Decades ago, before I stopped eating sweet, innocent herbivores, aka, meat–little lambs, baby boy calves, teenage cows, chicken tots, and piglets and their moms and dads–I had chronic fatigue symptoms, severe thyroid and pancreatic issues, a taxed liver, and chronic bouts of anxiety and depression.

When compassion gave me the courage to switch to a meatless diet, my physical health morphed in less than a year into near excellent health which I still enjoyed decades later.

I realized back then, that my new meatless diet was not the sole cause of my new vitality. It was my re-awakened awareness – that my new diet inspired – of our deep connection with all animals, with all living beings. The awareness we all had as wee children, open and receptive to the wonder and joy of life.

I was moved once again to interact, commune more deeply, more specifically with nature, be it a mouse, or a tree, or a patch of clover, or you.

To this day, connecting with all life, as I did during my childhood spent mostly in nature, surrounded by animals tame and wild, is as full of wonder and compassion, if not more so. It’s as though my sensory perception sensors were recharged, as well as my awe and love of all life.

Though my growing awareness of the suffering of animals in human hands spurred me onto vegetarianism way back then, I still, until I switched to a vegan diet, suffered from getting stuck in anxiety and depression.

Not anymore. When I cut out dairy, my health made a beeline from near excellent to excellent in a few weeks.

Aside from the tranquilizers, pus and other bad stuff in dairy, there’s pain…the horror the bovine mother experienced when her calf was torn from her side, the loneliness she had to endure tethered to milk machines stripping her udders raw and causing painful puss-filled infections.

No wonder I was depressed for years. I was taking in the pain of enslaved, battered cows. My psyche knew what I was doing. My conscious mind did not.

If you are still a meat and/or dairy consumer, please be aware of the reality that is a scientific fact: We are all connected, we are all one. The harm you cause to one being, you cause to your own.

The river of sorrow flooded with our conscious or unconscious complicity in the suffering of our animal relatives, of all our relatives, planet included, runs through our veins, physically and metaphorically speaking.

The horror in meat and dairy alone, ‘coarsing‘ through our brains, our hearts, every cell in our being, is enough to make anyone sick.

A well-balanced vegan diet and lifestyle does not make you sick. It makes you clear. It makes you healthy. It makes you whole.

For years now, since deepening my commitment to actively advocating the rights of animals, aside from communicating with them more deeply, I have new energy.

More energy than healthy people half my age, I am told by those half my age. Several times a week, I hike mountains and practice yoga with young athletics.

I am a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to the rights of animals to live as Nature intended. Everyday, I ‘follow my bliss‘ with the determination that all beings…including the planet…will get to follow theirs.

Did you know that the meat and dairy industries are the number one cause of climate change? Well, now you do: A quick easy search online will tell you this is true.

Please don’t just eat vegan, be vegan. Be a happy, healthy, and wise little black sheep. And the other sheep will follow.