Greetings People,

It has been a while since there have been any updates from the rawsistas. Due to busy lives, all of us have not been able to post as much as we thought we would, when we first started. But I/we do promise to keep updating as much as possible. Even if we don't write something about what we are personally doing, we will post a video, a website/blog; article or book that we think you would find interesting.

Updates

For the past week or so, while some of my fellow New Orleanians were out at parades in celebration of Mardi Gras, I have been transplating my greens that have been struggling for survival in this inconsistent weather patterns. I have made a commitment to working/ being with the Earth in some way every day. I have a new obsession that I will talk about in my next post. Until then, please enjoy these pics. it.

....Notice how much concentration Omer has while watering the mint.


Here are our Collard greens and Green eaf lettuce. I am affirming their recovery and giving them lots of compost and loving thoughts.

Oh, I forgot to add that I build the garden boxes myself (smile). I felt really empowered.


Youth and Raw Foods

In February, I started teaching a workshop that I created called "Vibrant U-- A journey into Wellness" to youth at a High School in New Orleans. The workshop merges body awareness exercises, nutrition education and the arts in a fun and exciting way. Initially, the students had the expected questions like "What is the class about?" and "What are we going to learn?" and the like. Based on my own experience and focus on creating Wellness in my own life, I have learned that Wellness is dynamic and individualized, so giving them one answer didn't work, becasue it always brought me to another question, so I just allowed the action and work/play answer their questions. There were a few times when their a little bit of resistance to some of the philosophies that I present in the class, but overall, these youth are amazingly receptive to the information. I love it when I hear them say " Oh, Miss Gabrilla, I can't wait to tell my mother /aunt/ father about this!"

This past week, (which was the first day of food preparation), we had a blast, we made a Mexican-inspired salad with a nut cheese and a berry/banana smoothie. The food was so good. They loved it!


Our Mexican-inspired Salad



Notice the smiles of pure raw goodness.


One of my students called me on the phone after leaving class, telling me that her mother really enjoyed some of the salad that we prepared. It feels really good when I see how cooperative they are. How willing they are to learn how to prepare healthy wholesome food and live healthy loves. I did not get one complaint. They would taste the corn and really just light up. They make me love coming there.

Before we prepared the meal, we watched a clip from the video "Raw for Life". They were shocked to know that a person could heal their bodies of conditions such as cancer, diabetes and high blood presssure by eating a raw foods diet. One of my students asked "Why don't the doctors tell us this?" Sharp. They don't miss a beat.

Just amazing kids. I will post more about the workshops as the week go by. We have 11 more weeks.

In Greatness,
GaBrilla