My vegan apprenticeship is going well. I am enjoying reading, learning, experimenting, tasting. I am doing one strict day per week of a vegan diet and for the other 6 days per week I am working on excluding animal products without being fanatical.
But this is not all there is to me! No-one likes to be pigeon-holed and I have already experienced this during my years of being a vegetarian:
- "Oh you're a vegetarian" (You are obviously some kind of animal-loving, tree-hugging nut.)
And I experienced it for years when I was a Christian:
- "Oh you're a christian" (You are obviously a weird, judgemental and anti-fun nut).
I guess that is part of human nature. We all (yes me too) judge a book by it's label.
But there is more to me than what I eat.
I also recognise that this vegan apprenticeship is just another development in my "I need something to focus on" quest. I am a crusader. It hurts to admit that. But I do recognise a need in me to have something outside myself that I am "living for". I am not an apathetic person. And I am not satisfied with life being mundane. But since (gradually) leaving the church I have struggled at times to know where to direct my crusading energies. I get interested in an issue, (whether environmental, social or political) but soon realise that the "problems" of the world are bigger and more complicated that just that issue. I want to keep things in perspective but this is very hard to achieve.
Maybe I just need to relax a bit more.
Not in the sense of frittering away my time on a-muse-ments. A tendency in western society that really concerns me!
But in the sense of relaxing into my life as it is right now, with a bigger measure of acceptance, and taking time to smell the proverbial roses.
Or maybe I am just making things overly complicated and being too hard on myself. I think I will just enjoy the day and enjoy my new found interest in veganism without worrying so much about the bigger picture today.
So what yummy new vegan recipe shall I try today.
:)
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