One Small Thing

Dear readers, I am filled with love and gratitude today. I just have to tell you about a vegan potluck I attended last week.  It was at the Tavern in Highland Square, and I met so many intellectual, passionate, fun and creative people.  I am not a vegan, but a face like this makes me question my hypocrisy.

If you don't already know her, this is Esther the Wonder Pig. I first learned of Esther on Desire to Inspire's regular Monday feature entitled Pets on Furniture. This beautiful creature changed the lives of her human friends, who are deeply in love and committed to her. They now want to share the Esther Effect, and are starting a sanctuary for other "commercial animals."  Ugh. Even the term commercial animals makes me sick.  Anyway, I am deeply smitten with Esther. Yes, I've been touched by the Esther Effect. Her face makes me happy, I want to kiss her and cuddle her!

Image by Peggy

I mentioned Esther at the potluck, and the people there had heard of her! How cool is that? The cosmos works in amazing ways! One of the people I met told me of his visits to the Farm Sanctuary and how they changed his life.  He's actually going to be an intern there!  How cool is that?  Definitely a place I want to visit.

I talked to so many interesting people. About everything from the poisonous American diet - sometimes appropriately called SAD (for Standard American Diet) - to Buddhism, Astrology, Atheism, Socialism, Art, Music and poop! Yes, that's right I love a good poop joke. It's wonderful to be surrounded by open minded, intellectual, compassionate people. No one thought I was weird. Heaven.

I felt a little guilty that I have not fully made the transition to being a vegetarian. I can only aim for being a vegetarian. The vegan diet seems unachieveable for me. I have many food allergies:  gluten, wheat, barley, soy, lemon grass, licorice, chamomile, lettuce, celery, spinach, nuts, milk, bananas, grapefruit.....the list goes on and on.

Here's something that's on my mind.  If you are a vegan, please don't eat packaged, fake hot dogs. You might as well eat the real thing. Just because a package says organic, doesn't mean it's safe. Pretty much if it's been packaged, guess what?  It's poison.  But even worse than that:  they are still representations of death and if you are a vegan, you are opposed to killing.  The fake hot dogs remind me of the fake animal heads we are seeing in decor. Gross. Might be fake, but still a representation of hunting and killing animals for sport. An abhorrent past time. Now don't go getting all offended. These are just my opinions. Don't take them so seriously. (I'm sparing you my rant about animal skin rugs and leather purses....).

Having said that, a kind young man reminded me not to be so hard on myself and do what I can. Each small change makes a difference. So right. I spent the weekend meditating and marveling at the beautiful planet that we call home, and how kind she is to us. Planet Earth never ceases to amaze me. I typically try to live in a simple, quiet and non-impactful way, but I'm not perfect.  So here's something small that I did today.

Remember my beautiful new vase from Z Gallerie? It was so perfectly packaged, I hated to throw all this away.  But I have no room in my apartment to keep it. I zipped on over to The Bomb Shelter and asked them if they could use it. They were appreciative, and they gave me a free vase for my trouble. Lots of smiles all around. The irony of carbon emissions was not lost on me, as I drove my car. But hey, that's the point. Do what you can. You don't have to be perfect, and never, ever should on yourself. Just by thinking about something and being conscious, you can affect real positive change.