The RAW TRUTH... and SLOWING DOWN

I am a high speed kind of gal. My husband told me tonight that I embrace things head on, full on, and with extreme passion.

God has been speaking to me in some hard ways lately, and some funny ways too, but I several things are telling me the same thing.

SLOW DOWN.

I am trying to figure out what that means FOR ME.

My sister was chatting w/ me on Facebook yesterday. She told me my mother had befriended her (we have different moms) and told her that she was concerned about me. Here's how our chat went...

SIS: "She asked me to try to get you to slow down."

ME: "WHAT???"

SIS: "I think she has me confused with the Lord Almighty."

That completely cracked me up ... my sister nailed it!!! My sister knows me to the core. Not only is she beautiful and smart, but she is hilarious and blunt just like I need her to be. I know my sister loves me and is not afraid to tell me the truth or sugar coat it as she sees it in anything. We all need someone like that in our lives.

(oh and yeah Mom, you're busted if you are reading this...)

So I am all raw detoxed now and back into a good high raw food pattern. I am no longer craving the junk I ate the past month and am enjoying the living food I put in my mouth and am feeling energized and satisifed. One of the biggest challenges of eating this way THE WAY THAT IS GOOD FOR ME TO KEEP ME ALIVE is that I cannot be successful and consistent if I don't SLOW DOWN.

To have variety and enjoy all the delicious recipes and options available to me, I have to SLOW DOWN, plan ahead and have patience. Many things need to soak overnight. Many things need several hours or days in the dehydrator. Some fabulous things take a day or 2 or even more to completion. Most and several things are not that high maintenance, but some are. And the ones that are are worth it. Beautiful and wonderful and satifying things take time and patience.

I have all the raw kitchen tools in my beautiful kitchen and it is beautiful. My husband bought me a beautiful home and remodeled my kitchen to be a place that I love being in. He gave that to me in love and I need to slow down enough to respect that, to enjoy it and delight in the hard work and efforts he did for me. Those raw tools are no good to me if I don't slow down and use them. I cannot use them to help me prepare the things to nourish my body, lower my blood pressure, and give me the fabulous energy and feeling of being alive that eating this way does if I am rushing through my days.

I have all 4 of the main raw kitchen tools and more: a Vitamix, an Excalibur dehydrator, a food processor, and an Omega juicer. I even have a spiralizer that makes pasta out of veggies. I have no excuse not to be healthy and stay on the raw wagon.

My counter has 2 full grocery bags on them right now. I went shopping at my co-op on TUESDAY... it is now Friday night. They contain ingredients for some sprouting I plan to learn how to do and some raw recipes I plan to try. Like the fruit and veggies filling my baskets... they will rot and spoil and be of no use to me if I don't SLOW DOWN enough to use them.

That is like life. That is like LOVING. Slow down. Pray. Listen. Think. Plan. Prepare. Follow through. As much as I embrace RUNNING... I need to stop 'running' so much in some areas of my life. It is so easy to get caught up and find yourself literally running off the edge.

In LOVING one has to know how to love in a way to reach their target. They then need to take that knowledge - the love language they need to speak, and plan and prepare and follow through. That cannot be effectively done while running in most cases. It takes slowing down, praying, having patience and waiting on the Lord.

In this case slowing down isn't lazy... it isn't self serving... it is a way to love, to live, and bring glory to God. And that my friends... is my RAW TRUTH right now.