Natural Family Planning

Here’s a way to celebrate Earth day that isn’t getting much press: learning Natural Family Planning.

A good friend of mine has this brochure on NFP called, “Go Organic,” which totally plugs my blog–thank you, and it suggests that learning the world’s most underrated method of family planning *might* actually be a super-green thing to do. Here’s an excerpt:

Close your eyes and imagine what makes you feel most in love and the most intimate. If you could step into any love story, any romantic landscape, what would you find yourself surrounded by and who would be there? Ask a hundred women that same question, and the answer would be strikingly similar.
No one ever says “I’d like to be alone,” “I like being an object instead of a person,” or “I’d like to be
depressed, gain weight, more irritable and increase my risk for cancer.” No. They imagine being
with someone, feeling loved and being healthy. They imagine candles, lovely music, genuine embraces, honest words and laughter. The love and need for intimacy without barriers is deeply rooted
in us all.

Our bodies are made beautifully. We are living masterpieces, kaleidoscopic perpetual miracles on our own, without anything extra. That’s the way we were made to live and to love—without barriers, without chemicals, or additives. Imagine a wide open landscape of love. Imagine holding nothing back. Natural Family Planning (NFP) is 100% organic, based in fertility awareness and appreciation. Your fertility is a gift, not a disease, and NFP is the all natural way to embrace it. Best of all, NFP is cooperative. Women don’t bear the burden and the side effects alone. No, the only side effects are increased communication, greater mutual self-knowledge and respect, self resolve and poise, healthy body, more romance and greater intimacy. Welcome to NFP.

Doesn’t it seem interesting that we’ll go to great lengths to ensure our meat, dairy and other grocery products are “all natural” and hormone free, but then we’ll turn around and ingest, poke or patch our bodies with all sorts of synthetic hormones, the ramifications of which we’re still discovering?

Check out these articles, both secular and religious, which talk about the grave effects we’re seeing in the environment because of the residual effects of drugs–particularly chemical contraceptives. Now, if the human side effects don’t trip you out, perhaps libidoless intersex fish will grab your attention. No more fish frys, you Midwesterners! Colorado biologist John Woodling, speaking to the Denver Post in 2005 said, It’s “the first thing that I’ve seen as a scientist that really scared me.” We’re not talking one freak fish here; it’s a significant problem, a problem so significant that in a couple months, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the American Pharmacists Association will begin a major public-awareness campaign regarding contamination that’s resulting from soaps and pharmaceuticals, including birth control. (Reference NC Register article above.)

Am I giving a clarion call to mob the pharmaceutical companies? No, but at least when people jump on the Green Trend Train (and even for those pre-trend greenies), they should consider Natural Family Planning as a way to reduce their environmental impact and increase the intimacy. Give it a try!