Meat and Misery!

Home from the yoga holiday and feeling healthy and revitalized. However I did suffer a vegan moment during one of the nights out. It came as most of the girls ordered mixed grills and a huge array of animal parts arrived at the table. I just could not bear to see so many hacked up animal corpses. Animals who did not deserve to die, animals who did not ask to be born just so they could be killed after a short life to end up on a dining table. I felt so sick and upset at the scene that I had to leave the table and sit away from the group whilst they ate. The rest of my night and the following day was spent wondering how my refusal to engage in an inhumane and cruel lifestyle was making any difference to the animals. I was looking at a small bowl of Parmesan cheese brought with my spaghetti napolitana (even though I had asked for no cheese) and thinking how a newborn calf had been killed for the rennet in its stomach to make this and then looked up and saw everyone else in the restaurant stuffing meat in their mouths. Are my choices making any difference at all when everyone else continues to eat corpses of defenseless beings, beings which experience pain, suffering and despair at our hand? I was so deflated but now I come home with renewed vigour to stand up for what is right. I feel I must do so much more to raise awareness of animal treatment, even if it means that some people will dislike me for it. I do not mean that I will start protesting outside the local slaughterhouse (yet), only that in future, when people say to me, 'Do you mind if I eat this infront of you', I will say 'Yes, I do mind but surely it is the animal you should apologize to, for it is the animal that has been killed because you did not feel like ordering vegetarian lasagne today'. Harsh. Yes, it is harsh but I feel I must live my truth. For years I tried to fit in, desperately in need of approval and acceptance. Maybe now I have realized my love of a compassionate life stands higher than that.