“Who I’ve been is not as important as who I’m becoming” – Gary Francione.

Dear Climate Healers Family,

Dr. Melanie Joy hosts the Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy (CEVA). CEVA has a number of courses on how to be an effective vegan advocate and there is nothing that I can add to the information that Dr. Joy provides. Of course, different strategies work better in different situations as she describes, but this isn’t what I’m writing about.

The three tips that I present here ground me as a Vegan advocate, regardless of the situation. Here they are.

1. Be positive. A positive outlook is essential for inspiring a transformation in ourselves and in others. Nature amplifies that which we highlight.

If we highlight the negative aspects of a situation, then that gets amplified. If we highlight the positive aspects, then that gets amplified.

I’d rather send ripples of positivity out into the universe, when I know fully well that the course of action that I’m recommending is feasible and minimizes harm to ourselves and to all life.

2. Be authentic. I pick authenticity over expediency. In the complex life-support system that is the environment, I won’t know whether tipping points have been crossed until the world goes Vegan and we observe Nature’s response to that course of action. At the moment, almost every one of the life-support system parameters are accelerating in the wrong direction.

This is like a seven alarm fire raging on the planet as seven planetary boundaries have been transgressed. I cannot say “there is a seven alarm fire on our planet” and “eat less meat” simultaneously.

That would be like saying, “there is a seven-alarm fire in our home” and “throw fewer lit cigarettes into the fire” instead of “please stop smoking and join the bucket brigade and help us put out the fire.”

3. Be free. No matter where I am, what I am or who I am, I am a child of Mother Earth and I belong. This knowing gives me the freedom to do my thing, to say my piece, to dance my dance and let the chips fall where they may.

More on this in newsletters to come.

Join us at V-COP23

Please join us in Toronto for the Vegan Convergence Of the Peoples #23 (V-COP23) on Nov 1-2 to help shape and implement our system design plan for Planet B. The theme for V-COP23 is offered by our co-host, Plant Based Treaty: Redirect, Relinquish, Restore::

Redirect our focus from fixing Planet A to building Planet B.
Relinquish the excess resources we have taken from the planet.
Restore the life-support systems of the planet with the relinquished resources.

Please be there and let us make some history.

With much love,