Heart Reading … Day 73

Liberating the hearts of human animals

This heart reading has taken me a lifetime to know how to write.

We know that it is wrong to cage animals beyond a temporary moment that serves their wellbeing (during transport, etc.) and we know that it is a very good thing that most circuses have been shut down thanks to many decades of protest (see this report). We know this wrongfulness of caged animals translates to cruelty to animals everywhere, but we as a collective human species lack the courage — the heart — to demand that cruelty to animals everywhere stops.

This is largely due to our primary need for affiliation.

I believe that as we uncage ourselves and refuse to be put “in boxes” or be minimized or shamed or harmed in any number of “small,” subtle, or invisible ways, we refuse to see similar harm befall any other living being. As we ally with our own best interests — emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually — we become allies with others.

In my own very recent shift to a vegan diet, I feel such a disconnect from family members who do not understand why anyone would not eat meat. Many people, like me, have been “programmed” to believe eating meat was healthy, aristocratic, even patriotic. It is one of those cognitive dissonances the brain mysteriously is able to reconcile in our minds so that we can disconnect from pain and suffering in the world.

Even in 2021 when there are more gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free options available due to our collective inability to consume foods that are processed for expedience instead of for health, many who have been programmed like me do not want to understand such a choice to not eat animals who have been unjustly murdered, such a radical behavior change. Free range is not enough (for me).

“Well you eat fish, right?” […or are you totally crazy? which is the unspoken message I hear from some].

This programming I speak about is the source of liberation.

A few years ago I was driving to a speaking circle I was part of, rehearsing the speech I was going to deliver. It had been about oppression of the mind; and as I went down a steep hill, I had an epiphany to pivot the speech 180-degrees and make it about liberation of the mind. The speech was very well received.

We lean in to that which opens our hearts and we lean away from that which closes our hearts.

It is not easy to uncage ourselves. We hold deep seated and painful stories from our childhood that we don’t want to be touched with 10-foot poles. We think we will be hurt again and again like pain we can imagine inflicted by bull hooks or horse whips.

We are the source of our liberation.

Here is an idea: ask a long-time friend or family member, “what one word would you say could be the most important word I could reflect on to heal my heart.” This is not asking someone to fix you or rescue you; this is asking someone who loves you to give you a word to consider. It will be a great word no matter how “perfect” or imperfect it is. Then let the word wash over you for a while … until your own words flow.

And here’s a story:

About two hours ago I found a bumble bee on the stairs outside and carefully carried her to a spot in the sunshine; she looked dead but I knew she wasn’t. Five years ago I had found a similarly still bee on the floor of a public bathroom and brought him out into the sun. He warmed up and as the bee flew away my heart was very happy. At the moment I am watching my new friend going about her day flying from blossom to blossom. She didn’t need my help (unless I saved her from my hound dog’s heavy paw), but I now feel bound to her liberation.