Making the Connection: An Excellent Short Film on Veganism

Some "food for thought" for Vegan MoFo!

"The thinking man must oppose all the cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo...We need a boundless ethic which will also include the animals."
-Albert Schweitzer

Just wanted to make mention of Making the Connection, a thoughtful, artful short film on the the various advantages of a plant-based diet and lifestyle by The Vegan Society.

Watch here!

New Jewels!

I am FINALLY getting around to listing some of the new inventory I have! Visit my Etsy shop for more new goodies (all cruelty-free and natural) in the way of jewels, and don't forget to check out the savings I am offering as part of EtsyVeg's Kickoff to Fall promotion all this week. My sale will change daily with the special color of the day. Today is YELLOW! :)

Vegan Out Loud: Why Vegan?

I've been vegan for over 11 years now. Originally, I went vegetarian without knowing much about it other than that it involved choosing not to eat animals. I became vegan a year or two later for health reasons (milk allergy and lactose intolerance), again, not really knowing much about it. My understanding and knowledge about being vegan has grown a thousandfold since then. Once I started meeting other people who were veg/vegan, my whole idea about it changed. Through reading, asking questions, and listening well, I became more educated about veganism and the impact on the planet and on animals themselves of consuming living creatures for food and utilizing them for human purposes. I choose it as a lifestyle now for deep ethical, spiritual, and moral reasons. Every year I have been vegan, my veganism and the ethics, morals, and beliefs that have formed around it and because of it have grown more complex and more deeply ingrained.

Today I am vegan because I want to try my best to honor and respect all beings as equally deserving of compassion, love, and freedom. Being vegan is about intentionally living compassionately and with love toward all beings, and choosing a way of being in the world that has as little and as positive an impact as possible. I am vegan to give back to Earth, to help to heal it rather than take from it. I am vegan to maintain a healthy mind, body, spirit, and soul. As best as I can, I want to live as an example of how to walk tenderly, harm minimally, love fully, and lead with a compassionate heart, and to learn from others who are doing the same. Living compassionately spreads love. I am vegan to hopefully help to counter all of the fear, hatred, and cruelty out there with peace, kindness, and openness, while also attempting to make up for my own negative crap I send into the world.

My reasons for being vegan aren't all pretty and all about love and peace and happy-happy, joy-joy, though. There's an ugly, insidious part of it. Every day, millions of animals endure intense, incomprehensible suffering or die lonely, prolonged, painful deaths at the hands of humans who treat them as worthless objects. Animals have souls, too. They are sentient beings that think and feel and hurt, develop lasting communities and families, and build strong attachments and loving relationships. Most of us live in a society where exploitation of animals for human purposes is not only condoned and justified but also turned a blind eye to, the experience of many other marginalized populations around the globe.

On farms, in rodeos or circuses, in puppy mills or fur farms, trapped in a pharmaceutical lab or the home of a callous pet owner, or hunted in the wild, so many animals are destined for lives filled with chronic abuse and neglect, hurt and confusion, grief and loss, and mistreatment of unimaginable proportions. And related industries like factory farming wreak havoc and destruction on the health of the environment and people. Most experience horrible, prolonged, painful deaths. I feel that any use of animal products on my part says that I'm okay with this, puts a stamp of approval on animal cruelty to further human ends and reinforces living beings being treated as objects. And from an energetic standpoint, the last thing I want to put in my body is any animal product that carries with it the trauma of a life and/or death of tragic suffering. For me, being vegan is a way of giving the animals a voice and honoring their lives so that they are no forgotten- they so desperately deserve and need that. I definitely do not live a "perfect" vegan life, if there is such a thing. I am fallible, and I find it hard as hell and pretty near impossible to be 100% vegan 100% of the time. But I try with all of me to do so.

It's kinda been a natural progression to move toward eliminating everything reasonably possible from my life that isn't compassionate, including materials used in creating my art and jewelry. Anything else feels 'unnatural' and incongruent with who I am, what I care about, and the impact (or lack of one) I want to make in the world. Plus, I put so much of my true self into creating things that to me (and hopefully others) are pure and convey beautiful things. Cruelty isn't beautiful. Materials that are derived from cruel methods or that dishonor other beings aren't beautiful.

Living a vegan lifestyle is strongly aligned with my spiritual and religious beliefs. I am a yogi and a Buddhist, as well as an advocate of rights for all beings, humans and animals and plants and the planet. Animals, human beings, and the planet- all are one, and in essence, of the same energy and spirit. I also don't think humans are any less valuable or have any less potential to be pure of heart and spirit than animals- we're all created equal and are all sacred beings. We just have much more of a chance and likelihood to become deluded or or lost and disconnected from love and compassion. Anyway, all of that stuff is entwined with being vegan for me, really hard to separate out.

I don't judge people for not living a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. At any given time, everyone falls on a spectrum in terms of global awareness and what compassion means to them. That tends to change for people as they go through life and have different experiences. Each of us makes the decision that is best for us at the time, something only we can know. In my opinion, it's compassionate awareness, living from the heart, and deep understanding of the impact of choice and the consequences of inaction that are most important- how we live our lives tends to naturally follow intention and thought. The heart is never wrong.

Vegan Etsy Treasury

Some cruelty-free, handmade fabulosity from my teamies on Vegan Etsy!

Soy, wonderful Soy - Felt Inari, Edamame, Tofu

by LittlePixieShoppe

Rose Vine Bracelet

by StarrlightJewelry

Cherry Bomb 6oz Wild Cherry Scented Soy Candle in Tin

by MrsTattooedGeek

Buster Kitty

by sassandperil

And then there were four...PRINT

by myzoetrope

Muah Muah Caterpillars

by veganosaurus

Raspberry and Cacao Chip Headband

by eatyourgreens

Vegan Necklace

by JennyStench

Rockin' Red Velvet Cupcakes

by KTsKitchen

Red Apple - Vegan Lip Sauce with Hemp Oil, Jojoba Oil and Vitamin E

by kennycoop

Dia de los Muertos Skull and Rose Necklace - handcut sterling

by Sparklynn

Rose 2005, 8 X 10

by LemonStPhotography

Vegan cozy cereal bowl in red with stars

by VeganDish

To see more fabulous handmade and vintage creations and supplies from our vegan and vegetarian artisans, check out our teams's Crafty Veggie Marketplace!

Activism Out Loud: FUR HURTS!

The consequences of the fur industry are deeply & horribly morally, ethically, and spiritually TRAGIC. Using fur in any form to make toys, car accessories, fashion, or whatever, whether off the runway or from a local vintage/resale shop, perpetuates humans using other beings for their own selfish purposes, no matter the cost of life. Being a consumer of any item made from fur justifies the horrific, unimaginable, unspeakable suffering of beings who feel and think and experience pain, condoning an industry of needless death and the devastation of innocent lives.

I struggled down to my core with my own pain and tears after seeing these photos (thank you to FB pal Jess for sharing them), but I knew I had to share them. I know the images are shocking and graphic, but the truth is sometimes. I shut my eyes to them as I post here. How could I stay silent about this? The animals need someone to speak for them and tell their story... They need someone to see them, to remember them. Right now, it's me. And you...

Think about these images the next time you reach for that nice, fluffy fur product bleached cleaned of blood to disconnect it from the death that made it possible, from the tortured souls whose lives were taken and discarded meaninglessly. Hardness of heart becomes evident with indifference to the pain and suffering of another living being- that indifference can be seen in what people eat and wear (Earthlings on Facebook).

Any questions?

Persia White in an ad for PETA's FurIsDead.com.

From all-creatures.org.

From EARTHLINGS - Official Animal Cruelty Awareness Group on Facebook.

From care2.com: "The aftermath of a seal killer. Hit seal bleeding tears from its eye. The seal cannot move and air from its nose is causing bubbles to be blown out its nose from its own Blood. This seal is still breathing. The seal crying a tear out of its own blood is still alive: It's not enough only to sit and feel mad or sad, and do nothing, vow to take a stand and spring into action."


Please take just a minute sign this petition: http://www.animalsaviors.org/petition.html.