The Essenes

Food awareness began for me back when I was a sophomore in high school. I decided instead of summer camp that I would enroll at the University of Washington for summer school. I was only 15 years old and grew up on an island so was pretty sheltered. It turned out that my dorm mate was a vegetarian. Something I had never even heard of in the 70’s. She immediately tried to convince me of the virtues of eating this way.

I grew up in a large military family so I was raised on processed and convenience foods. Having a dorm cafeteria at my disposal afforded me a wide variety of options, but being young and wanting desperately to fit in, I decided to give vegetarianism a try. My dorm mate Patty, was very patient with me explaining the virtues of eating this way, but I knew it would be a hard transition coming from Captain Crunch, Apple Jacks and a heavy sugar addiction.

One beautiful weekend, we decided to take a camping trip to the Hoh Rain Forest with our friend John. I realized, I was a bit of a third wheel but Patty felt safer if I came along so I quickly obliged. This was one of the best decisions of my life. We drove three and a half hours out to the Rainforest and found a beautiful campsite right next to the river. After getting our camp all set up, I was just starting to get settled into the experience when the two of them decided that we should drive into Forks for dinner. Puzzled by this decision, because I thought we were camping, I decided to go along for the ride, not just for the experience but because Patty grabbed my arm and coaxed me into the car. Forks is not much of a town, but they found a little greasy spoon. The menu did not have many vegetarian options, but we managed to find something to satisfy our appetites and after a couple hours headed back to our campsite.

Driving down the long forested road, it was dark by the time we made it back to our camp.  We could see a small campfire burning at our spot. When we got out of the car, we were greeted by these two young men in long white robes. They greeted us saying “Welcome brother” and “Welcome sisters”. They were cooking dried beans in a pot of water. After getting over the shock of having these two guys in our campsite we settled in for one of the most memorable conversations I can remember to date.

First, they talked about the hidden virtues in food. I was thinking, I did not know food had virtues. They explained how important it was to make Goodness the foundation of your life. That it was important to respect each living being, to keep your thoughts pure and elevated, avoid negative thinking by maintaining a higher consciousness and deeper awareness to the oneness of all. When you eat, you should send grateful thoughts to all of the beings, to the animals, to the plants, to the elements and to the forces that keep us alive.

They spoke of the benefits of simple pure food. They said, if they did not know where it came from or what was in it, they would not eat it. They spoke of Right Livelihood; work is love made visible, about grounding in spirit,  that we must recognize the intimate and total connection of all beings, and that we as a species we must take responsibility for our part in this unfolding drama of evolution.

I guess you can imagine how sitting by this little campfire on the edge of the ocean in the middle of the grand rain forest with these radiant, gentle souls opened my eyes to another way of being. As the evening wore on, Patty and John snuck off to the tent, but I stayed by the fire, absorbing and listening to everything they had to say. I slowly fell asleep thinking, by eating whole simple foods, not only were you doing something good for yourself but for the health of the planet. When I woke up in the morning, they were gone without a trace, leaving me wondering if they were there at all.  Of course when Patty and John woke up, we had a very long discussion about our visitors which continued all the way back to Seattle.

With all of the processed food, fast food, genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), High fructose corn syrup, and aspartame laden poisons in the food chain of today, it makes it that much more important to become informed and simplify ones diet.

I am not a vegetarian anymore, but raise revered grass fed animals, free range chickens and organic vegetables. Providing simple, whole, clean, Slo food has been a belief and passion of mine for years. Growing your own food, whether in a pea patch, in your yard or in a planter box will not only save you money at the store but saves you money at the doctor’s office later. I was sick all the time as a child, I never get sick anymore. The food they are selling today is not the food of yesterday. It is causing so many health conditions that people are very unaware of. Taking responsibility for our health is up to each of us. Becoming informed and passionate about the foods we eat is one action we can take every day to respect ourselves the sacredness of life and the future of this beautiful planet we call home.