Change usually happens with small seeds being nurtured over time.

It can include speaking up, showing up in small ways that has a trickle effect, giving others something new to consider.

For me, this has included just asking if something is vegan at events, potlucks, when traveling. On the one hand, I’m just a vegan trying to eat, which I’m entitled to. On another, I’m proclaiming my existence as a vegan representative of other vegans and to prompt some potential needed discomfort in the other on who I am and why.

I did just that this past week when RSVPing for my neighborhood HOA sponsored 4th of July celebration breakfast. There wasn’t a vegan option stated, so I reached out to the representative, who connected me to the board president, who graciously reached out to the vendor and made plans for me to get a vegan breakfast burrito.

I could have not reached out, deciding to just have an entree at home. But reaching out was a deliberate, mindful choice of activism to show up, take space as a vegan, create and plant some seeds of awareness on veganism with others.

I made similar inquiry (Is this vegan?) at a potluck of “wise women” at my Unitarian Universalist fellowship recently, when I could have remained silent.

I wasn’t rude, just present for myself and animals.

#mindfulness #veganism #change