Suraj and I have been to The New Forest thrice now.

I don’t think I’ll be able to do it justice in this post but I’ll try.

So what can I tell you?

Well…Suraj discovered it by searching for accommodation that caters for those following a vegan diet. He arranged the accommodation, some places we could go for long walks and a couple of places that we could go for lunch and it was all a surprise!  Believe it or not, one of the places that we went for lunch was a pub and they had HEAPS of veggie dishes but ALSO some vegan ones! It was great.

This slide show should give you a good idea of what why had such a good time. However, if you want to know more, feel free to email me whenever you like : )

Researchers say the ketones found in coconut oil have slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in some people and may actually prevent it.

Suraj and I went to Brighton for a couple of days.

The weather was warm.

The streets were full of surprising shops with funky things for sale.

BUT best of all, the food was delicious! We were spoilt for choice when it came to vegan dishes. For example, we could eat a different dessert for every meal, every day for 2 days and there would still be some left to taste!

This photo sums up how we felt.

relaxed, content, no worries, calm and more!

I wrote this about half an hour ago. It felt strange. Like I understood, in a way which I haven’t before, how much of an amazing job Mums do!

I just wanted to say Happy Mothers Day.

I can imagine that it isn’t an easy task.
Encouraging them to be independent yet making sure they know you care.
Encouraging assertiveness whilst maintaining respect for others.
Helping others yet remembering to support themselves.
Being friendly, kind, open, straightforward whilst remaining alert, gentle and not becoming vulnerable.

That’s all about them.

For you it must be a challenge to reflect honestly & objectively on the ‘work’ you have done and the results which arise from the choices that they make.
It can’t be easy to stay focused, consistent & unbiased.

Then I guess there’s also the effect that others have on you.

Their thoughts, opinions and actions.

This message is already quite long YET very incomplete!

Well done for doing your best!

After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie.

She said I love you but I know this other woman loves you and would love to spend some time with you.

The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it possible to visit her only occasionally.

That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.

‘What’s wrong, are you well,’ she asked?

My Mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.

‘I thought that it would be pleasant to be with you,’ I responded.

‘Just the two of us.’

She thought about it for a moment, and then said, ’I would like that very much.’
That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she too seemed to be nervous about our date.

She waited in the door with her coat on.

She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary.

She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel’s.

‘I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed,’ she said, as she got into the car. ’They can’t wait to hear about our meeting’.

We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cosy.

My Mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mum sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips.

‘It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small,’ she said.

‘Then it’s time that you relax and let me return the favour,’ I responded.

During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation, nothing extra-ordinary, but catching up on recent events of each others life. We talked so much that we missed the movie.

As we arrived at her house later, she said, ‘I’ll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.’

I agreed.

‘How was your dinner date?’ asked my wife when I got home.

‘Very nice. Much more so than I could have imagined,’ I answered.

A few days later, my Mother died of a massive heart attack.

It happened so suddenly that I didn’t have time to do anything for her.

Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place Mother and I had dined.

An Attached Note Said:

‘I paid this bill in advance.
I wasn’t sure that I could be there;
But nevertheless, I paid for two plates”
One for you and the other for your wife.
You will never know what that night meant for Me.
I Love You,
My Son.’

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: ’I LOVE YOU!’

This post was written by Sagar Shah.

In a world dominated by greed and materialism, the Jain community are leaders when it comes to demonstrating how to live a peaceful, low himsa lifestyle. For thousands of years, Jains have followed a strict vegetarian diet and lived in harmony with nature. And Jain monks and nuns illustrate how it is possible to live an empowering and fulfilling life without material possessions.

Jains in the West continue to try to live by traditional principles. We try to lead modest lifestyles and participate in charitable activities when we can. We steer clear of activities and professions that involve violence or exploitation of other humans and animals. Despite being confronted with a variety of temptations, large numbers of us have continued to follow a strict vegetarian diet.

While I’m tremendously proud of the example set by members of our community, I’ve always found it very difficult to understand why Jains, Hindus and other vegetarians seem to find it acceptable to wear leather. As a young child, I often used to ask my mum why it was wrong to kill cows to eat them, yet acceptable to kill them for clothing. My mum would explain to me that leather was taken from cows that were already dead. I accepted her response, but always found the prospect of buying leather shoes deeply uncomfortable. I remember wishing that it would be possible to obtain shoes made from synthetic materials so I wouldn’t need to wear the skin of a dead animal on my feet. But I never found any. And I never came across anyone who seemed to care. After a while, I gave up, and just tried not to think about it…

As I got older and learned to how to use the internet, I started to do research on where leather comes from. I discovered that my mum was both right and wrong. From a historical perspective, my mum was right. But she was completely wrong about the leather products that I grew up wearing and about the leather products that can be found in shops in the West today.

While many Jains in India actually abstained from wearing leather, my mum was correct that many others found it acceptable to wear leather from cows that were already dead. Historically, Jain households would have had their own cows, treated them as members of the family and looked after them until death. While I’m not sure if I could ever feel comfortable wearing the skin of a being I consider to have been a member of my family, I see how using such leather could be viewed as acceptable for adherents of Jain principles. But just because wearing leather may have been acceptable then, it doesn’t mean it should be considered acceptable today.

It is an unfortunate reality that none of the leather that we buy in shops today will come from cows that have died from natural causes. Almost all of the cows will have lived a life full of suffering and exploitation. And while we may try to fool ourselves into thinking that the cows are killed purely for the meat industry and that leather is a harmless by-product – this argument falls to pieces if you subject it to some simple economic analysis.

A farmer does not rear cows to just produce meat. A farmer rears cows to make money. And every source of revenue is important. The International Council of Tanners estimates that the skins may be worth up to 15% of the value of the entire animal. By purchasing leather, members of the Jain community are effectively subsidising the meat industry. We are handing money to farmers who rear cows to kill them, and we are incentivising them to kill more. If everyone stopped buying leather, farmers would generate less money per cow, and this would reduce their incentives to rear and kill cows.

The killing of cows is not the only problem with leather. There are also environmental issues to consider too; processing leather is a polluting and resource intensive activity. Most leather is chrome tanned, which can result in chromium being pumped into the water table. Up to 8000 litres of water may be required to process the leather needed to produce just one pair of shoes.

But if members of the Jain community don’t wear leather, what will we wear? Fortunately, abstaining from wearing leather doesn’t mean that we will have to walk barefoot or go around wearing plastic flip-flops. In the UK and US, we are fortunate to have a number of companies which specialise in making shoes suitable for vegetarians and vegans. These include:

Bourgeois Boheme - BoBo make fashionable shoes and accessories (belts, gloves, wallets, handbags, etc) from high-quality alternatives to leather and have a retail show room in Notting Hill, London.

Check out this video.

After I watched it these words came to mind: -

Pure love.
No Speciesism.
‘Just’ gorgeousness!

What do you think of it?