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Is your mother a cow? Then why drink milk?

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I don’t like milk.  I never have.  I do like French Toast Bake–but I don’t eat it anymore.  I love ice cream–but I don’t eat it anymore.  Why?  I have watched several documentaries . . . now, I see milk and I think about rape.  I don’t see cream in my coffee–I imagine a man’s arm, shoulder deep inside cow privates.  I know.  Gross isn’t it.  I just can’t get the image out of my mind.  For me, consuming dairy products perpetuates abuse and violence.  I haven’t always felt this way and I may change again.  But for now my idea of living in harmony and living with compassion, excludes me from enjoying ice cream.   

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My family still drinks milk.  My kids love ice cream (just as much as I do!).  The whole dairy thing is what I call being a compassionate vegan.  It is something that weighs heavy on my soul.  It is my choice, my soul, my decision.  I ask that my family honor and respect my decision as I honor and respect their decision.  So far it is working.  I eat what works for me and they eat what works for them–no judgement, no high and mighty moral attitudes, just gentle, loving, kind and respectful acceptance.  I extend this acceptance to everyone–not just my family.  

Let’s take a look at a cow’s life cycle and some myths about milk.  These are facts–not hyperbole.  I’m sharing with you a snippet of the information that I have gathered on my vegan journey.  

A cow’s life cycle:

  • artificial insemination
  • forced pregnancy
  • having your baby taken away
  • extreme sadness over the lost of a baby (that will no doubt be killed in a few days or weeks for veal)
  • the milk supply dried up due to depression
  • hormones and antibiotics are given to increase milk production and heal mastitis 
  • never see the light of day
  • never touch grass
  • never eat grass
  • die at 5 years vs the normal life span of 20 years

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If you aren’t a cow–don’t drink milk!

Don’t butter your bread, have your Greek yogurt or eat ice cream.  Why?  Because you aren’t a cow.  A cow doesn’t produce milk for you–she produces it for her own calf.  Dr. Hyman is much more eloquent–you can read a very informative article about milk here.

I was very naive.  I thought that cows just “gave milk” (no doubt from signs like the one above).  Sadly, I never stopped long enough to think about the entire process.  Now that I have, it seems reasonable for me not to consume dairy products.  I will say that I didn’t just stop.  It took about 2 years for me to stop.  Ice cream was the last to go.  I even thought that if I made my own ice cream with organic milk–I wouldn’t be part of the abuse.  

I know now.  I can’t change the harm that I have caused by my own consumption but I can change what I do moving forward.  I can offer recipes that are dairy free.  I can educate by sharing what I have learned shedding light on the issue.  I can be at peace with my soul.  

Be Blessed.  Eat L.O.V.E.

Renee

 

 

5 Steps to Encouragement (free e-book)

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It is the end of February.  It is sort of dark and gray and cold.  I have piles of laundry.  It took me all week just to vacuum the upstairs . . . I just kept walking past the vacuum cleaner thinking “I need to vacuum!” . . . I’ll get to that.  My life keeps moving forward.  But I feel stuck.  I feel stuck behind a never-ending list of things to do, make, send . . .

My word for this year is intention, yet I’ve spent so many years living without intention . . . I’m finding my word to be burdensome.

Last night I was thinking I just want to stop the bus and get off.  Just have some time away.  Maybe get my hair cut, or my nails done, or buy a desk at a thrift shop–one I’ve had my eye on–but wanted my daughter to see it, like it before I buy it.  It wouldn’t even need to be away–I want to be able to sit and not think about all the things that are swirling around me–the unfinished projects, the intentions gone south.

Just then my husband walks in and says–why don’t you go shopping tomorrow.  You need a pair of boots (and I do really) “go out get a coffee and do some shopping”.  In order to go to the fancy mall–that would be a 1/2 day trip (because I want to browse and not be rushed) . . . we live in a more rural area–shall we say.  I resisted.  My husband realizing that I could use a break, is giving me the gift of time, reflection, and boots!  Yet, I resist.  I want this time, I really need this time, but I’m pushing the idea away?

Why is it so hard for us to accept love and encouragement?  I do my best to be encouraging and up lifting–yet I’m not always that way with myself.  I believe it for them–but not for me.

“Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.”

I grew up serving others in healthy ways and in unhealthy ways.  I grew up feeling powerless to make my own choices–yet felt guilty for not serving others.  I grew up in fear a lot of the time.  I grew up with in order to get you must give and nothing was free.  I grew up feeling like I didn’t matter–I grew up being told I was a mistake.

Fast forward to now–I have an awesome life.  I have a husband and kids who love me more than can even fit into words–yet sometimes–all of those years of not having an awesome life creep in . . . and fear, doubt, worry sneak back into my life.  I feel invisible.

I need to be encouraged.  I need to hear positive words.  I need to see a flash of a smile and a crazy wave from a friend as I drive by her house.  I need my husband to give me a morning off.  I need hugs from my kids.  I need prayers.  I need grace.  I need to give thanks, in everything.  I need to feel authentic love–not someone just blowing a breezy means-nothing accolade–I need the real thing.

If I need it–I bet you do too!  Who doesn’t?

I go through life with the intention of being a cheer leader!  I want to inspire you.  I want you to feel my love.  I want you to smile when I do my silly dance or sing in my opera voice.  I want to bring joy into the world.  I want to give thanks–and I want you to know that I’m thankful for you.  I want to feed the poor, take care of kids, hug every misfit dog and cat I see . . . I want to rescue the world and make everything “right.”  My wise husband, gently tells me I can’t take care of everything–the way that I wished I would have been taken care of.  He puts me on a love budget–I can’t spend more than I can take in . . .

Just when I was put on my love/save the world budget–my friend James Presscott wrote this awesome e-book.  It is about encouragement!  What a gift he is–just when I’m feeling discouraged I read his book . . . I feel encouraged.  I spend some time reading it with myself in mind–then I focus on those I meet.

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Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book.

Encouragement is never for our own benefit. 

Encouragement is truth presented to others in the exact way it needs to be heard, at the precise moment a person needs to hear it.

You see, encouragement is important. Learning to receive encouragement is just as important as learning to give it.

Making your mind and heart receptive to any words of encouragement which are given to you. Being awake to notice what is being said to you, and about you.

I encourage you to get your own copy of 5 Steps to Encouragement.  Just click here!  James writes in a way the makes us want to encourage one another–his writing is natural and authentic.

I also encourage you to share it with others.  The world would be a much happier place with smiles from the heart, gentle, loving, kind, respectful words–that need to be given and received.   In my efforts to change the world, I’m reminded that it can all start simply–with an encouraging smile–how easy is that!

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

-Mother Teresa

 Be Blessed AND encourage as many people as you can!

P.S. Yes, I did get a pair of great boots, I did check in at the adoption center to check in on the dog I want–he is adorable and deaf, and I bought the desk with the proceeds benefiting the adoption center.  I brought the desk home, rearranged the entire homeschool room . . . finished vacuuming . . . it was an awesome day–all because my husband took a few minutes to encourage me.

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Linking up I should be mopping the floor, Craftastic Party, motivation monday, create with joy, Busy Mondays, mindful mothering, and with Ann, The Better Mom, Rediscovering Domesticity, Titus 2 Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Titus (2)sdays, Gradituesdays, Heart and Home, Whatever Works Wednesday, Wisdom Wednesday, Show and Share Wednesday, Saturday Show and Share.

Radical Faith

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I went to Mass this morning.  Not the original plan for the day.

Today my daughter turns 7!  I’m giving her the day off from school (homeschool) but I still have some other obligations–an Adoration Committee meeting, lunch duty at Frassati Catholic Academy, and a preschool program at St. Mary of the Annunciation–then a basketball game tonight at St. Bede’s!  (really–but it was fun to get all those saint names into one sentence!)

So a busy day, but my intention was to drop the 2 boys off and then treat the girls to a Starbucks hot chocolate before the first meeting of the day.

My “today” 7-year-old ASKED if we could go to church instead of going to Starbucks–her thought was “we can go to Starbucks anytime.”

How can I argue with that logic!

The reading today was about the friends who lowered a paralyzed man in through the roof.  What kind of people have a best friend who is paralyzed? devise a plan to drop him through a roof?  be so radical in their faith that they would seek out Jesus in such a big way?  were they afraid to be so “out there” or were they SO faithful that it didn’t matter?

As Father Nate was talking I thought about my own life–what I think is a natural way to follow the Lord–I”m sure some people think it is radical.

  • we don’t watch much TV
  • we try to be wise is how we use the earths resources
  • we are conservative in what we expose our children to–regarding media–in our family we talk about topics in an age appropriate way at the age appropriate time
  • we are conservative in our dress (I don’t wear Prairie dresses nor do my girls–we are fashionable without being too short, too low-cut or being a temptation to anyone)
  • we homeschool
  • we do not hide our faith
  • we celebrate our God-given talents
  • we try to find Jesus in all that we meet
  • we “give thanks, in everything”
  • we serve God by serving others
  • especially hard this time of year–we make an effort not to over indulge (toys, food, drink, number of ornaments on the tree–excess is so easy)

I’m at a point now on my journey that I seek God things.  The music I listen too, spending time in prayer, finding joy and blessings in every moment of the day–I’m feeling very peaceful in just serving God by serving my family and gradually expanding that circle of service.

I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you . . . Philippians 1:4  My internal dialogue is becoming one long prayer through the day–of thanksgiving, praise, guidance and grace.

He must increase, but I must decrease.  John 3:30  Each time I give praise to God, I  become the blessing to someone.  If to give to God is to “decrease” than I’m really ok with that.  In our culture of more, more, more–the thought of giving away isn’t something that our minds grasp quickly.  It is in the giving that we receive our most precious gifts.

I’ll be honest–I might not be dropping my friends through the roof of a house . . . but I will continue to be faithful in my own radical way.

Be Blessed as you go through your day, seeking God in your own way.