Welcome to the redesigned Whole Life Times! Our upgraded, glossy paper is still 100 percent post consumer recycled, and you’ll notice changes in our graphic design and style, but rest assured—all the informative content and great writing you’ve come to expect from us continue to be mainstays in our new incarnation. You’ll find some surprises as well. This magazine is for you, and it’s a work in progress, so please let us know what you think works and what we can do better.

WLT isn’t the only thing with a new look. Our unusually grey and cloudy spring has yielded to a magnificent early summer. You can see some of it from your car, but I implore you to get out and walk or bike through our many parks and hills. You’ll be rewarded with a visual feast.

Many of my earliest childhood memories took place in or around bountiful flowers. My father, who commandeered half of the backyard for his extensive plantings, was an avid gardener who knew all the Latin names for the blooms and tomatoes he lovingly tended. The garden was his refuge from a grinding commute and cerebral work, so whether we were scrambling among the lilies of the valley or hiding behind trees, Dad was always digging and planting in the background, lost in his private reverie.

My own appreciation of the garden as a haven for fairies and small children has expanded over the years. Now I also welcome squirrels, insects and birds that flock to my pesticide-free sanctuary. Most of all, I appreciate the lush green calm, the bright bursts of color and fragrance, and sweet sounds of birdsong. A garden Buddha surveys the scene, and a burbling fountain harmonizes with the gentle resonance of half-a-dozen windchimes.
All around my pseudo-suburban home, neighbors are blissfully unconcerned about poisoning their lawns with pesticides. In the larger world, agribusiness is doing its best to distort our grain supply with genetically modified seeds. It may be naïve, but I believe human beings ultimately will come to understand the error of these ways and change them. But there are other mistakes we’ve made—ones we don’t know how to fix. Our creative technology is outpacing our curative technology.

Out in the desert of New Mexico, we’ve created a problem that will be around for at least 10,000 years. We’re burying radioactive plutonium—waste from building nuclear bombs—deep in the earth and trying to figure out a way to keep future generations from digging it up. Just as current civilization has been challenged by unreadable ancient texts—we don’t really know the purpose of England’s Stonehenge any more than we understand the Rosetta Stone—scientists worry that our descendants will be unable to translate whatever warnings we leave encrypted for them to find. Centuries from now, English may be a dead language, and even if we create some kind of symbol, it could be interpreted as camouflaging a great treasure. It’s a serious dilemma.

Knowing how toxic this substance is, why do we continue to propagate it?

Eighteen hundred physicists have signed a petition to Pres. Bush opposing new US policies that open the door to using nuclear weapons in situations like the one being presented by Iran. It should be mandatory that all heads of government, planet-wide, tour this waste site before any votes are taken. If this concerns you, please write to your elected representatives. You can get more information at citizen.org.

It’s often been said that when the people lead, the leaders will follow. Isn’t it wonderful to see “the people” beginning to lead in a more organized way? More and more celebrities are speaking out in support of the environment, and at the sold-out LOHAS 10 conference, Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, shared plans for his new company, Revolution Living. Case is creating innovative and positive media, but he hasn’t stopped there. He’s also looking to reinvent health care, a job our government doesn’t want to take on. The pharmacy lobby is so strong and generous in its support of politicians that nobody wants to disturb this mutual back-rubbing, pocket-filling love fest.

Good things are here and more are in store. We’re excited about our new look so I hope you’ll drop us a line and share your thoughts and ideas. Thanks for being with us.

From my heart,
Abigail Lewis

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