The Gifts of a Friendship that Just Keeps Growing



 Living healthy, simple, natural and justly are all one thing. – Socrates

My good and long-time friend Kathleen Erickson visited this weekend.  She and I worked on some social justice projects years ago, and spent some time listening to each other "discern" as we transitioned into new avocations.  She ended up spending 18 years on the  US/Mexico border leading "immersion" experiences, creating an International Cultural Center for Women, and taught English to Spanish speaking people.  I, on the other hand made my way into chaplaincy, and then to pastoral care among persons with mental illness and another academic degree. We kept in touch over the years, and this weekend she came 300 miles to do a presentation at my parish on immigration, her current passion, and a workshop called Awakening the Dreamer, which invites people to look at their surroundings with more compassinate vision and then make changes that yeild a more environmentally sustainable , spiritually fulfilling, socially just presence on the planet.  Both events were a big hit.

What is relevant to my current passion of encouraging people to add more raw and living foods into their diets, however, is the wonderful way we spent the weekend sharing and learning from each other.  I fed Kathleen lots of raw food, which she graciously accepted, and I listened to and  absorbed much of what she was presenting, particularly the "care for the environment" presentation. She vowed to renew her efforts to eat more raw and living foods regularly, and I vowed to be more creative in my efforts of recycling and conserving water and energy.  Where we both agree and can embrace change from our respective places at the moment is in the reminder that when we make a good choice with food--meaning eating raw and living foods, we are, in fact, making a good move for the planet which we habitate.  That is, when we improve our nutrition, we are building that environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on the planet.

It was a rich, rich weekend on many levels!  For more information on Awakening  the Dreamer, which I heartily recommend, go to awakeningthedreamer.com and look around the website.  And, if you're interested, find someone who can make the presentation to your favorite group. Meanwhile....Live well ~ ~ Eat Raw!