for the salt.

I have listened to the retelling of your life, and have words regarding it.

I hold no sympathy for abusers of any kind. They cannot match the skills and abilities of their peers, so choose instead to face opponents they know they can conquer. There is no honor nor challenge in an assured victory, and I expect all of them to die knowing they were failures in life and will be forgotten in death.

But as to your abandonments, I hold a different opinion. While the abandonment of one might whisper you the victim, the abandonment of all screams the opposite.

Reflect on these relationships and seek out the common root between them. Do this, but do not rest on the easy answer and use your disabilities as a crutch.

It is said that hurt people hurt people. Perhaps the abuse you sustained in your youth evolved into traits within of which you are unaware.

Seek this out within yourself. If it is discovered, then you have a choice to make.

Will you compromise with this, and remain content in your solitude? Or will you suffer to change this aspect, granting you the chance at a healthy relationship and the possibility of happy moments in a content life?

#ganondorf #legend of zelda

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ftmtftm · 5 months

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I'm working on a very long thought out answer to an anon at the moment so no major cited posts right now, but also. I do just wanna say.

If you're going to engage in political discourse? If you're going to engage in political conversations about gender and gendered oppression? You need to learn politics and you need to learn how to redirect your anger and frustration into something constructive instead of just repeatedly talking about how bad your life and the situations around it are.

Like. Yeah. We're drawn to politics that speak to our experiences but just acknowledging a problem and then complaining about it or being angry about it isn't activism in any capacity.

It's simply just complaining and being angry. Which is also fine!! It's good to complain actually!! Its good to be angry!! It's healthy and good for your brain to do those things and get your emotions out!!

But that is not activist work. It's not work of any kind even. It's not work to complain about current states of affiars. Its not work to complain about your life. It's not work to feel angry. It's not work to feel hopeless.

Activist work is taking those feelings and those complaints and then turning them into something constructive.

If you don't have the capacity to do more than complain and be angry: that is just fine, but to actually do activist work actually requires you to find a balance between your anger and putting effort into direct action.

Anger and complaints alone will never sustain you or any legitimate movement - lest you simply fall into engaging with reactionary bullshit and getting caught within weeds.

#transandrophobia #transmisandry #anti transmasculinity #original post #some of you are so young or so new to activist organizing and it really fucking shows

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flowerishness · 10 months

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Chamaenerion angustifolium (fireweed)

Fireweed is a classic ‘colonizer’ plant. It’s seeds are carried by the wind and if they land on a patch of open ground, they sprout. Fireweed particularly likes the burned-off lands created by forest fires. When a wild fire scorches the land, it burns off the surface organic material in the soil but leaves behind the minerals. Fireweed stabilizes these fragile mineral soils and the valuable nutrients aren’t simply washed away by the rain. This process makes the minerals bioavailable to all the plants that follow, and eventually produces a healthy and self-sustaining forest.

Fireweed can cover vast areas after a fire and it usually rules the roost for about five years, after which it is overtaken by taller plants. In addition to producing up to 500 seeds a plant, it spreads by underground rhizomes. If another wildfire occurs and burns off this year’s growth, fireweed will rapidly regenerate a new plant from these underground roots. They say that after the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980, fireweed started poking up through the volcanic ash a week later.

I found this fireweed at a railway crossing down by the beach. It appeared to be growing in a matrix of crushed rock and not much else. This lovely specimen had a million-dollar view of the ocean but after all it is a weed. That may be a swanky hotel in the background but this fireweed was definitely growing “on the other side of the tracks.”

#flowers #photographers on tumblr #fireweed #botany #purple #fleurs #flores #fiori #blumen #bloemen #vancouver

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sexyandhedonistic · 1 year

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Neville Goddard lecture summaries

⚜️⋮ Remain Faithful to Your Idea

⚜️ What have I to do with thee?

We get into the habit of accepting as final the evidence of our senses. Wine is needed for the guests and my senses tell me that there is no wine, and I through habit am about to accept this lack as final. When I remember that my consciousness is the one and only reality, therefore if I deny the evidence of my senses and assume the consciousness of having sufficient wine, I have in a sense rebuked my mother or the consciousness which suggested lack; and by assuming the consciousness of having what I desire for my guests, wine is produced in a way we do not know.

In the second chapter of the Gospel of St. John. Jesus says to his mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" John 2:4.

Jesus represents you because you are God and his mother represents your consciousness because it is the cause (or mother) of all phenomena.

Imagine your state of consciousness being other than what you would like for it to look like. In such a case, you should not allow yourself to accept it, to which you respond with, “what does this have to do with me?” or in Neville’s words, “what do I have to do with the evidence of my senses?” Don’t take no for an answer and don’t accept what you don’t want.

I have just read a note here from a dear friend of mine in the audience. Last Sunday he had an appointment at a church for a wedding; the clock told him he was late, everything told him he was late. He was standing on a street corner waiting for a street car. There was none in sight. He imagined that, instead of being on the street corner, that he was in the church. At that moment a car stopped in front of him. My friend told the driver of his predicament and the driver said to him, "I am not going that way, but I will take you there." My friend got into the car and was at the church in time for the service. That is applying the law correctly, non-acceptance of the suggestion of lateness. Never accept the suggestion of lack.

⚜️ I AM the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.

"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." Isaiah 45:7. If I am hurt, I am self hurt. If there is darkness in my world, I created the darkness and the gloom and the depression. If there is light and joy, I created the light and the joy. There is no one but this I AMness that does all. You cannot find a cause outside of your own consciousness. Your world is a grand mirror constantly telling you who you are. As you meet people, they tell you by their behavior who you are.

A reminder that I AM is the origin of the world around you. You always possess the power to decide what comes after I AM: I AM loved or I AM unloved, I AM wealthy or I AM poor, I AM healthy or I AM ill. There is nothing outside of you responsible for the contents of your consciousness because you are the only one who can define your I AMness.

⚜️ Prayer.

If I could define prayer for anyone and put it just as clearly as I could, I would simply say, "It is the feeling of the wish fulfilled." If you ask, "What do you mean by that?" I would say, "I would feel myself into the situation of the answered prayer and then I would live and act upon that conviction." I would try to sustain it without effort, that is, I would live and act as though it were already a fact, knowing that as I walk in this fixed attitude my assumption will harden into fact.

Prayer is another word for manifesting by feeling the wish fulfilled. In order to successfully pray, you must define what the end looks like and accept that it is done. Believe that you have received that which you desire to have and you shall.

Anyone who prays successfully turns within, and appropriates the state sought. You have no sacrifice to offer. Do not let anyone tell you that you must struggle and suffer. You need not struggle for the realization of your desire. Read what it says in the Bible.

⚜️ Forgive.

"When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." That is what we must do when we pray. If I hold some thing against another, be it a belief of sickness, poverty , or anything else, I must lose it and let it go, not by using words of denial but by believing him to be what he desires to be. In that way I completely forgive him. I changed my concept of him. I only forgive something when I truly forget. I can say to you until the end of time, "I forgive you." But if every time I see you or think of you, I am reminded of what I held against you, I have not forgiven you at all. Forgiveness is complete forgetfulness.

To forgive is to stop feeling angry or resentful toward another. When you forgive, you are letting go of the undesirable in order to turn to the desirable (you forget). This is essentially what Neville means when he says you cannot serve two masters. If you seek to shift your state of consciousness, you cannot continue to entertain the old contradicting one, so you must forgive (forget) in order to welcome in the new one.

Give yourself a new concept of self for the old concept. Give up the old concept completely.

⚜️ Future’s flexibility.

The most remarkable feature of man's future is its flexibility. The future, although prepared in advance in every detail, has several outcomes. We have at every moment of our lives the choice before us which of several futures we will have… Since man can observe an event before it occurs in the three dimensions of space, then life on earth proceeds according to plan; and this plan must exist elsewhere in another dimension and is slowly moving through our space.

If the occurring events were not in this world when they were observed, then to be perfectly logical they must have been out of this world. And whatever is THERE to be seen before it occurs HERE must be "pre-determined" from the point of view of man awake in a three-dimensional world.

Therefore, my object in giving this course is to indicate possibilities inherent in man, to show that man can alter his: future; but, thus altered, it forms again a deterministic sequence starting from the point of interference -- a future that will be consistent with the alteration.

The moment called NOW.

To the natural view, the past and future are purely imaginary. The spiritual view on the other hand sees the contents of time. The past and future are a present whole to the spiritual view. What is mental and subjective to the natural man is concrete and objective to the spiritual man.

The habit of seeing only that which our senses permit renders us totally blind to what, otherwise, we could see. To cultivate the faculty of seeing the invisible, we should often deliberately disentangle our minds from the evidence of the senses and focus our attention on an invisible state, mentally feeling it and sensing it until it has all the distinctness of reality.

The future event is a reality NOW in a dimensionally larger world and oddly enough, now in a dimensionally larger world is equivalent to HERE in the ordinary three-dimensional space of everyday life.

It’s easy to let the evidence of your senses dictate what your circumstances look like, you feel trapped by the present moment and although reason tells you that all looks a certain way, but truth is the future you desire already exists at this very moment, it is not far away from you. The only reason we are held back by the concept of time is because we perceive it as being linear and we process events as occurring chronologically. However, the past, present and future are all occurring at this very moment. There is no universal timeline, all exists and is occurring at this very moment, which is also the reason why manifestation is always instant.

⚜️ Follow the desire.

The first step in changing the future is DESIRE, that is, define your objective -- know definitely what you want. ?

A little practice will convince us that we can, by controlling our imagination, reshape our future in harmony with our desire. Desire is the mainspring of action. We could not move a single finger unless we had a desire to move it.

The desires which impel us to action are those which hold our attention. A desire is but an awareness of something we lack and need to make our life more enjoyable. Desires always have some personal gain in view, the greater the anticipated gain, the more intense is the desire. There is no absolutely unselfish desire. Where there is nothing to gain there is no desire, and consequently no action.

⚜️ The four dimensions of space.

To understand how man molds his future in harmony with his assumption -- by simply experiencing in his imagination what he would experience in reality were he to realize his goal - we must know what we mean by a dimensionally larger world, for it is to a dimensionally larger world that we go to alter our future.

The observation of an event before it occurs implies that the event is predetermined from the point of view of man in the three-dimensional world. Therefore to change the conditions here in the three dimensions of space we must first change them in the four dimensions of space.

Your future is not predetermined, it is always being created by molding in harmony with the assumptions that become a part of your consciousness because consciousness is the one and only reality. Ask yourself what you want, give it to yourself in the 4D and allow it to unfold in the 3D.

Assume you are that which you wish to be; walk as though you were it; and as you remain faithful to your assumption -- it will harden into fact.

#lecture summaries

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neptune-scythe · 7 months

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Reasons Kanej is very important to me

AKA my Ace manifesto

Most romance in media is very physical/sex driven, so as a sex repulsed asexual with sensitivities to touch and skin to skin contact, that can get very irritating. Partially because I just don't like to watch it, but also because I can't relate to it at all. It's completely foreign to me. And as someone who can tend to be very influenced by what I watch/read, having physical intimacy hyped in that way can be very misleading. Physical attraction/intimacy is ultimately hollow and isn't sustainable long term if that's all your relationship is based on, and if you're seeing those kinds of relationships portrayed as successful and fulfilling than you would expect it to be the same in real life... which will ultimately lead to a lot of confusion and disappointment. It's very easy to write a relationship just for sex appeal, or pair two actors together because they're attractive; and chances are most people will be satisfied by that.

But that's not love... that's attraction. The media has blurred the difference between those words, so young people growing up with TV and social media are being told that sexual and physical attraction is love, when, in reality, it is just that, attraction and lust.

Real love can include those elements, but it certainly doesn't have to. Real love is about emotional connection, it's about knowing and caring about each other. It's so much deeper than simply thinking someone is attractive or wanting physical intimacy with them. And there are so many more ways that people experience love and romance than just sex, and that is rarely shown in media.

That is why Kanej means so much to me. They're not just another couple that fits the societal "standard" for romance. Their relationship is built on trust, friendship, understanding one another, and wanting the best for the other. All things that are sustainable, the things that really matter. And I know both characters have expressed a desire for a more intimate, physical relationship, but I believe they can have a perfectly fulfilling relationship without that. And while I do absolutely want them to heal from their traumas, I do not think that means they have to be touchy or have a sexual relationship. I would love to see them heal enough to be comfortable in close proximity to each other, to hold hands, maybe even share a kiss; but I don't think they need those things to be a healthy couple, and I don't think that achieving that comfort is the only way they can heal.

In conclusion, despite kanej not being a canonically ace couple, I feel represented by them, I feel my experiences are seen and validated. They give me hope that should I ever desire a romantic relationship, it is possible to find one that I can be comfortable in, that doesn't require physical intimacy to be healthy and long lasting. I adore Kanej, and I will protect them at all costs.

#just my thoughts #kanej is very important to me #i would die for them #i will protect them at all costs #i will and have fought people over them #and i will do it until i die #six of crows #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kanej #kaz x inej #dirtyhands #the bastard of the barrel #the wraith #grishaverse #acekanej #asexual #ace representation

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gatheringbones · 1 year

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[“The more women are defined in terms of an ideal myth, for example, the more possible it is for men to ignore or actively abuse women who do not meet that ideal. Thus in the nineteenth century, the cult of True Womanhood was perfectly compatible with the exploitation of female slaves and factory workers. In the twentieth century, a recurring theme in rape and sexual harassment cases has been the notion that if a woman has ever departed from ideal behavior in any way, she has no real “womanhood” to be violated or offended. The wives and mothers of rapists almost invariably, and usually in good faith, defend them as the soul of chivalry—at least toward women who conform to the prevailing myths.

Gender stereotypes about men create binds for them as well. One of the reasons that the majority of the homeless are men, and in turn that the homeless receive so little sympathy, is that men who cannot sustain an independent existence in the competitive world, like women who do not exhibit a dependent existence in the family, are often considered unworthy of sympathy or aid. As Peter Marin, researcher on homelessness, points out, “An irony asserts itself: Simply by being in need of help, men forfeit the right to it.”

Ultimately, these stereotypes are destructive even for those who do live up to them—or down to them, as the case may be. A noted psychiatrist points out that until very recently, most theories of family “normalcy” have been based on highly gender-biased criteria. One study that sought to distinguish the characteristics of dysfunctional and successful families, for example, defined “adequate” families—which they also termed “normal”—as those that produced men who functioned well in their work and social relations. But the women in such families, they noted, were typically “overwhelmed with responsibility,” “psychosomatically ill,” and “sexually dissatisfied.” The researchers, finding that most American families fell into the “adequate” range, concluded: “The Family is alive and well.” By this definition, of course, a normal family is composed of a healthy husband and a sick wife.

From a different perspective, it is becoming clear, families based on a rigid gender division of labor have led to equally serious disabilities for males, by denying them access to intimacy except through women. This is one reason that men, but not women, are often much healthier when they are married and why their health deteriorates sharply after experiencing divorce or widowhood. Recently, seeking a substitute for the unconditional love they fear women will no longer give or they no longer believe they have the right to demand, many men have begun to reexamine their relationships with their fathers to find an alternative source of nurturance—often, they come up with nothing. In a men’s group retreat attended by one of my students, each man was asked to set up an imaginary meeting with his father and tell the father what was uppermost on his mind. The woods echoed with three refrains: “Don’t ever hit me again,” “Please tell me you’re proud of me,” and “You never told me that you loved me.”]

stephanie coontz, from the way we never were: american families and the nostalgia trap, 1993

#stephanie coontz #gender stuff #history stuff #cw abuse #cw rape

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sybilspretexts · 9 months

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Because Wittig looks at lesbianism from a (heterosexual) feminist perspective, asking how lesbians escape the kinds of male control to which heterosexual women are often subject, she misses the penalties attached to lesbians’ exit from heterosexuality. Indeed, contrary to Wittig’s claim, the lesbian may as a rule have less control over her productive and reproductive labor than her married heterosexual sister. Although the lesbian escapes whatever control individual men may exercise over their wives within marriage, she does not thereby escape control of her productive and reproductive labor either in her personal life with another lesbian or in her public life. To refuse to be heterosexual is simply to leap out of the frying pan of individual patriarchal control into the fire of institutionalized heterosexual control over both the public and private spheres. Wittig’s claim that ‘lesbianism provides for the moment the only social form in which we can live freely’ vastly underestimates the coercive forces brought to bear on the lesbian for her lesbianism. She may be unable to adopt children or be denied custody of and visiting privileges to her children. In order to retain her job, she will most likely have to hide her lesbianism and pretend to be heterosexual. She will likely be punished for public displays of affection. She may be denied the housing of her choice or be forced to move from her home as a result of harassment by neighbors. If she is uncloseted, she will find herself abused or subjected to lascivious interest by heterosexual men. Even if she is no longer at risk of being burned at the stake or subjected to clitoridectomy or electroshock, she may still be subjected to ‘therapies’ that insist that she cannot be both lesbian and a healthy, mature adult. She will be labeled a dyke and scrutinized for symptoms of mannishness in her anatomy, dress, behavior, and interests. She will not see her lesbian sexuality or romantic love for another woman reflected in the public media. And both because there are no publicly accessible models of lesbian relationships and because such coercive pressure is brought to bear against lesbian relationships, sustaining a stable personal life will be more difficult for lesbians than it is for heterosexual women. The lesbian may be free from an individual man in her personal life, but she is not free.

Separating Lesbian Theory from Feminism, Cheshire Calhoun (1994)

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tabootabletalk · 4 months

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𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐀 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐠 🍈🍈𝐬 &𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐔𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐒𝐨 𝐌𝐮𝐜𝐡 !

I’ve always been breasts of butt kind of guy, it’s just been a journey on fully accepting my attractions due to black culture being overwhelmingly butt obsessed.

Larger breasts may also signal increased fertility. This may or may not correlate with some cultures’ view of female body parts—such as the breasts and hips—as indicators of fertility and the capacity to sustain a healthy pregnancy. Since breasts grow larger during weight gain, in olden times, this may have meant that the woman was well-nourished, which would benefit both the potential father and offspring. It simply meant that she had access to food and resources.

With constant exposure, we learn at a young age that bigger breasts are “s3xualized.” For some men, it could be how they were taught to perceive the female figure. Besides learned fondness, different breast sizes – not just large ones – may have varying effects on the male brain as hormones like oxytocin may affect everyone differently. It certainly doesn’t affect men the way it does women.

While breast sizes have differed over time, in the United States the average bra size is 34DD. Men in the US may find this average attractive since it’s larger than the former average two decades ago (size 34B). Apart from size, eye-catching breasts may also be more firm and perky, as saggy breasts may be associated with less vitality.

Studies have shown that around 90% of men prefer breasts that are a size or two larger than the standard size.

We’re born to like them. We see them, we appreciate them, they arouse us, and maybe we ogle a little (if we’re not well-mannered).One study found that women with large breasts and narrow hips were considered the most attractive and desirable, for both long-term and casual relationships. Another study concluded that bigger breasts may mean higher fertility.

There’s an enormous thrill in spotting the outline of someone’s areola or the push against the clothing that reveals a breast’s shape.

Are you TeamBreasts or TeamButt?

Comment your thoughts below

#thetabootabletalk #detroit #breast #breastfreedom

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davidstortebeker · 1 year

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Closing Loops in Soilless Gardening - Hydroponics and Aquaponics

What is the future of food production going to look like? Is the projected 10 billion people in 25 years, out of which two thirds will live in cities, going to require us to convert every square meter of arable land into intensive mono cultural farms? Please don't let that be true! There HAS to be some alternative. Fortunately, there are several. Two of them are different ways of growing plants without soil, a radically new method, which may be most appealing to urban food production.

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Hydroponics: Growing Plants in Water

When it comes to growing large amounts of food on a small area efficiently, hydroponic systems are often brought up as a solution. And the reasons sound pretty convincing: An efficient hydroponic farm uses 90% less water, and can yield 3-10 times the amount of produce per area, with 7-14 growth cycles in a year. IMPRESSIVE! But before getting too excited, let's not forget: the devil is in the details! It's worth looking into under exactly what conditions those plants grow, being fed by what light, and most importantly which nutrients, and where they come from.

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The basic concept, however, of growing plants vertically, in mostly water, with some kind of substrate, such as clay balls or vermiculite, is actually a pretty nifty way to grow food where there are no fields. The most basic form of this may be the Windowfarm technique, which I experimented with myself years ago in my Budapest apartment. Going to Shanghai, the whole idea seems to be taken to a whole new level.

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Is That Really Sustainable? Or Even Healthy?

… not to mention, does hydroponics even fit into Permaculture? Because let's be honest: with a system that needs to be constantly managed and monitored you could not be further from a self-supporting ecosystem. Also, what exactly do those plants get to eat? The typical N-P-K made industrially out of petrochemicals? Most likely. So while it certainly reduces the transport related drawbacks, hydroponics is by no means energy efficient, and the nutritional value won't be any better than your most industrially grown veggies.

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How Does Aquaponics Compare?

Okay, so let's bring in the fish! For those not familiar with the difference between the two systems, aquaponics is the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture, which are simply fish farms. Having fish in a tank, they will naturally defecate into the water, requiring it to be changed regularly. Plants, however love to eat those nutrients that the fish excrete. Or to be more exact, they feed on the nutrients that have been converted by bacteria and other microbes. The ammonia will turn in to nitrites, which in turn become nitrates, that is food for the plants.

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So running the water from the fish through the plants growing substrate will on one hand feed the plants, as well as clean it for the fish to enjoy it again. So the system already closed a few loops there, making it more sustainable than just mere hydroponics. Also, the inclusion of microbes already offers a more diverse environment, bringing the system a bit closer to an ecosystem. But let's not get ahead of ourselves: Aquaponic systems still need close monitoring, as they are still a far cry from a self sustaining ecosystem of let's say a pond. Also, the water circulation / aeration is most likely going to require a pump, and depending on the exact setup of the system, maybe artificial lighting for the plants. All these aspects add to the energy requirement of the aquaponic system.

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A Truly Closed Loop? Consider the Food of the Fish!

When praising the sustainability of aquaponics, one thing that mustn't be ignored is the source of the fish food. Just like with the hydroponic systems, where the food for the plants or the fertilizer is considered, we can't ignore the feed we give to our fish to eat. If it is the same industrial feed, we may as well have kept to our hydroponics. Not true, since including fish already makes our system more diverse. So instead, let's continue in that same direction. What do fish eat? What is good for them? How can we grow that food ourselves?

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Making Your Own Sustainable Fish Food

Here I could probably start a number of individual posts, since talking about fish food is like opening up a can of worms. But fortunately, I already have a number of appropriate things written. Talking about worms, by the way, anyone who has been fishing knows that they are a favored delicacy, and anyone who composts will have no shortage of them. Since worms are mostly vegetarians, and many of us eat meat, it may have been a bit difficult to properly compost greasy, meaty, bony food wastes. That's where black soldier flies come in, whose larvae are also frequently mentioned for fish food. I still need to try growing those guys. As for green plants for the fish, duckweed makes also good fish feed, again something I have no experience with. What I do know, though, is spirulina, which is also super rich in nutrients, and I would be surprised if the fish didn't like it. So I can see throwing some composting worms, black soldier fly larvae, and spirulina into a blender, to make some great nutritious fish food. At the moment this is very theoretical for me, though.

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Don't Give Up the Soil Completely

So does this mean we should all focus on setting up our most sustainable fish-plant-compost combo cycles? Hells yeah! But please not at the expense of everything else! Soilless gardening, as exciting and revolutionary as it may sound, is still that: without soil. And let's face it: neither us, nor our beans and tomatoes, have evolved to live entirely without soil. That just seems wrong. Even in a small urban apartment it's worth having a bit of soil on your roof, balcony, or window sill, where you can dig your hands into a world of healthy microbial diversity on occasion. And if you do have the space, by all means, set up a pond, a dam, or another aquatic ecosystem, where fish, and frogs, and dragonflies, and numerous other species can live together without relying on our management. Apart from looking pretty, they will also provide food for us, that is nutritionally superior to anything industrially grown.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

#permaculture #sustainability #garden #farm #hydroponics #aquaponics #food production #closed loop

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hawkeyedflame · 10 days

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I've seen your posts on veganism, and you being a biologist makes me feel ok to ask this! I am not vegan, but I've dealt with a lot of pressure and guilt to become one from them, and it never works for me at all. However, because I'm super passionate about conservation, especially stopping deforestation, i have had MORE pressure than usual to go vegan for the planet, under some guise that this was what would help. When reading about it, a lot said cattle farming causes a lot of deforestation, and making native species there go extinct. Obviously I'm against that, but I don't want to go vegan. I've tried. I cannot. But a lot of people say it isn't possible to be a conservationist and care for the planet and eat meat. I'm curious to hear a scientific reply to these claims and hopefully have an end put to it? Thanks.

I don't remember specifically making posts about veganism to be honest but it's a complete lie that sustainably raised livestock contribute to deforestation. I don't know where you live, but here in the US it is true that we have destructive conventional animal farms which pollute the environment, but you also aren't forced to buy your meat that way. There are tons of small-scale, regenerative farms in every state in the country. It's not hard to find good quality meat raised on farms that are acting as a net benefit to the environment. Properly-managed regenerative farms increase biodiversity, rebuild topsoil, reduce carbon emissions, and produce meat that is healthier to consume. Check out Joel Salatin, the owner of Polyface Farm. He has written several books on the subject (and is much more highly educated than myself).

Also, I find it ironic that vegans cry about deforestation when their diets consist entirely of foods such as corn, soy, wheat, rice, and other grains, all of which involve destruction of massive swathes of natural biomes to make way for thousands of acres of monocropping. Not to mention exploitation of workers in foreign countries and the MASSIVE carbon footprint left by shipping crops across the world (or even just across the US). Oh, and we can't forget that, on top of the animals wiped out during the destruction of their habitats to make way for the farmland itself, the machinery used to tend to the crops kills thousands upon thousands of small creatures such as mice, voles, frogs, etc. out in the field (which in turn affects predator populations). There is literally no such thing as a cruelty-free diet. It is simply not possible, and vegans who say they are cruelty-free are lying to themselves.

I can say with absolute certainty that the impact my own diet has on the environment is not only significantly less than that of ANY vegan, but my diet actually supports a net positive effect. I eat only beef from a local farm that raises their cattle entirely on grass, practices regenerative rotational grazing and slaughters locally. My meat travels less than 20 miles total. The topsoil on the farm is deep and lush, it doesn't smell or pollute the nearby waterways, and the animals are stress-free and healthy. (And I pay a lot less for it than grocery store meat.)

If veganism doesn't work for you, don't do it. And don't let anyone try to pressure you into eating in a way you know isn't right for you. You are not a slave to the demands of others. If you passionately want to reduce your impact on the environment, then buy local, in-season and organic wherever possible, and commit yourself to eliminating anything from your diet that does not fall into that category. This could be a massive undertaking depending on where you're starting from, and it has a learning curve to it. But if it really matters to you, you'll do it. If it doesn't really matter to you, then it's better to have that conversation with yourself sooner rather than later.

#Anonymous #long post #dunno if this helps any #sorry but i am not in the mood for writing a sourced dissertation and i never will be #don't have that kind of time to spend on the internet anymore

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