How I Lost My Business During The Pandemic But Found True Purpose
It was February of this year when the news really started circulating about the virus, and I slowly started to panic. I had a 500 person event for the Google Next conference here in San Francisco in April, and a similarly sized event for Oracle’s Design Group. I had been waiting to get Google as a client since I started ABCey Events in 2008, and almost overnight my private and corporate event planning business seemed to vanish. Everything I had worked so hard for was gone. And, I was not alone.
This year has brought on new realities for many of us in ways that we were never prepared to handle. Like other families, I struggled with new childcare challenges, while seeking ways to help my business survive. I became my 5 year old’s teacher, and I had to sit with her all day to facilitate her zoom classes and distance learning. Most of the time she screamed and cried and didn’t want to be online for hours at a time.
In a COVID-19 world, we have all been thrust into new roles — in addition to caring for our children, many of us are now responsible for educating them from home. As our physical and social worlds have become smaller, it’s now up to us as parents to seek ways to expand our children’s worldview, and to explain the seismic shifts that are underway.
There was a state of shock and a numbness to the reality that it was going to be a very long time until there would be some semblance of normalcy. To be honest, I’m still floating in a state of despair.
How would I figure out how to pivot my business when I had no time to focus, and now had yet another role to fulfill? 2020 seemed unbearably cruel — social separation, covid deaths, and job loss all became common shared experiences.
Over time, I became angry, and resentful. I realized that the reason I lost my entire business was because of Covid- 19, a zoonotic disease that was inherently caused by the exploitation of animals for food. I began to see that it was much more than my own personal beliefs.
The pandemic shifted things for me entirely, and it became clear that literally everything is connected. Climate change and the decimation of forests, rivers and oceans, world hunger, species extinction, the exploitation of migrant workers, the collapsing of biodiversity, and a myriad of diseases and health issues (including covid-19) all share a root cause of animal agriculture (and sadly that’s not all).
What I find so strange is that it seems as if the majority of people don’t understand this connection. Everyone quickly blamed China and their culture, but the reality is…all over the globe, factory farming is creating breeding grounds for infectious disease and the next pandemic. (Watch one of my favorite guru’s, Ed Winters explain things for you here.)
It was an extremely easy decision for me to go vegan at this point. Interestingly, it was something that I had tried to do for over a year unsuccessfully as I kept holding on to fish and eggs with my dear life, minimizing the suffering or cruelty or environmental damage that goes along with it.
I really wonder now what possibly took me so long? And what’s taking the others so long? From when we are born, and throughout our lives, our society and culture conditions us into believing that we need animal products to survive and thrive.
The Center for Disease Control has stated that 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases comes from animals. That is absolutely staggering. Even with this knowledge, eating animals is so deeply embedded in us, that most turn a blind eye. What’s so concerning to me is how people can be so frustrated with the pandemic, yet pay no attention to the root cause. Everyone desperately wants this pandemic to end, but no one wants to change their habits.
Loving the taste of meat sadly isn’t justification for all of the needless suffering, nor is it worth the massive environmental impact eating animals has on our planet. We are feeding a disproportionate percentage of the world’s crops to 60 billion land animals annually killed by the meat, dairy and egg industries and tens of billions of marine animals — instead of feeding the 7.8 billion people here on our planet!
Did you know that the Council for Agriculture, Science and Technology projects 10 billion people could be fed with the available cropland in the United States alone if everyone became vegan? A massive plant-based dietary movement could end world hunger. Yet, even with such great progress we are still so incredibly far off.
Throughout history, there have been many examples of practices, ideas and beliefs that were considered socially acceptable and even legal, but that were incredibly harmful and not morally acceptable. Due to our cognitive dissonance, we have normalized the horrific treatment of animals, making excuses for our callous actions.
How could one simultaneously support climate change initiatives and call themself an environmentalist, but support an industry that is responsible for 14.5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions (more than all transportation combined)?
It just seems so simple, as we can prevent this heartbreaking and irreversible destruction by eating plants instead of feeding them to animals to grow them and then eat them. The lower on the food chain we eat, the fewer resources we require. There could be enough for everyone and we can stop this exhaustive and detrimental toll to our planet.
As a mother of two, I wanted to at least make sure that my family was as healthy and conscious as possible. My own choice to be vegan has motivated me to share this not only with my family, but with our larger community.
Hence, I created beLeaf Retreat as a resource for families during these challenging times. This idea stemmed from my love of all things plant-based, and the desire to help my family and others successfully transition to a healthier, more sustainable, values based lifestyle.
beLeaf Retreat is a 2-day immersive experience in January where adults, families and children can embark upon a virtual, at-home journey of interactive workshops, accountability circles, product marketplace, and VIP experiences. Together with leading plant-based brands, celebrity influencers and expert leaders, we hope to meet this extraordinary moment and mobilize people towards positive behavior change.
We are offering adults and families a chance to dive deep into defining their own values systems, so they can better live in integrity with their “beLeafs” ;)
I can now say 2020 was a blessing in disguise both personally and professionally. My family is alive and well, and I have found a true purpose to speak up about things that matter most. It is through education and empowerment — not shaming, that I feel that I can help others to realize their best potential and to inspire change.
beLeaf Retreat is more than a retreat, we’re creating a movement to create a more sustainable future for our children. Each and everyone of us is capable of creating change and making an impact. I hope you’ll join us.
