On May 19th I will run my first half marathon. That's 13.1 miles. I am doing this to raise money for Urban Peak, the non-profit I work for that serves youth experiencing homelessness.
On my first training run about two months ago I could barely run one mile. At 2.5 miles I could barely breathe.
I kept going. I listened to many on my life who are runners, and I kept my eyes on the prize.
As one who constantly tries to be a voiceless, I would do anything to shine light on the things in the world that I fight against or want to support.
I think that I will be able to finish this half marathon in 3 1/2 hours, maybe a little less. The race begins on Sunday, May 19th at 7:00am Mountain Standard Time.
I will be running from 7:00am - approximately 10:30am.
During this time, will you do me a favor? Will you send me positive vibes? Will you send me some love? Will you think of me and send me a great big smile?
And when you are done with that, will you think of what you can do to make this world a better place for all living beings?
It doesn't have to be a half marathon. It could be a letter, a phone call or a volunteer shift. It could be wearing a t shirt, going to a potluck or posting something on your Facebook page.
It could be simply spreading kindness.
We have so much power to be a voice for the voiceless. We have so much power to speak out against hate, animal cruelty, rape, racism, speciesism, torture, and list goes on and on.
Will you join me? Honestly, I need all of the support I can to finish this thing.
Thank you!
Love, Dan
Thanksgiving in our back yard.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Good people and kindness
In Denver we have the light rail, kind of like a train. I call it the train. It's mass transit. And a couple of weeks ago the line running west opened. I am in love with taking this to work. I am totally fortunate that my employer buys me a pass. So last week I took it four days and this week I started taking it with my bike. So I ride to the station and then from the drop off point downtown I ride to work. It is totally awesome.
Yesterday I was waiting for a guy to get on the train and he stopped and motioned me to go. So nice. He waited until I got my bike on and he got seated and then started talking about how much he loves the light rail. I was in total agreement. We chatted until his stop and then he said something that was so refreshing:
"Thank you for you kindness."
Wow.
Mike and I are big fans of "The Amazing Race" TV show, the one where I think nine teams race around the world. Sunday was the finale and we watched the first half, in which one of our favorite teams was eliminated. In their goodbye video one of the women said something that hit me:
"We've traveled all over the world and everywhere we went their were nice and loving people."
Everywhere.
I agree with them. As an activist and as someone who tries to be a voice for all of the voiceless, it does seem sometimes that there are more "not loving" people than there are loving people. I try to bring love and kindness to every interaction I have. Not always easy. As a gay vegan who gives a crap about little things like equality, animal torture, and oppression, I have gotten my share of hate, yelling and judgment. Some times it's right in my face and others it's behind my back.
Yet I still believe, as the women do who were on "The Amazing Race", that there are a lot of good people in the world. They might not be on the same path as I am, they might not know all about veganism or animal cruelty or the spiritual genocide of gay people, yet in their daily lives they try to do good. And like me, many of them try to be better people all of the time.
Food for thought.
Today I rode my bike from the office to get coffee. On my way back I was casually riding, listening to an awesome song and feeling blissful. I rode by anotherr guy on his bike, waved and said good morning. His smile covered his whole face. I don't know him at all. I don't know if he's vegan or gay friendly or cares about anything other than himself. I do know that on his way to wherever he was going this morning, he encountered kindness.
I hope you do too.
And I hope you show kindness in any form today.
Thank you for reading.
Yesterday I was waiting for a guy to get on the train and he stopped and motioned me to go. So nice. He waited until I got my bike on and he got seated and then started talking about how much he loves the light rail. I was in total agreement. We chatted until his stop and then he said something that was so refreshing:
"Thank you for you kindness."
Wow.
Mike and I are big fans of "The Amazing Race" TV show, the one where I think nine teams race around the world. Sunday was the finale and we watched the first half, in which one of our favorite teams was eliminated. In their goodbye video one of the women said something that hit me:
"We've traveled all over the world and everywhere we went their were nice and loving people."
Everywhere.
I agree with them. As an activist and as someone who tries to be a voice for all of the voiceless, it does seem sometimes that there are more "not loving" people than there are loving people. I try to bring love and kindness to every interaction I have. Not always easy. As a gay vegan who gives a crap about little things like equality, animal torture, and oppression, I have gotten my share of hate, yelling and judgment. Some times it's right in my face and others it's behind my back.
Yet I still believe, as the women do who were on "The Amazing Race", that there are a lot of good people in the world. They might not be on the same path as I am, they might not know all about veganism or animal cruelty or the spiritual genocide of gay people, yet in their daily lives they try to do good. And like me, many of them try to be better people all of the time.
Food for thought.
Today I rode my bike from the office to get coffee. On my way back I was casually riding, listening to an awesome song and feeling blissful. I rode by anotherr guy on his bike, waved and said good morning. His smile covered his whole face. I don't know him at all. I don't know if he's vegan or gay friendly or cares about anything other than himself. I do know that on his way to wherever he was going this morning, he encountered kindness.
I hope you do too.
And I hope you show kindness in any form today.
Thank you for reading.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
A new vegan world
Vegan chocolate croissants? Check.
Vegan chicken made from pea protein? Check.
More people knowing what "vegan" means? Check.
Vegan fashion shows? Check.
Last week Mike and I went to the Colorado Symphony. We took the new light rail downtown and decided to grab a bite to eat at BD's Mongolian Barbeque before the concert. We had eaten there before and knew that they had tofu and also that they totally took care of vegans. They even give the grill an extra clean if you let them know you're vegan.
What surprised us was that next to the tofu they had meats. Well, they had Gardein chicken and Gardein beef! I couldn't believe it. What a wonderful surprise, and we both really enjoyed being able to add some of both to our dinners.
The world is really changing for vegans. In my 17 years of being vegan there have been huge changes. And just in the last couple of years we have Daiya, Gardein and most recently Beyond Meat. Aside from the processed foods I would bet that the amount of people who know what kale is has grown significantly!
All of these changes make me happy. I love to eat, and new vegan eating adventures seem to be all over the place.
There are also more of us, and I'm sure that's why our selection just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I also think it's because many of us have stopped settling. We want better. Better food, better service, nicer restaurants. And when we keep asking for (and demanding for) better, sooner or later we get it.
I conclude this post with another amazing part of our vegan world: vegan ice cream. Yes, check that off too. Sweet Action in Denver. With flavors like salted butterscotch and peanut butter oreo, you definitely get the sense that we are living in a new vegan world.
Thanks for reading!
Vegan chicken made from pea protein? Check.
More people knowing what "vegan" means? Check.
Vegan fashion shows? Check.
Last week Mike and I went to the Colorado Symphony. We took the new light rail downtown and decided to grab a bite to eat at BD's Mongolian Barbeque before the concert. We had eaten there before and knew that they had tofu and also that they totally took care of vegans. They even give the grill an extra clean if you let them know you're vegan.
What surprised us was that next to the tofu they had meats. Well, they had Gardein chicken and Gardein beef! I couldn't believe it. What a wonderful surprise, and we both really enjoyed being able to add some of both to our dinners.
The world is really changing for vegans. In my 17 years of being vegan there have been huge changes. And just in the last couple of years we have Daiya, Gardein and most recently Beyond Meat. Aside from the processed foods I would bet that the amount of people who know what kale is has grown significantly!
All of these changes make me happy. I love to eat, and new vegan eating adventures seem to be all over the place.
There are also more of us, and I'm sure that's why our selection just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I also think it's because many of us have stopped settling. We want better. Better food, better service, nicer restaurants. And when we keep asking for (and demanding for) better, sooner or later we get it.
I conclude this post with another amazing part of our vegan world: vegan ice cream. Yes, check that off too. Sweet Action in Denver. With flavors like salted butterscotch and peanut butter oreo, you definitely get the sense that we are living in a new vegan world.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Our 8th wedding anniversary
 |
| Mike and I at our family pre-wedding party two nights before the big day. |
I wanted to let all of our readers and supporters of our blog know that today, April 30th, Mike and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary. We were so fortunate to be married in a ceremony we called "a loving act of civil disobedience" with 160 friends and family joining us. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it.
I am completely in love with Mike and every day am grateful that he is my husband and that we are a family.
A cool thing about this anniversary is that we will be celebrating with hundreds of gay and lesbian couples tonight as we count down the hours until civil unions become legal at midnight. We will be eating and dancing at One Colorado's party, then at midnight watch as couples go to city hall to get their civil union.
We have decided to wait to become civil unioned for a day when some of our family can join us.
Civil unions are not marriages. Yet for us in Colorado, they will be the first legal recognition of same-sex couples. The next step is to overturn the state constitutional ban against same-sex marriage and then, after that battle, fight for full marriage equality.
Meanwhile, Mike and I act as if we were legally married. We work at our marriage and remind each other how important he is. We both try to be a voice for the voiceless and we try to show love to all others.
One of the many reasons we love our blog and the community we have built with it is that we have gotten to meet so many amazing people, including other gay, vegan couples. We are SO grateful for all the kindness, love and support.
One day marriage equality will be a reality. Until that day, please stick with us to fight the good fight. It will be wonderful when we can finish this fight and put even more energy to the education around animal cruelty and animal rights and strengthen our voices for those killed, tortured and living in fear just to become dinner.
Thanks y'all!
With a huge amount of love,
Dan and Mike
 |
| Our honeymoon; back-country trip at Yellowstone National Park. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)