My "sobriety" date is November 11, 2004; I have a sponsor who has been abstinent since the early 1980s.
When I consulted her regarding this webpage, she suggested that in addition to not using my picture or my legal name, I also do not include the names of the specific 12 step fellowships to which I belong. More than 100 fellowships are patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous, and, suffice to say, I am relatively familiar with a half dozen of them and more or less comfortable in all of them.... I have every intention of keeping with the traditions which are fundamentally the same, no matter what letter(s) come before the "A" of "Anonymous." If you feel I have violated them, please pray, meditate, and consult your sponsor prior to posting such a complaint. I earnestly pray that the comments and correspondence generated by this work are enlightening and uplifting--I hope to be of maximum service!
My purpose with this page is essentially to share my experience, strength, and hope with people in the process of twelve step recovery. Personally, I have never felt compulsive/obsessive about food issues and literally I do not identify with any of the groups that "work the steps" on food. However, the Twelfth step--in any of the fellowships--concludes with the intention to 'practice the principles in every area of our lives.' My message conveys the relationship of these principles with the selection of the kinds of foods we eat.
Here is a list of the principle embodied in working each step, as numbered.
- *Honesty*
- Hope
- Faith
- Courage
- Integrity
- Willingness
- *Humility*
- Brotherly Love
- Self Discipline (sometimes Justice or Mercy)
- Perseverance
- *Awareness* (sometimes Spirituality)
- Service (sometimes Charity)
Late in 1993 I had left my alcoholic husband--with whom I had frequently gone hunting for deer or boar and wading for crawdads--and was motivated by pride (shortly thereafter) to quit buying meat or even eating flesh foods. I was a lacto-ovo (dairy and egg) vegetarian for roughly fifteen years, except for a couple months--advised by a trainer at the gym--to include tuna and salmon in my diet.
Early in 2009 I was thoroughly humbled to discover that in one year in the USA, we feed and kill Ten Billion land animals, while world-wide about One Billion humans starve to death...fish feel pain and we've depleted most stocks of them, nearly everywhere, and our decimation of life in the oceans is upsetting global ecology.... Most importantly, I learned a cow must have a baby in order to "give" milk. I just didn't know that dairy products are made of "bovine mammary secretions" and a cow is pregnant for nine months until she gives birth to her baby, who will be taken away so we can use their milk--for butter, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and whey protein shakes. If we simply define "humility" as "being right-sized," Tuttle's book educated me with something closer to "a proper perspective" regarding my place in the world, and the actual lives and suffering and deaths of humans and other animals.
Becoming vegan has awakened me in ways I could not have imagined; sometimes I hear people share in meetings, something like this idea: if I had made a list of what i wanted or expected from sobriety and settled with that, I would have completely sold myself short. I totally feel the same about embracing this "alternative" lifestyle that is truly an ancient spiritual mode with a new label.... The word "vegan" means "...a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose," according to the Vegan Society.
So I celebrate my "veganniversary" soon. Today, looking forward to "turning five" in a few weeks, I'm still not certain how to commemorate this very special date.... I've dubbed it "Vegantimes Day: True Love for All."
Last year I shrugged it off, being "on retreat" in the hills of Malibu, California. Turning three, I fasted in solidarity with the starving people of the world and the farmed animals forced to eat toxic diets. (Particularly the dairy cows, who are eating more fish than the humans in our country--despite them NOT being carnivores--and tons of genetically modified crops, as well as being fed massive quantities of drugs and hormones.) For my second anniversary, I actually had something of a really big party. Although I was essentially "homeless" at the time, a dozen or so people came to dinner at my campsite over the course of the evening.
My first real anniversary "celebration" was really rather something of an utter disaster! I had tried to make it a private affair, with my boyfriend at the time and our two dogs. Dinner didn't cook right, he was apparently allergic to the chocolate or massage oil gift i presented him and he had bought me a box of worms. "For the compost bin." I had neither bin, nor garden, nor intention to begin either.... And precocious as I was--at just over a year vegan--I was entirely ignorant of how to care for them..... And suspicious that they were bought at the bait shop, therefore the wrong kind for a compost bin, which I had apparently become obliged to build since the "sales pitch" purpose of the worms is entirely un-vegan.
The year before, a beloved friend (who was formerly my boyfriend) had invited me to his house for an evening of companionship and dinner. He agreed to an all-vegan affair and I--being still pretty new on this journey--saved the date as the official beginning of my vegan adventure, though it was not literally "Day One" for me....
I only know for certain that since February 14, 2009, I have not intentionally eaten anything that came from an animal. All my personal care and home cleaning products are both cruelty-free (no animal testing) AND vegan (no animal product ingredients.) I have also replaced my beloved down pillows and comforter, beautiful silk blouses and scarves, smartly styled wool business suits and all leather items in my life--when getting my new car, I opted for the cloth seats. I eventually found vegan workout gloves so I could exercise like my favorite vegan fitness model. I read dozens of books and articles, watched scores of films, attended hundreds of lectures, workshops, demonstrations, protests, potlucks, retreats, and educational tabling events.
I have definitely had a psychic change powerful enough to revolutionize my way of thinking, and feeling, and being in the world. It could easily be called a spiritual awakening of the educational variety, yet I also have had white-light types of experiences with other people and non-human animals. Most importantly, I have found sharing the vegan ethic is an excellent vehicle by which to be of maximum service to my Higher Power and the others with whom I get to share this awesome common home we call Earth....
I will continue to write about how being vegan relates to "practicing the principles in all our affairs." And do feel free to comment, ask questions, and to participate in our recovery with this blog.... It is a pleasure and a privilege to do it for fun and for free!
Your friend for life, in service, angie
"I just know that you are expected, at some point, to do more than carry the message of A.A. to other alcoholics. In A.A. we aim not only for sobriety - we try again to become citizens of the world that we rejected, and of the world that once rejected us. This is the ultimate demonstration toward which twelfth step work is the first but not the final step." letter, 1959 from As Bill Sees It, page 21
