WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

When you go meatless you find yourself attracted to more variety in your condiments, spices and herbs. In fact, in every category of meatless, you begin noticing that which was previously blurred by the meat being the center of attention – differences in pastas, rices, veggies, beans, even something as common as ketchup and mustard becomes an adventure in trying new flavors, textures and uses. Italian seasoning no longer satisfies you as the only herb in your herb closet.

It’s all about nuances now.

Orange juice is no longer just orange juice. Where have I been, you find yourself asking yourself? There are so many different types of orange juice and every other juice, juices you never even heard of, that a whole lot of people are drinking these days.

One salad dressing for your salad will no longer do you, when there’s a whole world of salad dressings out there waiting for you to try. Every single animal-free/meatless category is a whole wide world of its own.

Going meatless, even for one day a week, opens your brain, thus your mind, thus your spirit, thus your body, thus your taste buds to what you’ve been missing all this time and didn’t know it. Yes, the meat was definitely the center of everybody’s attention. The meat hogged the whole show so to speak. Kept you from enjoying anything but eating them is how it worked out.

But now you know it isn’t all about the meat. It’s about you and your taste buds and your health, and your well-being. And why would I want to kill somebody for myplate? For mybrain? mymind? myspirit? mybody? mytastebuds?

It sounds more like it was because of somebody else’s plate, brain, mind, spirit, body, taste buds, that I was making the meat (the animal) the center of my attention. Food brain-washing begins in infancy.

What are these new nuances of flavors and textures all about? Before I only wanted one flavor, one texture: MEAT.

My whole world is changing…and I’m liking where it’s taking me. There are so many worlds to explore within the animal-free/meatless category that I never knew existed – because the meat, the animal, stole my world view. The meat took all of my effort, my energy, my thoughts, away from everything else, so I could see only the meat and the meat could only see me. It’s like an addiction; it consumes you. Here I thought I was consuming It, and all the while It was consuming me.

First you free the animal. Then the animal frees you. ~ Sharon Lee Davies-Tight