Make me smile

I love being vegan. Love it. Sometimes I think I'm genetically wired to have reached this point in my life, and the reason I felt crap for so many years is because I wasn't vegan, and the reason I generally feel so good these days is because I am vegan.

I love being vegan. Love it. I believe that being vegan has given me the balls to go after my dreams, because fuck it. Every day you're faced with someone who doesn't believe as you do, who doesn't see the world as you do, and every day you have to be strong and proud and out there, because like it or not you are representing every damn vegan on the planet.

I love being vegan. Love it. I want to share it all of the time, and I get such joy being able to talk about it with people who are on the same wavelength, and who don't want to debate whether or not companies treat animals who are destined to be slaughtered humanely, because, hello, in the end they're getting slaughtered and there ain't nothing humane about that. Ever.

I love being vegan. Love it. I can stand in the middle of a bustling Cruelty Free Festival, listening to Steve Kilbey play Unguarded Moment, and know that he's playing this song that he refuses to play at "normal" gigs because he considers every single damn one of us in that room "his" people and fuck if that's not magic. Because we're all there for one reason - curiousity about what it means to live ethically - and what a great reason that is.

I love being vegan. Love it. Cooking vegan food, reading about vegan food, being jealous of insanely good vegan chefs, talking about vegan food, introducing friends to the joys of vegan food, thinking about vegan food, experimenting with vegan food and knowing that every day I'm making a conscious difference not only to the lives of the animals that I have saved by my lifestyle, but to the planet by saving thousands of litres of water and hundreds of kilograms of greenhouse gases - and I get to eat (if I do say so myself) damn fine food while I'm at it!!

I love being vegan. Love it. I never thought that I would define myself by this choice alone, but it has become my everything. Yes, I'm female, feminist, punk, post punk, ex pseudo goth, Browncoat, geek, gamer, ska chick, British comedy fan...but none of that describes me so much, places me so firmly in the world, in my consciousness, as simply stating that I'm a vegan. And all of those other things ;-)

I love being vegan. Love it. And no matter how often I'm frustrated by the world's seeming inability to understand that this is not a "diet", this is a constructed, meaningful, lifestyle, I am always soothed by communicating with my cats every day; by watching the birds play in the trees outside my office; by laughing at the antics of the puppies next door to my house; of seeing the living breathing sentient personality in each and every animal I encounter (human or otherwise); of being connected with this earth in a way I have never been connected to it before and being so incredibly thankful for that gift.

I love being vegan. Love it.

This post is dedicated to Sarah and Phil and Neibi, the first vegans I ever knew. Thank you.