Beeswax

I checked out a book called Living Raw Food by Sarma Melngailis from my library. After the whole detox cleanse I'm curious about raw food and willing to try some recipes. Raw food usually means vegan food - no animal products - and there's no cooking in the traditional heat it up and serve it sense. Nothing is heated above 118 degrees.

As I'm paging through the book, I'm mostly checking out the lovely pictures of food, skimming recipe pages here and there and making mental notes of recipes I might want to try. Then I see a picture of two people sitting in what appears to be an outdoor section of the author's restaurant. The woman in the picture looks curiously like the author, who in the introduction talks about the fact that this book is about "living raw food, not just eating it, but living it." Would you think someone who is concerned enough about raw food to write an entire book about it would be pictured smoking in her own book? I wouldn't think so, which makes me think, that's gotta be someone else in the picture, not the author. But I'm 99% sure that it's her, with a cigarette in her hand.

Clearly everyone has the right to make their own choices. I'm just having a hard time imagining how the choice is made, because the two choices seem so far from each other. Raw vegan diet + smoking cigarettes. It wouldn't work for me, but it must work for her.

I am fascinated by the choices people make, because you never really know what went into someone's choice. They may not even know. Was there a lot of thought involved? Or was there no thought at all? Do they regret the choices they've made? Are they consciously satisfied with their life or numbed out to the what their life has become? We're all on our own journey, with decisions to make every day. Life really is like one of those choose your own adventure books! Make one choice and your life could head in a completely different direction.

I know I've made choices that might not make any sense to someone who isn't inside my head with all the information I have. I have to remember that when I come across seemingly disparate concepts present within the same situation. Raw vegan food and cigarettes as part of the same person's life don't make sense in my brain, but it wasn't my decision so it's not mine to understand. Might people think it's odd for someone who is clearly health conscious to love baking and eating said baked goods. There are two disparate concepts present in someone's life. My life.

It's helpful for me to keep the focus on myself and my choices when I find myself saying, "Huh? Really? Why would someone do that?" None of my beeswax, so I'll just mind my own!