The main outdoor stage at the Raw Spirit Festival. All of these photos were taken by Mark Conrad, so a big thanks to him for so generously sharing them. Unfortunately, when I was preparing for the trip I failed to do anything so left-brain as remember my digital camera and USB cable... : ) I managed to pack five pairs of shoes though ; )
At the Get Fresh stand with our Canadian distributors Janette and Alan of Zen Zero, an optimum health centre in Courtenay, British Columbia. We shipped 1,000 copies of Get Fresh to the festival and sold 990. Many who bought it were doing so for the first time and there was clearly some serious bedtime reading going on, as on days two and three people kept stopping me to say how much they were enjoying it!
This is Cafe Raw Bliss in Sedona, where we had lunch on our last day. I'd have happily had one of everything on the menu. Until we drove out here all I had seen of Sedona was the one mile stretch of highway between my hotel and the festival. That was wild wild west whereas other parts were just like being in a cartoon!
With Raw Food Coach Karen Knowler (left). She had a coconut smoothie, a carrot and ginger soup and a spirulina salad. I had a 'Garden Of Eden' salad and a big ole slice of banana cream pie. The cake counter at this place was something else and out back they had a chocolate room. And a cute little garden with wheatgrass instead of flowers on the tables.
Lunched up and full of life force, here we are outside the cafe with photographer Mark.
Then, with little over an hour until we had to head back to Phoenix to fly home we hiked up to the Cathedral Rock vortex. There is information about Sedona's energy vortexes here. I used to naively believe anything anyone told me, the crazier and more 'new age' the better. Not anymore. Call me a sceptic but when I read that some of the vortexes have masculine energy and some feminine I burst out laughing.
After a half hour climb, as we sat looking over at the view you see in this photo, we all agreed we felt a subtle pulse of energy. I felt it actually in my body and it could have been the result of the rapid ascent. But as this feeling was different from what I feel after a workout in the gym, it was more likely to have been the altitude than the exertion; Sedona itself is at 4,500 feet even before you start climbing. Did I feel energised after my vortexperience? Yes, but I'm not sure what I felt was any different from what I feel any time I am in an area of breathtaking natural beauty. So the jury's still out for me...
The question on everyone's lips now is: as the raw food revolution continues apace, what will the Raw Spirit Festival look like next year and will there be a venue large enough to continue it in Sedona? Already this year it took on Woodstockian proportions and as all of us in this field can tell, this is just the start. The next Raw Spirit Festival will be in September 2008. See you there!
Recent Comments