Meat digestion

[native]

In most indigenous societies (who tend to predominantly rely on little meat input), plants were always considered as living beings. And any disturbance or taking from nature whether that be harvesting wild plants or clearing a field to farm required a ritual offering to help restore any of that debt which was seen as ending the life of those beings.

This was understood because it's clear to any indigenous person who lives off the earth that we are walking plants. And any meat eating predator is just eating grazing plant animals anyway. The rain and rivers also run through our veins, the rocks are in our flesh and bones, the clouds in our lungs, plants synthesize the sun..so that's in our bodies too. We're a walking earth and sky. And in many tribes, because this continuum was understood and we were a part of it, certain rituals done by humans were understood as necessary to keep the sun moving across the sky for instance. If the sun feeds you but you don't feed it, how can it/you continue?

I think the question is how far do you want to go with your spirituality and reasoning? The most important aspect I believe is living a life of ritual offering and respect towards those things that give us life. How often do we thank or address anything in nature? We're very concerned with ourselves and each other, yet rarely acknowledge nature in a deeply felt way. This is starting to become a central part of my life, and I think it's a huge hole in our seeking.

Any ritual offering must be something modified or created in a way that only humans can do. Killing some flowers to offer to your garden is just another debt. Drilling a hole in a seashell to make a bead is an ancient offering that many peoples did (if you do it with hand-made tools, even better)..something like singing a song or a dance is an offering too.

I pay for ethically raised meat when I can..that's a good start..and I try to eat small amounts. It doesn't come without some amount of sorrow. At the end of the day so much of life surrounds food. Is there anything better than sitting around with friends and family while stuffing your face? How much stuff do we need in life to spend our money on? So I say start spending your money on organic and ethically raised food.

Did you know that all hens lay eggs, regardless if they've been fertilized by a rooster? I never knew that! So there's no harm done from taking eggs from a free-range farm that treats their chickens well.