Not just vegging out

October 21, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK\Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - When Delisa Renideo paddles her kayak across the lake on her property tucked in the woods of west Wasilla, she celebrates the interconnectedness of nature.

&#8220I love kayaking because I can be so intimately connected to my surroundings. I feel like I'm part of the lake, of the sky, of the birds,” Renideo said.

She sits in a yurt when she goes to work at Dayspring Enrichment Center, off Knik-Goose Bay Road.

Birds' songs easily penetrate the circular tent-like structure, and the occasional moose crunching leaves beneath its feet or munching on foliage in the yard can be heard, too.

&#8220With the lattice walls, it's like a big playpen,” she said.

She counsels couples on communication techniques, and jokes with them that in a yurt, no one can be backed into a corner.

Over the years, Renideo has focused her energy on being a music teacher, registered nurse and co-pastor for the United Methodist Church. In the Valley, she founded Rays of Hope, an organization, she said, whose members aim to bring healing and harmony to the world. The group sponsors the Adopt a Friend Web site to help place family pets in good homes. Through Rays of Hope, Renideo has taught humane education in the schools and will offer classes on nonviolent communication.

The longtime Alaskan expresses her desire to extend compassion to nature's creatures every time she sits down to eat.

She's been practicing a vegan lifestyle for 15 years, and has been a vegetarian for 25.

&#8220I don't feel any sense of deprivation from my lifestyle,” Renideo said. &#8220The whole vegan thing is part of my world view. It's not a dietary preference. It's just living consciously in the world,” the self-described former milk-a-holic said.

Renideo was raised in the Valley, and ate as most families did in Southcentral during the 1950s and '60s.

&#8220Growing up, we ate moose, we ate salmon. I didn't even know about the concept of ‘being a vegetarian.' We bought our canned vegetables at the store because we lived in Alaska,” she said. &#8220I didn't learn the joys of fresh vegetables until much later in life. Now, I'm a big gardener. I love the whole process: working with the earth, planting these magical seeds that contain within them everything they need to grow into a healthy plant. I love nurturing the plants. I sing to them.”

Renideo also savors learning about wild, edible plants.

What caused the meat-munching, milk-drinking Valley resident to explore a vegan lifestyle?

&#8220I became a vegetarian first after I read a book called &#8220Diet for a Small Planet” by Frances Moore Lappé,” she said.

The book explained that it takes 10 pounds of grain to harvest one pound of meat in the cattle industry, Renideo said. The book said that at that rate, the world's grain supply is being reduced in order for people to enjoy beef, she said.

&#8220I really got it. If I want to help the world, I needed to stop eating meat. At that point, it didn't have to do with health or with cruelty to animals, it had to do with using the earth's resources wisely,” she said.

Still, Renideo occasionally ate fish and used dairy products and eggs.

Ten years later, another book, &#8220Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth,” by John Robbins, transformed Renideo again. That's when she made the choice to become a vegan.

&#8220He talked about the effect of agriculture industry on the environment, on human health and on the animals themselves. That's when I learned about factory farms - the single most damaging thing we're doing to the earth,” Renideo said. &#8220I was conditioned to believe it was appropriate to use animals for our well-being. Suddenly my eyes were opened and I saw it differently. And that's when I began to extend my circle of compassion to all beings.”

Can one person, or small group of like-minded people, actually make significant changes in the world?

Renideo said she thinks so.

&#8220We live in a supply-and-demand world. The consumer is ultimately responsible for what the industry is doing. There's even more cruelty involved in the production of eggs and milk than in the production of meat. If we buy an egg, we're paying other people to do our dirty work.”

People often ask Renideo how a vegan can get enough protein from a diet without meat.

&#8220We have been brain-washed into thinking that meat is the only source of protein. Oatmeal is 15 percent protein and broccoli contains 10 percent. All of the biggest animals on earth eat vegetables and grains, and get enough protein,” she said.

Renideo said she often imagines being a moose in the woods, knowing where to find food and where to curl up and sleep.

&#8220When we live within our complete connection, we realize that we have everything we need within us,” she said.

Contact Dawn De Busk at 352-2252, or dawn.debusk@ frontiersman.com.