The time has come.  I will no longer eat meat.  Period.  Ever.  From any source, for any reason, under any circumstances.

For too long has this concept bounced around in my brain.  I have grown increasingly disgusted with the idea of consuming other animals.  But now I’ve seen too much.  This isn’t the first time I’ve been subjected to the truth behind the food industry.  Nay, not at all.  But this time grows on me like fungi taking their feast upon dying flesh, on a fallen tree that gave life to a whole forest, and I will not be part of it anymore.

If you do nothing else, go watch this video.  Do it, and watch the whole thing.  Don’t look away, don’t ignore, and don’t excuse.

I cried.

Does any of this surprise me?  No.  I’ve known of the atrocities for far too long, and yet I’ve ignored them and pretended like being selective in my sources made a difference.

But it doesn’t.

It’s a vile, evil, inhumane practice to consume the flesh of others.

Can you deny they don’t feel?  Can you deny they don’t comprehend the vicious acts of cruelty being perpetrated against them and their kin?

No, you can’t.  No one can.

But it’s more than that.  It’s more than the premise of not eating meat.

It’s no more animal-related products at all.  At least for me.

We humans are far too cruel, far too heartless in our treatment of animals used for food.  I can’t do it anymore.

Increasingly of late I’ve felt a growing connection to the world, to Gaia, to the whole of life on this planet.  That fever continued to well inside me until now.

Now, it stops.

The abuse stops.  The consumption of creatures stops.  The use of animals for my gain comes to a grinding halt.

Forever.

So now begins a new chapter in my life.  This moment is the demarcation.  Selfish abandon is no more, at least for me.

It is not our world to do with as we please.  Living creatures are not ours to abuse and destroy as we see fit.  Already we know the oceanic inhabitants will be all but extinct by 2050.  Already we know land mammals are treated with disconcerting malevolence.  Already we know too many species suffer at our hands.

I can no longer be a part of this unpleasant, vile, horrible action.

Today is a moment of change.  I accept it with with open arms and a willing heart.