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“Walking the long road through hell and coming through that, we realized, ok, if we’re going to be these compassionate people, if we’re going to be the people that actually make something of ourselves, that believe in something and care about something other than ourselves,
if we can forgive a murderer….
“Are we actually living our lives in that way? Are we actually those people? And… the first thing that really kind of came to us was the thing that we’re doing three times a day.” –Jenny Stojkovic
This week, I’d like you to meet Jenny and Pavle, a power couple determined to shape the future of food with an arc towards justice and compassion. As you’ll hear, Jenny and Pavle’s story is marked with unimaginable tragedy–the kind that inevitably changes people, whether they like it or not. In their case, heartbreaking grief ultimately led Jenny and Pavle to ask some tough questions–what is the meaning of life? Who is entitled to life? What does compassion mean? Although they may not have figured everything out, this investigation of the heart resulted in the elimination of animal products from their diet.
Whether you’re vegan, plant-based, or a hamburger eating carnivore, I guarantee you, this episode is one you’re going to want and NEED to buckle up for–we go from tragedy to clarity to activism to the future of not just food, but everyone who eats it. As is always the case on Are You Ready, we cover a LOT of ground, get deep, and take a good long look at some challenging issues.
But before all that… we start with an unlikely whirlwind romance…
LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S PODCAST
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Speaking of the future of food…
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This Week’s Recipe Inspo.
Parting Thoughts.
As you may remember, I joined the inaugural class of The Hello Sunshine Collective, a one-year mentorship program through Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company. One of the things they suggested was that we keep a daily journal, so that when the year is over, we have something to look back on as a concrete benchmark. I thought this was a great idea–I’m a huge fan of journaling. But, when I opened my recording app (they suggested either video or audio journaling), I was surprised to find myself shrinking away from my phone.
Sometimes, the act of naming our thoughts can be intimidating. So long as they remain unspoken, unwritten, we can trick ourselves into believing they aren’t real, or, that the things causing our thoughts aren’t real. One thing my therapist has me repeat to myself:
Feelings aren’t facts.
My rebuttal:
Facts cause feelings.
I didn’t want to sit down and breathe life into the catalogue of failures that had been weighing me down for the past several days. As so many people begin reflecting on 2023, I want, instead, to pretend the year isn’t over or that, maybe, I can toss the year into the trash like a cake that failed to rise.
But I did the journal thing anyway, zeroing in on the things I cared about. Not all the things I didn’t do or didn’t do well or didn’t even try, but the things that mattered to me most–crossing the finish line of my 6th marathon and… losing my soulmate back in 2022, something that continues to pierce me whenever I think of it. Joy and grief, both crushing and breathtaking, until the only way I could keep stepping forward was to bury both so deeply inside of me I forgot what they were.
Joy and grief.
Propelling me towards a sunlit horizon that beckons despite it all.
-Joanne
