A friend of mine named Cheri Huber wrote this; it is copyrighted but I have her permission to share it:

“I am not writing this to make anyone feel guilty. I ask only that these topics be honestly considered. My real point is not our cruelty toward creatures but what that cruelty and insensitivity does to our own hearts. If we judge ourselves, if we reject ourselves for who we are and what we do, we are committing an act of violence against ourselves. This is an act of violence we can avoid. If we would simply look closely and consider the ways we are violent, we would stop. Our own acts of violence are the ones we have the power to end. But, there are no “shoulds” in this. I do what I do for me, not for “them.” The idea is not to change behavior because I judge it to be wrong; the idea is to pay attention. To do something different because I “should” is to miss the point. To be present is the point. When I am present, with my eyes and heart wide open, what do I want to do? Do I really want to eat the flesh of another creature? Of course I like to eat “meat.” I grew up eating it. I was conditioned not to think about what it was, who it was, that it lived, drew breath, slept, ate, had babies, was afraid, sought to live. I can’t think about that. It’s dinner. So of course I like it, of course I want it, of course I would miss it if I were to stop eating it. That’s why it is not helpful as a should. Perhaps a more helpful approach would be to go right on eating as I always have and pay very close attention. Perhaps if I didn’t stop the thoughts about this meat, if I were really present to the texture of it, the smell of it, the feel of it under my knife and fork and in my mouth, I would soon choose not to eat it. Because the real point is not what I am doing to it, the point is what I am doing to me.”