Give-Away-Tuesday

Finally Thanksgiving is over!!

You probably think, what the heck is wrong with this girl, huh? that`s ok;-)
It`s not that I don`t like this traditional  feast per se, I even find it very inspiring and romantic, sitting and coming together with the family, reminiscing about the good old pilgrim times and being grateful for whatever you have got instead of focusing on what you don`t, what people usually tend to do. But this Thanksgiving it was different - I was invited to my American grandma, who is NOT vegan! Those of you who have followed our posts probably think what`s wrong with that?..well...the last couple of weeks I had a kind of enlightenment moment, a flash, after watching the speach
"The best speech you will ever hear" from Gary Yurofsky, in which he explains why Veganism is revolutionary and why it is actually not healthy at all to eat Dairy, Meat & Co. It was a collection of different other factors though, that made me want to lead this lifestyle. Here in America, regulations about antibiotica provided to animals are not very strict and the way animals are treated to give us the minute of joy at e.g. Thanksgiving when eating turkey is just not worth it-seriously! I don`t want to turn you into a hardcore vegan, but just think about it, get informed, watch the stuff like the video mentioned above( which is free), and don`t be ignorant towards the suffering that is going on towards animals, and towards us too, cause we are ultimately the ones who suffer from serious diseases like stroke, heart attacks, diabetes and cancer..why? Well because we are not even born to eat meat and animal products! We are herbivores, whose stomachs, whose teeth, and even whose nails are not made to eat animals! By still continuing to do that, we interrupt mother natures plans and become ill.
Veganism is as a way out of this dilemma, and I would love if you at least took some time to think about it too.

I still  loved spending Thanksgiving with my family because it was not only about the food ( which by the way was`t bad by any means- it was even delicious... surprise, surprise).
What I did not love about that day was the fact that retail stores were open at 6 pm so people could make a bargain on a Black Friday. Wait a moment..Black Friday is not Black Thursday...exactly!!!
It got so messed up that stores like Walmart started to compete against each other, by opening an evening earlier. So there used to be times, when stores were actually closed on Thanksgiving ( which is always a Thursday) , now everything looks different. The front of the stores resemble the entrances of some boy group concerts..people sleep in tents to get the huge "HD-Touch-Maxi-whatever TV" for a couple of hundred bucks cheaper. How crazy is that? I am not talking about teenagers who do it, although there are young people among them, I am  talking about grown up men and women who have families!! They sleep in front of the stores when it`s freezing outside! They don`t care.. what they care is consumerism! No matter what! That is insane I thought. We all love to make good deals, but standing in line or sleeping in tents in front of stores to get a TV or some other "cool" tech device..on Thanksgiving! ( a day where you are supposed to be with your family and be GRATEFUL for what you HAVE) that is indeed insane, don`t you think so?

A photo from the "NY Daily News" showing campers waiting for the Black-Friday Sale a few years ago

What happened to us people? Instead on focusing on the small things in our lives we always want more and more, and once we have more it`s not even enough, it`s like an addiction , an (American Dream) nightmare...competition...comparison...greed...

                                                                             STOP!

I decided to do actually something very contrary to what I saw, instead of standing in the line , I decided to donate my old clothes or clothes that I do not wear anymore to some profitable charity. I truly believe by getting rid of things in your life that you do not use anymore ( daily, weekly etc..) you find out what is really important for you! To be honest , the first weeks that I have arrived here in the USA my suitcases were still full... after weeks! I was not able to unpack all of my stuff due to some space problems and a lack of shelves in the beginning, but you know what else I found out?
I didn`t even nehalf of the stuff!! I started to forget about some things that were inside my bags...THAT`S how important they were to me , I thought!
And it really feels good, you will feel better, by doing it, just give it a try! It doesn`t have to be a lot that you donate, some few things are already great and a progress! This video below from the two guys from "The Minimalists" inspired me to start this "Anti-Black Friday" and "Anti-Cyber Monday"action.. I call it the "Give -away-Tuesday"! And that is so liberating.. I promise it doesn`t cost you a thing!

Let`s do it!!!