Our Little Vegan Anarchist Easter

We spent the rainy morning at a very cool "Black Bear Bakery".  A veggie/vegan place with an anarchist/communal type of vibe.  Will be posting lots of photos soon from a brunch (ALL vegan from 10 until 2)  we had there a few weeks ago.  They are reinstating their Vegan Sundays with 25% of proceeds often going to a non-profit.  Sighted reading material included "Crazy Sexy Diet" by Kris Carr and "The Gas We Pass" (which may be appropriate if you overindulge on the Baked Kale with Abundant Garlic or maybe even if you do the  21 day Crazy Sexy Adventure Cleanse, as someone found my blog by searching for "Crazy Sexy Diet Poop Smell"!!).

                  

So no eggs or sacrificial lamb for us (Wasn't Jesus having to die enough? I can never understanding having to kill stuff to celebrate his coming back to life....), just vegan blueberry pancakes (these ROCK), vegan sloppy joes, vegan blueberry muffins, vegan sweet potato baked fries, vegan garlic laced baked kale, homegrown salad with lots of spicy greens (which this spicy blonde digs), vegan strawberry yogurt, vegan blueberry not overly sweetened blueberry pie, french toast, vegan biscuits and gravy and lots of other yummies!  This place rocks.......So above a fitting "Easter" video.  Easter at Farm Sanctuary, a place where the geese, chickens, and lamb are being celebrated in a living form!

Vegan Brunch Sundays!
10-2 pm!  Only Ten Bucks! Homemade Vegan Eats.

Teddy Bear Upstairs at Black Bear.  Note: The book was already in his hands!
Also noted, I am not an anarchist!  I still like to buy stuff and remember even voting Green is a progressive stretch for me!!  Even though I try to buy hemp and fair trade, I am still attached to girly-girl stuff and I still vote!  I do however, have some sympathisers in my dad's side of the fam.  You know, that Zany Quaker Upbringing.  Breeding Poets, Food Not Lawns Activists, Tasmanian Writers,  Social Workers, and Social Activists!  If we made more money (the lack of this is due to my Zany Quaker Upbringing and Social Change Grandmother and Grandfather!), we would be the "Yuppie" ones on this side of the family!  As it stands I think my most recently married cousin stands a better chance!  They can probably afford to buy newer cars than us (Oh, that  we even have cars probably disqualifies us from the Anarchy Club, as Bikes seem to be the preferred mode of transportation)!  And she probably still votes Democrat too, and hasn't gone Green just yet!  All my Aunts and Uncles Vote. (I think)...think it's just a few in the younger generation that has some doubts about the system as a whole and believe that just living a certain way "replaces" voting and obviously, I guess voting signifies that there actually "is" a Government.  Which Anarchy would not include!

  I was not enrolled in youth groups or Bible studies when I was a kid (my mom has residual Catholicism from childhood and my father was raised attending a  somewhat secular, or at least not traditionally "God-Centered" type Quaker Meeting house).  My only experience with "Church" was when I went to visit my Grandmother (on my mom's side) and would go to Palm Sunday or something with her.  She was a progressive, Democrat type of Catholic.  She was not marching outside of Planned Parenthood shouting at chics going in for their Birth Control Pills.  I sometimes went to church with my Spanish girlfriend also, another Catholic church, but that was usually because we were having an "overnight" later and a matter of logistics.

 I remember always freaking out about not knowing the order of making the "cross" with your hands and also how did this whole group of people know when to stand, sit, and kneel?  It was practically a work-out!!  I didn't know that all of those things were particular to "Catholics" and that you weren't expected to just "do" those things!  I thought anyone who grew up Christian did the same things!  And I tried to act like I knew all the secret hand signals.  I don't remember if I ever drank the grape juice.  I remember thinking I was supposed to but then you had to know the secret hand signals and what if you went up there and you f**ked it all up? I remember sitting there watching everyone, trying so hard to remember the order!! I would try to "study" it so I would "pass".  What happened if you flubbed? Would the Priest Man scold you and send you away?  Would he tell you that God said "Go Home and practice your hand signals??".  It was SO confusing to me!!  And then the books.....there were so many books and you had to go from one to the other and sing and then "repeat after me".

 My parents ended up into Eastern Philosophy on different levels.  They have just about every "Sounds True" Audio Cd ever made and listen to Pema Chodron, Alan Watts, Ram Das, Georg Feurstein, Jack Kornfield, Stephen Levine....and countless others.  My dad still goes to "Meeting". My Mom is really into "Yoga Nidra" which she learned from Richard Miller.  We give her s*it because I tell her she needs to do more exercise and she says, but I do yoga and Dad says "But laying down on the floor for an hour isn't really burning many calories". Yes, it may burn a whole lot of Karma, but Calories for the Physical Body, in this lifetime.....?  Maybe not so much  :)

Note the Card!
Sarah Palin holding a Rifle.
This is my Easter Card from my parents!

Inside of the Card.

My Dad's mom started attending Quaker Meeting because it was some type of "religious" upbringing that meshed with her thoughts and didn't inherently undermine her values.  I think of Quakerism as almost being a progressive political  party or something.  All the peeps seemed to be educated, worldly, and active.  It was about getting out in the world and changing it with a huge emphasis on human/equal rights.  My grandmother wasn't buying bananas or grapes because of the conditions of the farm workers.  She shopped at the co-op and I lamented that when I stayed with her I only got date sweetened carob treats and granola (before it was yuppie!).   She knitted gloves for lepers.  Both her & my grandad taught English to Spanish folks on Texas/Mexico border.  It's too funny, because now I am the one eating the carob & the dates!

Our alternative Easter Basket from my folks.

Easter Basket.

The thought that there was only one correct religion was never ever taught to me.  Of course I grew up in a small, all white town and I believe that everyone was Christian, the the broad sense of the word, meaning they believed in one God (the Christian one, duh-not the idea that Christ and Krishna may be the same idea) , and the Bible was their "go-to" guide.   Somehow I was attracted to Eastern philosophy, thought, in a very broad sense.  Just the idea that we were actually "all together" in this thing, and that the idea was not to turn everyone into the same religion.  Also, everything seemed so much more abstract, so much more colorful, and much more well-adjusted.  Meaning, that it is easier for all the peoples in the world to co-exist if one religious group isn't raising funds and fervently trying to change another group's beliefs.  Needless to say, I don't know a lot about the Bible.  So when I have a question, I have to ask my husband (whose mother enrolled him in some Bible Class type of stuff, I think primarily so she could get some "alone" time!!).  I won't go into detail now about his translations, but they are quite entertaining and modernized for the sake of me being able to understand them.

Seeds, Seed Starters, Vegan Dark Chocolate, Smith & Hawken Gardening Knee Pad, Hand Salve, Mother Earth Zine, and Big Green Pail to harvest all of my veggies!!  Kale, Brussel Sprout and Broccoli Plants, already started!!

One of our Square Foot Gardens that my amazing hubby put together after I began driving around looking at any homes, any price, anywhere, for just a little bit of green space.  One day I got "busted" when I had to call after the car broke down!  I had just gone to the Post Office and was in a weird part of town and the damn thing conked out.  I had to call and tell him where I was and that then was forced to confess that I was driving to house (more like yard)  I saw advertised in paper.  A few weeks later, these Square Foot Garden Boxes Mysteriously showed up at our house!!

Heard some great tunes this morning also from a duo called "Devil's Dream".  Lots of Gary Harrison tunes played by a Roger Netherton, a great young fiddler and Alice Sanvito, a power pickin' guitarist.  Take a listen!!  Roger Netherton is only 15 or 16!  Black Bear always has great old time, folksy, and bluegrass type of music going on!  Check out Black Bear Bakery's Facebook Page  for who and what is happening next for all of your hippy, yippy, yappy, yuppie, anarchy cravings.  Oh & for music & food menus too!  And they are supporters of SLOUP, which is an artistic micro-grant group that meets monthly for soup, bread, conversations and voting on grant proposals to better the community.  Very Cool. Apparently tonight it's at Black Bear and in addition to Vegan Soups, Booze (for a small donation), Black Bear Bread, there is even an ACCORDION player!! How can you resist?  I think we would all be happier if there was just a little more Accordion music in our lives.  It works for the French, Germans, and the Czech's (it's that Bohemian Bloodline talking).

Did anyone else out there grow up with less "defined" religious beliefs?  Are you the same religion today as the one in which you were rasied?  Do you attend religious services all the time or just on holidays?  How has your relationship to God/and or religion changed over the years?