Raw Spirit Festival -Day Two

The amazing raw love fest experience continues.......

Raw Spirit Festival - Day One

Here is a visual highlight from our Day One at Raw Spirit Festival....what a great day....what an amazing experience so far:

Welcome Baby Benjamin!

Many of my regular readers will remember when I ran the blog post with the heart warming story about my friends, Robin & Chuck, and their miraculous conception of their first baby. As you can see from the above slide show, we have a baby!! On September 8th, around 10:45 pm, Benjamin Charles Hicks was brought into this world. He is perfectly healthy and I don't recall having ever seen a more beautiful newborn infant in my life. At 41, Robin is a radiant and proud new mother and Chuck is busting his buttons! Although Chuck isn't completely finished with his tour of duty in Iraq, the Army was kind enough to allow him this leave for the birth and initial adjustment period. He'll be back home for good before the holiday season and this year there will be much for which to give thanks. Welcome to Baby Benjamin and congratulations to both of his wonderful parents!!

Sedona & Raw Compassion

As I write this blog post, I am in the middle of packing and prepping to travel to Sedona, Arizona for this year's Raw Spirit Festival. This will be my first time to attend this large, international healthy living, eco-sustainable, raw food event and celebration. My traveling companion, Angela, and I are so eager to experience the event we're heard so very much about. I imagine there will be more tie-dye and group hugs than you can shake a stick at, but...hey when in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? I don't actually own any tie-dye, but I am going out today to buy some fashionable (hopefully) walking/multi-terrain shoes for my outside in Sedona festival comfort.

I will be taking my laptop, flip video camera and digital camera so I can stay connected and hopefully blog the event as it unfolds. If you don't already subscribe to my YouTube page, head over that direction and click subscribe because that will be the first place my videos go. Many of my videos never make it to this blog, so this way you'll get the unedited, "raw" version of what goes on behind the scenes!

Not only will I be sharing a room in Sedona with Angela, but last week we found out about a last minute surprise guest roomie, the creator of the 100 Day Raw Challenge and Raw Fu, Bunny Berry! Believe me, wherever Bunny is, there are good times! Her sense of humor and splendid presence is a gift to everyone who comes in contact with her. Our hotel room will be insane, as three raw food techie nerds unite with all of our superfood snacks and audio/visual equipment. Hopefully we won't blow out the breakers out at the Comfort Inn.

Changing the subject, I had the pleasure of meeting with a member of our local raw food meetup group at Whole Foods yesterday. We did a store tour in hopes of getting new ideas for quick and easy raw food preparations. Melissa and I also discussed the challenges of staying raw and those feelings of guilt or defeat that come when we occasionally find ourselves backsliding into old, not so healthy, patterns of our previous life. Melissa shared that she's dealt w/a candy, cookies, soft drink moment while I admitted my latest stupor of finding my self leaving the Taco Bueno drive thru with a sack of Mexi-dip and chips. It happens, people. I think we'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of raw food gurus who are able to stay 100% raw all the time. And for the record, that's not my ultimate goal anyway.

My sweet friend, Heidi Ohlander, just posted a terrific article called Fall In Love With Raw Food All Over Again. If you are struggling with your raw food experience, I highly recommend that you go read her positive and encouraging post. We are all in this journey towards rejuvenating our health together and it is a process. It IS NOT about perfection, it is about learning to balance our personal diets intelligently, consciously and passionately. What's right for one isn't going to be right for all. I hope we can have compassion and support for one another regardless of where we are in this process.

Clearing the Air

I just received the below comment on a blog I posted about my love of sprouting. As all of my regular readers are aware, I make a point to give credit where credit is due in every one of my blog posts when I have taken information from one of the many good & respected folks who I consider mentors and educators. In the above mentioned post, I inadvertently did not hyperlink to The Sproutman, Steve Meyerowitz, from whom I gathered a portion of his sprouting information. I have every one of Steve's books and consider him to be an admired authority on sprouting. I also took sprouting information from the sites of Jordan Rubin, Brian Clement of the Hippocrates Institute and Chet Day, all of whom I did manage a link to.

The below letter, that was just posted today in the comment section of the sprouting blog, says that it is a 3rd attempt to contact me. For the record, if I would have received an email or a comment, like I did today, I would have addressed this immediately by correcting my mistake of not including a link to The Sproutman. This is also the first time a comment was left for me, so I am taking the time to let you, my readers know that I officially give credit to Steve Meyerowitz for his wonderfully informative writings on sprouting, some of which I passed along to you in the a fore mentioned blog. I am no authority on sprouting, like the gentlemen I've listed, but I am quite passionate about the subject as a student.

I formally apologize to Mr. Meyerowitz for making such a blatant over site. It is unfortunate that this has become such a spectacle, but I will certainly be much more meticulous in future postings, checking and double checking, to make sure I have included the correct links to the information which I am passing along to my readers. Ass beating received.....taking it like a big girl.

"Dear Ms. Shelton,

This is our 3rd and final attempt to contact you regarding your plagiarized post dated August 21, "Let's Talk About". Plagiarism is when you copy someone else’s words, text, or content, in part or in whole, and then publish it as your own without obtaining the permission or endorsement of the original author. It is the same thing as theft or copyright infringement and professional writers or anyone that publishes their works with integrity take this violation very seriously.

I represent author and health advocate Steve Meyerowitz. His original 2005 content from which you copied into your blog post was published as your own not only without Mr. Meyerwitz’s permission, but also without the use of quotes or references to the original author. Ms. Shelton, we believe you are an intelligent and savvy woman who obviously is very active within the blogging community. You have had media and publishing relationships in the past, so we do not understand why you would participate in such an unethical practice. We do not believe that you do not understand what plagiarism or copyright infringement means.

We are respectfully once again asking this this content is removed immediately and provide your readers (since there are many comments to this posts) with an honest explanation. Again, plagiarism is theft. It is unacceptable and regrettably we have taken measures, such as notifying your readers and blog community, in an effort to prevent this from happening in the future. Please heed to our request and address this matter accordingly.

Tina Diamond
Representative, Sproutman Publications
rawfoodnews@yahoo.com"

Raw Fu Weekend in Hotlanta

Paula and I found ourselves in the air early this past Friday morning, flying en route to Atlanta - Georgia, for Bunny Berry's Day 30 Raw Fu Meetup. In the above slide show, you can enjoy a glimpse into the beautiful weekend we shared with friends. Meeting Bunny was surreal....a dream come true. She's exactly like I thought she'd be, only a little more spectacular, if that's possible. Rawbin, Blaq Berry, Jer, Joanna, Basil and all the others were uniquely captivating and charming in memorable and endearing ways. Dinner at R. Thomas in Atlanta was delightfully campy and the food was very healthy and delicious. The Raw Fu members who joined us were darling and I learned a lot of new things that evening. I tasted my first creamy, exotic Durian.....who knew that it would cause stinky pee just like asparagus? I am a believer in the power of community. My only regret....not getting to meet Chadd....but our day will come.

One thing that motivates and inspires me is that I will soon be leaving again, but this time for Sedona, where I'll be attending Raw Spirit Festival in just another week. Happily, I'll be united and reunited with some of my beautiful friends and many others who I can't wait to see once again. Stay tuned for details on this upcoming getaway as they begin to unfold.

RFT Raw Potluck at Lava - Unplugged

In Tulsa this past Sunday afternoon, over 26 raw foodists came to Lava on Brookside for an amazing raw food meetup and potluck. Above are some pictures, courtesy of Western Doughty of Haftone Photography and one of our lovely members, Paula Jones. Then my husband, Gordon, and our little Taylor both took turns shooting video of the event, which is in the YouTube clip below.


All who attended seemed to have a lovely afternoon, enjoying the impressive and creative food dishes, as well as hearing testimonials from people who have had life changing transformations by the incorporation of raw foods into their lifestyle. It's hard to believe this was only our third meetup as a group. I feel so encouraged and excited by this wonderful, growing community and who would have known that all this time they were all here, right in my own backyard?!