On June 8th, 2008, a great hero in the world of natural child rearing passed away. Her name was Edwina Froehlich.
Here's Loren Howe on the power of Edwina's message and what teachings we can take away from it:
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July 2008
How clean is your beach?
This past weekend I went down to Bethany Beach, here in Delaware, to chill with my family. While I was walking along the beach I kept thinking to myself, "Man I'd love to just jump in, but I bet that water is toxic as anything."
Even though Delaware is a tiny state it's filled with chemical plants, refineries and it borders New Jersey - known to locals as "the Dirty Jerz"! So naturally, I expected our beaches to be of some of the lowest quality around.
Then this morning I opened the paper and read that the Natural Resources Defense Council rated the beach I was at a 4 out of 5 when it came to water quality. Not too bad!
NRDC has a great website where they rank many of the major beaches and lakes across the US. Here's a screen shot of a beach in Hawaii.
The NDRC ranks beaches by:
- Quality in 2007
- 3-year trend
- Testing frequency
- Closing/advisory practice
- Basis for closing/advisories
[Launch] GI2MR Member Map
From the get-go, one of the main goals of Give it to me Raw has been: help raw enthusiast share and grow in the company of friends. We're enthused to announce today that we've just gotten a little closer to that goal.
Today we've launched the GI2MR Member Map, (must be a GI2MR member to see).
The map is a dynamic map that let's GI2MR members add their location so that they can let other members know where the reside. The map doesn't retail address information, so you don't have to worry about stalkers, but it will give your general city + state location if you choose to opt-in.
Why it's useful:
- Making Friends: Let's say you just moved to Brooklyn from California and you're interested in making new buddies that are also into health. You open the map and whoa, 6 other people in Brooklyn. Sweet!
- Getting People Together: Let's say you live in Kanasa City and you're thinking about hosting a potluck. You open the map zoon into the area and find 3 other people in a 20 mile radius. You click on their profiles, contact them and bam ... potluck schedule for next Saturday.
- Visiting: Let's say your planning a trip to London this fall but you have no idea where to buy what or if there are any restaurants that serve raw food. You open the map, zoom into London and reach out to a nice raw food bloke who gives you more tips than you know what to do with.
Now that we're quickly approaching 3,000 members on GI2MR, we have a feeling that there will be thousands of more uses our members will be able to get out of this map. Uses that we've never imagined.
If the map looks a little small in numbers right now, give it a week. The map is opt-in so it will take some time for the membership base to get on board.
One last note, you have to be a member of GI2MR to access the map. If you aren't, have no fear. Membership is free and easy.
We hope you enjoy!
Service - Where You're The Star
Setting:
David Wolfe Retreat
Orangeville, ON Canada
Date:
July 14-20 2008
Plot:
I had heard awhile back that Ambrosia Mystique (Culinary Alchemists Gabrielle Brick & Daniel Vitalis) might be looking for some volunteer kitchen angels for the David Wolfe retreat in Canada. Seeing as I had never volunteered on a Wolfe retreat, and the fact that I am trying to fulfill and act upon every new experience that the Universe presents me, I accepted.
When I got there I was told I would be working 16-hour days in the kitchen. I thought they were joking. They weren’t. Myself along with the other kitchen angels - Shannon, Kelly, Natalie, and Michelle (yes, all women) were told that even though it was a lot of time in the kitchen, that we would find that we are going to have a separate retreat of our own, even more powerful than the people who paid for the retreat. I must admit I was mildly skeptical. Boy was I wrong...
Cast:
Gabrielle Brick – The Ambrosia in Ambrosia Mystique.
With over 15 year experience in hospitality, food, and health industries, and over 7 years preparing gourmet raw food for private clients, and retreats for David Wolfe, Journeys for the Soul, and the Raw Spirit Festival, Gabrielle is definitely a force to be reckoned with. In addition to her kitchen skills she also lectures on super-raw-food nutrition and conscious living. And if that wasn’t enough she is also a chocolatier, and creator of The One Chocolate Bar, soon to be found in a store near you.
Daniel Vitalis – The Mystique in Ambrosia Mystique.
Daniel Vitalis is a Health Motivator, Strategist, and Modern Alchemist. After 14 years of rawfood nutritional experience and experimentation, he has created what he calls "ElixirCraft, Advanced Liquid Herbal Alchemy". ElixirCraft is a fusion of ancient herbalism and modern superfood nutrition. It is a method, a strategy. Having found the techniques, methods, language, and even paradigms of the herbal traditions valuable but antiquated, and the current state of the neo-superfood culture in dire need of a method, ElixirCraft was born. Daniel wields a trusty blade in the kitchen, but he really steals the show when it comes time to lecturing about water, herbs, elixirs, and virtually any subject on the modern day perils of man and consciousness.
Story:
Day 1 – Setting up tents, putting away food, running last minute errands with Daniel. Minor Relaxing.
Day 2 – Food Prep. Cracking open more mature coconuts than one man may have ever done in his life. Slowly starting to get to know and sync with kitchen staff.
Day 3 – Guests arrive, time for action. David Wolfe gives an amazing lecture. Guests settle in and get to know one another.
Day 4 – Daniel rocks out an amazing Elixir lecture. David speaks again. Mexican night, all were full.
Day 5 – Wild foods walk with David. Gabrielle wows the crowd with food prep and healthy living talk. Sweat Lodge. Liquids and soups today – very light.
Day 6 – Spectacular wild rice meal, chocolate in evening. Everyone surrounding the campfire, drummers, dancing, elixir drinks, pure magic.
Day 7 – Nobody wants to leave. Closing ceremony. I accidentally slept in, whoops. Till we meet again.
Conclusions….
Daniel – He took the kitchen crew on a wild food walk of our own. I was shocked on the amount of knowledge he has regarding plant identification. It really showed me for the umpteenth time how important it is for me to continuously improve my knowledge... outside of the internet.
Gabrielle – She was the perfect mirror for me this retreat. I looked into her eyes and saw for the first time so many of the illusions and stories that I have been telling myself. What a catalyst for change – I was in tears. Besides being a Diva, Gabby is a kindred spirit and divine soul that can reach into the utmost depths and pull out the truth. (Gabby, you will never know how grateful I am.)
Sweat Lodge – This is truly a blog on its own. If you have never been in a ceremonial sweat lodge, more than half the people go in and out of the lodge completely naked. All shapes, all sizes. From the person you haven’t spoken to the whole retreat to the beautiful Goddess who sat next to you during dinner who you could barely look at in the eyes because she was so radiant. The strange thing for me was that the experience was so sacred to watch, I transcended in the moment from seeing naked bodies and all that can encompass for a man, to just seeing people.
Beautiful people.
Loving people.
Seeing radiant souls in human form. Nothing more. It was an honor to behold and I felt privileged to be present and be able to hold a space of love for them.
Campfires – As I walked through the forest in the pitch black of night I began to hear the sound of the drums. The deep bass began to vibrate and awaken my inner man. The flickering lights from the fire peered through the branches until I was fully upon a group surrounding a campfire, dancing, sweating, drumming, laughing, and living.
Something very primal and "past life" starts to awaken in me when I am in this setting. I know I have danced around that fire many times before. I immediately forget the other people are even there and just start stomping, dancing, spinning, jumping, chanting… it just flows. I danced for about 4 hours straight around the fire that night. I danced until I had nothing left. I danced until I was ready to collapse. I left everything in that fire, only to be rewarded with a early AM shower to wrap up the show, and cleanse the soul.
Service - So what are my thoughts on the whole experience of service…. truly divine. I don’t even know if I could think of a happier and more fulfilling time in my life than being in a position to serve others. I thank all of you for the honor and privilege.
Growth is afoot and transformation is knocking at the door.
Are you going to answer?
All my love,
Philip
WLIR community twitter bot: post a tip or ask a question
Twitter has become a fantastic place for raw foodies to hang out and support one another. Everyday wonderful conversations are taking place and friendships are being strengthened.
[If you have no idea what twitter is, watch this]
Today we have some fun twitter news. We've launched a We Like It Raw community twitter bot that will strengthen the already amazing twitter connection that our raw food community has.
If you have a twitter account, the bot will allow you to post a raw food related tip or question when you send a message to @welikeitraw. Once the question gets posted, it will be sent to all the We Like It Raw twitter followers and posted on the welikeitraw twitter bages on the home pages of welikeitraw.com and giveittomeraw.com.
Here's why I think it's useful:
Scenario 1 / Asking a Question
Let's say your at your local Whole Foods and you're buying ingredients to make a raw lasagna. The thing is Whole Foods ran out organic olive oil, so you're wondering if flax oil will be an okay replacement. You bust out your mobile phone and send a twitter message to @welikeitraw asking the community what they think. Within a few minutes you have a couple of responses back.Scenario 2 / Posting a Tip
Now, let's say your hanging out a David Wolfe seminar in Canada and you hear David say something like, "The best way to reduce teeth sensitivity is to brush with a water + 2% food grade hydrogen peroxide solution." You think yourself, "Man, that's great advice!" So you decide to share that advice when you get back home by getting on your computer and sending a twitter message to @welikeitraw . Bamn! The whole community learns something from your experiences. You're a hero!
Now of course there is nothing wrong with posting the above items directly to your own twitter account... but when you post to the @welikeitraw account, you're leveraging the We Like It Raw network. As a community we're taking advantage of a central place to post tips and ask questions using twitter.
Getting Started
- Join twitter (if you already are there you're good to go)
- Go to the welikeitraw twitter page and hit follow
- When ever you have a tip or question just post it by sending a message like this:
@welikeitraw Does anyone have a good link for buying raw agave nectar online?
or
@welikeitraw Gnosis Chocolate has a sale. 1 free bar with every 5 bars you purchase.
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Big thanks to Fred Wilson, Rick Stratton and Alex Iskold for sharing their twitter bot code. They have a great twitter community bot for reviewing wines called winetweets.
