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| photo credit: Aaron Springston |
A few years back, I decided to stop eating meat. I was invited to dinner at a friends house, along with three others. When I had been to this man's home before, it was for the salons we created and attended for 10 months, so it was easy to bypass the meat in the buffet line, hence I had not mentioned I was vegetarian. This particular evening was more formal, as he was introducing himself to his neighbors, who also happened to be artists I knew from my gallery. There was no serve-yourself, and he set in front of me a huge slab of meat and a few carrots and asparagus spears. I thought of my options: not eat the meat and hurt his feelings, or do as Jesus advised his disciples and eat what is put before you, which I did. Tonight I was at a gathering of our Course in Miracles group and a woman mentioned that she had fallen off the vegan wagon and had a hamburger. She looked at me and said she remembered the above story when I told it at a previous meeting, and it brought her peace, keeping her from beating herself up over her food choice. It caused me to realize we're all doing the best that we can, and at any given time that best is different! Let's all be gentle with ourselves, and others, remembering to be kind rather than right.
"The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in immortality, but it would be foolish to venture beyond our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall neither eat to live nor live to eat." Mary Baker Eddy
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