Julie Fisher-McGarry - Be the Change You Want to See in the World

To my mum, Elsie Mabel Fisher.

You are forever in my heart.

First published in 2006 by Conari Press,

an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2006 Julie Fisher-McGarry.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN-10: 1-57324-297-7

ISBN-13: 978-1-57324-297-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fisher-McGarry, Julie. Be the Change You Want to See in the World: 365 Things You Can Do for Yourself and Your Planet/Julie Fisher-McGarry.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-57324-297-7 (alk. paper)

1.Organic living. 2. Human ecologyPhilosophy. I. Title.

GF77.F57 2005

158.1dc22

2005017694

Cover and book design by Maija Tollefson

Typeset in Joanna

Printed in the United States

TS

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, chlorine-free paper

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Most of us want to live healthier lives. Most of us want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. But it's not so easy in a world that seems out of touch with some important and basic human realities.

That's why Julie Fisher-McGarry's book is so important, so useful, and so needed. It's simple, easy to use, and fun. Each day's entry is clear and uplifting, and will help align your life with your values and your love.

That's no small accomplishment in a world so out of balance.

I'm grateful for Julie's book, and proud of her for writing it. And you get to be the beneficiary of her efforts. Enjoy this book and put it to use. Your body and soul will thank you every day of this year, and every year yet to come.

John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, The Food Revolution, and Healthy At 100

Hugs to Vern for your encouragement in writing this book. Always know that I love you and will forever cherish the wonderful times we had together. It is said that we only truly love a very few people in our lives; you are one of mine.

And to Smiler and Camelot: precious forever companions.

Thank you to my publisher, Jan Johnson, and my editors, Jill Rogers and Caroline Pincus, for your vision of Be the Change You Want to See in the World.

Thank you to everyone else in this book, named and unnamed, for your inspiration and perseverance in making this a better world for all.

Health and Happiness.

Be the Change You Want to See in the World is a daybook for helping us keep our hearts and minds open to all that lives. I wrote it originally for myself, in journal form, as a way of keeping an account of all the significant things I learn about as I go through life, information too detailed and important to allow to fade away. As my stack of journals grew, the writing began to take on a distinct shape. No longer just random notes, my jottings started coming together into a coherent collection of nonreligious yet deeply soulful suggestions for demonstrating concern, kindness, and consideration for nature and its animals in our daily deeds.

For every day of the year I offer personal anecdotes, inspiring quotations, verses of poetry, simple vegetarian recipes, women's health tips, environmental facts, and green thoughtseach just a small thing that you can do to have a positive impact on the world. Alone your actions are significant; together with others their impact can be enormous. You don't need any special tools or skills to begin building a better world, but I do encourage you to keep a journal as you read along so you can record your own green and compassionate ideas and plans and daily acts. When we see our words in print, either written by hand or on a computer screen, we can be clearer about what we are thinking, clearer about our intentions, clearer in our plans.

I wrote the book for women. Why? Because I believe that women are less afraid than men to show emotion and act upon it. We are more compassionate and sensitive by nature and embody a certain humility and humanity that predisposes us to want to make a difference. Of course I welcome men to read along as well; if there are entries that you are tempted to skip, think about sharing them with a woman friend. As I see it, we are a sum total of our thoughts and actions and we should put our energies toward the good.

By reading this book you will discover why individual acts really do matter: if each of us drops a large enough pebbles into a large enough pond to ensure large enough ripples, we can create a new world without hunger and pain, without war, injustice, or cruelty. I wrote this as a daybook to keep that pebble in the forefront of your mind; we can start small and make a big difference. As demonstrated so beautifully in the movie, Pay it Forward, a better life starts with one person helping another with a simple act of human kindness, which then inspires both that person and anyone who witnesses or hears about it to do likewise. If every reader brought just some of these thoughts and ideas to life, the world would be a much better place.

And it all starts now, with my heart and with yours. May your skies be forever blue and your thoughts forever green.

Julie Fisher-McGarry

If you didn't receive a journal as a holiday gift, go out and buy yourself a gorgeous one. This will encourage you to write when you have the needbe it once a day, once a week, or just once in a while.

Take a look at your life. Is there any time in your day for you? If you need more breathing room, then cut back on your schedule and learn how to say a kind but firm, No! to colleagues, family, and friends. Find a way to stop doing an uncontrolled plunge down the rabbit hole each day and examine your life to find a solution. Don't try to change everything overnight. Just apply the brakes, gently. Take a breath, a deep one from the diaphragm, before you burn yourself out.

January gets its name from the Roman god Janus, the patron of endings and beginnings. He is shown as having two faces looking in opposite directions. So, like Janus, look back on the past year and be prepared for the next year.

If you feel you have no purpose in life, try feeling for someone else. Call on an elderly neighbor or single mom to say Hi and see if they need anything, even if just a smile. Volunteer at a nursing home, or an animal shelter to give yourself a sense of purpose, of being useful. You'll make new friends, you'll feel joyful and uplifted and will stop wallowing in self-pity.

The World Cancer Research Fund, the American Cancer Society, and the Royal Cancer Society in Britainall organizations that study the issueagree that as many cases of cancer are caused by diet as are caused by smoking, and all of them make the same top-two recommendations for preventing cancer: Eat more plant-based foods and eat fewer animalbased foods. In other words, go vegan.