Love Warrior,

Last week I launched my Love List series. Well, amen, hipshake, cause sooo many people wrote their own and tweeted and FB’d it. There’s even a Love List group on myCSL (go join it hot pants). Love Lists heal. They are fun and funky and free. Love Lists remind you that life is deliciously sweet, like a big drippy emotional ice cream cone (sans the glycemic spike). Tune in every Wednesday for my new list and please share the love. Meaning: Write your list! Hey, speaking of sharing, why not tap on that cute little share button at the end of this blog post? Spread the Love through the cyber soup!

1. I love taking pictures of Lola wearing hats. This week I didn’t have a hat so she’s wearing my bra. I think she looks like an old fashioned pilot, don’t you? Like Amelia Earhart. A hint about pet photography: hold a treat at the edge of the lens. I think she secretly loves our shoots because I’m like a walking cookie jar.

2. Earth Cafe raw cheesecake. OMG. These awesome folks sent us a few samples some months back and Corinne and I fastened our seatbelts, donned bibs and went to town. When I was a dairy guzzler I loved me some rich and creamy cheesecake. Now as a mostly raw vegan I can visit my ole friend again. Hi cheesecake, it’s me Kris, welcome home!

3. Flea Markets. Last weekend we went to the Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market near my folk’s house in CT. This flea is not to be missed. I got a silver cocktail dress from the sixties and this awesomely ugly Mt. Rushmore lamp (which used to be a whiskey bottle). What could be better? Answer: nothing. Wondering how I took these pictures? Check out #4.

4. Hipstamatic’s hot iphone camera app. Corinne turned me onto it. She uses it on her blog all the time. It makes your snaps look like sexy, distressed art. Ps. In addition to being our blog editor and my everything, Corinne is an awesome writer. You might really like her blog too.

5. Speaking of awesome blogs, um, yeah, we love Susannah Conway. She’s a rockin’ creative goddess with some juicy e-courses that will shake up your photo-journaling world. Unravel with Susannah and you just might tap into some immense joy.

6. The new Klean Kanteen wide insulated sippy-wonder. Purrrfect for my tea breaks. They keep your bev so hot you might need protective hand gear. Love ‘em. Thanks Kleen Kanteen!

7. Gasland. This documentary is not to be missed. It opened my eyes about the use of fracking in the natural gas industry. You don’t want this to happen to a town near you folks. Me and the hubs are getting active about protecting the Catskills (NY’s water supply – ours too!). You might want to as well. Love this film. Hate fracking.

8. Daily Juice. I miss Austin and sure as heck hope to go back during my book tour. When in the great city that likes to keep it “weird” we always head to Daily Juice. Put it on your radar and swing by if you’re in the area. Your cells will thank ya’ll. Yee haw!

9. Spiritual jewels by Satya. I just love this store. I feel like their earrings bring me one step closer to enlightenment.

10. Listening to old records. I have an amazing collection thanks to a dear family member that passed away. I can no longer speak to him but the music plays on…

What’s on your Love List?

Peace and hearts,
Kris

PS- My girl Rory Freedman inspired me and a whole lotta readers to kick the TV habit this week in her blog! Join the “No TV for 30 Days” challenge with me on Twitter by using the #NoTVfor30Days hashtag. Tubes off, brains and spirits on.

By Zoe Weil

You’re making all the right choices. You’re an organic locavore. Whenever possible, you bike, take public transportation, or walk instead of drive, and when you drive it’s a hybrid. You choose cruelty-free, toxin-free personal care products. You’re a member of a dozen different organizations all with missions you wholeheartedly support. Compact fluorescents? Of course. Bottled water? Never. Yoga and exercise? Regularly. A positive attitude? Absolutely.

But perhaps you, like me, have those dark nights of the despairing soul when you worry whether we really can turn things around on our beleaguered planet. You present a sunny disposition, but deep inside, you sometimes struggle with your own hopelessness. And then you head to your Zumba or Pilates class to sweat away your anxieties and have a shot of wheatgrass to give yourself a boost. You focus on your good choices to stave off any bad feelings lurking below the surface.

But there’s a way to truly lighten your soul, and that is to take all that passion that drives your healthy, humane and sustainable choices and put it not only toward your daily decision-making but also toward your active participation in affecting change.

Mahatma Gandhi was once asked by a reporter, “What is your message?” Gandhi had a big message, of course. He was trying to free his country from British rule using only nonviolent methods, and he was rarely averse to sharing his beliefs with others. But on this particular day, he responded to the reporter by jotting down on a piece of paper, “My life is my message.”

When I first read this, I was stunned by the universal truth of Gandhi’s statement. If Gandhi’s life is his message, I surmised, then my life is my message. Each one of our lives is our message, whether we like it or not. The real question then becomes, “Am I modeling the message I most want to model?” “My life is my message” became a mantra for me, and I sought to make sure that the choices I was making modeled the message I wanted to spread. Readers of this blog know all about this because you do it every day. And that’s fantastic.

But, and this is the hard (gelatin-free) pill to swallow: in today’s world with the huge problems we face, from global warming to escalating worldwide slavery to the horrifying rates of species extinction to unimaginable institutionalized animal cruelty, etc., modeling one’s message isn’t enough. We must also work for change.

There are myriad systems that need transformation: food production, electronics production, energy, schooling, conflict resolution (can’t we come up with an alternative to war?!), architecture, suburban sprawl, transportation, and so on. Even if our individual daily choices do have a positive impact, that isn’t enough to fully transform unsustainable, destructive, and inhumane systems into ones that are restorative, healthy, and just.

But here’s the great news: when we not only harness our energies toward making healthy daily choices, but also uncover our most creative and viable solutions to solve systemic problems, we discover that we have never felt more alive, joyful, and purposeful.

So, what issues do you care about most? What skills and talents do you have? What great ideas do you carry around inside of you that, if enacted, could actually help change an unhealthy system and create a wonderful new avenue for peace?

Here are some ideas others have enacted:

Dara O’Rourke got to thinking as he rubbed sunscreen on his 5-year-old daughter that he should look into what’s in it. When he found out that he was smearing toxins on his daughter, he decided that more people needed to know what he knew. With a team of scientists and researchers he launched http://www.goodguide.com/, creating a business that now allows each of us to learn all sorts of important information about our products. His work enables us to make more conscious choices aligned with our beliefs.

When Katie Redford was in law school, she visited Burma and discovered the horrifying human rights violations perpetrated on the Burmese by a military dictatorship in cahoots with a U.S. oil company. She then wrote a paper invoking an obscure law, the Alien Tort Claims Act, arguing that U.S. citizens have the right to sue American companies for their human rights violations abroad. It took nine years and a group of fellow lawyers to win her case, which set a precedent and thereby changed a system.

Mohammad Yunus was an economics professor in Bangladesh during his country’s terrible famine in the 1970s. He wondered what all his education was for if he couldn’t help his own people, so he went into the village and asked 42 people what they needed. Their answer? A combined $27 to bring rice to market. This launched the microcredit movement, which has since lifted millions of people out of poverty. Yunus created a new banking system so that people with no collateral at all could borrow small amounts of money. He has since won the Nobel Peace Prize. (Notice he didn’t win the Nobel Prize for Economics, but rather for Peace, because lifting people out of poverty creates peace.)

Joan Baez once said, “Action is the antidote to despair.” If ever those dark nights of the soul threaten your peace of mind, remember that your efforts to harness your imagination and creativity on behalf of meaningful, systemic change will not only make a powerful, positive difference in the world but will also bring you incredible satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.

What a wonderful combination: model your message and work for change, two sides of the same coin, one that will fund a peaceful, healthy world for all.

Zoe Weil is the president of the Institute for Humane Education where the world becomes what you teach. She is the author of “Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life,” “Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times,” and “The Power and Promise of Humane Education.” Visit her blog.

By Maya Gottfried

Many of us seek soul mates in relationships, but what about “work soul mates”? What about the work we do that helps complete us? That takes us to the next place spiritually? For me, writing Our Farm: By the Animals of Farm Sanctuary was a soul mate job.

At age 35 I learned about Farm Sanctuary, a national organization (with shelters in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Orland, Calif) that rescues and advocates for farm animals. I soon became (healthily) obsessed, attending NYC activist meetings, volunteering in the area of publicity, and participating at demonstrations. It was “work,” but with a spiritual aspect, fulfilling in ways my regular job as a publicist was not. As a child, I wanted to help animals by becoming a veterinarian when I grew up. I swiftly changed my mind after discovering some details of what a veterinary education entails. Though I hadn’t found my way to veterinary school, I had somehow managed to use my skills to help save animals. I felt alive.

I explored Farm Sanctuary’s website frequently. All of the animal residents had a name and a story. Truly, every story was proof of the subject’s strong spirit. These beings each had a family, a soul, thoughts, fears, quirks, and loves. In the places they had been (factory farms, stockyards, etc.), most had been abused, confined, separated from family members, and treated like soulless commodities of the food industry. Now they were free in the sun, lounging on the grass, and splashing in the water. And as one of the most amazing testaments to their enduring spirits, many of them now trusted humans.

I realized that Farm Sanctuary was a children’s book, it just hadn’t been written yet. There was a great truth here. It was a truth of peace and love and compassion. The book was (and is) the most important piece of writing I’d ever worked on. Unlike my other work, it had the power to save lives. If people saw what I saw, I hoped and believed they would be inspired to protect farm animals through veganism and other forms of activism.

Once Farm Sanctuary granted me permission to do the book, I found that the reality of writing it had grown truly intimidating. How was I going to know I had successfully portrayed the individuals living at the shelters? My other two books used poetry in an effort to communicate the soul. For this reason, Our Farm was composed of poems written in the animals’ voices. I dove in.

Then I found out I had colorectal cancer. The world stopped. I remember the bright white recovery room, sun pouring in, the uncomfortable doctor, and my mom’s look of uncertainty when I told her. I didn’t cry or start screaming or become overcome by any sort of hysteria. It was more like a message flashed in my brain, “Urgent: Your time may be limited.” After telling my Mom I had cancer, the next thing I told her was that I really wanted to do the book.

In Anatomy of the Spirit, written by Caroline Myss, Ph.D., the author quotes a Native American woman’s words on completing your work before dying, “…you cannot leave one part of your work unfinished before you die. Otherwise, you leave a part of your spirit behind.” When it is not possible to finish, the responsibilities are passed on to someone else, but not left undone. I think back to my desire to be a veterinarian as a child. That same soul, that same mind that began life wanting to help animals, now given a potential deadline, wanted to get that done before leaving.

I had chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is indescribable. It’s beyond words. My feet and fingers tingled, I could barely eat, and I couldn’t leave my apartment for weeks. I could feel the chemo when I cried. I practiced restorative yoga and drank green juices, which helped. Shining bright on my horizon was the book. It was bigger than chemo. It was bigger than cancer. It was close to God. A channel. My own personal ray of sunshine that I had been given to transfer joy, truth, and life to other beings. I focused on it during those horrible, nauseous, dizzy days of chemo.

When on breaks from chemo, I would visit the Watkins Glen shelter to get to know the animals better. Once chemo was done, the chemicals withdrew, and I finished the poems.

Through the eyes of the Farm Sanctuary residents I experienced the world anew. As I put myself in their sweet, innocent bodies and minds, I imagined what it was like to be happy and in the sun after so much meaningless pain. I saw the pure beauty of nature and the peacefulness of their new homes as they might see them.

I also learned from other people like Colleen Patrick-Goudreau who podcasts “Vegetarian Food for Thought” and Natalie Bowman at Farm Sanctuary. The organization’s president and co-founder Gene Baur’s book, Farm Sanctuary, caused me to re-examine the true nature of human relationships with animals. As children, people have an innate connection with and love of farm animals. I wanted to support this in my book.

As with any job, there were days of struggle, days when I didn’t know what to write, or how to communicate what I wanted to express. But I never doubted that writing the book was something I wanted to do, something I needed to get done.

So now that the book is out and I’m cancer-free, does that mean I have nothing left to do? Of course not! The book has brought me to a new spiritual place. I feel stronger, more truly accomplished, and more connected to the beauty, love, and joy that exist in the world. I know I can help others and I want to do MORE! Everything I work on doesn’t have to be a life-saving endeavor, but I look forward to meeting my future soul mates.

Maya Gottfried is an animal-loving writer of poetry and prose for children and adults, as well as a publicist. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with two fabulous cats, and drinks a lot of vegetable juice.

In the past, I wasn’t particularly keen on celebrating my birthday. As a child, of course, it was always exciting to commune with friends over plates full of greasy pepperoni pizza and frosting-covered yellow birthday cake. But as I got older, the thought of organizing a party to celebrate yet another passing year just seemed…well, sort of unimportant.

Then I turned 25, and everything changed.

My 25th year of living was perhaps the most exacerbating time of my life. Full of disappointments, setbacks and life-altering tragedies, it was as though the Universe had sent a Category 5 hurricane to devastate the very foundation of my existence. At the time, I tried with all my might to resist the brutal storm, to hold on to the few remaining precious scraps of truth that had once sheltered and protected me so. But the world is stronger than the individual. Eventually my grip gave way, and I was thrust violently into a whirlwind of chaos and destruction, left only with a prayer that I would emerge unharmed and with a greater sense of purpose. I’m happy to report that the prayer was answered.

When the winds let up and the darkness faded, my perpetual uncertainty had been replaced with clarity, determination and pure, unleaded gusto. I knew deep down that my life had been clear-cut to make room for something greater than I had ever known. Sometimes destruction must occur before creation can ensue.

Some call what I experienced a quarter-life crisis, but for me it was greater: it was a bloody war brought on by an internal regime change; a personal reformation of the highest order. It was the forced carving of the first sentence of the second chapter of the rest of my life: “And when he awoke, he saw the world for what it was: a vast plain of endless possibilities, a canvas from which to freely create, a world in which to forever change.” It was then that the tradition of Birthday Activism was born.

Birthday Activism is quite simply the act of leveraging one’s special day to help further a cause and create change. And since my 27th birthday is on Monday, April 12, I thought I’d share my homemade recipe for Birthday Activism with you.

Here’s how it works: about two weeks before the big day, start thinking about issues that you find meaningful. For me, veganism is the cornerstone of my ethical make-up and the nucleus of my belief system. I’m also incredibly passionate about the power of citizen action, volunteering, and effective change. So, naturally, I chose to highlight those ideas for my birthday.

Now that you’ve identified your cause, start brainstorming about projects that might complement your issue. Remember, it’s YOUR birthday! This gives you incredible bargaining power with friends and families. You’d be surprised at what individuals will do when asked the right way.

For Birthday 25, I got a large group of friends to volunteer at a local soup kitchen in New York City. Birthday 26 was spent learning about the plight of farm animals at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. This year, I asked all my Facebook friends to go vegan for the day (so far over 200 have agreed), and I got a group of 15 to attend an orientation at New York Cares, thus empowering them to volunteer throughout the year.

The third and final step is to promote your birthday activity. Use Facebook, Twitter or make a few good, old-fashioned phone calls to get people excited about the project. Don’t feel bad about asking anyone and everyone to take part. Volunteering is a lot like getting a massage: it feels fantastic and everyone knows they should do it once in a while, but rarely does one take the initiative. In fact, by participating in Birthday Activism, you’re not only receiving a gift, but also giving one equal in value.

Now, don’t worry—it doesn’t have to be ALL about service. After the project, I always make sure there’s something fun planned nearby at a bar or restaurant. But truth be told, years later my friends aren’t talking about the vodka soda they had that night; instead, they’re reminiscing about the lives they helped touch and the good they helped create.

We may not be able to control how many birthdays we get in this world, but we do have the power to make sure each and every one of those special days truly counts.

Julia Butterfly Hill lived a fast-paced lifestyle until surviving a severe car crash at the age of twenty-two. Hill has said that the accident and subsequent year-long road to recovery awakened her desire to begin a spiritual quest. She ended up 180 feet above ground, living in a California Redwood Tree named Luna that was over 1,000 years old to keep it from being cut down. Hill lived in the tree for 738 days without ever touching the ground on two 4’x6’ platforms. Her dedication protected the tree from destruction, sparked a movement, and transformed her life. Today, Hill travels the world sharing her knowledge of environmental conservation and inspiring others to believe in their power to create serious change.

1. During your two-year stay in Luna, how did you cope with feelings of isolation and confinement? How has this aspect of the experience influenced your daily life?

My time in Luna taught me so much about myself, the world, and what it means to be fully present and alive through every experience—whether we perceive it as positive or negative. The isolation and confinement I sometimes felt while living in Luna taught me how powerful, and even important, it is to source from within ourselves our connection to the Divine (however we relate to or define its meaning) and to the Natural World of which we are a part. We so often look outside of ourselves for things like joy, peace, love, or power. Yet, when I had what felt like nothing is when I found out how much I truly have, just by being connected to Source. Prayer, meditation, and gratitude exercises were and still are vital in my finding freedom, joy, and power even in the most challenging of moments.

2. How did you maintain physical health during your stay in Luna? Could you tell us about your diet and physical activities?

What we eat, what we think, and what we do with our bodies and our choices all play an important role in the health of our bodies, our communities, and our world. I am a Joyous Vegan (meaning I joyfully refrain from eating animals, including fish, chicken, cows, sheep, goats, or pigs; nor do I eat anything that comes from them.) When the weather permitted, I climbed in the tree for exercise—which was like partner yoga with a tree! My favorite yoga ever! I, also, have found that prayer and commitment to living spiritually and mentally healthy also plays an important role in my physical well-being. So, too, with what we do to the planet. It is all connected. It is all one. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves.

3. How would you describe the force that guides your activism? What advice do you have for those yearning to change the world for the better but feeling like they cannot make a difference as an individual?

Because no choice happens in a vacuum, every single choice changes the world. It is actually scientifically, physically, and spiritually IMPOSSIBLE to not make a difference! Therefore, the question is not, can one person make a difference? Each and every one of us absolutely does make a difference! Once we realize this, we stop believing in the myth and asking ourselves, “Can I make a difference?” We awaken and recognize and step into the truth of our power, and ask ourselves instead, “What KIND of a difference do I want to make?”

The force that guides my activism is my commitment to living a life that (to the best of my ability) models the world in which I want to live. These are my choices. I am human, so I make many mistakes, but my commitment is to live Love in Action with every thought, word, and action. For me, my life and my choices are a Spiritual practice in every moment.

4. What is a typical day in the life of Julia Butterfly Hill? Are there a few simple habits that you integrate into your daily life that our readers can adopt to care more for the earth on a daily basis?

Although there is no such thing as a typical day in my life, I do have everyday mindfulness practices. The guiding principle for me is an idea of true “Ahimsa,” or non-violence. My understanding of this movement is a deeper definition than I normally hear articulated. For me to live this commitment is “to live so fully and presently in Love, that there is no room for anything else to exist.” This is a much bigger calling than to just live as a non-violent person. This commitment calls me to be so committed to being a full and living embodiment of love consciousness that I fill a space until all else falls away. I look at every thought, word, and action through this lens and do my best to live up to this calling.

There is no such thing as a perfect choice, but there is always a best choice for any given moment. This can be as simple as selecting reusables instead of disposables. When we say we are going to throw something away—where is “away?” There is no such thing or place. “Away” always has a face and a place. I do not feel that Love would guide us to trash the Earth and livelihood of others. So Love guides me to bring my own reusable mug, utensils, napkin, and container with me everywhere I go. I love this Earth and her species and future generations far too much to trash and waste them. I am a joyous vegan because how we decide to eat can be tools of mass compassion or weapons of mass destruction. Love guides me to choose to joyously eat as simply as I can to honor all life and to live as lightly on this Sacred Earth as I can.

I have chosen to not birth another human into this world because Mother Earth has 6.9 BILLION children and can not care for the children already here. Love guides me to know that the most conscious choice I can make is to redirect the energy of birth into birthing a more healthy, loving, and thriving planet for the children who are already here. These are just some of the ways I do my best to follow what Love would do moment to moment. It is actually very empowering and joyful to ask myself, moment to moment, “What would Love do?” Then, I do my best to live in a way that honors the answer of Love.