Vegan in Bellingham

  I have been so moved by the many Palestinians in Gaza who are supporting their community while also experiencing the same hardship and dangerous conditions as those around them. There are a number of individuals and groups who are doing amazing work, embodying compassion and love in all of their actions. I hope to write about more of them in the coming days. And to start things off tonight, I want to share with you some information about one particular group whose members are doing all they can to take care of both the animals and the people while they are all suffering from the unrelenting violence of this genocide.  They are called the “ Cruelty-Free Kitchen ,” and they were founded by five wonderful people: Walid, Amjad, Abood, Mahmoud, and Mo. From their fundraiser page:  “With support from our donations, the kitchen has successfully distributed thousands of meals, ensuring that hundreds upon hundreds of people—mostly children—are able to leave with food in the...

Those who are being starved, whose rights to freedom and safety have been stolen, who are under the constant threat of violent attacks, should not also have to fundraise for their very survival.  And we who are not experiencing this, we who reside in relative safety, especially those of us in the countries responsible for sending the weapons and the bombs that fuel this genocide, bear the responsibility to do all we can every day to support the people who are trying to survive. While also doing all we can in every moment to end this violence.   This is the most urgent thing. There are also other important things that we can be doing along side this. But this is the most urgent thing. Because conditions are dire. They surpassed being in a crisis state of emergency long, long ago.  Today I went to a meeting in my community, to try and connect with others who are trying to find more ways to end the genocide, to support Palestine and justice for Palestine. I was heartened to ...

On Christmas day, a student named Mahdi  posted on Twitter:  "The harsh truth is that you are all living your lives while no one truly sees us." He pointed out how we are in our homes with our families, sleeping at night, going to work the next day, letting our lives continue on normally. " But for us, there is no life. No one notices as we starve, we die, we burn, and are torn apart. To them it makes no difference." I said that I understood why he felt this way. But I also told him that "many of us exist in two worlds, unable to be fully present in our lives, overwhelmed by emotion and grief and pain at not being able to stop this." I told him we carry this with us everywhere, in all that we do. I told him he mattered to us, always. And others echoed what I was trying to express.    This morning I attended an online event hosted by a Doctors Against Genocide , a global coalition of healthcare workers  who are "dedicating to succeeding where governmen...

It is winter break right now at the university where I work, which is also the same university where I was once a student, many years ago. The campus is very quiet and the days have been very dark. Students have gone home to be with their families and loved ones until the new year and term begins.   With the cyclical nature of a life that has been long influenced by the recurrence of patterns driven by the timing of the academic calendar, I recognize that this time of year is often one of intense reflection for me. I have taken some time off from my job, and I have spent these last days doing more of what I have also been doing these past fifteen months, determined to not become immobilized by disbelief, despair, and grief, something which becomes increasingly challenging for me with each passing day. I have seen students in Gaza study by flame and torch light in the midst of falling bombs; students giving their thesis presentations in makeshift tents, wandering the destroyed stree...

I used to write about food…. This site used to be about vegan food and being vegan. From 2008 to 2016, I wrote and published weekly. I enjoyed creating and sharing recipes, eating at and writing about restaurants, exploring in words and in life how food could bring people together. I ended up finding a community of vegans that I had not known prior to my writing, and I saw how writing and sharing could lead to connection and change. I stopped writing and publishing regularly on this site in 2019 but decided to leave it up, unpublishing many articles about restaurants that no longer existed, thinking someday I might return to writing here again. And now at last I have decided to do just that. But I can no longer write about food, at least not in the way that I once did.  I believe there is a certain kind of trauma caused by witnessing violence and brutality inflicted upon people, animals, and the earth while also being unable to stop it; that there is trauma in witnessing human-caus...