All in stride

I don't take myself too seriously, so it's curious to me when someone who is up to date on the happenings in my life ask a question like "I thought you were trying to be vegan" as I am eating a oh-so-non vegan turkey burger.

I mean, I am consistant on a few things here, I'm not going to leave one son uncircumcised and then circumcise the next, so that was a weird question too when I was asked if I would be doing that for my second son. Uh, no?

I try to eat organic as much as possible. But I will happily eat at friend's home when invited, and not expect them to have to bend over backwards to accomodate me. What I do with my money when I buy food is a choice that, I feel, impacts not just my health but the environment, the economy, and my children's future on this planet too. Your choices are your own, and in trying to accomodate mine you might learn something in the process, but it is never expected. I'm no diva here.

I do see the benefits and praise the people I know who commit to living a vegan lifestyle. And in my humble opinion, that is like putting only the best fuel into your car. Obvious long term benefits don't need to be stated about that. But nothing detramental is going to happen short term to my car if I use crude instead of fully synthetic. (Or if I eat a turkey burger.)

I'm not an animal activist, but I do think that we as "Men given dominion over all living things" will be held accountable for their lives on this planet. So to eat an animal, or not, I do feel that we should contemplate the life of it, and be sure that we are prepared to stand accountable for its life before we eat it. For me, I try to buy local, free range, and occassionally. So I know it was treated well, it lived naturally how it was intended in its creation, and it was respected and appreciated for the nourishment I take into myself. But, I would like to get to a place where eating meat is even more less frequent because naturally I just don't agree that our bodies were meant to eat it.

I do cloth diapers, because even if it's a small dent on this earth, I can make a consious choice to do something to leave it a little bit better than how I came to it. But I also use disposables from time to time, especially at night. For an infant who goes through 8 diaper changes a day, that amounts up to 2,920 diapers a year. If I threw that in my backyard, that's a huge mountain of crap, literally. "Throwing something away" is throwing it in someone ELSE'S backyard. We all share this planet. But like I said, I don't take myself too seriously, I do still have to function in the world, and sometimes a cloth diaper is just a juggling act that I'm not able to accomodate in an 'on the go' life that I have sometimes.

I treat ailments naturally, but I'll take an antibiotic if it requires intervention. I breastfed my babies but they all had a bottle at some point because I had to be flexible. I have a huge testimony in the Word of Wisdom and scriptural direction to maintain a higher law of health, and every choice that I make in my life is reflective of it. Even if it is Chic-Fil-A when life is busy, because there are still choices I make and abstain from.

In short, no I'm not a hypocrite. I am making choices out of awareness for the impact that they have, and I am doing the best that I can with all of the possible resources to make the most of it. Instead of watching my choices with such judgement and scrutiny, stand in judgement on your own and find out if you're prepared to be accountable for them. If so, let's be friends!