I signed up for the 10-day training and detox at The Living Foods Institute on an intuition that this focused experience with raw and living foods would clean out the abscess in my molar. I knew I needed more than the colloidal silver I was taking and thought that clearing my body with food and lifestyle suited me perfectly.
I didn’t even attend a preview session, just registered for the next session. I couldn’t make it to the first two days, however, because the final sales at the Native Plant Garden happened on those days. Jane, the director, said that would be fine to arrive on Day 3, so I registered.
Arriving on Day 3 proved to be just the healing opportunity I needed, although it looked like a repetition of my life’s drama and story that “I’m always trying to do things differently than everyone else” and “People who say they’re going to help me, really don’t.” This time, though, I allowed myself to not buy that interpretation, and when an emotional upset occurred on Day 4, I went straight to Jane and said, “I need help. I’m having an emotional upset and I know that this is an old story coming up to be cleared out, so will you help me?” And she did! Right there, in the front of the community room and with everyone else going about their own healing business, Jane listened and held me and encouraged me while I cried and expressed all the stuffed up anger that the situation in the kitchen had triggered. I experienced, for a rare moment in my life, that it was ok to have those intense feelings and get supported while they moved through my body. At the end of the fifteen minutes or so, I felt lighter and freer and self accepting that I had for a long time! It was a miracle moment!
I am deeply grateful for Jane’s willingness to not just allow, but to support me, in that transformation! After the ten-day session, I volunteered for Brenda and Jane at Living Foods, then Brenda hired me to work there as a kitchen assistant. I worked there for almost a year, until setting off on my Appalachian Trail walk. The Institute was a godsend for me at the time because one of the healing modalities they use there is Radical Forgiveness. That was fortunate for me because my time there coincided with my training as a Radical Forgiveness Coach. Jane turned over the weekly session on Radical Forgiveness to me, giving me just the venue I needed to fulfill my practice teaching requirements.
In addition, Brenda hosted a Radical Forgiveness Circle Ceremony, offering it to her entire community! I was able to lead my second required Ceremony there, thus fulfilling my Ceremony Facilitator certification as well.
So many healing opportunities arose for me in my year of interaction with The Living Foods Institute! Physical, emotional, and professional transformation were all supported in so many ways! While working there, I was able to train for my Appalachian Trail walk by walking the four miles to and from the Institute most of the days I worked there. I would carry my pack partially loaded so that in the evening I could pack out the compost! With all the fresh vegetables served every day, we would accumulate a good 10 pounds of perfect compost. My compost piles at home were quite productive that year!
Several of my co-workers enhanced my experience as well. Mimi delighted me with her effervescent personality. My funniest moment with Mimi, though, was one of the last days I worked with her. She was all excited then about her courses with Landmark Education, which I caught in a two-minute video. With great exuberance, she animatedly told me how, since learning leadership at Landmark, she “could go into any CEO’s office and make a proposal for her program”. That in itself, was not remarkable. What delighted me was that all the while she spoke, her face was covered with green wheatgrass foam, a common facial at the Living Foods Institue!
Wendy, the first Kitchen Manager I worked with at The Institute, was a healing angel through and through! At the time, I didn’t see this, but she was a perfect mirror for my judgments about being a good leader and an organized manager! Everything I found lacking in my own ability to manage an operation like that was mirrored in her. When I finally saw that, I could do my Radical Forgiveness Worksheets, and let her off my hook, turning the acceptance and unconditional love to myself, where it could work its magic and healing. I honor Wendy for being my healing angel there.
Sara, on the other hand, was there to mirror back what I already loved about myself! And she was easy to be with and to work with. We sang while we did dishes and made it all go quickly! Her inner beauty was magnified by her outer beauty. She was one of those people I loved being with so I could admire a beautiful human being!
At Living Foods, I was also introduced to Kathryn Lawson, who provides holistic chiropractic that really works for me! Her blending of physical and emotional balancing, which I could use more often than I make an appointment with her, seems to give me just the approach to health that I like. I was tickled that she chose me as the demonstration subject during my 10-day class. I learned that my wire framed glasses short-circuit the energy flow in my body. Shortly afterward, and especially in response to the improvement in my eyesight from two months of raw and living foods, I proudly wore my new all-plastic frames to show her. “Nice frames!” she agreed.
The Living Foods Institute, with its hundreds of participants, was an oasis of transformation for me! There were many other co-workers and students I didn’t mention here, some whose names I remember, many I don’t. In all, however, glows a light of honor and self-respect, as everyone took responsibility for working together WITH the sacred temples of our physical bodies. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to not just attend classes there but to contribute my work and particular skills to expand the mission that Brenda and Jane have to heal the world, one person at a time!
***********************************************
Resources cited in this post:
Kathryn Lawson’s Holistic Chiropractic