Veganism is more than just not eating animals and instead eating plants; and veganism in itself is not the end goal. Living a life to increase compassion and love is the true end goal, and veganism is the way we get there—a truth that floated around from my head to my heart until Coleen Patrick-Goudreau, through her podcasts, gave life to this knowledge through words. This blog is about the journey and process of growing in unconditional compassion and seeking to awaken to the love that surrounds us, but we’ve yet to fully embrace; oh and all the mistakes along the way.
As some of you might have noticed the name of this blog, and consequently the approach I will take in how it’s published, draws its inspiration from Roxanne Gay’s book, The Bad Feminist. If I could have found a longer domain name, I would have also drawn a little more inspiration from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and clarified I am a “Bad, But Happy, American Vegan Feminist, Who Does Not Hate Men, Who Likes To Travel Even Though It Burns Obscene Amounts Of Fuel, Who Loves To Drink Wine And Occasionally Misses Cheese.” Although, somehow, I think that might be a little hard to type in the search engine every time, so instead I will stick with Bad Vegan Lady.
I am a bad vegan lady, as you will clearly see if you continue to follow this blog, but I am trying. I am a little hesitant to identify as a vegan, because when I don’t fit the label perfectly (just as Roxanne Gay admits to not fitting the Feminist label perfectly) I am sure to hear about just how bad of a vegan I actually am. But like I said, I am drawing my inspiration from the brave women that have blazed trails before me, and I am going to embrace the process. I am going to reject the idea that I can travel this journey of cultivating compassion and love without numerous mistakes along the way, and in sharing my blunders I hope I can help create a safe place for others to embark on the journey as well.
This blog’s intention is to be a place for me, and hopefully others, to explore how living a compassionate life integrates all aspects of life, not just our food and fashion choices. I hope you can appreciate that I am going to try and share this journey with honesty as opposed to perfection. Especially for some of those hard-core vegans out there, I hope you can forgive the fact that I am a bad vegan lady.