Walking in Sabino Canyon . . . and in Science

Posted on May 12, 2013 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Dove dining on Saguaro flowers

Good Day, God!

This morning my daughter Sandy took me for a morning walk in Sabino Canyon.

A lovely way to start Mother’s Day! And to top it off I saw a dove dipping her head into the flowers at the top of a saguaro. I didn’t catch her with her head down. But I can see a bit of pollen on her head. Seeing this bird was an unexpected delight.

Another unexpected delight was this story my wonderful husband emailed me from NPR. It was in their “most emailed stories” section.

The thinking now is that instead of rinsing off a baby’s pacifier when it falls on the floor — the parents should suck it clean for them. The parent’s saliva would expose their baby to a wider number of “harmless” bacteria and thus improve the child’s microbiome. And that in turn would reduce the child’s chance of developing allergies like eczema and asthma. Hmm. This study was done in Sweden where apparently quite a few parents suck their baby’s pacifier to clean it.

I have to say, God — if I had given my kids pacifiers — it would never have occurred to me to clean a pacifier by putting it in my mouth. I, like our entire Western World have been germ phobic. Now I am working hard to process the idea of Germs as Friends and Allies. It seems we need to cultivate our germ friends and support them as best we can. They may be our best defense against enemy germs.

Can it be, God, that this Germs as Friends Reframe plays well across other levels? Research shows that just having good solid human friends improves our health. I like the idea of building friendships so much better than eliminating enemies! Making friends seems much the better long term policy!