hug a vegetarian day * vegan baking day * soul surfer As the title may suggest, there is some well and good fair dinkum on the horizon here, albeit would like to start things off with talk of the oft neglected hug between peoples of this, that or the other. And as am not quite sure of your touchy feely quotient, let alone penchant for cuddling or the like, am gonna stick pretty much with purported facts about the such, and mostly from David (Avocado) Wolfe. |
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Hugs increase white blood cells and help to lower blood pressure. Hugs and touch help balance our nervous system and reduce worry (even with inanimate objects for you teddy bear/stuffed animal lovers). The (subsequent) release of oxytocin is associated with feelings of contentment and relaxation and can produce feelings of (greater) understanding and empathy, and while the release of endorphins can help relieve pain. Hugs increase circulation to soft tissues and can reduce cortisol levels and stress, which helps to calm the mind and relax the body. They can increase dopamine levels in the brain, help lessen depression, self doubt and lack of enthusiasm. Frequent hugs beget infrequent illness and slows the heart rate for better health. Plain and simple, hugs are a mood booster and feelgood medicine.. |
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Now for the quasi rant and as a perhaps necessary preamble/disclaimer: am not vegan and refer to myself as a preferred vegetarian. I eat meat on occasion, and own more than one pair of leather shoes (I do have belts made from bicycle inner tubes and eat from a preponderance of a meat free menu). |
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We are what we eat watch what you eat, for that becomes food for thought, watch your thoughts for they become words,
watch your words for they become actions,
watch your actions for they become habits,
watch your habits for they become your character,
watch your character for it becomes your destiny. |
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Again, this is a rant, and a lot shorter read than Diet for a New America by John Robbins (hint, hint). Vegan food is soul food * Erykah Badu Why do we call some pets, and others dinner * KD Lang We cannot have peace among men who find delight in killing any living creature * Rachel Carson Behind every beautiful fur coat is a bloody, barbaric story * Mary Tyler Moore Cows scream louder than carrots * Alan Watts If you put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit, I will buy you a car if the baby eats the rabbit and plays with the apple * Harvey Diamond (Fit for Life) |
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For myself and as a surfer, one of the starting points (besides reading Diet for a New America) is the statement, ‘tis “hard to call yourself an environmentalist if you’re not a vegan.” Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all truck and automobile emissions in the world combined. Using land for crops instead of for grass fed beef, will feed ten times the number of peoples (third world peoples are left starving after we import their grain to feed our soon to be deadstock). And this: the meat and dairy industry has contributed to more deaths than all the wars of this century combined. |
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The human body has zero need for cow’s milk. On top of that, the human body has no nutritional requirement for animal flesh nor cow’s milk. It is unnatural for humans to drink milk. Excess animal protein is linked to illness upon illness. Vegans/vegetarians tend to have a more optimal protein assimilation than omnivores. We are born vegan and turned into carnists/carnivores. Is it more about our planet or your hamburger (or can we guess that what’s between your two buns is more important). World peace begins in the kitchen. Nothing will benefit us as much as a vegetarian diet (Einstein). ‘Tis nothing but habit and laziness (Morrissey). When do we stop exploiting animals in the name of science, sport, fashion and foodies (Cesar Chavez) ?? Since when is an animal nothing more than a sandwich or a pair of shoes ?? Is an animal nothing more than an ingredient to us ?? Does your slaughterhouse have glass walls (Paul McCartney) ?? We build slaughterhouses for the animals and hospitals for the peoples. Is it so wrong to hanker for a plant based regimen and the whole foods modus operandi ?? Imagine being a factory farmed animal. Eating meat equals murder. Are you animal friendly, or do you eat them ?? I am unfriendly. I eat meat. I wear and use leather products. I am guilty of enslavement. Eating meat destroys our forests and poisons our air and water supply (Thich Nhat Han). Vegetarianism was banned in Russia once upon a time. More than a one of our state senators has called for “being a vegetarian” as “unAmerican.” Others measure (a country’s) morality by how we treat our animals (Gandhi). How do animal (farm) slavery and (American) factory farming stack up in that equation ?? |
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Vote with your dollars, every day. (Is a Republican vegetarian an oxymoron ?) Going meat free is a “free market solution.” (Seitan is still satan/wheat gluten). One of the easiest/bestest things you can do for yourself and your planet is to go vegan/vegetarian. What’s so hard ‘bout peace, love and nonviolence. |
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Are fur coats not best left to be worn by beautiful animals ?? ( Are animals not your friends ?) Why do we believe in separatism/superiority and that some lives matter less ?? “Compassion is the best side effect of being vegan.” Abstinence makes the heart grow (in) wonder. With compassion as our compass, and by making “compassionate food choices,” the residual is the integrity of loving kindness. * addendum/necessary epilogue: don’t want to be one of those people, so if you’re one of those people that would rather not be bothered by the likes of the above, please remember that you are welcome/free to unsubscribe at bottom of this emailer, just click on the blue fine print below…. thank you, |
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Water speaks to our soul. Illuminated by waves, we atone with the pulse of the ocean. In tune with the laws of nature, we cultivate the peace that surfing has to offer. We surf to live and live in silent union with the Ocean Divine. When you live as a surfer, you bring what it is to be a surfer into everyday life. As the Unknown Surfer we give expression to our watersoul. The ocean is our temple and each sacred surf spot an outpost of Soul. The soul surfer sees each wave as sacred, willing to share or let one go, knowing there will always be another wave. She is our surfin’ bird, a messenger putting thoughts in motion and aspirations in flight. As lone mystic she is truthteller and surf scry. As witness to the truth she has found her own way. Surfing is her path. She knows how and when to cutback. She stays in the flow. Hers is a surfing aikido as if prescribed by surfing Zendo. As surf sage she knows that surfing is good direction. |
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Where island and ocean intersect, and whereto the land meets the sea, there are waves. And where the conscious and the unconscious come together and whereto ego finds id, we come upon our mind’s eye at soul level. And as that land is symbolic of ego, and the sea symbolic of the Unconscious, the breaking waves become symbolic of soul. Hence the term soul surfer. He is curator and custodian, caretaker of the sacred. He is sober and solemn. He appreciates our surf culture and knows well his, and herstory. He reminds us of our roots. She carries an aura of mystical groove. As beach bagwhon her beatitude is beat steady. She is beach betty friendly. As barefooted dreamweaver she is crone soothsayer and songstress. She gets her sleep and awakes at dawn well rested. She is tuned into all the elements, and is nourished. Disciplined, she knows that eating meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion. His clifftop contemplation is tribute to his deep relationship with Her. He is clear and calm. Free and uninfluenced, he has an unconscious understanding of her many moods and feelings. As beachfront bard he refrains from innuendo. He is a golden ray. Golden means have become his end. Quiet by nature, he is not distracted. He is intuitive. He waits for swells and subsequent set waves. Donning a cowled, hooded sweatshirt, he is pantheistic Merlin, intent on pursuing his sport regardless of external forces surrounding the rest of his life. In truth and love he cannot deny his relationship with our ocean medium. As wayward soul, he can be nomadic. He appreciates the subtleties of his own personal soul searching. The raw inner voyage entails meeting his needs within, not of answering those without. The soul surfer has a need for peace and quiet. His need is for wisdom from within. |
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The soul surfer is our missing link: “One God, One Country, One Fin.” Of an arcane existence and archaic lifestyle, he takes solace as North Coast gnome sequestered by bucolic abode. He is misinterpreted mysterioso. He appears apart from reality, lost in time and space, from out of this world, sometimes even spectral. He comes and goes like a wave. He leaves no trace. As lone surfer and surf ascetic, his withdrawl from day-to-day distractions is to ponder the deeper truths. But taken to the extreme, the soul surfer as dogma becomes nihilistic. Surf dementia sets in, perhaps from psychosomatic imbalance. He reeks of surf. He has to have the ocean breeze in his nostrils, with all senses in touch with the ocean. He doesn’t need anybody; he has a relationship with the ocean as sea goddess. He is wrapped up in the experience. |
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Ocean Wizard by Geoff "Speed" Smith * Speedline Art * acrylic 1998 |
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But he is acutely oversensitive and suffers from a need for separation. Emotionally repressed, he suffers alone. Learned via separateness and aloneness, he is sometimes socially awkward, and dying of loneliness. Penetrating and even critical, he finds it difficult to communicate. Irksome and unreasonable he retreats to solitary isolation. Ostracized and lonely he becomes secluded underground resident. Growing lifeless and lethargic his singular lifestyle is an unnecessary slowdown. His surfing is not animated. Too much flow and short on go, he surfs as if in a trance. Adamant that he doesn’t buy into any stereotype, his soul arch is nonetheless a mockery and misnomer. Bereft of modesty, an arched back is symbolic body language of a burdened, if not bruised, ego. As stubborn simpleton he deals without assistance. But as he is sensitive to other’s pain, he senses he may have to ask for help. Soul retrieval requires both shamanic journey and counselor. A healer needs his own healer. |
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When confused or ambivalent, the soul surfer yields. She stays within herself, knowing that “one’s way of life is spirited from within.” She accesses resources within for new direction, and transmutes pain into love, as it is all compost for our soul. As she eludes impurity, she seeks purity. Her self examination scores her spiritual self discipline. She is self taught. She is her own woman. She knows who she is. Her flexible body is of flexible mind. Her natural state of gratuity is graceful. Concord, charity and her humanity bespeak well of her. She is at peace with herself, “grateful to be a surfer.” Content with everything and desiring nothing, “the quiet security of a fortified heart emanates a quiet, wordless, self-contained joy.” She knows soul is without color or sex, not defined by age or gender, as her deep love for others offers respite for the all of us. Our soul expands in the presence of her beauty. She colors our soul. Her gaze dissolves ego attachments and gives cause to look within. A wise woman is always humble because she knows that she is part of everything. She knows her soul is her connection to all things. She is self-actualized. She sets the tone by example, as others learn from her actions. In harmony with nature, the soul surfer talks softly, and “walks in truth and dignity no matter how poor of means.” He surfs with humility no matter how revered. He often doesn’t remember anything specific about the wave or his ride. He has no need to control, conquer or dominate. He only wants to be with It. In the soul surfer we sense the need to get closer to It, ourselves. His is an unspoken invitation to a reunion with our soul. We ask of ourselves which values and disciplines answer our sense of what one does with a life. The soul surfer answers to himself. He has a profound insistence on authenticity. His way is of believing in an identity our culture does not reward. Intimately tied to the ocean, the soul surfer embodies a timeless epiphany. He is a gentle soul who touches others with his gentleness. He is cooperative, unobtrusive, and prefers to keep a low profile. He is an “environgentleman.” With ineffable dignity he emerges from the heiau, guardian of the sacred and godfather of soul. His incorruptibility of spirit beckons our fulfillment. As we reach for the unknown he takes us beyond words to leave us only with the experience. We learn that we need time to set our roots in, and that positive separation leaves us dormant long enough to germinate. We withdraw to be closer. We intuitively know that the truth in life is a solitary experience. It does not come from a god, it comes from experience. Our soul reveals without speaking. Look to your soul. It is your direction in life. |
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