creating community

you might have picked up a little vibe of discontentment in my last post... yes, i'm feeling a little down the past day or so. I'll fess up here: I'm feeling alienated on my raw diet. I realize it's a conscious choice to eat raw, and it's a choice I've been committed to for over a year now - it's not just some fly-by-night whimsical scatterbrained thing I'm doing for this moment but not the next. It's my lifestyle choice. But lately I've found it alienating in the sense that those around me (and no one in my close or extended family is raw) find it difficult to accept my choice... still. They (and I'm not saying all of them, btw) just can't seem to open their minds up to the exquisite possibilities of raw foods. There's so much abundance and choice with raw food - it's not limiting at all. It's not just about green salads meal after meal after meal.

I have several raw food "cook"books in the house and have made some amazingly creative meals which I think are delicious. I'd *love* to have a delicious raw meal made for me once in a while. It would be so thoughtful. :) That's why I love going out to Cafe Bliss, where everything on the menu's raw. I realize I'm choosing to be raw in a non-raw world. I've chosen to do a lot of things in the past several years that are outside the box. None of them have taken the mental energy like eating raw has. When I was juicing, I had comments from people (people who love me, btw) about how disgusting my juices looked, and could I please drink them not in front of them. I've had snide comments about the food that I do make, and when they've tried a bite, commented (repeatedly), "gritty... very gritty." (These same people have enjoyed some raw dessert creations, too, so it's not all put-downs) I don't know how many times I've been asked, "so what do you eat? dust?!" oh yes, my choice to be a raw vegan is quite often the butt of many jokes.

I'm just feeling a little worn out when it comes to making meals around here. Making 2 omnivorous meals, 1 vegetarian and 1 raw for each meal, 3x a day... it's demanding. And it's not like I can convince them all to eat raw, and then add something small on the side on top of that. At least, I haven't yet managed to, LOL. Sometimes I do say it's a fend for yourself meal - it's up to them to make their own meals. But there's an unspoken expectation in this house that I am the meal-maker. And I think I want to at least open it up for discussion a bit. :)

Anyways I just wanted to vent a little. It's tough eating raw in my day-to-day life, surrounded by non-raw family and friends. I really REALLY enjoyed the raw potluck last month - being in the company of other raw foodists was such a comforting experience. To not be ostracized for my food choices. Food is such a central, community-building thing in our lives. It's really challenging to be different and still create some sense of community and closeness, especially when we're not breaking the traditional cooked bread together. :)