Perspective etc

{ October 31, 2012 @ 4:30 pm } · { family, me, parents, the girl }

So much has changed in the mere 3 odd months since I last posted.

The Girl has been very ill for the past 2 months and is very slowly getting better. Very slowly.

So while I learn the meaning of patience – a virtue that I lack – I am also learning the meaning of perspective. Suddenly my mommy and daddy issues seem ridiculous. I love my parents but their validation of my relationship with The Girl hardly matters that much anymore.

To their credit they’ve been supportive in helping me with helping The Girl. They’ve sent medicines from India while we wait for the NHS to get their act together.

In the meantime, I’m playing the role of caregiver. It’s a role I don’t enjoy much (who does?) but find that I want to play that role anyway because seeing The Girl in pain is one of the worst things ever. Suddenly I want to do stuff like organise her pill box, buy her stuff that will ease her discomfort, take her to the doctor, make sure she’s taken all her medicines, make her green smoothies. It makes me feel less helpless – so in some ways it’s a selfish act.

At the end of the day, I’ve learned that what matters is the health of my loved ones and myself. The rest is the cherry on the icing (as long as the icing is vegan)!
Speaking of which, we’ve been almost 100% vegan for nearly 6 months now. We haven’t eaten meat at all, eaten fish once in a blue moon and a little dairy when we’ve gone on holiday. It’s been a life changing experience.

While I found myself rapidly losing inches without counting calories or denying myself food, I also learned how defensive people are about their food choices and how a lot of people react to the news of you being vegan as if you’re somehow judging their food choices. A simple statement of “I’m trying to be vegan” elicits reactions that range from the hostile “Fuck the animals – why do you care about them?” to the ignorant “What?! What’s left to eat?!” to the mocking “We’ll see how long that lasts.” to the guilty “I could be vegan but I just can’t give up the <insert non-vegan food item here>.” to the fake-concern “Where do you get your protein?” to the interrogative “Are your shoes made from leather?!”.

I’ll write a separate post on being vegan later because there’s so much to talk about.

On the bright side I’ve also discovered that a Spanish vegan dish called ‘Oven Rice’ has totally cured my cravings for lamb biryani. I have to thank frister’s husband for this AMAZING recipe – I am addicted to it.