Vegan Journey

 

My vegan journey is the subject of a story that can be read in the following post. This is not about my vegan journey itself, but rather a lifelong process.

Those who know me are aware that I was involved in activism from 2014 to 2018, possibly until 2019. I lost track of the exact date I stopped. 

Well, I might not be in the streets bringing awareness to animals bound for slaughter, doing an event where we try to get the public to be aware and engage, but you can't take this out of me. 

Can I say something? The vegan community disappointed me. Unless you are out there doing things all the time, people don't care about you. When I slowly stopped in 2017, no one took the time to ask me if I was okay, what was going on and this slowly dissolved.

It's hard because this is supposed to be a community that claims to speak for all beings. I saw a side I was not expecting. People keep saying ahisma, yet the lack of human caring made me see a different side. I am not naming names, but it was a significant disappointment. 

It felt like a gathering of similarly minded, but a disconnect to humans. I saw people shouting names at people and thought, My goodness, we are here to make people aware, not shout names at people. This was not what I signed up for. How are we to open the eyes when we are shouting insults?

I am not saying all this to also do the same; I am speaking what I saw and my experience to address what is broken in a community. 

You have no idea in May 2014 when I was standing bearing witness to pigs how much empowerment I felt standing up for something I believe in. It meant so much. But there are lots that are broken within a community.

I may not be attending vigils, demonstrations, and events related to animal rights activism, but this does not mean I am no longer an activist. I am just changing how it is done. 

I still feel that the animals are why I am here. I still think it's part of my mission, I feel its the how that is changing. Everything I did in between those years, I think I was meant to. It was part of my mission. Now the how is shifting. 

God is shifting this, and I am now in a different location, for whatever purpose and mission he has for me here. All the activism I did from 2014 till I could no longer do I was meant to do. It fueled me. It gave me purpose but I believe I am on the journey to something deeper that God has for me.

I will always stand for animal rights. I chose to live a vegan lifestyle, but those days of protests for me are done. However, I will find other ways to speak up for animals.