Holistic Living - Paying Homage to the Term Holistic

Feeling bombarded with the term holistic in several seemingly innocent, yet powerfully synchronistic conversations, I am compelled to revisit the word I feel akin to in a reserved indecisive kind of way. About a month ago while manning the Blackbird’s Bowl booth at the 3 French Hens Market a lovely women asked if the food I sold was holistic. In those moments between her question and my answer, I felt like I was taking an oath that I swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God…then I blurted out, “Yes, my food is n-a-t-u-r-a-l”.  Sensing my blatant avoidance the keen women abruptly rephrased her question into more of a pointed statement, “Not natural. HOLISTIC!”  I said, “Yes, my food is h-o-l-i-s-t-i-c.”  

As the last word came out of my mouth I heard it in a disturbingly distorted slow motion tone like I was in a movie and my answer felt more like propaganda than the straightforwardness I am known for. I proceeded to punish myself for half-heartedly easing her mind while not truly understanding the nature of her question and my lack of mindfulness to ask her to elaborate amidst the commotion of hands grabbing for the 36” Joysticks. A week later, I had a client ask if I carried a specific brand of dog food that he couldn’t remember the name of but knew it was “holistic”. What? Really? Not again! Can pet food or any food, for that matter, really be holistic? Food undoubtedly can be whole, natural & unprocessed but can it be wholistic? 

In this blog and anytime I speak about holistic topics, I am thinking big picture. A holistic lifestyle for us and our pets includes whole, nutritious foods, but that’s just one piece of a very large puzzle. Eating whole foods doesn’t automatically equate into holistic living in the same way your pet eating a dry, processed kibble that started with a whole fresh chicken doesn’t mean it’s a whole food. And, more importantly, isn’t wholistic by any definition, at least in my world. Living in a holistic way includes other things like mental stimulation, physical movement (as in exercise) and creativity. With your pet, for example, nutrition is an important foundation in addition to other important aspects, such as mental stimulation that include things like behavioral training, agility, or teaching tricks. 

When looking up the actual definition of holistic, it comes from the word holism, a philosophical term that describes the concept that whole entities are more than the sum of their parts.  Flashback…Illinois State University, 1992, Introduction to Philosophy class and the burning question “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Okay, so…back to reality.  One of my pet peeves is when people use words that they don’t truly understand. Guilty as charged!  Although I don’t dismiss my punishable crime rather, I mull it around in my head, grab the dictionary, read it – feel it – use it in a sentence – write it 100 times – immerse myself in it. I tread lightly with the term holistic and use it with the utmost respect as a concept rather than a definition.

I’m curious about this so-called “holistic pet food” and am feeling a strong sense of duty to contact the manufacturers of pet foods labeled as Holistic and ask the question, “What makes your food holistic?”  I’ll let you know what I find…

Tammi Janel