Thank you.

It was exactly a year ago that I launched Vegan Hope. So much has happened in the past year, that it is almost impossible to sum up every thing I have learned, all of the people I have met, in just one post. It just feels like anything I’d write would be empty.

I started this blog for a lot of reasons. I wanted to share with anyone who would listen that something like type 2 diabetes does not have to be a death sentence. I wanted to share that animal suffering and abuse does not have to be something that is participated in, on any level. I wanted to share that Vegans come in all shapes and sizes and are made of up of all different kinds of people. I wanted to share that being Vegan is all about compassion and loving every single creature. And I wanted to share, that becoming vegan has changed my life in just about every way I could have ever imagined.

This blog has helped me see the person that I want to become. Really, it has helped me see myself, and it has helped me see others in a new and very beautiful light. I can’t thank you enough (even the people who have given me grief) for your thoughts, comments, e-mails, for asking questions, and especially for doing what you can to change your life and the lives of so many amazing and beautiful creatures.

The Vegan movement is huge, there are thousands and thousands of people out there doing their part. I feel like it’s growing. Every single day I hear from people who I would have never thought would consider being vegan, and yet, there they are – an elderly woman in a rural Church group, a left wing blogger, an officer in the Army, a Mom of ten, a teenager trying to figure it all out. And it’s exciting.

It’s hard, sometimes, in this entire movement to find joy and to see all the good. But it’s there, it’s all over the place. I always remind myself, that I once made fun of vegans and vegetarians, I would have considered myself someone who would have never ever become Vegan. But now, along with my amazing and wonderful husband, we have made this the top priority for us. Every day it seems as though the need for the world to be Vegan is more and more. And in order for that to happen, those who are Vegan are going to need to be out there, tweeting, blogging, face-booking, making vegan cupcakes, doing what it takes to share something so simple, but so profound with the world.

It’s been an amazing year. And for those of you who have stopped by my little  corner of the internet, Thank you.