you can rely on me honey...

after thinking about it 24/7 for the entire week and reading around 50+ blogs with wonderful recipes and pictures, i've decided i am going vegan. there are obviously many health benefits to this particular lifestyle and there are also ethical and moral values as well. i've always had quite an unhealthy relationship with food and i see this as my truce with it in some ways. i am actually excited to make the recipes i copied down--the photos of them are absolutely beautiful. the colors are brilliant and the benefit of reducing animal harm/exploitation is most definitely advantageous. i see this as a plus side for sustainable living as well by relying on local and home grown produce. in order to make these recipes it will be necessary that i use veggies and spices from my dad's garden and it will allow me to take full advantage of the farmer's market in urbana. i haven't been this excited about something in a very long time. my mom is probably going to have some sort of freak-out about it, but i think when she realizes that i'm serious about this she'll be supportive--especially when she allows me to make her something extremely tasty. i am most excited to eat all of the vegetables and delicious looking spinach, broccoli and rice casserole.


as maurice broaddus said in his write-up of I am Legend, "Through sacrificial love, by injecting love to light up the darkness, life can be lived in light of hope, be it a new colony or a new earth, a quieter earth, with the chance to do things right as a legacy to that sacrifice of love."

that is why i am going vegan. what is the sacrifice really? i mean, giving up meat? eggs? dairy? not really a sacrifice, but a form of loving all, everywhere. if not here, then where to start?