I feel like this thought I had the other day is worth writing about. It’s certainly not original, but the magnitude of it really hit me yesterday.
If you take a step outside of your little bubble and look around at our current world situation it can be scary and disheartening. Sometimes we can feel helpless to the majority. Smokers, drinkers, animals abusers, people killing and stealing, people that don’t care how much or what they are eating. That’s not what I see regularly in my bubble of life, but I don’t need to see it to know it’s there and affecting me in some way.
When I think of all the of the major problems in the world, from people starving, to our dwindling fresh water supply, or even our energy and weather crisises, it makes me think… “if only there was one thing regular people had control of that would impact every problem in a positive way.”
Well there is something, and a small percentage of us already know what this is. Eating a whole food plant based diet. If you’d like information on why eating animal products is destroying the planet and our health, and why it would benefit both to eat a plant based diet check out, The Face on Your Plate, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (which I just listened to on audio book).
So as I was thinking to myself, “I can’t possibly reach enough people to really make a noticeable difference in the world”, I realized that I don’t have to. Every person that I can reach can help someone else.
I thought back to when I was mentoring with Arnold Kauffman. He had no incentive to help me other than enjoying my company and wanting to see me get well and be able to help others. He had no way of knowing that I would actually follow this path once I wasn’t sick anymore. I was planning to go into radiology since I was in high school. He planted the ideas, convictions, and drive in me and to go out as a “missionary of health” if you will and share my story with people who could benefit from hearing it.
I realize that I now have a small platform for which I can shout my message, and although it may be small, the people I shout to also have a small platform. If we can live our lives to the fullest, doing our best to develop ourselves into healthy, happy people, then we can be a beacon of light to those around us.
We can learn how to do anything today, with books, CD’s, DVD’s, Google, Youtube. We have an abundance of information to help us learn how to exercise, eat a plant based diet, develop different parts of our personality and character, start a garden, recycle, learn how to pick up chicks, change the oil in your car, convert your car to run on veggie oil, whatever! We shouldn’t feel helpless at all.
Most of us want peace, we want people and animals to be free from tourure, we’d love to feel and look our best, and to communicate in an effective and loving way to those around us. But sometimes it’s cold and wet when we climb out of the water and we can’t wait long enough until we’re all dried off, so we jump back in before it can happen.
Yesterday I had to remind myself that I’m not in the water anymore, I’m not controlled by the current, and I’m not alone either. There are other people that will stand with me and together we can pull out others.
It was a really yummy meal that’s perfect to bring to a potluck or party. You could flavor the filling any way you want… carob and dates, cinnamon and dates, I chose to do carrot, cinnamon and dates. It only takes a few minutes to make them so give these sweet, fresh and crunchy bites a try!
