Deep Breath

Deep breath, so deep.
Fill my lungs
With sweet carbon smoke

It's swirling upwards,
Painting a monochromatic
In crisp, cool air

Breathe deep,
I am awake.
Vibrant colors all around

Fiery reds
and golden leaves
Fall gently
When a breath moves through the trees.

Firm, supple ground
Beneath my feet;
Deep green mosses
At my toes

Rich black soil
The past from which
The forest now grows

And leaves fall too
Beginning again,
Back to the earth.

I'm walking now.
The forest changes
at my feet.

From cool, moist earth
To firm,
Dry with grasses

Warm, safe, golden sun
Cuts through
Fresh autumn air

Laying down I meet some locusts
And a fly or two.
Living it up
Before the air gets cold.

And cicadas still hum,
Closing the year
With that high-pitched little song.

The sun grows hot
As my eyes grow heavy
Cicadas hum in soft, warm blackness

Deep breath, so deep.
The forest fills my lungs

Swirling upwards now
Painting a monochromatic
In crisp, cool air.

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I Do Not Pledge Allegiance

I do not pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

I pledge allegiance to the people of all countries, to every being with consciousness, and to the earth upon which each one of us is ultimately dependant.

Religion, race, species, and country separate us because groups may have different goal.

But every individual has similar needs. We are all brothers and sisters in our need for love and happiness. Our separation is an illusion.

Remember that everything works in a feedback loop. To feel love and happiness and acceptance for others only makes it easier to feel happy emotions in our own life.

Peace out, guys! (:

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I Miss You.

I miss you.

I didn't yesterday,

Or the day before...

But I'm weak today.

As thoughts of you flood my mind,

Everything else fades away.

I need to feel your lips,

I need to see your face,

I need to know you're still here...

I need your arms to bring me home tonight.

The girl that didn't bother me yesterday

Has reduced me to a jealous,

Insecure teenager today.

Break her heart,

And remind me that you love me.

Tell me I'm the only one you want.

Forgive me for my selfishness...

I need you to be mine tonight.

Things To Remember

Doubtlessly, everybody already knows everything that's on this list. I thought it would be good for me to have something to look back at during my weak moments, mostly.

• Don't take stuff too personally
• Don't take stuff too seriously - You are young; nothing ever stays the same, especially at this age. Enjoy the ride and don't stress about the details of right now.
• Remember that everybody has reasons for believing what they do and feeling what they do, and everybody (no, I changed my mind - everything) has something to add to your life.
• If life isn't ment to be fun, then what is it? Overlook/deal with the bad, and enjoy the good - there's no point being alive if you're not going to be happy.
• Everybody and everything deserves to be happy. Never allow yourself to be someone who's happiness benefits from the unhappiness of someone else. Do what you can to bring happiness, and a chance to be happy, to others.
• Remember that you will always have people there who love you and care for you, even if at the time it seems there aren't. Remember the first person on this list always must be yourself - and nobody can take that away from you but yourself.
• Forget jealousy. No matter how badly someone wronged you, it is a waste of valuable time and energy and, most importantly, happiness, when you are bitter. Forgive them, and love them as though they never wronged you.
• Take time to listen and observe. You don't always need to be talking. You can learn and benefit a lot from listening to others' information, ideas, opinions, and point of view.
• Always think before acting. Do not be consumed by anger or some other emotion and be driven to act out of impulse. Think through all of your words and actions and you will regret much less.
• Remember that, no matter who it is - you are never any better than the person next to you. Or worse. Everybody is different, with different strengths and weaknesses. In the end, we are all equal....and should be treated/treat others as such.

The Secret Life Of Plants

Just got done watching this documentary. Fascinating. Suggests so many truths, that so many of us have never even considered..

Plants capable of reacting to people's emotions? Communicating with one another? Thinking?

Even if you don't think you'll buy into any of it - I deffinately reccomend watching.

Will I Always Eat This Way?

A friend of mine asked me that last week. I didn't know, I don't know. How could I? Today is today, I don't know what will come tomorrow. I don't know what I will want tomorrow.

Maybe there will suddenly be a disease that wipes out everything but potatoes, corn and wheat worldwide. Though ideally I wouldn't be eating those things, they would keep me alive. Perhaps, I'll find out I have some disease and need to eat calf liver in order to stay alive and get enough B-12. Maybe, I'll just decide I don't want to do it anymore.

Maybe I'll decide something else is healthier, that I would be better off eating otherwise. I thought my diet was the greatest back when I was just starting out eating 'healthy' - brown rice and organic beef and things. I thought I couldn't get a lot better when I was vegan. Then I went raw, and that was the best. And now I'm here. Who knows where I'll be tomorrow?

So yes; at this point, ideally, I like to think that I will always eat this way. But in reality, things and conditions and realities and beliefs change every day, and I realize that. We need to be fluid, always learning and changing. We can't be so sure of ourselves, that we are sure everything else is wrong. To insist upon being stubbornly immovable and closed to any other ideas, to any other options would not encourage improvement or advancement at all, and I never want to be that girl, that person.

So, maybe I will always feel exactly how I do now, that fruit is the optimal diet for humans and for the world, and will spend the rest of my life perusing this style of eating, this philosophy, and this lifestyle. I believe in it whole-heartedly today, and for today - that's good enough.

Circle Of Life

A common argument that people seem to have when I tell them about what I eat, and why, is "Eating meat, and death is kind of just the circle of life," or something to that effect. This is true. It is a dog eat dog world. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten.

It is also worth noting that in this 'circle of life' people would die in harsh winters, without a way to keep warm. People would starve to death or be eaten by a predator should they break a leg. Chances are there would be no blind or deaf among us. Certainly no special ed left. Why? Because that would be the circle of life. A disability such as any mentioned above would render the person unable to care for themselves, and therefore they would die. So why don't they?

Because we have overcome the circle of life. With our highly developed brains capable reason and understanding and caring and compassion and love, we have found ways around the circle of life. In the same way that it should be no trouble to avoid this so-called 'circle of life' that means ruthlessly and unneccessarily murdering other species for various reasons.

So why haven't we? I feel that at this point, we are still a relatively primative species. We have the brains and the capability - but we are still exploring them.

Imagine an eight year old who has inherited billions of dollars. Essentially, an inexhaustible amount of money. He uses it to buy video game systems, toys, fun things for himself. As he grows older, he learns to invest it, use it in wise ways to better his life, and probably those of the people around him. I would say we are somewhere in between these two stages, maybe closer to the second. However, as this lucky person grows even older, he is exposed to people hurting, starving, suffering. He realizes that his money will do so much more good being used to help benefit the entire world, rather than just he.

At this 'stage' in 'life' we realize that the world isn't all about us. This incredible intelligence isn't for making us as comfortable and happy as we can be personally, it's not for shutting us away from the world, removing us from its problems. No. These brains unlock a world that other animals havn't got access to, because, primitive as we are, they are more primitive - not even producing the capacity to love or care or reason (or so it would seem. I suppose I don't know for sure).

For this reason, it must be us that set the example for everything else. We need to be the ones to make our own decisions, based on our own ability to think and reason, not a primal animals urges to eat and procreate. We need to set an example. We, with the highest developed brains and highly developed societies, need to be an example to lesser species - not the other way around. Eating meat because your cat does would be like a 15-year-old girl peeing her pants because her 1-year-old sister does it.

We have the ability to reason and think and love. We have the ability to realize the beauty, the purity, the freedom, and necessity, of living a life of harmlessness and non-injury. All we need to do now is realize that, no matter how much we love the taste of chicken quasadillas, or grilled salmon, what we really want is to make the world a better place - like they taught us when we were young: Leave it better than we found it.

❤

Optimism;

My family all eats meat. And it bothers me, so much. I try so hard to comment very little..but they still complain that I bitch about it too much. It hurts. I don't mean to be one of those people who tries to force their opinions on everybody around them - but at the same time, it's not just about me. It's not about me at all. Its the animals that were sacrificed. It's the animals that they are ingesting, without even considering the fact that once upon a time, that was a living, breathing, feeling organism. How can it be ok? How can they live, not giving it a second thought, not even considering that perhaps it's wrong, the fact that we as a people murder millions of animals a day, for the express reason that we like the way they taste? How can so few people care? How can we be so completely desensitized, to the point that, when someone does see a something wrong with it - they are the crazy ones, the fanatics, annoying for fighting against what society just accepts so easily?

It's sick. It is so wrong, that I am considered an idealist, as if it is a bad thing. So horrible that people who believe that everything deserves the right to life are such a minority. And so sad to know that people feel that I am naïve for believing that one day, it will get better. That one day, the world will change. That one day, we will no longer feel the need to murder for food, for pleasure, enjoyment. We won't destroy plants for food, much less animals.

Sometimes, not going to lie - it is so hard for me to remain optimistic, believe that things are going to change for the better one day. I talk to people about the all things I believe in, and it gets so hard to remember all the reasons I hope for the future.

And to be completely truthful - sure; maybe I am crazy. Maybe I'm wrong, and a hundred thousand years from now, we won't have gotten any better. Maybe we will have destroyed ourselves in nuclear war because we couldn't give up the crutch of hatred. But then, I must remind myself - that I need to believe things are going improve, one da everything is going to be beautiful, pure, wholesome. No matter what the reality is, it is so much healthier to believe that somehow, what you're doing is benefiting the world. A world that is changing. A world deserving of the hope we have for it.

So though I may have spent a chunk of my morning crying for people, for all the animals being murdered daily for us monsters to devour... I need to remember that every time I refuse to eat meat, I am saving a life, and I am supporting a movement that I believe in with everything I am. I need to look to the future, and believe that we will get there one day. Because one day, a million years from now or one, we will win. Not me, not you, not one group of people, not even one species, but the whole world. We will finally be able to live in peace and harmony, with everything. There will be no killing, no hatred, and no jealousy, no judgment.

Against any and all odds, I will go on believing.

❤