“Until a man duplicates a blade of grass, Nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favorable comparison with the products of Nature, the living cell of a plant, the final result of the rays of the sun, the mother of all life.”
~ Thomas Edison
Happy Earth Day! the blazing, bright yellow sun seemed to call out today. Yes, you are my sunshine, my only sunshine! And my only Mother Earth, which I hold in the highest of regard.
It’s a busy week here on St. Thomas, full of Carnival festivities. And along with it, tonight we anticipate a gorgeous real-life fireworks show with the Lyrids Meteor Shower. Later in the week, many will celebrate Arbor Day by planting a tree. I think we’ll put one of our avocado trees into the ground, which we’ve been growing from seed, as a means to celebrate.
On Saturday April 27th 2013, campaigners from across Europe will gather in Oxford for a march and rally to mark World Day for Animals in Laboratories, a UN recognized date to highlight the millions of animals each year who suffer and die behind the walls of laboratories. Each year over 150,000 animals suffer and die in experiments carried out at Oxford University’s animal testing center. They are among the 115 million animals worldwide who are killed after undergoing often painful and prolonged procedures.
The more I’ve seen on this subject, the sadder I become at being part of this human race. It makes me truly sick at heart. We’ve met the enemy, and he is us. I’ll be writing more about the subject Friday on my other blog – The Twisted Vegan – if you dare learn more. I won’t be pushing too much graphic ‘shock and awe’; I leave that to the true rebels. But I will be publishing a list of American companies who use animals for product testing to further their economic gain. I’ll be emptying my cupboards of their brands as my way of honoring ahimsa, compassion for all living beings.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.
— Cree Indian Proverb
I was very sad to find that one of the main speakers and researchers at the Dalai Lama event which I will be attending uses chimps for his mind testing. It has put a damper on my enthusiasm, and I hope that there will be protesters. Maybe I’ll sit in for the afternoon session. I’ve never been part of a group protest … 😉
I say to you this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And if you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you or shoot you or bomb your house. So you refuse to take the stand. Well you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. You died when you refused to stand up for right. You died when you refused to stand up for truth. You died when you refused to stand up for justice.
~ Martin Luther King
Mother Earth and your precious beings, I’m standing up for all who have no voice, and I will until the day I die. How about you? What are you willing to stand up for? Leave me a note below of your causes. Let’s stand up together ♥
