LITE A FLAME-for the animals

It doesn't interest me who you know

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the center of the fire

with me

and not shrink back


Oriah Mountain Dreamer



When we become vegan we evolve.

When we live vegan because we're against violence and oppression it is nearly impossible to turn back to being complicit once again in the exploitation and killing of non humans.

When we become vegan for ethical reasons there is a flame lit.

When our veganism becomes a communication to others about animal rights

the radiance from this flame burns even brighter.

When we humans notice that this flame is also our light to glimpse more clearly the connection we have to each other...........

maybe then do we realize that the only goal that's important in our lives is to see....

Each other.





Although she died in 1997 Laura Nyro was a fire of creativity, compassion and genius.

It's sad that such a beautiful spirit of a person would be taken so early.

Laura lit a flame for animals with her insightful words and music.

LITE A FLAME (the animal rights song)





Vegan Sanctuary shares with you this beautiful anthem to be inspiration for you to live vegan and to stand up for all the animals and to never "shrink" back.


We humans often forget that we are animals. And we are animals from Africa.


We share an incredible past and link to that place in the world.

We are not only all distant cousins but we are all brothers and sisters.

We are all from the same mother.

We divide ourselves into different races and species yet our intermediates (the animals who connect us) are merely extinct. They once lived as we do now.

The way our minds divide us all is not only horribly deceptive but brings about prejudice and suffering.

We humans are only a tiny part of a great chain and we are all linked to one another.

We could stand hand in hand in unbroken unity with every other animal who has ever lived before.

Why is this beautiful truth not our spirituality or our earthly or even "heavenly" religion?




Go vegan and let that transformation be the flame that sweeps through your life and lights the fire for others.




This post is dedicated to all the animals in cages everywhere and eversince.

This post is dedicated to Animal Rights Africa for being in the center of the fire.

This post is dedicated to everyone who fights prejudice, discrimination and oppression.

This post is also dedicated to the new blog ChallengeOppression.com.


Be a sanctuary and a flame for others,


Be vegan



Laura Nyro (1970)



click on the link below and then click play on the music player. It will pop up and you can return back to this page while the Laura Nyro song plays.


click here Lite A Flame (the animal rights song)


In the zoo

They gave him a cage

Circus put a sparkle

On his face

Away from life

The elephant walks

Shadow across a dream

Lost for ivory

Oh freedom

Lite a flame

It's like prejudice

For the color of your skin

Prejudice for a woman

Prejudice for an animal

Like the elephant of the plain

Masai moon

In the morningrise

Africa -

The world comes alive

A matriarch

Leads the tribe

To the sweet water

The cool feelin'

And the way to survive

Oh freedom

Lite a flame

It's like prejudice

For the color of your skin

Prejudice for a woman

Prejudice for an animal

Like the elephant of the plain

Of the plain

For greed not need

Societies sleep

Lead the killing hand on

Young ones full of spark

A wave of birds across the park

Kids climbing

Sliding, riding free

Elephant child hiding

Behind a tree

Prejudice

For an animal

Like the elephant of the plain




In the early part of the 20th century nearly 50 million elephants lived freely.

Today there are less than 600,000 of our vegan brothers and sisters and they are still being killed by the thousands every year.


Vegan evolution by "NATURAL" selection



Those of us who choose to live vegan are often confronted with supposed crushing and devastating responses from people who consume animal products.
These arguments or questions are meant to prove without a doubt how misguided we ethical vegans are in living our lives with concern for non human animals.
One of the most frequent responses we ethical vegans receive comes at us in the form of a comment that is presumed to be a slam dunk in the face of our animal rights philosophy.
And here it is.....

Yeah but........eating animals is totally natural.

The above phrase by the way is delivered with a taken for granted confidence that this is the actual hypothetical nail in the coffin for us vegans.
Even if we vegans are feeling charitable especially during this season of giving... we can't give this one to the animal eaters anymore.














From this guy
To this guy

In seconds.



The moment when many humans who consume animals come into contact with an ethical vegan they immediately turn into hardened evolutionary biologists with years of field training and best selling non fiction books which claim.....
we are nothing more than what our genes command of us.

Now, assuming that these people are not the nearly 60% of US citizens who believe the earth is only 10,000 years old they will also assert.....
we are only creatures like other animals and we are what nature has adapted us to be.


Pure reductionism here seems to offer no answers for us vegans as these instantly endowed professors of genetics and science also claim that humans are superior to all the other animals because we can make moral decisions regarding right and wrong and the other animals cannot.

Yet when this exact supposed moral superiority interferes with the ethical or moral aspects of eating animals they immediately switch back to their original thesis......
that it's natural for us to eat animals because we are just like the other animals who eat animals and we do so because it was part of our evolutionary adaptation....
and.... our genes make us do it.

One can only observe in these situations how easy people can run together two irreconcilable philosophies when something morally inconvenient gets in the way. And we must admit here, even if it's painful to do so, that at least the other 60% of the human population that just blurts out "God did it" only have one reason going on in their heads for everything. Even though it might be ludicrous.

First off to suggest that something humans may do is natural says nothing about the morality or ethical aspects of this practice or activity.
History informs us again and again that nature has no doubt selected many traits and practices that we now view as unethical.
In fact to make the claim in this fashion that because some activity humans have done and might still do is natural and therefore completely acceptable will only lead them directly into an archaeological dig they will not be able to climb out of again.

With this line of reasoning male sexual violence which probably was an adaptive advantage for our species throughout our evolutionary history can be claimed as natural too. Yet today rape and any other violent sexual coercion is so morally unacceptable we've created laws to protect others from this "natural" behavior.
Diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis and malaria could be claimed as natural too but humans will do whatever it takes to defeat and overcome these deadly afflictions.

Are shooting wolves with high powered rifles from helicopters natural?
Are harpooning whales with ship deck mounted cannon artillery natural?
We would imagine it all depends on our definition of what natural means.



Domesticating animals and turning them into food using modern scientific procedures such as cloning and genetic engineering would seem to fall into the unnatural category by most and send our instant expert biologist back to the jungles looking for new clues.


However, all of this becomes irrelevant when we notice that anything humans do can be claimed as natural and therefore the justification for using this argument is completely short sighted.

To say that something is natural or that it has helped humans get to where we are today,
as many will immediately insist while having this conversation, is still not relevant to whether this practice is ethical or even good.

Admittedly, the United States would not be the country it is today without centuries of African human slavery. This of course does not justify the practice of human slavery in any sense, even if some scientist were to claim it as natural.


Because humans have done or can do something does not mean that we should.

We must appreciate that what might be considered natural and inherent in human nature may at the same time also be in direct conflict of what is moral and ethical.

The fact that we do not need to eat animal products at all combined with the understanding that it's quite "unnatural" for humans to eat other animals in the massive quantities which we do eat them combined yet again with how much horrible suffering and death takes place with this protein source only underscores the moral principle of becoming vegan.



We need only admit that our concern for ourselves and others, (including non human beings) and the entire sphere of such concerns is what is most important in the world.




When someone states that something might be natural that claim may become important and relevant only as it reveals that nature was itself not the invention and design of a super-natural being or sky God but rather of the natural process of its cosmic, evolutionary and biological roots.

The indisputable fact that we actually did evolve from other animals and we are ourselves animals simply hands us a beautiful opportunity for understanding our moral responsibilities to each other and all of the other animals as well.

There is a real circle that links us all to one another from the beginning of time.

Discovered in 2009 Ardi is now the oldest human ancestor ever found.


We are a species who can and must restrain from doing whatever it is we want for whatever reasons we claim and especially for whatever reasons we invent.

If there are right and wrong reasons for instance to behave in certain ways then we must acknowledge as a species that we also have moral and ethical responsibilities to these behaviors.

The problem of excusing so much death and cruelty inflicted on non human animals with the mere assertion that something might be natural, is it maintains our ignorance and keeps us from seeing the truth about our own evolution and who we are.

The obvious truth most humans fail to see about ourselves and our species is that it's much more "natural" for us over time to evolve away from practices which are unethical, unjust and heartless than it is to maintain those traditions.
The historical evidence and the modern history of our species shows this to be the case.

In the same way our species has evolved away from cannibalism and human slavery over centuries, we will eventually do the same in regard to eating and using the other animals on this planet.

Our human species will evolve overtime to become vegan and it will be "natural" and it will be much sooner than later.

Do it now...evolve.

Go Vegan.

Listen here....NATURAL high

SANCTUARY...for you.


We humans are not alone in the world. The other animals of this world share the experience of happiness and suffering as we humans do.

For the world to actually matter to us the happiness and suffering of others must matter to us as well.

The fact that many of us must rely on our intuitions to find this landscape of concern does not always make for a more compassionate world.

The compass that most humans use to navigate the world...fails to detect the non human animals in it's scope.

We live in a world where the small minded quest for material possessions and a desperate search for pleasure out of self interest... inevitably leads to an incredible amount of suffering and death.

The farmed animals of the world are (and will be) the most forgotten and the least cared about creatures on the planet.
These animals will die in the billions upon billions and not one of their stories will ever be seen on... Animal Planet.

When we can locate the landscape of kindness in ourselves and in the world.....
both become limitless.
When we can recognize this place as who we are.....
happiness and freedom are directly at our finger tips.

We all belong to the ideas we love.
When our ideas are responsible for bringing more love to the world......
our intuitions about living vegan become truth.



Let this video be your (post) Thanksgiving mantra for the animals.

Share it with others.

Go Vegan.

Click here for the SANCTUARY..... video


Produced by Patty Shenker.
Performed by Donna Delory.



LOVE





What is Love?






(I would imagine none of you are google-ing right now in hopes of finding out the answer to the above question ).



Some of the most complex emotions when in their purest and simplest forms are just that...Pure and Simple.

Love is mainly the notion..... that those who you care deeply about...experience happiness and not grief and not pain.

When love is experienced and truly felt. (not when you think you love someone)
You want that other or others to be happy
. It's as simple as that.


When the person or persons whom you love are suffering....you feel that suffering... you share in their pain, their sorrow and their anguish.

(the term person here is to include non human animals as they are persons as well)


Think about someone you really love...your child, your parent, your wife, your husband ...your dog, your cat...your adopted pig or turkey here at animal acres.


We know that those who we love..we really want them to be happy and to feel good.

When we marry this concept of love.... with our feelings in regard to animals and our taking seriously what happens to the animals of the world we realize how our emotions can become wrapped up in so much pain.


When you really love animals the way many of us do. And you have to map these feelings onto the acknowledgement of dairy farms, of slaughterhouses, rodeos, circus's, sport hunting, animal research, the atrocity that are fur farms and yes.... the big city Animal Services as well. Anyplace where non humans are mistreated, abused and killed...and the territory seems endless.

It is a painful experience to live with this knowledge when those we love suffer or are killed. Death is an astonishing reality whenever we love someone deeply and we lose them.


When we really love another..... pain is a risk we must endure when those we love are harmed or their life ends.


However, love also carries with it the greatest joy, happiness and pleasure we can ever know.

Nothing feels better than Love.


Love is deeply wired into us all and is rooted in our biology and is one of the reasons it is such a powerful and transcendent feeling.


When we really love others there is also an incredible loss that takes place.

Yet this loss is a subtraction of...a minus of...

A deficit of sorts that becomes something incredibly and beautifully positive.


It is the sudden loss of our own selves in place of feeling for another.



When we LOVE... we disappear.



When we lose our own self and our total attention becomes focused on some-one we love.... We can feel that boundless state of being that is so favorable to happiness and so naturally calculated in making the world a more peaceful and LOVING place.




Be a sanctuary for someone.

Be Love.

Become vegan.



Listen here WHAT IS LOVE for?


Carol J. Adams/Interview






Throughout human history the justification made for not allowing a certain group of human beings to be liberated from oppression or discrimination has usually been that this said group were less than human and undeserving of respect or genuine emancipation. This group were more like the supposed "inferior" animals than the ones holding power.

However, the one movement of social change that first considered the connection with non human animals a positive connection and also pointed out the inherent similarities regarding the oppression of all groups was the modern feminist movement.
The activist and theorist most responsible for this bridge building between oppressions and for connecting feminist thinking with animal rights is the author/activist/theorist Carol J Adams.
Carol is the author of the ground breaking book "The Sexual Politics Of Meat" which transformed both the feminist movement and the animal rights movement over night 20 years ago.

Vegan Sanctuary is honored to have with us for our blog's very first interview--the brilliant, creative, influential thinker and writer--

Carol J. Adams.

Besides advancing scholarship and developing theory in the area of interlocking oppressions, Carol has created a series of books that address the vegetarian/vegan experience: Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian Survival Guide, Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat! and The Inner Art of Vegetarianism. Her most recent book is the anthology, The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics: A Reader, edited with Josephine Donovan. Columbia University Press, 2007.
Carol has been an activist on anti violence issues since the 1970s. Recently she received awards from The Greater Dallas Coalition for Reproductive Freedom and Planned Parenthood of Dallas and North Texas, "for her help in understanding the psychology of the radical right, for her commitment to women and for her brave stance against the tyranny of Operation Rescue.


Philip:

Carol, thank you so much for taking time to talk about your ideas regarding animal rights and feminist critical thinking with Vegan Sanctuary.
First off... What is the most effective way for an ethical vegan to engage an omnivore when the subject of eating animal products arises?


Carol:

I don’t think there is one way. The most important thing for an ethical vegan to recognize is that simply by choosing to eat vegan foods, we make omnivores uncomfortable. We remind them that they are making choices. Once they are reminded that what they are doing is a choice, then they often feel distressed. It then becomes easy to blame us for those feelings. In Living Among Meat Eaters I argue that vegans should look at omnivores as blocked vegetarians. Until we enter the room, they may have no notion that they are blocked. But, if they start acting defensively toward us, they are telling us exactly that. Meat eaters want to know if we are at peace with our diet. They won’t ask us directly. They ask, “but don’t you miss meat?” They mean, “Are you at peace with giving up meat?” If you are at peace, maybe they too could be a peace with living without meat. If you are not at peace, why should they try? Are you at peace? If you are, how do you communicate that sense of peace? If you aren’t, what is needed to discover a sense of peace? Meat eaters fear the emotional effort required of being a vegan. When we are at peace, we communicate the ease of being a vegan. When I meet meat eaters, I think, “what are you hiding from yourself.” If I decide it is only the facts about what animals are going through, well then, fine, let’s help them learn that. But, which one of us hasn’t heard, “don’t’ tell me I don’t want to know.” This means, actually, that they already know. If they didn’t know they wouldn’t have any need to stop us. No, they are keeping something from themselves: that they are unable to change. What are they going through? They are going through the painful fact that they cannot bring awareness and action in line with each other. In our actions, we remind them of that. In our veganism, is the sign of their failure to act. I discuss this all at much greater length in Living Among Meat Eaters, which I know some vegans reread yearly.

Philip:

The massive oppression of farmed animals and this goes for rodeos as well possibly... feels so much more patriarchal than other types of animal slavery. It's not just the term 'animal husbandry' I'm referring to here... but even the most obvious aspects of sport hunting for instance seem a bit less patriarchal than does the using and killing of farmed animals for products. And if this feeling might bear some truth... how is this important to understanding the connection between feminism and animal rights and what it might mean to veganism as well?

Carol:


The challenge for recognizing the oppression of farmed animals is that industrialized farming depends on domesticated female animals’ reproductive labor. Consumption of domesticated animals cannot exist without the enslavement of female animals to reproductive labor. To control fertility one must have absolute access to the female of the species. Cows, sows, chickens, and female sheep are exploited in ways that merge their reproductive and productive labor. Their bodies must be reproduced so that there will be “meat” for humans, so that there will be cow’s milk for humans, so that there will be eggs for humans. Through this oppression, female animals become viewed as not worthy of respect. Their importance is what they do—reproduce—rather than who they are—individual animals. They become a what. There is no who. The status of the female of the species meanwhile establishes the status of the male domesticated animals. The slang use of species names such as cow, sow, chick demonstrates the unworthiness of that species and anyone to whom the name is appended. All domesticated animals carry the “taint” of this exploitation of female reproductivity; it is one reason that animals are seen as always already replaceable (there will always be more animals because of the slavery of female animals). Farmed animals’ unworthiness becomes associated with their species as such, which in turn is associated with or defined through the demeaned status of its females. Deprived of any recognizably “human” (read male) characteristic, like reason, which might redeem them as subjects and lift them out of their lowly status, male domesticated animals become merged with femaleness.
Veganism
establishes that female animals matter. This is much more of a breakthrough than people realize; we recognize and acknowledge individual animals; we refuse to group them together, to belittle them, to ignore their suffering.

Philip:

The fight for animal rights is so much more dominated by women on the front lines yet most of the main voices from the animal rights world seem to be men. Is this a problem or is this actually a good thing or... maybe is this paradox just completely a mirror of the rest of our world?

Carol:


It’s a problem precisely because it is a mirror! In making veganism a political decision, animal activists rightly draw attention to the relationship between the personal and the political. However, the movement has remained extraordinarily indifferent to the ways in which the seemingly impersonal structures of patriarchy introduce patterns of sexual dominance and submission within the movement itself, patterns which inevitably play out in workplace conditions and interpersonal relations. One of the challenges for the animal movement is getting men to give up male-identified power over other beings (the sexual politics of meat). If the animal movement leaves the definition of “manhood” undisturbed it cannot accomplish its goals of liberating animals since, by definition, manhood involves use of and killing of animals, as well as the promotion of a “warrior” ethos that reproduces the values of aggression and masculine heroism of a patriarchal order.

Philip:

Yes. If you look at all of the macho aggressive masculine posturing about doing violence against people and physical threats against those who use animals in scientific research for instance, it really seems to counter everything that animal rights activists stand for. It also launches animal activism backwards by years in the same way that using naked women (sexism) to sell veganism does.

In "The Sexual Politics of Meat" you point out the fact that Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was a vegetarian (probably vegan as well) and what that says about the obvious idea that so much silencing about non meat eating themes throughout literature and history in general has taken place. A type of censorship of the "gentle diet" or the animal free diet has taken place.

Carol:


Yes, it happens all the time. People may not even be conscious that they are doing this; they don’t notice vegetarianism in novels or biographies because it just isn’t (or wasn’t) on their radar.


Philip:

Also interesting is that the "creature" Frankenstein was made up of body parts from a slaughterhouse as well a human graveyard. Why do you think that aspect has been left out of modern film versions of the story?

Carol:

What does it mean that the Monster was vegetarian? That the Monster had a vision of creating a peaceful life with a partner? While the answer to that is not complex, reconciling this peaceful vision with the Monster's murders is complex, and films would have to devote more time to this theme than it was probably thought warranted. Films tend to simplify stories, and if anyone is multidimensional (and not just because of the source of its body), it's the Monster.


Philip:

Thank you so much Carol for sharing your wisdom on living vegan and what that means from a feminist perspective. Thank you for allowing Vegan Sanctuary to talk with you and we're very much looking forward to part 2 of our interview with you.




The bodies of human women are still seen as objects in nearly every culture and society on this planet.
The animals who are killed and eaten by humans are objectified – their suffering, their lives and their deaths become insignificant as they are only objects for our consumption. We ignore the fact they are actually individuals with a life to be lived and exist as an end to themselves.
Carol has over the years made the important connection on how women’s bodies are objectified along with animals bodies. It is an observation with far reaching consequences and should not go unnoticed and made irrelevant by animal activists.
All oppression is connected and as animal rights advocates we need to take notice. We must acknowledge and care about every issue where justice and the rights of others are rejected.

Eat rice have faith in women.

Become a sanctuary for others.

Go Vegan.


Unity Of Oppression: a music video



For more information on Carol J Adams work please visit...
www.caroljadams.com







We Are What We Feel



"You're vegan? Well.... ...what do you eat?"


This is one of the most common questions we vegans are often asked. It is also one of the most curious questions as well. Is this really the best response people have? Are people really not aware of all the non animal foods that are available today? Unless the person asking is emerging from a cave after a life of seclusion or they are just arriving from decades of living among the ice drifts of the north seas most of the people who ask this question more than likely already know the answer.


However, this post is not going to attempt to answer that question at all or even attempt to dig down into the obvious transparent quality that this line of questioning from people infers. Rather, this post will pose another even more important question.


Why are we vegans never asked what we feel?


We are constantly asked by the curious in relation to our veganism what it is that we eat if we don't eat animal products. Yet the fact remains that we are never asked what we feel. Nearly every comment or question is usually tossed to us with the intention of avoiding anything authentic, ethical or compassionate. It appears as if the omnivores of the world have all attended the exact same continuing education course titled....

"How to Deflect Any Possibility At Getting To The Essence of Someone's Ethical Veganism....101."

Well, prepare yourself to be unimpressed by the results of their schooling.


But seriously and with all due respect.... Why is it when we further express to others that we've chosen not to eat animal products for ethical reasons the question concerning what we feel is never proposed?


Maybe we simply need to begin the dialogue ourselves and mention to the questioner that our choice is not merely about what we eat but really much more about what we feel. Investigating the nature of our emotions and sharing them directly may take some practice but the work itself can help transform our conversations with others about who we are.


This M.O. may provide us with a much more gentle approach when articulating our inspiration for opting out of who we don't eat rather than what it is.... we do eat.


If we can make it clear that it is what we feel personally that moves us it may in fact dislodge the usually defensive reactions which many people have when we talk about being vegan. Discussing what we feel is very different from explaining to someone why we are vegan and it may make all the difference...in the world.


When we can go straight to the emotional aspects of how it feels for us to live on this planet with so much violence against non humans and how it feels to have our hearts broken over and over again everyday we can begin to make our experience personal for others. When we layout what we feel regarding our reasons to not participate in the exploitation of non human animals and allow the meaning to become rooted in who we are provides us a much greater opportunity to ignite the awareness of those questioning our veganism.


This is about revealing our truth and about unrolling the sentiment behind our basic convictions. Maybe its a way we can expose that extra layer of grief to other humans which we animal rights advocates and ethical vegans live with day to day. We live with the knowing how unnecessary, how brutal and how tragic the short life of a farmed animal is.
















Maybe we can express that our sorrow is even claustrophobic at times because we realize we have no way of stopping the machine that kills so many millions everyday as it does one by one and life by life.


What does it feel like for instance to have empathy that extends beyond our own species? What does it feel like to have that empathy crushed, ripped and torn? What does it sound like? What does it look like and taste like?

What does it feel like to attempt to stay one step ahead of the pain we feel for animals?
















Maybe there is no way possible to stay ahead of the pain but rather have the courage to stay in it. Pain not fully felt will never heal.

In fact staying with the discomfort we have over the suffering and injustice committed against non humans also keeps us pledged to fight and speak out on their behalf.

Defining our experience of being vegan and sharing those feelings may be the only door way we have. It may in fact be the most efficient way to open the door for others as well.


Now before this feels like a sudden dash into abstract or speculative ideology we must remember that nearly everything we do is really only a reaction to what we feel.


Communicating to others that we are what we feel and that our love for animals and our hoping for a more compassionate and less violent world is what brought us here.


Having compassion for others is what links us to the chain of living vegan yet it is what most often is also overlooked. Having compassion for ourselves in regard to what we feel is often overlooked as well. Discussing our feelings of why we are ethical vegans with those who question us can be a reward to ourselves and a gift to the animals who will somehow be ironically pushed out of the argument in favor of protein myths or vitamin B12 sales pitches.


Comprehending what is we feel allows us to have a wisdom and composure that goes further and deeper than we can imagine. Being able to touch our sorrows and our grief as well as our anger and frustration allows us to express our being vegan with others in a much more rational and calm way. This may be the most important angle we have in illustrating, demonstrating and teaching our veganism to others. This is not an easy task and most of us are lucky if we have 5 minutes a day when we can slow down enough to focus on what we are feeling and then to be able to express it with a no drama...(Obama) like focus is even more difficult.

Yet, it can be done and it might be the key to making a connection from our hearts to others. We live in a world of others and we do need to make the best of that world.



When we can have our priorities straight emotionally and our concentration is precise because we have connected to what it is we feel it enables us to be grounded enough to be real without being offensive. Our attention is more focused to express ourselves clearly and truthfully. Then we can begin to realize and make this point to others that our feelings of grief, sorrow and pain are actually born from our compassion, kindness and love.


Our frustration with the way humans abuse and kill animals comes from our wanting others not to suffer and lose their lives. Our empathy felt is our empathy experienced and we can begin to have insight into our sameness with the animals and our sameness with other humans as well rather than always looking for the differences.


Maybe this is what leads us to the wisdom in understanding that our sadness and anger comes from a place of warmth and goodness. We are what we perceive about the world and our ideas themselves have the power to change us and possibly others forever.


Feeling what it is that makes us who we are enables us to embody and convey ourselves in a more rational and direct way. When we pay close attention to what we feel moment to moment in living vegan we can make the detailed claims that are necessary for others to understand our subjectivity. A subjectivity based and born from empathy and kindness and from caring about those whom we love. When we can articulate this truth for others they will understand that there is nothing irrational about feeling grief or even anger when the ones we love are killed.


Explaining to others we are vegan because of what we feel rather than what we don't eat allows us to bring the reality of our motivations out into the open and to the rest of the world. It gives us the chance to connect with the fact that our feelings of sorrow, grief, anger and frustration were instigated by our caring, compassion and empathy. When we move into what we feel it can open us to a better way of sharing who we are with the world and the others who are not.........yet.


Be a sanctuary

for who you are

and what you feel.