Hello All
People on this site regularly talk about great places to live to become a raw foodie. I have certainly heard the call of the mountains - whilst not being too far away from town - and we have moved to the country, for..amongst many reasons...the ability to grown our own food. We certainly haven't dropped any creature comforts - in fact the complete opposite - but we have moved onto property which enables as much fruit and veg planting as our hearts desire.

So many of you talk of moving to NY and places where raw food is more accepted - i just wonder if this creates a clash with the desire to get back to nature. I know that it would for me.

Of course, all things considered, we all still need to make a living..so often this dictates the area we reside.

I know that when i travel back into suburbia, I start to feel claustophobic - perhaps it is just another phase of my life, but I am keen to know if others experience this burning desire to move to the country?

I have. Surburbia will be the ghettos of the future (yeah, I'm living in suburbia now but not after my lease ends - in 22 days).

Narz-u are funny! well-back in the 70's in the back to the land movement.me and hubby and 2 little kids moved onto 5 acres and it was wonderful.we lived in a tiny trailer/with thoughts of building a log cabin.we were hippies in theory and in heart...we recycled everything and made do and grew our food and made bread and wore hippy clothes but were from the white toilet bowl society.so hubby cut down trees and the ones that did not fall on the ground-but hit against others and would not come down-we left cause we did not know how to get them down.the others i wouls stradle and with my trusty bread knife-peel these trees.then we did not know how to get the downed trees out of the woods.we would wake up in our trailer and there would be ice on the inside of the windows .we were never sick and it was so pretty-the land across from us was thousands of acres of crown zellerback.so it was pretty wild.we sold and went to town and almost right away-were all sick.so thru the yrs. we have bought land and built little cabins.now we have land up at crater lake,oregon-up in the mts.but we have nothing on it. i dream of spending a week camping out there and seeing the stars in the nite.and i dream of spending a winter there cause deer walk about all the time.hubby gets the willies thinking of us building yet another cabin and so one day-our plan is to move out there.right now we live in a mobile home park but it has a wild life reserve with-in it...and a lake where birds and all kinds of wildlife is about...so at least this is something.

I'm living in a very rural area now. But where are you going to go where there is no nature? That's like asking where will consciousness go if there is no consciousness? Ha! ha! It cannot happen! Even in the deepest city......plants will expand....small animals will expand...and the largest animal of them all (man) will expand. Even in the densest populations we can see the sky, grow our own food, and tend our own plot of land. Presence and the touch of God - if you will - is right here and right now (although many folks exercise judgment/comparison...and just don't LIKE what they see!) Ha! ha! That doesn't make them any less God present (if you'll pardon my religious terminology. If not, then just substitute nature/the world for the word God). LOL.

-What do you think?

-David Z. Mason

David-i think you are exactly right on in your thoughts.

Hi, Yes David
I completely understand and agree that a garden, person etc is able to flourish in any environment - and it is all a matter of perspective and outlook on the situation.
The reason I posted was because when i started to alter my diet, my interest in nature increased 100-fold, and i became immediately drawn to follow a path whereby i could create my own food. I would imagine that has happened to others. For me, it became imperative that I moved to have more land around me - and i couldn't stop thinking about it until i moved!!
We can and will be happy no matter where we are - the happiness exists within us - i guess i was just interested in whether others have experienced the burning desire to spread their wings, so to speak...
Cheers
Deemel

but i sure love nature-in big splashes.in town-or the city...there is what?ten stars in the sky but out far away from big cities-is so many stars that u can see your way to walk in the dark.you look up at the sky and there surely seems to be almost more stars than dark.or one time on our property where we had the 5 acres...we came home late and there was the biggest moon and it looked like it was resting on the mountain side-touching it.it was so bright and all the wildflowers were in bloom all over the land.the moon was so bright-it showed the color of the flowers.but u can be in town and see birds or flowers and be awe struck at the beauty of those objects.yes-it has happened to me too Deemel.i dream of spending a season up on our tiny bare land-maybe winter and seeing deer eating and snow everywhere.if we ever get a cabin up there-i want one big window...to look out of.i have had this fever since forever.thanks for sharing this Deemel...taylor

Sure Deemel! I hear you. I certainly followed a similar path. I went from two full time jobs in the city....to starting my own little rural property (3 acres), building a country house and starting a little organic farm in one of the most rural areas remaining in South Florida (Highlands County, Avon Park). I agree that it is a different and exciting set of priorities! I am standing by to support you in yours!

-David Z. Mason

I have two beefs with country living:

1. you have to drive, drive, drive, to get to the library. My life would be a big zero without a library. I freely admit it.

2. you have to drive, drive, drive, when you run out of toilet paper. Or whatever.

I'd have no problem with it if it didn't involve so much driving.

we use to use leaves to wipe when we had no t.p.theres lots of leaves.

A few years ago, I moved from San Francisco, to a very rural (I live on an organic farm) area outside of Garberville, Ca. What a shift! It had been bubbling up inside me for a while though. In my heart I wanted to live in the woods, but my mind was keeping me tied to the city. Finally my failing health and the opportunities of the universe guided me up here to the middle of nowhere and I love it so much!!!!

Admiration to those who can be happy wherever they are. Perhaps I will be tempered to that level of equanimity one day! For now, the energy of all the traffic and electricity, etc. overloads my system and I do better with wide expanses of nature all around.

I agree that it is a funny contradiction: feeling more supported doing raw in the city with all the potlucks and restaurants, versus being able to live closer to where the food is produced and picked -- a different sort of support for doing raw. (and the air and water cleaner, and less noise during sleep, etc.) I am so blessed to have a community of friends up here who are either interested in or doing raw.

Smashing watermelons and eating them straight from the field to my heart's delight, climbing the fig tree and eating my fill right from the tree, collecting walnuts from the ground and eating them fresh -- these are some of my raw rewards for leaving the city. But.. I do really enjoy going to the city every few months and hitting a raw potluck and a couple raw gourmet restaurants!!! (I am still gushing over Alive's (SF) spinach mushroom quiche that I had there a month ago!)

Love,
Uma

Uma
I completely agree - you have succinctly stated what I feel. I had to go into the city the other day, and apart from the fact that my son and I kept repeating how lucky we are etc, we couldn't believe the toxicity of the place.
I feel as though I can't breathe when I am in the city - in fact just about a year ago, I took a job in the city.

ON my first morning I declared that i had made a serious mistake...the boss encouraged me to keep at it and give it a chance. But, I realised that catching a train and moving in a long caterpillar like procession down the street with other commuters, with legs of the caterpillar trailing off into buildings as they reached their destination was NOT the scene for me.
I spent one whole month feeling claustrophobic, gasping for air in the office and feeling caged in...I felt like a big cat in a small cage....never mind, i needed the month to work out my priorities!!

Hmmmm....just a couple of thoughts.....

-Eckhart Tolle said we always have 2 choices: 1) Bring 'presence' to where we are and appreciate....or 2) Go somewhere where we think we can. All else is certainly a waste of time. Don't you think?

-Further, it is often said by people....something to the effect of: "When I am in a spiritual place....THEN I will be spiritual. Or: I will give...when I find someone deserving of giving." It is often a fundamental, if unspoken, question: Does a person need to be in a space condusive of support before they can do the right thing?

-Just some thoughts / opinions. What do you think?

-David Z. Mason

I don't think so...i think you do right no matter where u are...but it sure is glorious to sit where u are surrounded by Gods glory.i think it is easy to be in town and get your food way easier.everything is easier in town.there is pro's and con's for where ever u are.

I grew up in Houston, Texas. We had a pasture a couple miles from my home where we had up to eight horses. I spent most of my free time there. The pasture was a short walk from my grandparents who lived on an acre and a half. They had lived in the country before the city had grown up around them. I only wanted to live in the country my whole life. My parents tried to move out but never actually did. I grew up and felt I would have to retire before I moved away from the vortex of Houston. One day my husband was transfered to Lake Charles, La. It was only a couple hours from Houston but seemed like another country. We bought 7 acres about 40 minutes out side of LC. I have my horse in my yard now. We go back to Houston very often and I get so sick. I am someone who is very sensitive to environment and never realized how good I could feel until I moved here. My kids have never known anything but the country and I like it that way. I believe they are learning so much more about life this way. I read one time that Jimmy Buffet said his songwriting never blossomed until he moved to the tropics. For him the environment helped his inspirations thrive. I feet the same way about living in the piney woods. Everything about me and my husband started to blossom. As far as living away from Toilet paper, we are only minutes from a small town. I actually have to drive about an hour to get my bulk foods but I buy enough to last and I only have to get out a couple times a week unless I want to. Also driving is so much more pleasant. There is NEVER traffic and the country roads are a pleasure. When I get in Houston traffic I am so frustrated. I am thankful that I am experienced at driving in it though.

I was lucky enough to spend a year living in a 1000 acre hare krishna community farm in Australia, set in the mountains with breathtaking views. Their philosophy was 'simple living, high thinking', so having lived in the city my entire life, it was very much an awakening for me. It was just something else to wake up to bird calls and see free roaming peacocks everywhere. They even had a small lake with lotus flowers growing in it! You'd often get to see the Australian wildlife like wallabies, possums, echidnas, even a platypus in the river every now and then. Anyone who has lived in Australia or been there knows that their wild animals are quite shy, so this was extra special. The farm was set with cottages, some secluded in the rainforest and others with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains. The children who grow up there get to roam around, eat fruit right off the trees (mmm, yummy mulberries, bananas and mangoes!), swim in the river and never watch TV. What a life!

Vedic belief has it that there are three modes of nature - goodness, passion and ignorance. Country living and raw foods are definitely in the mode of goodness, so it's not surprising that those of us living close to nature and in harmony with the planet find it easier to gain a spiritual perspective on life.

I just discovered this forum today and was so impressed with it that I had to share my experience with everyone. I'm back living my regular life now - but I always dream of going back to a country existence. Having a veggie garden is the next best thing!

Mandali-that place u lived in austraila sounds like eden.lucky u. i remember when my boys and hubby and i lived out in a trailer on 5 acres. my little guys were city boys and they were playing and running in the woods and went up everyday to get the mail...there was a pig farmer up the road.my little boys fell to there knees to ask god to deliever them from the "BEARS".then we went to see what they were talking about and explained that those were big old pigs not bears.they ran thru the woods and truly had a wonderful time.we never got sick the couple of yrs we were out there.then we went into an apt for winter.and all got sick right away.My old stomping grounds is Houston,texas,we use to live off of telephone road.after 25 yrs...we went back and could not believe it.i so love nature.the other monring.the sky was so pink and it threw a cast of wild pink on the lake and ducks were swimming in the pink water. it was so glorious.but i do agree-u can be spiritual anywhere and do right anywhere.but if i had my choice.i would be living up in my woods.