Raw Food Ramblings and a Situation Resolved

Hi,

I have been watching raw food videos on YouTube and learning that there seems to be a whole subculture of people advocating and teaching about the benefits of eating raw foods. Some of them actually eat raw meat, but I have not seen any actual videos on that. I think that the majority of raw foodists may be vegan, from what I have seen, but that depends upon the individual. When my personal doctor first told me about her raw food program she explained that many people who eat 50, 75, 80 percent raw foods still consider themselves to be raw foodists. There are a lot of web sites and many of them are selling stuff, but some have good information. I like to watch David Wolfe the best, but also enjoyed some others and got good information, I think.

I am looking forward to attending my doctor's class this Saturday and learning how to make raw food recipes. From what I have seen in the recipes online there is a lot of juicing, blending, chopping, but no heating above about 114 degrees F. I watched one video of a couple making raw apple pie in their kitchen. They used raw walnuts for the crust, raw apples blended with cinnamon as a binder and put in cut up apples. They also put in a layer of raspberries between the walnuts and the apples and sprinkled a few walnuts on top. Of course I need to be careful with the sweet fruits but I watched the video just out of curiosity.

I saw another lady sharing how to make flax seed crackers in a dehydrator which had been set to about 105 degrees F. It took about 18 hours to "cook" them, but when they came out, you could see that they were crisp and broke off in chunks similar in shape, size and texture to tortilla chips. They just put the flax seeds in a bowl with some water and let it sit. After about 4 or 5 hours of sitting in the water the seeds had emitted enough gelatin that the mass became like "batter" to which they added some other finely chopped or ground raw vegetables and spices. When they came out of the dehydrator, after having been turned over midway, they looked pretty much like regular crackers, but they were not baked. I wish I could have tasted them to see what they were really like. I don't have a dehydrator but I suppose I could just put my oven on low and do the same thing.

I am familiar with the unique taste of flax seeds and also with the fact that when they are put in water, there is a gel like substance that forms.To me the flavor of flax seeds is somewhat odd, but not unpalatable. Perhaps as I do more and more raw foods over a longer period of time my taste buds will change. I have seen them change in the past. They seem to be governed more by what I have been recently consuming than genes, if you understand what I mean.

When I was a child my mother made a flax seed poultice for me when I got a bee sting that became infected. I had a red line going up my leg and she immediately set about making a poultice for me. I watched and remembered how she did it. First she set a pot of water on to boil. Then got a glass bowl and put a piece of muslin cloth over the top of it draping it over the edges. She then placed a handful of flax seeds in the middle of the cloth and then poured the boiling water over the seeds and let it sit, kind of floating in the water slightly. After a few minutes she folded the cloth over and took it out of the bowl and put it in another bowl to let it cool down enough so it could be placed on my skin without burning me. When it was the right temperature, she placed it on the bee sting and let it sit until it was cold. She heated it up again with more hot water, cooled it to body temperature and placed it on the wound again. In the morning the red line was shorter, but it was not gone. She made another fresh flax seed poultice and applied it to my sting and the red line disappeared that day, and the wound healed. I think I remember her digging out the stinger too.

I have used her remedy on boils and it works really well and much faster than taking antibiotics. Mom always said that it drew the infection out. I am not sure that it is the flax seed, especially, that does the healing. I kind of think it is the heat that kills the infection, but the seeds hold the heat and let it penetrate the wound. It sure feels good when you use it and the wound always looks cleaner when you remove the cooled off poultice. Of course, now a days doctors have antibiotics to kill infections but if you are ever in a situation where you can't get any, a flax seed poultice might be a good thing to remember and try. (Maybe I should put in one of those "I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice" disclaimers -- so that was it.)

I am just learning to eat more raw food at this point in time. One of the things I have noticed is that eating raw leafy vegetables actually can fill me up. Of course I like to add tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli sprouts, avocado, and anything else I have in the fridge, such as zuchinni or green pepper and onion if I have any. But raw food really does make my tummy feel full up. Not every single time, though. Sometimes I need a little bread, so I have been buying the Ezekial bread but I make sure to get the one in the light orange label that says it is lower on the glycemic scale. It tastes good, I actually like it better than the regular Ezekial bread.
 
Every once in a while I add a can of tuna to the salad or some hard boiled eggs. I am not going to be eating any raw eggs per the recent salmonella scare. Each day is different. I find that I am not eating as much tuna as I was before. I also add feta cheese to my salads from time to time. I don't seem to be eating any meat at all, just a little dairy in the form of cheese. I might try yohgurt from time to time and a little large curd cottage cheese, also. It feels like I am a vegetarian, almost.

I had a rough patch with a friend this week. It was really a hard one for me and I feel depressed in my heart. I think God may have more for me to learn on this one, because it is still on my mind and I feel kind of low and unsure about something that I did. I continue to pray to the Lord, for He is always good and the best Friend a person could ever hope to have. I hope to begin to understand why I continue to feel so bad.

My friend and I had a long and heated discussion about an incident that happened between us, which I cooled down by simply beginning to agree with her. I was tired of the fight and could see it was going no where, and she was very defensive about anything that I said. It did not matter whether my remarks were casual or pointed she began to be defensive and fight with every word I said. We were not really headed in a good direction. I began to see how very important it was to her to be right, so I simply started telling her she was right and I was wrong. I was hoping that she would see how important it was to her to be right and that that was the source of much of what she was saying and why she was defending herself so hard over a matter that was really inconsequential in the long run.

I was not attacking her and when I started blatantly repeating that she was right over and over in every way I could think of she never noticed how that cooled her down. In fact when I began to say that, she would pause and say, "What did you say, please repeat that, I did not hear it," nearly every time I told her she was right.  It was so not what she expected that she could not even hear it, until I repeated that she was right and I was wrong. I could see that her deep and unconscious goal was to be right. It was connected to her sense of security and self in some deep way. I knew I was in a losing battle so I just gave it to her. It was actually kind of amazing to see what happened when I started to do that. It really defused the situation. It took the heat out, and kept a real collision from happening.

At the end of our conversation I was in a state of tears and deep sorrow that I still cannot explain, but she simply started to change the subject even though I was audibly crying on the phone. She felt fine, but I was a shambles. She was done and moved on. I felt like I got a true picture of where her heart really was from doing that. I began to see that she was not capable of giving me anything more, so I stopped expecting it or asking for it from her. All I really wanted was for her to see that we were both injured in the "transaction" but she never seemed to see that I was injured, too. She, like all of us, is a wounded individual, so I cannot expect to get more than she is able to give. She tries hard, and is completely sincere, and it seemed to mean so much to her to be right, so I just gave that to her. I think I did the right thing, but I don't know what to do about how I now feel. The only thing I know to do is to turn it over to God and ask for healing. I feel like my heart is broken and I still don't really understand why I feel this way.

One thing I do see very clearly now is the effect of always having to be right, which is something that I think I do, too. In fact, I know I do that too and perhaps that is what the Lord wanted me to see from all of this. How devastating it can be to a relationship when you have to be right. I think that is why it became such a heated argument between us. I had already noticed that she viewed the situation one way, and was very upset because of how she viewed it. I came at it from an entirely different angle and set of expectations, and could see that both of our view points were viable. Neither one of them was more correct, they were both correct. We both made sense when you heard the whole story from each side.  It really was a situation that was caused simply by differing view points. I could tell I was never going to be able to get her to see my side as viable and forgivable. I could tell that my side or view point, only served to upset her more. When I stopped defending my upset and point of view and simply allowed her to be right, her world was right again. I don't even care about being right in this situation anymore, but I feel awful, and I don't know why, other than I think I feel like I can no longer trust her. I feel like our friendship is forever changed and that I can no longer entrust my self into her hands because I will or may not be taken care of.

But isn't that the human relationship dilemma? If you have to be right, then everybody else has to be wrong. It is hard to love someone who always tells you that you are wrong. I think the Bible says something about this that seems to be slipping into my mind.

1 Cor 6:7-8  Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?  Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

According to this, my simply diffusing the situation and letting her be right was the right thing to do. Even Jesus did not seek to be right, but to do the will of His Father. 

Joh 5:30  "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

Getting upset, and always "being right" to the detriment of others is the supremely selfish way to be. I am looking at myself here, not anyone else. I know that I have always had some strong investment in being right. In terms of relationships, my being right, has only caused me problems. If I am right, they must then be wrong. Putting someone else at a disadvantage, by putting your self forward as the expert and having to be right, causes division and collision between people.

Jas 1:20  for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

My becoming angry does not produce the righteousness of God. My wrath only causes pain to others and to myself.

I am beginning to feel better because I did end up doing the right thing. Isn't that funny, the thing I saw in her, is the same thing I see in me. I could not feel better until I saw that I had actually done the right thing. By making her feel better about herself, I served her, and did, I think, what God actually wants me to do. I don't have to worry about trusting myself into her hands -- I am not in her hands. I am in God's hands, and He is the ultimate judge. I can still be friends with her. I think maybe our friendship might actually end up being on a better footing because of this. At least I hope so. I did not really want to lose her friendship. She is important to me and I do love her. Thanks for letting me go on, until I reached a resolution. That is one of the things that writing does for me. It helps me to see what I am really thinking. It helps me to wander to the next thought with more clarity. I actually no longer feel broken hearted. Thank God for His forever goodness and showing me, in His word, what I needed to see.

I had not intended to discuss this situation in public, but having done so, it has helped me. Perhaps someone else was in need of this self discussion or thought process, too. May you be blessed. May my friend be blessed and her burden removed. Thank God!

Praise the Lord!

1 Cor 13:1 ¶  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 ¶  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 ¶  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
1 ¶  Follow after charity, ....

Looking forward to the raw food preparation class tomorrow and will be letting you know how it went.

Be back soon,

--Marcia