I am Back

[Mieke Benton]

I haven't been here for some months. Wondering how everybody is doing.
I will add some info in my journal. I went to Europe for a month and did the opposite of raw after about 4-5 months raw.
Check it out.

Hope to meet you all.

Mieke

[sweetgoddess]

Hey Mieke! Welcome back. I had wondered where you went off to. Funny how you cant forget about raw once you experience its benefits, isn't it?
I am glad you are back and hope you had a fabulous time in Europe.

Blessings~

[flutterfly]

11 pounds isn't bad for a vacation that long. You enjoyed what you ate and that is much better then coming home saying I wish I would have eaten what was offered there and enjoyed it with others. I still regret not eating what was offered me about 25 years ago on a vacation with my family. They all enjoyed the foods and I ate a plain veggie salad with some steamed veggies in one of the most famous places in Wisc.
Now, like you said you are ready to go back to healthy eating. Enjoy!

[Mieke Benton]

Yes, I had a wonderful time in Europe actualy I might copie here the letter I send out to all of my family and friends. Maybe you like to read it.

I am almost back to the weight I was before I left for Europe. 133 pounds
That is 60.2 kilo's.
Because before I moved to the US, my weight was 55 kilos. I would love to reach that point again.
It feels good to eat healthy.

I want to be a little more creative in my food making. I will see what I can do.
We are probably starting a raw food potluck here in Bend Oregon.
Melissa (probably you have heard of her) came to Bend and give a Raw FOods talk in WIld Oats (where I work). I learned a lot.
I bought me the spagetti maker en pure coconut oil.
SO, I will copy the text of my trip in the next message.

Mieke

[Mieke Benton]

September 10th 2005

Finally I am ready to share the text about the Europe Trip. It took me a while because my computer is completely messed up and I have to work on all kinds of other computers (library etc.) Hope you enjoy it!

Mieke

Trip to Europe

July 21st 2005

A week ago we landed back in Portland (hard to believe already a week went by!).

The trip was very nice and powerful. It was more than just a vacation to Europe. It made very deep impact on me. I learned a lot about myself and about my life.

Lots of what I learned I want to integrate into my life, into my being.

I am creating here little chapters to make it easier to read.
Here we go.

- Being in the Now
- Raw Foods
- Re-entering in Bend
- Detaching
- Lessons from Chartres
- Lessons from Mother Meera
- Paul and Mieke relationship
- Being in the Now

From the moment we were driving to Portland, I let go off all business around “getting ready” and started enjoying the vacation. Wherever I was or what I was doing, I enjoyed just being in that moment…. the last night in Portland with the children, sitting in the airport, sitting on the plain, being with family and friends, connecting with Paul, eating a meal… I was 100% enjoying in the moment. Not focused on what happened before or what would come next, just being with what is. Because of this it did not feel as the time was going fast. Every moment was 100% embraced and deeply felt.

- Raw Foods

5 months before the trip I started eating only raw foods (uncooked, unprocessed foods), with the intention to eat healthy life nutrition. For me it means taking care of myself on different levels, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It has been working very well and gave me a lot of insights and information about life and our energy field.

In our vacation in Europe I have been eating almost everything BUT raw living foods. Once or twice I had a salad and the rest was cooked foods.

I just decided to eat and drink everything that pleased my senses. I enjoyed every little bit of it and told myself to come back to the raw living foods when I was back in Bend.

I indulged completely. I drank more alcohol (mostly champagne and wine) in these 4 weeks than I probably drank all together in the 6 years I live in the USA. (By the way that is still hardly any if you wonder). And lots of coffee, pastries and French fries. It was sooooooooo good!

I did notice that my senses (eyes, taste, smell) made me eat much more than needed.
And lots of my attention and focus was on food. Back in Bend I noticed that I gained 11 pounds in those 4 weeks. Interesting isn’t it!

After being back here now for one week I dropped again 4,5 pounds.
It does feel very good to eat raw living foods again.
The big difference I noticed is the intention of eating.

On the trip it was more I do not care about what I eat health wise I just want what taste and look good” and here by eating raw foods again I intentionally take care of myself. And I have to say it feels much better to take care of myself.

For those who have questions about how I know what to eat, I listen to my inner guidance and body what it needs (and not to my eyes and taste buds, or any other outside information). I am learning to trust my inner knowing.

- Re-entering in Bend

It was very strange to come back into Bend. It felt as if I was completely alien. I recognized everything with my eyes, but it felt different and strange.

The first 2 days were very hard in the sense that I had to step back in to all responsibilities I created in my life.
I realized this after about 2 days. On the trip I had hardly any responsibilities. We were very good taken care of by family, friends, hotels, etc…. No children, no bills to pay, nothing to care off and this for 4 weeks. And then we were stepping back in to a life where I take on a lot of responsibilities. 3 children, 3 animals, a full time job, a household and lots more…

Once I realized this I could let go of the resistance I felt to step back in all of that.

I am back now 2 weeks and realize that it feels good to be who I am, where I am and with whom I am. I am glad with the choices I made in my life.


- Detaching

In 1990 I came to the USA for 3 months as an exchange student. I worked 2 months in New York, in a camp for children with disabilities. And than traveled a month all the way down to Florida and back up with a group of people. I was 20 then. That was my first time in the US. I had a great time and realized how good I felt in the US.

In 1998 I came to Oregon for an “Energy & Healing Retreat” in Breitenbush. There I met Paul and the children.

In 1999 Paul and I married and I moved to the US.

In 2003 I went back for the first time to Belgium with Paul and the Children.

In 2005 I went back for the second time to Europe with Paul.

By meeting another culture and by living in different cultures, you start to see what the habits, believes and conditionings are from those cultures.

Things you are born into you take for granted and think that that is the way things are.

But then if you experience another culture, you see that people do things different, have different habits, different believes, different ways of responding to same situations, etc.

The roots of a culture are ingrained in your whole being.

In 1990 a whole new way of being and living was shown to me.

In 1999 when I moved to the US, I had to let go of habits, expectations, conditioning, foods, things that were obvious in the European culture had no way to be because nobody had any clue about those habits.

Things are different and focuses are different.

So I dropped piece by piece a lot of let us say “cultural expectations and habits”. Not easy for the ego-mind because your identity is build on all those cultural expectations and habits. But it is very freeing to detach from those identifications.

By going back and forth a couple of times, I see more and more things that I thought were important. And that are not important at all anymore. I can let go of the identifications I made with those beliefs and habits and feel freer without them.

By doing this I come to see who I really am inside myself without all that outside programming from “cultures, family habits and believes and social expectations in general”.

More and more I see that I do not have to be a certain way, I do not have to fit in, I can just be myself more and more.

Because I have been doing first the raw living foods and the opposite on our vacation in Europe, I see that a lot of conditioning is around food in both cultures.

I detach myself from a lot of believes and habits around food. It feels very freeing for me.

I see now that if I end up all by myself alone in nature away from the food supplies, as we know it these days, I know how to survive and I know I can. We are so taken care of by nature, there is so much food and nutrition out there and all around us that is free and the best quality that we can survive without “buying” anything.

So, this trip for me was in the first place a detaching of habits and believes that I was still attached to.

- Lessons from Chartres

With 28 people, (half the group Americans, half the group Belgians) we came together in a town called Chartres about an hour south of Paris.

The Cathedral of Chartres is built on the place where druids came together on the summer solstice. We also came together there on the summer solstice. The labyrinth that is build out of stones in the floor of the cathedral was made available to walk that day. Walking a labyrinth can be a very powerful experience.

The building of the cathedral is based on Sacred Geometry. Sacred Geometry in itself is very powerful and contains lots of secrets and knowledge about life and the universe.

Frank Coppieters organized the week. He is a Belgian but lives in Portland. He was in Chartres last year and got the guidance to come back the next year with a group. When Paul and I saw the title of the week was “coming home to the heart” we both knew we wanted to be there. And we did.

Being in the cathedral and standing on certain spots activates certain parts of my energy field. Walking the labyrinth works as a form of rebirth and deep healing.

Everybody in our group had their own unique part to play in the unfolding of this miracle week. For me the key message was “moving from separation into unity, on all levels of my being”.

It was a powerful week, with lots of interesting information coming to me and lots of fun.

- Lessons from Mother Meera

Mother Meera is an avatar born in India living in Germany. Being in her presence is a very powerful experience. There are other avatars, like Amma etc.

I will copy here a few sentences of the book about Mother Meera. To give you a little info about why she is doing what she is doing.

“Who is Mother Meera? She is the living incarnation of the Divine Mother.

What is an Incarnation? An incarnation is the Divine in human form come on earth to help humanity to know and realize the Divine. Her work in our time is to open all people to the power and radiance of this Light so the Divine Will may be done and the Divine Life established on earth.”

Every body present there has some time with her (=Darshan). She puts her hands on the sides of your heads and reads your energy field. There where blocks or energies are ready to be shifted or removed she helps you with. Than you look into her eyes and she transmits energy. In that moment she reflects to you your own consciousness, or that what needs to be seen.

This is said with my own words. Being in her presence is for everybody a different journey and experience. Every time you go is different.

It was my 3rd time and I realize now that every time I am closer connected to myself.

Mother Meera gives Darshan every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings. If you live in Europe you can go 2 nights in a row. If you come from outside of Europe you can go 4 nights in a row. That because it is easier for Europeans to come back more often if they want to.

The first time I went to Mother Meera I lived in Belgium so I could go 2 times. The first night when I looked into her eyes. She reflected to me the depts of my core fears. It was very chocking in a way and frightening to face those fears. The second day I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back because I did not want to face that again. But if course I went again and at that moment she reflected to me my inner powers. It was such a strong experience. It felt like I was almost unable to keep looking. But something inside me said, “keep looking”, so I did, but I was not able to see all my powers in that moment. It was a profound and very powerful experience.

The second time I went to her was 4 years later in 2003. Then I was already living in the USA and Paul and me went to her for 4 days.

This time the experience was more moving on very subtle levels. It shifted a lot of my mental conditioning and patterns. And helped me on a deeper level how to transform those deeper stored core fears.

This year we, Paul en I went back and she worked and helped me on a deeper level. We went for 3 days this time and I could feel when we were coming back that I started to feel this deeper connection with my own self. In this world we are so distracted by lots of outside stuff that we do not know anymore how to connect with our inner being. That is what Mother Meera showed me this time. I felt a very deep connection with myself, very loving and nurturing.

Being with her is not just something you experience in that moment and then you forget all about it or loose it. She brings in energy and healing and you take that with you into your life. It shifts your consciousness and you take that with you into your life. It works with you and supports you into your life.

You do not have to go to Germany to experience Mother Meera’s help. There are different ways to call on her help. You can phone her assistant who gives the messages to her. You can write a letter or you can just call on her from your inner being and ask for help. If you ask from your heart and sincere, she will help. Always.

- Paul and Mieke relationship

Just the two of us, no children to take care of, we could give each other all the attention and love we wanted. We do not have lots of time just by ourselves and not for 4 weeks. We do like to be with each other and respect each other’s presence a lot.

Paul is a wonderful being, very loving and caring. I am very impressed with how he moves in another culture, hearing all those foreign conversations and adjusting to different habits and ways people are.

They all love him over there and are enjoying his company.

It is very interesting to experience how we just are together and function as a unity. We don’t make the other wrong because we both realize that the other is just reflecting our unconsciousness if the other acts in a way we don’t like. If we do express our negative emotions towards each other, the other holds the space for the one to express it without attacking back. And the one attacking realized very quickly that this is our own “stuff” and stop giving it energy.

If we do go in an ego battle it takes us very little time to realize it and stop it. Most of the time we laugh than because we realize it.

By practicing this we grow closer to each other.

We do have our differences, but we learn to forgive quickly instead of fighting an unnecessary mind battle.

We feel at peace together and we can be 100% ourselves without any compromises. That is a wonderful feeling.

I would like to thank the children who have been supporting our relationship from the beginning. It is with there guidance that I knew it was the right thing to step into and I am still thankful every day. They are amazing beings and it looks like we are all each other’s teachers. We all do respect each other on a deep soul level.

Let’s say we grow together and it is amazing to see how much bigger they are than when I joined them 7 years ago.

It took me a little while to finish this text. It is now September 8, 2005 and the children are back to school. Andrew in his second year of high school, Angela in 8 grade (last year of Middle School) and Christopher in 5th grade (last year of Elementary school). I am very impressed.

I will add some of the pictures from Europe on a website and then send it all together by email. Hopefully soon. My computer has been all messed up and we are trying to fix it, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

Hope you enjoyed the sharing and I wish you a wonderful fall!

Mieke