raw

I woke up this morning realizing something.  It is something that I have known for awhile...it has been stirring in me for weeks...this morning, in the wee hours...I named it.  It is costly to be raw before others.  The me that most people enjoy is the one that is well dressed, well put together, funny, clean, make-up on, composed....embellished.  Unfortunately, those aren't really the things that make me ....ME.  It's not that they are all bad things.  They just don't really add much to the person God has invited me to be.    In fact, I think they often take away or distract from the true...RAW beauty that lies within me.

My raw-self...well, it can look a little wild.  It's not kempt.  Sometimes it is frightening to others and discouraging to me.

I am a woman that has been known to hide.  Don't get me wrong, I think most women enjoy looking lovely...this is not what I am talking about.  Hiding behind artificial beauty and claiming it as our one true beauty is the lie I am hoping to expose.  Beauty...the artificial kind is an idol that I have clung to most of my life.  Over the past few years God has been breaking these chains and revealing my true beauty.  I still wrestle at times, but I am learning to enjoy how HE see's me...raw and beautiful.

Lately, Pastor and I have tried to purchase more natural foods.  Foods that are raw and natural.  Foods that contain labels that only have one or two ingredients.  What I have found and I am sure most of you know is....when you take all the crappy filler out of food....it gets REALLY costly.  One of the real eye openers for me was almond butter.  I have been eating A LOT of almond butter lately.  You can buy a version of this...the kind that has roasted almonds, loaded with oil, sugar, salt and other STUFF,... but the raw almond butter we purchase has just one ingredient....raw almonds...ground up.....no roasting....no sugar....no salt.....nothing else....just almonds in their rare form.  The cost for the embellished version????  Most places about $5.  The raw...well at Earthfare you can get it for $12 a jar...and yesterday, at Target, as I almost lost my lunch in the condiment isle...I saw the same jar for $23.15!!!!!!!!  I freaked....I couldn't get over it!  Why is a raw product...that is bare and naked...requires little work so costly?????  I think it's because it's rare and to those who really desire the purest ingredients....well,  it's invaluable!

It's not that I'm going mental about almond butter prices....I think it's the truth that it represents in me.  Most people want the me with all the additives.  The easy, convenient, dime-a-dozen, me.  Very few really want the raw, organic, pure version.  It's easy for me to hide behind the extras and super costly for me to bare the simplicity of who I really am......raw....not flashy.... no cool packaging....no screaming from the shelves...but hopefully less crap to weed through to find truest ingredient in me......HIM!