A Perfect Vegetarian Retirement Banquet

As part of a tradition, my school was planning to hold a farewell party at the end of June. However, since I was the only teacher in the whole school who was a vegetarian, I was reluctant to watch everyone exchange well-wishing words while eating meat and drinking alcohol, as happened in previous years. So I told the director of the Personnel Office my concerns, hoping to cancel such a banquet this time. After talking to him several times, to my surprise the director told me a few days later that the party must be held as usual with no exception, because it’s a good tradition of the school. What cheered me up more was that he and the principal of the school had decided to hold a vegetarian banquet to comply with my wish. As long as I could provide the locations of a few restaurants, they would take care of everything else and I need not worry.

In the staff meeting the next morning, the director announced, “I have personally planned a retirement party to offer you special healthy food, which not only will not cause burden to your body, but will also allow you to taste different flavors of dishes. I encourage everyone to join us!” Hearing his speech, I was very impressed by his wit and flexibility in handling such an event in a light-hearted way.

To repay my co-workers’ kindness, I asked a professional to design a card for me as a “spiritual gift,” which contained one of my poems and best wishes. The six-folded cards turned out to be pretty and pleasing to the eyes. I also hired the parent of an Indonesian student who was a great baker, to make delicious pineapple cakes for me to offer as a “material gift.” Those who received them were full of happiness because they contained a lot of love.

On the day of the party, I arrived earlier than everyone else; I closed my eyes and prayed to Master to bless the event and offered my best to God. Everything turned out as I had wished: The atmosphere was very warm and friendly, the service of the waiters was excellent, and the food was truly a great delicacy. Almost all the staff of the school attended, except a few that had to stay at school; our group fully occupied the ten serving tables. Throughout the entertainment program, the two masters of ceremony recited my poems portion by portion to interlace with the performances, thus creating a poetic atmosphere. More than ten teachers sang holy songs accompanied by the flute, which touched my heart greatly. Another incident worth mentioning is that all the teachers who usually liked to drink alcohol refrained from drinking on that occasion to respect my precepts.

It’s been a year since that perfect banquet, but the memory is still fresh in my mind. So I decided to write it down in order to tell others that even in difficult times when we are the only ones to keep the vegetarian diet, we should be persistent and never give up, in order to hold our ground. Over the past decade, I have gone from enduring people’s misunderstanding to eventually enjoying their acknowledgement. It’s all due to having a perfect mommy Master that I can come all this way and have such a perfect outcome.

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