Friday, December 9, 2011

The Kind Life

On September 13, 2010, I joined thekindlife.com.
It's the accompanying website to Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet. It's a great resource for flirts, vegans, or superheroes that want more information on everything vegan or environmental. She posts daily, includes deals for vegan goods and often from vegan companies. She features inspiring stories from other 'kind lifers'. The Kind Life is divided into the categories; food, health, house, style, environment, recipes, forum, about.
I loved the forums!
I really appreciated having that community to be a moral support for me while I was transitioning. My friends and family were, for the most part, pretty supportive. I mean . . . they were unsure, and a bit concerned for my health...but supportive, all the same. I also had a lot of thoughts running through my head, that I needed to talk about with other people that had similar thoughts. I should clarify (I just read that last sentence, and it sounds rather cryptic), I just started to think about everything I'd never bothered, and was encouraged not, to think about. It got pretty heavy.
On her website, other people had thought about the same things that I had started to think about. We weren't all in the same place yet, in terms of our veganism, but it was really beneficial to have all of those viewpoints to bounce ideas around with.
I will also say that I often hear other forums that have problems with terrible disagreements and arguments, but everyone I had experience with at thekindlife.com was quite pleasant and very helpful. Not a heck of a lot of 'in-fighting'.  
It has posts on how to cook unfamiliar foods, which packaged convenience vegan food is best, and available where, and even what to take on trips! I loved having this online community available to me! It was nice to interact others with a similar worldview. It made me feel not as crazy for not wanting to participate in the violence inherent in the animal exploitation industries.

I don't log in to thekindlife.com often anymore. I am much more confident as a vegan, I don't feel as crazy or nearly as alone as I once did.
I only knew one other vegan at that time, but I am finding more and more vegans in Regina, Saskatchewan. Which is very exciting! I recently heard a stat, that vegans now make up 2.5% of the American population, that's a 150% increase from last year!!! What's especially exciting, is that big changes don't require huge amounts of people caring about an issue! I think the number was around 12% . . .so less than 10% more people!
I really, truly believe that we can change the world. Maybe not every body's world, but some body's world!

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