The Vegan Connection | Nancy Arenas

Four and half years ago during a conversation with a dear friend, I became vegan, right there. Right then, I became overwhelmingly sympathetic to the sufferings of animals. I finally made the connection. “What connection,” someone asks, “What is this ‘disconnect’ that I hear about?” ‘Disconnection’ is to connection as ‘discompassionate’ is to compassionate. When referenced to “violence upon animals,” it means to give up your apathy and learn to care. Until I had the aforementioned pivotal conversation, I had never considered the violence that is associated with the animal flesh on my food plate. I was ‘disconnected’ from the carnivorous rancher’s rifle and its horrific act, kept secret from me yet delivered to the animal behind the barn. I was ‘disconnected’ from the bloody act of the “white-wrapping” butcher and the pretty pink morsels, neatly packed and placed in rows, like toys in the toyshop. That is why I didn’t “see” it, because human babies are conditioned from birth, (through love of family and the need to eat), hypnotized by the socially sweeping momentum of carnivorous habits. From the bottom of my soul and my heart, I was filled with grief, over my innocent, yet ignorant, cruelty upon animals; however, I could not allow despair to defeat me. Determined for good, I simply looked forward, relieved to be a ‘new’ person from that moment, onward.

When I fully understood the concept of veganism, I committed my life to vegan advocacy. Is there a greater service to offer the world? In addition to its ideal of “non-violence for others,” veganism mended many of my own bodily ills. After one month of eating exclusively vegan food, my joint pains and swelling disappeared, along with my vertigo and fibromyalgia, never to return. The compassion I showed to the animals showed itself to be, also, my own personal self-compassion, alleviating my own pain and suffering. I am inspired by my newfound purpose in life… unceasingly dedicated to it. Everything else is, to me, a transparent window, through which I gaze upon that future day, when all the world irresistibly succumbs to that universal vegan enchantment.

I truly believe that each one of us has superlative attributes which we are merging, ever more harmoniously, in order to heal those things which are broken in our society. Yes, I do believe that global Veganism is the solution to all the world’s difficult problems. Non-violent inner peace is the character that comes to anyone who eats plants only. The seed which will grow a peaceful world is this: stop eating blood. Bloodshed, any bloodshed due to human hands will cease when bloodshed is no longer food for humans.

Step by step, vegan by vegan, Veganism is forming inspirational connections, all around the world. One narrow wheel-spoke would break under the full weight of my body; yet when many individual spokes simultaneously join the tire to its hub, I am confident in that strongly supportive wheel beneath me. And so, every narrow individual journey is becoming joined, rolling down that universal road, the road to peace.