It is better to keep silent about the fact that you are a vegetarian. And the fact that you are a vegetarian mother and even breastfeeding, even more so. If people can agree with the first, then they can’t agree with the second! “Well, okay, you, but the child needs it!” And I understand them, because she herself was the same, unable to face the truth. Maybe my experience of motherhood will be useful to someone, I want young or future vegetarian mothers not to be afraid of anything!
On my way, a man appeared in time who was able to show by his example that you should not get used to hypocrisy when you love some while killing others … This man is my husband. When we first met, I was embarrassed that he was a vegetarian, and I wanted to understand: what does he eat? The most I could think of when preparing for a joint home dinner was to buy a Polish frozen vegetable mix and stew it …
But over time, I learned how to cook vegetarian in a variety of ways, so the question “What do you eat?” Now it’s not easy to answer. I answer, as a rule, like this: we eat EVERYTHING, except living beings.
It seems so easy for a person to follow his natural nature, to love the living, to take care of him. But how few are those who are not in the grip of the illusions and deceit of our age, who really show love to the fullest!
Once I listened to a lecture by O.G. Torsunov, and I liked his question to the audience: do you say you like chicken? how do you love her? do you like it when she walks around the yard, lives her life, or do you like to eat her with a crust? To eat with a fried crust – such is our love. And what do the billboards with happy cows in green meadows and sausages dancing on skates tell us? I just didn’t notice it before, I didn’t think about it. But then, as if my eyes were opened, and I saw the savage nature of such advertising, I saw not shelves with food, but shelves with victims of human cruelty. So I stopped eating meat.
Relatives rebelled, and for the strength of the spirit, of course, I read several books, watched films about vegetarianism and tried to argue with relatives. Now, I think, in these disputes, I convinced not so much them as myself.
Realization of deeper truths does not come suddenly, but when we are prepared. But if it comes, then not noticing it, not taking it into account becomes like a conscious lie to oneself. Meat-eating, clothes made of leather and fur, bad habits are gone from my life, as if they never existed. There has been a cleansing. Why carry the weight of all this slag on your earthly journey? But here’s the problem: there is almost no one to share their beliefs with, no one understands.
Being pregnant, I did not tell the doctors anything about my vegetarianism, knowing full well what their reaction would be. And if something went wrong, they would explain it by the fact that I do not eat meat. Of course, internally I was a little worried about how my child was doing, whether he had enough of everything, and dreamed of giving birth to a healthy little man, so that all questions would disappear by themselves. But among my worries was the certainty that it couldn’t be bad, especially since the view of food as a combination of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is very limited.
Food, first of all, is a subtle energy that nourishes us, and we need to take seriously not only what we eat, but also how we cook, with what mood, in what atmosphere.
Now I am a young mother, we are a little over 2 months old, and I really hope that another vegetarian is growing in our family! I am not very interested in how doctors recommend nutrition for those who are breastfeeding. These tips are sometimes so contradictory.
I decided to listen to my heart. We all do not really know how to live, we are confused in the choice. But when you turn inward, you ask God, you say to Him: I don’t know myself, point me out, then peace and clarity come. Everything will go on as usual, and the child that was born in the womb grows there only by the grace of God. So let God grow him further, on earth. We are only His instruments; He works through us.
Therefore, do not be sad or torment yourself with doubts about how to do this or that. Yes, you can make a mistake, the decision can be wrong, but confidence in the end succeeds. I was surprised by my mother’s question: “You don’t leave a person the right to choose?!” I wonder what choice we give children when we push meatballs and sausage into them? Many children themselves refuse meat food, they are not yet so polluted and feel things much more subtle. I know many such examples. It is disturbing that in our society the correct view of proper nutrition is almost not accepted. Soon we will face problems with kindergarten, school… So far, I have no experience in this. As it will be? I know one thing, that I will do everything in my power to give my child a chance for a pure conscious life.
Julia Shidlovskaya