RAW Living and Learning

Monday of Holy Week  I'm very excited to spend this week in prayer, fasting on freshly made juices, and spring cleaning the house with the children. We always stop our homeschooling during this very important time in our Liturgical Year. Our days are spent focusing on our Lord through increased prayer, Bible reading, attending daily Mass, and discovering new ways that each of us can deepen our relationship with Our Lord. And I'm not only cleaning the house but by fasting I'm working on cleaning out any road blocks that are in my way. Cleaning out anything in my body that doesn't belong--this includes toxins, emotions, fears, old tendencies, bad thoughts, and past emotional traumas. Fasting on juices and water allows me to focus on cleaning out the old and making a hospitable environment for the NEW! I also do this fasting in conjunction with deeper, more intense and focused prayer. I seem to be able to focus best when I am fasting, this is why my normal daily routine in...

We are still working on our "Good Words" this week as we tend to our individual weaknesses. Speaking of tending, I have been tending to my new little square foot garden and my potted herb garden all week, and everything is growing beautifully. It looks like things are growing overnight! I think my homemade compost is super charged or something. I have never seen plants grow so quickly.  I am afraid to admit though, that I have faltered on my "Good Words". It seems like everytime I set out to work on something openly, the evil one latches on and drags me down. No sooner did I get it set in my mind that I was going to work on good words, and low and behold, over critical comments came spewing out of my mouth! Yikes. This is going to be harder than I imagined--working on my short comings requires focus and mental clarity or else I become so easily distracted from the task at hand. This leads perfectly into my focus for today. Friday for me is a day for fasting and...

There is PEACE in P-E-N-A-N-C-E . (Can you find it?) It is so easy for me personally, to find true peace in penance because I trust that God's mercy abounds. It is during this time that we prepare to renew our baptismal vows through penance and reconciliation. This is a time to enter into the healing spirit of this season and restore relationships with our household, neighbors and most importantly, God. It can also be a time to heal the body with raw living, life giving foods. When I think of this time of year not only do I think of fasting, abstinence and penance but I think of reconciliation and NEW LIFE. The word "lent" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for springtime, lencten. The importance of the integrity of life and the preciousness of life. Life represented in new growth and life being protected from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. And life as seen in the planting, sprouting and growing of life giving plants, nuts and seeds. I...