Respect for life (ritual, Creator, Earth, soul, grace)

[Green Gaia]

PW, I understand your respect for plant life and I feel the much same way. I won't chop down a tree, or cut flowers for a vase or spray my yard with chemicals or needlessly disturb plant life anymore than is necessary. Although I guess I do look at plants I eat a little differently, but it's more like an appreciation for the life-giving qualities they provide my body. I can look at things like broccoli, green leafy lettuce, brussel sprouts, onions, fruits and beans and see the life and energy they have that transfers to me when I eat it, but when I look at a dead animal, all I see is a rotting corpse. Sorry if that is too graphic, just explaining some of why I can't eat meat. ops:

I love the quote: "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority."--E. B. White. I feel much the same way.

[painted wolf]

Maize.... no prob, I'm not bothered by the analogy at all. In its way its true.

Let me say again that I respect the choises that go into becomeing a vegitarian, it takes a lot of commitment...

however I have truble thinking that whenever I eat a raw vegtable I'm eating it alive... ops:

Have you ever wondered if man domesticated the plant or the plant domesticated the animals?
Plants have found ingenious ways to make us help them reproduce... every time we eat a fruit we spread thier seeds for them... every time a bee polinates a flower they are doing the plants dirty work for them...
those sneaky plants...

wa:-do

[Green Gaia]

Nature is smarter than most give Her credit for. :wink:

[painted wolf]

Most people have lost thier connection to the Earth.
They can't see her for what she is.
sad really...

wa:-do

[Master Vigil]

I agree with painted wolf, damn i love the native americans!! all things with life have a soul, the soul before all else gives them life. To take one and not the other disturbs balance. We as humans are, and always were, omnivores. This is because in the beginning, we had balance, we could eat both. But if you eat one more than the other this balance is disturbs. Granted you can live healthily as a vegetarian but it takes too much effort. Balance is easy to follow, but still hard to maintain. And of course, I feel the same way that when having a garden, one should respect the plants as much as when having a cattle ranch. No one thanks the plants and animals anymore when they eat them. Humans think they are above nature. Stupid humans!!

[Green Gaia]

Originally Posted by Master Vigil

Granted you can live healthily as a vegetarian but it takes too much effort. Balance is easy to follow, but still hard to maintain.

I suppose that's a matter of opinion, but I find it's not much effort at all really. I find vegetable, and fruits, and legumes much easier to prepare and cook than meat ever was for me lol.

[Master Vigil]

Thats true. Do you take supllements? Like iron and stuff?

[Green Gaia]

Yes, I do take a multi-vitamin with iron, as should everyone IMO, but I've always done that. And I'll take extra zinc and vitamin C when I feel myself getting a cold and I'll take extra B vitamins during certain times of the month because it helps my mood, (if you know what I mean lol). I take calcium because I don't eat dairy, and while I do have soy milk, I don't drink enough to get my full allotment of calcium in a day. Lots of green leafy vegetables have calcium as well, but I don't eat those everyday, even though I should lol.

So I try to eat a balanced diet, but know I fall short, so I take supplements. But it's funny, people are always asking about getting enough protein on the vegetarian diet, and I probably eat more protein now than I ever did when I did eat meat. Of course, I ate alot of junk food then too lol. So for me, the main nutritional reason people usually give for eating meat, is a non-issue, because there are plenty of plant sources of protein.

Sorry, I tend to ramble a bit about these things. I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know about my vitamins lol.