Delayed Gratification

If there's anything that seven months on the road has taught us, it's to expect the unexpected and go with the flow.

Yesterday, as we bid a fond adieu to our friends in Las Vegas, New Mexico, we joyfully prepared to drive the sixty miles to Santa Fe, buy some groceries, and move ourselves into our new home. Unfortunately, we received a phone call informing us that a burst pipe and subsequent flood had rendered our casita unlivable---at least for a few days---and we were thrown into an unexpected circumstance that had us considering many potential outcomes that we had not anticipated.

Since our previous home was discovered to be a mold pit (a situation which most likely caused us both to develop Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in the first place), we were dismayed to hear that our new home had suffered water damage, but were simultaneously encouraged to learn that the flooding was not too bad and had been caught very quickly. For now, dehumidifiers and fans are blowing as the water recedes, and we cross our fingers and trust that all will be well.

For the moment, we are encamped at a campground on the outskirts of Santa Fe, waiting a few days to make sure that the casita is still healthy for us, and digesting the fact that our original move-in date was scuttled.

We are all ready and excited to be rooted for a while, and this situation simply reminds us that our journey has been a veritable boot camp that has trained us to roll with the punches, expect the unexpected, remain as flexible as possible, and be grateful for our blessings every day. Despite our disappointment, there was no hurricane, no earthquake, no loss of life or limb, and our rolling home is still a cozy little nest that may feel diminutive, but it veritably remains home sweet mobile home.

MCS and the Search for a Safe Community

In honor of MCS Awareness Month, we are posting this co-written article in order to share more deeply regarding one of the most significant reasons that we undertook our current journey around the country. Because we both live with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), finding a safe place to call home is paramount to us, and those who have MCS understand what it's like to live like a "canary in the coal mine" in a world saturated with substances that undermine our health and impair our ability to function effectively.

With recent reports showing that even ADHD may be linked to pesticide use, there is a crucial necessity for us to be more public about our MCS, our search for safe housing, and the need for greater awareness about the effects of chemicals, pesticides, and manufactured fragrances on the health of humans and the environment. That said, many hospitals and other health care facilities are now becoming fragrance-free in an effort to support the health of patients, thus awareness is indeed growing about this important public (and personal) health issue.

We offer this article as a missive of support and hope to other canaries, as well as a plea to those without MCS---especially intentional communities---to more deeply understand our plight.

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When it comes to finding safe housing, everyone with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) will agree that this is one of the most daunting challenges of living with this most highly inconvenient and disheartening medical condition.

After living in New England for 20 years and becoming chemically injured in the process (most likely due to hidden mold in our home), it was no longer safe for us to live in our beloved neighborhood or continue to work in our meaningful jobs.

Our lovely arboreal homeowners’ association provided what at first appeared to be a healthy sanctuary for our family of three, but our blissful existence was often impeded by the imposition of a variety of common household toxins, including the fumes of lighter fluid, charcoal, dryer sheets, and lawnmower and vehicle exhaust. Lying in hammocks or eating home-cooked meals on our custom-made screened-in porch, we were often driven indoors by clouds of the aforementioned toxins filtering through the forest and onto our property.

When exposed to various chemicals and environmental toxins, we each experience a similar yet somewhat different constellation of symptoms, including headache, confusion, sore throat, irritability, asthma, hives, joint pain, muscle pain, and burning eyes. When mold was discovered in our attic after our house was put on the market, the potential culprit of our mutual MCS only added to our intense desire and need for a safe refuge.

In our workplaces which had fragrance-free policies, we were both exposed to environmental insults that exacerbated our condition and underscored the need to radically change our lives. Policies are virtually ineffective without enforcement, often driving wedges between people of varying cultures and levels of acceptance, support and awareness. The commitment to educating others can be exhausting, and workplace exposures impair job performance and strain professional relationships. Thus, we canaries often find ourselves frequently leaving otherwise satisfying and meaningful jobs in order to preserve our health and sanity.

Having lived in an intentional community early in our relationship, we decided that ecologically-minded intentional communities with a focus and commitment to sustainability would offer the greatest potential for finding a safe home. We hoped that this form of community would use earth-friendly, biodegradable and non-toxic products in keeping with that vision of sustainable living, and provide for us a safe place to live our lives in peace and health.

Hitting the proverbial road in a 29-foot mobile home, we began to scour the country for an intentional community or eco-village that offered an opportunity for healthy living. Traversing the East Coast, Deep South, Gulf Coast and Southwestern United States, we visited over two-dozen intentional communities in more than twenty states over the course of seven months.

Many of these communities profess to live close to the earth by using sustainable building and permaculture techniques, renewable energy sources, organic gardening, and other well-meaning practices. In our naivete, we did indeed assume that “sustainable living” would include the use of earth-friendly and non-toxic products, but we’ve sadly found that many such communities simply reach for the cheapest common denominator, with Tide, Bounce, Palmolive, Cascade and other products being the easy mainstream fix.

Our disappointment and disillusionment were great when many visits to such communities revealed that people were often unwilling to “walk the talk” when it came to using safe and healthy products. As to the issue of being fragrance-free and MCS-friendly, most communities appeared oblivious at best, much to our dismay.

Earthaven Ecovillage in Asheville, North Carolina, Sunflower River Community in Albuquerque, New Mexico and The Commons on the Alameda Cohousing Community in Santa Fe, New Mexico are the three communities that we have found in our travels to best embody earth-friendliness and consideration for those living with MCS.

While people at Earthaven do indeed burn a great deal of wood for winter heat and state that they are not well-equipped to have people with severe MCS join them, many of the residents appear to embrace true sustainability.Sunflower River has no openings for new members at this time but they are a growing community that truly walks their talk. Twins Oaks and Acorn communities in Southern Virginia are runners up, but they use lavender scented natural detergent which neither of us can tolerate without becoming symptomatic.

Although the numbers are few (and we have only visited a fraction of the intentional communities in the United States), we are grateful to have found a few that seem to understand how important it is to use biodegradable products that are healthy and earth-friendly. And of these few, the Commons on the Alameda is the only one who uses all fragrance-free products!

The Commons on the Alameda Cohousing Community in Santa Fe is an extremely MCS-friendly community that has adopted a strict fragrance-free policy in an effort to create a safe haven for residents with environmental illness. Championed by an medical doctor specializing in environmental medicine who lives at the community, the shared spaces at The Commons are for all intents and purposes fragrance-free, and guests and residents are urged to comply with the policies. We are actually planning to live at The Commons this summer in order to test the waters and see how their experiment in MCS-friendly community is going, bringing with us great hopes that we will find it to be a safe haven where we can, at long last, feel comfortable and at peace.

For canaries considering looking into intentional community as a possible source of safe housing, we would like to warn those with MCS that even eco-villages and communities that espouse sustainable living as a way of life so often overlook the very products that people put on their bodies, into the water, and onto the ground. As many of us already know, mainstream products are often cheap, readily accessible, and have brand recognition that even the most alternative individuals cannot resist. The tendency (can we even say addiction?) to purchase such products is rampant, and even those who live in intentional communities often choose to drive to Wal-Mart and buy whatever cleaning products are on sale. We understand that communitarians also have to make ends meet, but when one’s habits as a consumer fly in the face of one’s proclaimed ecological lifestyle, questions are raised as to whether that community or individual is truly thinking clearly about their choices as a consumer and their commitment to the earth (and their health).

Based on our research and experience thus far, our conclusion is that intentional communities are not a safe bet for those with MCS and environmental illnesses, and the learning curve remains steep even for those who claim to be living a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

Meanwhile, many of our fellow canaries live with severe MCS which prevents them from exploratory adventures like the one we've undertaken. They are unable to risk the dangers--and expenses--of the unknown, despite the fact that they have so much to contribute. Living with MCS sadly often necessitates social isolation in order to minimize symptoms which only worsen with subsequent exposures to the most basic of chemicals. Adding to the isolation are the common financial hardships caused by the medical need to let go of jobs in toxic work places. Employees with MCS are also frequently discriminated against by employers who are unwilling to make reasonable accommodations, despite the fact that MCS is recognized as a disability by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Having MCS inconveniently interrupted our careers and engendered enormous out-of-pocket medical expenses in order to prevent our illness from worsening. Even with good health insurance, access to treatment has been very expensive and limited, and the fact that the AMA refuses to recognize MCS as a physiological illness makes finding sympathetic medical providers an additional challenge. Avoidance is the best medicine, thus our radical lifestyle change and quest for safe community living.

Our hope for the future is that more and more intentional communities will realize the importance of the need for safe housing, including across-the-board use of fragrance-free, environmentally friendly products. May they become safe havens for canaries of the coal-mine while taking their commitment to the earth and her inhabitants even further. Meanwhile, perhaps a few MCS communities will even be born from our collective desire for a safe place to rest our weary heads!

We remain hopeful that we will find a place to call home for the long-term where we can live safely and in better health. We also remain realistic that uphill battles and further education will be needed for those with whom we share living and breathing space, perhaps for the rest of our lives. For now, the two of us will continue to explore whether intentional community will fit the bill when it comes to healthy living as we land in our temporary nest with great hopes for a healthy future for all.

(For more information about MCS, please visit The Canary Report.)

The Commons on the Alameda

Our time in Santa Fe has been made most enjoyable and interesting by the wonderful people that we're meeting. Our current visit to The Commons on the Alameda (an adobe-style cohousing community located within the city limits of Santa Fe) is just one example of how hospitable and gracious people in "The City Different" can be.  

Arriving for dinner last night, we were welcomed with open arms by numerous Commons residents, and we were immediately struck by the positive energy and openness of so many of the people who were present for the community meal which occurs twice per week. Vegans and omnivores alike were happy with the evening's delicious culinary offerings served family style, and there was a great deal of lively conversation around the half-dozen tables laden with dishes and food. 

We were very pleased and heartened to learn that the community has championed a green lifestyle, with the common house being 100% fragrance-free in order to accommodate residents with chemical sensitivities. Using zero-VOC paints and fragrance-free/eco-friendly cleaning and lawn products, the community strives to walk its talk vis-a-vis living a sustainable and green lifestyle (including rain-water catchment, solar energy and some aspects of permaculture), and no one is allowed to use fragranced dryer sheets or other products that might have deleterious health effects. Guests must also adhere to the fragrance-free rule, something that is, of course, second nature to these two canaries living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Mary was twice moved to tears by this amazing awareness and active accommodation of the chemically injured. This aspect of life at The Commons was championed by an environmental health physician who lives here in the community and has dedicated herself to making sure that The Commons be an oasis for the chemically injured as well as a healthy and sustainable community for all. 

Unlike a number of communities we have visited, we were invited into several members' homes within hours of our arrival. After dinner, we viewed a casita that will be available for rent from May through October, and were also invited into the home of Alice Kahn, a very famous psychotherapist who was the co-author of The G-Spot, a ground-breaking book published in 1982. 

This morning we were invited for a delicious breakfast of homemade organic scones and coffee at the lovely home of our hosts here at The Commons, further cementing in our minds the graciousness and kindness that seems part and parcel of life here. When we returned to our rig at the end of day, there was a note taped to our door inviting us for popcorn and a warm fire, an invitation which we delightedly accepted without hesitation while Tina was cared for by a young neighbor across the way. 

Although The Commons is somewhat urban, with the obvious hum of nearby traffic at rush hour, it offers a pedestrian village environment coupled with charming people who live an eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle. The river bordering the community offers trails for hiking and biking, and The Commons collaborates with a neighboring cohousing community for gardening and a goat-milking cooperative. The fact that The Commons can achieve this here in the center of Santa Fe is both heartening and encouraging, and whether we rent a casita temporarily or not, it paints a picture of what we are looking for. Visiting here breaths renewed life into our search, allowing us yet another glimpse of how community can be done so very well. The hospitality and graciousness of the residents of The Commons is unparalleled in comparison to any of the other seventeen communities we have visited (with the exception of Common Ground in Lexington, Virginia). 

Our interest in cohousing has been minimal so far since we had made some assumptions about this form of intentional community from previous experiences, but The Commons demonstrates that cohousing can offer a vibrant and robust shared way of life. This community in particular has organized itself so that many residents have small casitas attached to their homes which are frequently available as rentals, meaning that individuals or families without the interest or means to purchase a home can still be a part of the community. This appeals to us greatly and changes our view of the cohousing model in general, opening our eyes to the many possibilities that it engenders. 


In our perfect world, The Commons would be about five or ten miles outside of town, allowing for a more rural feel and less traffic and congestion. However, even though it might be considered an "urban" community, The Commons borders a small river and there are several small farms nearby with horses, gardens and open space. Santa Fe is a capital city whose edges merge with the countryside in surprising ways, and despite the traffic on the major thoroughfares through town, it is a very simple thing to drive out of town into rural areas in a matter of minutes. 

We offer our sincerest gratitude to the folks of The Commons on the Alameda, and it seems that we may need to return in order to further explore the potential for relationship with the incredibly giving and generous members of this very special corner of Santa Fe. 

Hitting a Low in Texas

Here in Livingston, Texas, we are hitting a low-point as we enter what seems to be the next leg of our journey. On this blog, we try to share the high points and joys of our trip, peppered here and there with hints of the challenges faced along the way. But today, our spirits are low, our bodies are suffering, and we want to share some observations about what's going on with us.

First, my back is out, and even though I live with chronic pain every day, this is an acute low back pain that has been dogging me for several days. Late this afternoon, Mary took me to see a local chiropractor for me to get some needed treatment, and although I didn't detect any chemical aura in the office when I arrived, I became saturated with something during the almost three hours that I was there (two of which were spent simply waiting to be seen in an uncomfortable, fluorescent-lit treatment room). While the treatment was marginally helpful, I often find that chemical exposures make my back pain worse, and this particular exposure may indeed negate many of the positive benefits of the treatment for which we paid out-of-pocket, of course.

Meanwhile, when I returned to the rig, Mary's eyes began burning and she had respiratory symptoms in reaction to the chemicals on my hair and clothes, so I had to take a shower while we were parked right there in the parking lot, simultaneously hand-washing my clothes in the shower. (We can't use laundromats and other people's laundry facilities because of the fragranced and often toxic laundry products that most people use.) For more information on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, please visit The Canary Report.

As we continue the trip, Mary's MCS is seemingly worsened by the diesel fumes from our rig (and others around us), and we are now contemplating trying to sell it, although we're aware that there are a number of things needing attention, including a slow leak from the transmission and engine block, among other things.

On the bright side, we successfully registered our rig and now have Texas plates, something that will help us to blend in a little more without our tell-tale "Mass-uh-too-shits" license plates. Lamentably, we can't get our Texan drivers licenses until we register our car in Texas, a car which currently lives with our son Rene in Taos, New Mexico. Details, details.......

At any rate, this is yet another low that will no doubt be circumvented and superceded by subsequent highs, but for now, on this evening of January 20th, we struggle with pain, chemical sensitivity, and a sense of rootlessness that, while admittedly self-imposed, is nonetheless disconcerting at times.

Thanks for listening, and sorry for a less-than-entertaining blog post.

---Keith