Being Vegan – Not an End, But a Beginning

By Paul Graham

Las Vegas Informer

Well, since you are reading this it must mean that we are all still here and that we survived the latest false alarm.  I didn’t put a whole lot of stock in this one either, but it sure gave people something to talk about.  I know there are a lot of unhappy people in this world who might not mind it coming to an end or just feeling that we somehow deserve it.  I take something far different away from all of this.  Rather than putting time or energy into complaining about the woes of the world and talking about its potential demise, I propose that we actually do something positive to change it.  I surely don’t see this as an end to the world, but perhaps figuratively, an end to age and the beginning of something remarkably better.

Fear is gripping the hearts of people everywhere…whether it is fear of what the economy is going to do; whether or not someone is going to try and take away our stash of guns; fear of someone, somehow infringing upon our beliefs of how the world should be.  The list of fears is seemingly endless.  You can almost smell and feel the fear…it is palpable. My feeling, though, is like most fears…it is mostly unwarranted.  The vast majority of fears that one has are rarely realized and often times that is only because we give sufficient energy to them.  This is not to say that we should not be concerned about things.  We need to be fully aware of what is going on around us, but it is how we react to that which will prove to make all the difference of whether we will impact the world in a positive way or be paralyzed by fear.

We need to step out from behind our dogma and build tangible bridges that will impact our world in a positive way.  I believe that we need to be full of faith for a better world and to see the hearts of men change for the benefit of the rest of mankind, the animal kingdom and our planet.  When we are full of faith and love there is no room for fear.  I do not want to live my life gripped by fear and I don’t know why anyone else would want to either.  I believe with all my heart that perfect love drives out all fear and we need to find that place in life where we embrace that perfect love and hold onto the fear no longer.  Fear will only cause us to retreat even more into ourselves and away from one another.  This is not how things will change.  When the majority moves in love and not in fear we will begin to see healing come throughout this planet.

We do live in a day where many words are spoken, and many words are written, and people are free to give their opinions and quite often complaints about how wrong everything is.  The problem is that very few have an real answers and they end up doing very little to make a difference in any real and tangible way.  They often suffer from paralysis of their own analysis.  Two leaders who impacted my life were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa.  They both had plenty to say, and as great and inspiring their words proved to be, those words were far outweighed by their actions and all that they accomplished. They were people full of love for their fellow men and in the midst of great challenges they overcame and they made a huge impact upon their world.  There was no place for fear in them where such great love resided.

Most all of our hostilities towards one another can be traced back to fear.  We hoard our resources out of fear.  We can’t fix everything that is wrong with the world nor should we attempt to.  I think perhaps a more sound approach would be to build a new paradigm alongside the existing one and build bridges outward to a world that is in such great need. I believe this is already happening. I know one thing for certain that we can change and that is our hearts.  We need to ask ourselves in every area of our lives whether or not our actions and attitudes are motivated by fear, or are they motivated by love?  If they are not motivated by love then we need to change that or we will continue to sink into the shadows.  We should be thankful that the world is not ending…but perhaps we will see an end to an age of people’s hearts gripped with fear and the beginning of an age to come that will be marked by love and healing for all who desire it.  If you want to find me…that is where I will be.

Paul Graham

Paul Graham was born and raised in Northern California and has lived in Las Vegas since 2004.  He is a top wedding officiate, a green Realtor and writer.  He has a daily vegan food blog www.eatingveganinvegas.tumblr.com which is 365 days and 365 vegan meals in Las Vegas.  He can also be reached at eatingveganlv@gmail.com or www.facebook.com/EatingVeganinVegas.