Blogs

By Happy Oasis, Raw Spirit Community News

We were honored to enjoy an afternoon with Victoria Boutenko in Ashland's lovely Lithia Park this week. Victoria's authentic presence gladdens my heart, the way she looks into the soul of a person, fully listens and really sees. Victoria shared sumptuous cups of her papaya nettles smoothie. Just two ingredients, yet powerpacked with flavor and nutrition! We brought fresh-picked blackberries. Just one ingredient! :) Victoria also gifted us her four newest children's books, among her latest creations.

Victoria Boutenko's books for kids are precious, refreshing ways to joyfully introduce our little whippersnappers to the natural fun of enjoying raw greens and smoothies via playful paintings of hip animals eating greens. If you dare read them, be prepared to grin and giggle and to start your blender! Why believe me when you can have a look for yourself and purchase these essential, uplifting-while-edutaining reads at www.RawFamily.com?

The perennial researcher, Victoria, also relayed to us her current focus of enthusiasm: encouraging us Americans to read more of the classics. In contrast to best-sellers which may be more often about marketing hype than an author's genius, Victoria reminded me that reading classical literature with a deep mind, can ignite spiritual insights and more profound understandings. Yes, please.

By Happy Oasis, Raw Spirit Community News

How we wash our clothes intimately reflects the quality of our relationship with nature, joy and life. My Beloved, Johnny Light, and I are traveling indefinitely in our cozymost, humble, little eco-rv, fondly called our "Creational Vehicle". Arriving at a new town today, the appeal of going to a laundromat feels less than tantalizing.

For 20 joyous years I lived out of a backpack, two-booting it around the planet, gladly washing my two changes of clothing by hand in mountaintop stream springs near forest fire lookout towers, in East Indian riverfront ashrams' community baths, Buddhist Thai and Burmese jungle temples' pools, beneath Malaysian island waterfalls, between venerable trees at Mexican mortar and pestle outdoor 'laundromats', occasionally doing the twist with a foot in each bucket, sometimes resorting to the loveliest and laziest of all: swimming in my dresses.

Just between us, I'd like to share this private conversation with my beloved.

"Happy, Did you say, 'Wash our clothes in the river?' Why would we do that?, he winced. "Nobody washes their clothing by hand!"

"All of humanity has been washing its clothes by hand," I reminded him, "for several millennia, except a recent abberation where in a few dozen countries washing machines have gained popularity for the last 60 years ~ a mere drop in the bucket of humanity's timeline."

"At the laundromat it takes only an hour and a half," he reasoned.

"If we do it together," I smilingly persisted, "it will take us only about 20 vigorous minutes of dunking, scrubbing, splash-slapping and squeeze-wringing". "Then," I explained, "we simply spread the clothes out on the largest, darkest, hottest boulders. After a half hour we flip the clothing. After an hour in the tepid weather, our clothing will be as if starch-dried, stiff as a board, and crisp as raw crackers!"

"What about the ecology?", he wondered aloud, not convinced.

"Exactly. Imagine this. No industrial machines. No electricity. No grumbling, rumbling noises. No detergent. No whizzing traffic. No dreary ambiance. No coins. $10 saved and better spent elsewhere on green drinks and smoothies."

"I mean, what about getting soap in the river?"

"We use no soap at all," I said. "Yet, the aroma of clean river-washed, sun-dried clothing exudes the freshest scent imaginable!"

"With our clothing strewn across the boulders, people will think we're from the Backwaters of Goodness-Knows-Where."

"We will be in the backwaters. People will think we're living in a state of joyful wild abandon."

"We are!", he exclaimed. "Every day!"

"And night", I added.

"What kind of wild adventure are you taking me on next?"

"What you will find most precious of all, Treasured Beloved, is how we enjoy our time while "waiting" for the sunshine to do the work. At Nature's River Laundromat, we are free to dip our feet into the river, listen to the giggling currents, gaze at the water shimmer-glistening..."

"...We are free to swim, splash and stretch; to sunbathe alongside our clothes; pick fat blackberries, suck on wild grapes, and feast on succulent figs, maybe even hike to some hidden valley with a guitar and songs in our hearts… we could possibly even make beautiful love in a secret spot beneath the trees."

"All this while waiting for our laundry to dry?," he smiled.

"Yes! Or we could just go to a laundromat if you find that more inspiring." ~ Happy

By Happy Oasis, Raw Spirit Community News

Welcome to the Ecstatic Earth Economy. In this amazing Oregon & Northern California summer, we feel something different is going on: the Earth is rejoicing!

Observe:

• Frequent aromatic fragrances are wafting through the air, no longer of fuel, but of flowers and trees! Yes, indeed, we are smelling the bark, needles, flowers, fruits, leaves and cones of trees and shrubberies. The flora, clear skies and very air are rejoicing. Thanks to the price of gas, roads are slowly emptying, sidewalks are filling. People are walking. Stopping. And talking.
• Once-steady, grumbling, dusty logging trucks carrying wooden carcasses are now a rarity. The forests are growing, waving and rejoicing. People are using less paper. The building craziness is over. People are hiking and camping.
• Lumber mills and factories are now historical relics. Forest have grown over them with hardly a trace. Once-polluted and desecrated mining rivers are today pristine-looking, clean, transparent and sparkling as we've never seen before in modern America. The clear waters are rejoicing. People are swimming and bathing in nature, drinking from springs and showering in the falls.
• With California's labeling of GMOs on the ballot, awareness of the importance of non-gmos and organics is encouraging. Farmers Markets are quietly flourishing. People are farming, foraging, growing gardens, sprouts and sharing, it seems, more than ever. The quality of locally-grown produce is a scrumptious testimony at every meal, reaching new heights of artistic expression and appreciation.
• We dine by candlelight with hints of forest moonlight rather than succumb to florescent or incandescent battery & bulb glow. We play music and sing with each other more often than listening to music recorded elsewhere at another time. We walk through wild places in the dark and read, write and recite poetry, create stories, dance with the leaves. We use a mere gallon or two of water and the rest flows abundantly awaiting all at the river. We love going to the bank ~ the river bank ~ to get wet. We tinkle gingerly in the forest. We women are using wash cloths rather than paper. We are lightening our foot print upon the earth. The blackberries are abundant almost everywher. The acorns have profusely fallen right beneath our toeses, as if they are the original soaking almonds redeeming themselves, if we only we remember. The Earth is rejoicing, the ancient Spirits of native peoples are smiling, and we are joining in! ~ With Loving Grins from, Happy Oasis (with Johnny Light & Fabulous Friends)