Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Gold Nuggets


Darius told us about one of his professors whose wife contracted brain cancer. Sadly, she passed away this week. The professor had contacted Darius to ask him about his treatments but evidently disregarded what Darius was doing. I was telling Roger about it today, and he asked, "I wonder how we can get people to listen." To me it is just like the gospel: people hear about it and either receive a witness that it's true, or they disregard it as quirky, weird, irresponsible, unChristian, etc. The only way anyone will ever know if the gospel is true or not is if they receive a witness of it from the Holy Ghost. Roger asked me how I knew to start eating this way, so I shared that story with him. I would never in a million years have done this if the Holy Ghost had not told me. I never even heard of such a thing as a raw vegan. One time many years ago I read an article in a magazine about a man who only ate raw fruits and vegetables. I sighed and said, "That might be nice, but I could never do that. It's just too hard." For all I knew there was only one man on the earth living like that, so it certainly would not have been a choice I would have made without promptings. I believe if the Holy Ghost would tell me to do such a thing, He would tell everyone anything it is that they need to do whether it be to join the Church of Jesus Christ or live a healthier lifestyle. (And everything in between!) It all goes back to how much our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to have joy and happiness while we sojourn here on earth. It is us that removes ourselves from His presence through our running off into other more enticing (or so they seem) endeavors.

As I was relating my story to Roger, another thought occurred to me. When the Holy Ghost suggested we give "mild foods" to Darius (those were His exact words), I didn't know what that meant. I had to ponder it, and then I asked if by mild He meant foods for which an extreme amount of digestion wouldn't be needed, and the answer was yes. So I talked to Alicia, and she agreed to start giving him "mild foods". We didn't know what we were doing exactly, but we were confident that the Spirit would continue guiding us (and boy did He!). We bought a juicer and started making him raw juices a couple of times a day. We knew from previous experiences (and doesn't He always prepare us so that we will have what we need at the right time?) that raw juices require almost no digestion, so they can begin to do what vegetables (called herbs in the scriptures) are supposed to do (heal) almost immediately as they begin to be absorbed into the blood stream. Quickly he gained strength, so we knew we were on the right track. As we started researching on the internet, we found more and more information until we arrived at where we are at today. I have no doubt that more will be unfolded all the time. My point in mentioning this is that the Holy Ghost doesn't give you the whole drawn out scenario. He gave me a very tightly compressed nugget: "mild foods". As I began decompressing the nugget, the information within it grew and grew and grew and grew. I figure I've still only gotten about an eighth of inch into it after a year and a half. What wonderful treasures He has for us! I can hardly wait to get up each day and find out what new scrapings will reveal.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Too Many Venues


I have so many journals right now, I don't know which end is up. I have this blog, and truth be told, I'm not sure what its function is. Then there's my online journal where I keep an almost daily log of my life. I also started a scripture journal based on admonitions and inspiration received at a recent seminary training. There's also my regular 8 1/2 by 11 hard bound hard copy journal that is going unnoticed in the digital frenzy. And then there's the piles and piles of yellow and white steno pads where I write down notes and inspirations as they come to me with the intent to record them in the most pertinent venue at a later date. (That doesn't usually happen by the way.)

"So why so many venues?" one might ask. Good question... I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I can't find his entry now, but Darius posted about this as well, how one of these is a more private venue for posting personal stuff, and the blog is more of an editorial kind of posting on what's going on in our lives.

I even thought of taking up digital posting, but live journal, where I keep my personal stuff, only lets you post a line or two, so I tried posting reminders to myself of events during the day so that in the evening I could expand on them. This worked well while attending a weeklong class in West Palm, but I have forgotten to do it since then. Life seems to be too hectic to write about it.

I think journaling is a very important part of stress reduction. I believe we could write through a lot of the things bugging us if we would consistenly remember to write. I am amazed at what does come out when I don't think I have anything to write about. It goes back to the old Field of Dreams analogy: if you write it, the thoughts will come.

Our lives are so full of stress. Everyone on the planet is plagued with it. Heavenly Father wouldn't put us here with all of this without helping us find a way to deal with it. Maybe journaling is the solution along with living the gospel to begin with so that our lives are not as complicated. I think we are supposed to spend time each day in prayer in meditation as well, and I know exercise helps too. I guess we have all the tools we need, we just have to apply them.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches


I was tired last night, so I went to bed a little earlier than usual. The problem with that is that I can never sleep through the night and wake up really early. Being too lazy to get up, I waste the time laying there thinking about stuff. So this morning it came into my head to do a "living the lifestyle" class for our next raw food group. (We started having a little class for some people who have been asking what we do. It started two weeks ago. We're now working on class #3.) I had planned on doing something else, so it was interesting that I was prompted to do this, but it makes sense, and it will certainly be helpful to the new folks who are coming. Of course, a lifestyle class involves the foods that serve as lifesavers, so we can never get away from the food. One of the themes that ran through the Glaser Farms class was that Tracy wanted to give us recipes or ideas for things that would keep us away from foods that detour us from our goals to eat healthy. I had never thought of that in that way although, of course, I had employed some of the strategies in a survival kind of context. To hear her put it that way changed the perspective a little bit.

Example: yesterday I heard Wyatt going to the refrigerator looking for food about every 1/2 hour. I realized this was because he was not so much hungry as wanting something that was not there. I remembered what Tracy had said, so I looked at my notes from Glaser Farms and went out to make him Tracy's version of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Of course it is not a sandwich at all (which he quickly pointed out), but he enjoyed it none the less, and I think it satisfied some of the restlessness in his stomach. He was still scavenging a half hour later, but he went for another apple instead of looking longingly in the fridge for something that wouldn't have been good for him.

The desire for previously enjoyed foods is very real until we actually have some of them and realize we have been duped into wanting something that is not good for us. The memory of it is much more enjoyable than the actual substance. That is the nature of addictive substances in general. On the other hand, living foods are much more enjoyable than their memory. That is an odd contrast between good and evil if one wants to look at it in a spiritual way. We know that the harmful foods detract from our spirituality (or do we really know that?), but we want them anyway. Once taken, sorrow and remorse set in as we feel bad physically and emotionally knowing we have failed again. Living foods do the opposite: we feel great physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I think that when we start talking about the spiritual and emotion aspects of food, that is where we lose a lot of people. They think we have gone off the deep end.

I am starting to realize that choosing how much of my food to eat in its raw, living foods state is more than a number. I want to take as much of the best food I can into my body (within the realm of what it needs) while avoiding as much of the foods that detract from my health as possible. For example, when a recipe calls for maple syrup, am I going to avoid it because it is cooked, or am I going to think about whether it serves as a vehicle for a more nutritious food that I might not otherwise eat, or is it just an empty excuse for a food that won't do me any good. Conscious eating is very difficult for those of us who have been doing it unconsciously for so long. It requires a lot of discipline to just ask the necessary questions, no less to stop the insanity of putting harmful foods in our bodies.

Of course, the living foods lifestyle is more than food, thankfully. Because we spend so much time eating each day, and the rest of our day is divided up between so many other kinds of actiivities, we might tend to think about it more than we should. I think that is temporary until we can do the conscious things more unconsciously. Until then, it is what it is.