On February 3 at 11:28am, we sent out the newsletter for the first time since I started cooking club back in January of 2018. Like hot bread, the unsubscribes started to come in. I read each one trying to remember the soul who must have been like, “are they serious??? It’s been 5 whole years, and this is what they come with???” Yeah, in my head, I’m imagining it went a little something like that. I would have unsubscribed too. Ballsy, no? Self-serving? For sure. I looked back at the last time that I wrote on our website… W O R S E! That was in April of 2016. How many hairstyles ago, I can’t even count. Well, maybe I could count, but nah. Literally I am cringing as I write this. Why? Because I could be doing so much better. I have so much to say actually :-). And especially if you haven’t unsubscribed, maybe just deleted, I figure that I owe you some proper communication. I’m not really sure how often I will want to be in this headspace, but, it feels promising. It’s so important to do what feels good and in this moment it feels pretty damn good.
This is to be the year of the cook book. This is the year of getting back to cooking classes and cooking clubs. This is the year of dreaming up that nook in Kingston that I’m looking for that reminds me of Brooklyn. This is the year that I intentionally put out in the universe that I want a little property on the east coast of Bim to call my own. This is the year that I turn 55. This is the year that I will only do what moves me, fills me, nourishes me, and F*@K all else. 55 is about independence and exploration, they say. Let’s see what it brings.
I now have a writing day, which I think is just fab for me. It is a day of clickaty clack sounds, jazz, water, wine and tea. Maybe some raw peanuts too, because like my mummy, bless her soul, I just love them. Chris will be on dinner duty and hopefully, spirit will guide me to be honest and true. Don’t judge me. Today’s wine is a Pasqua Passi Mento Bianco and its cool. Has a nice lingering finish that accompanies the Stan Getz in my ears. I confess I felt real excitement approaching this first writing day. The anticipation had me in a grip. I lit candles and pulled two cards from my truth bomb deck and the messages hit home “Make Space for Your Future” and “Pay Closer Attention to Your Fantasies” Hmmmmm. Works for me. I have a lot of work to do, but if it is good work it nourishes like nothing else.
I’m doing a lot of reflection on the menu for February 14. Thinking a lot about how I want things to taste and look. In some ways it will be a participatory experience, where you can engage in delight. I’m hoping to finalize that and send out the menu for printing and keepsakes for our beloveds before the end of the week.
On another note, I wrote a sweet piece for Active Cultures Digest Fall 2022 on the topic of JOY. Thank you Nneka Jackson for thinking of us, pushing us towards the finish line (Chris’ poem was completed first… show off ;-)) while I agonized over word choice, cadence and punctuation. I want to leave you with it if you haven’t seen it, and it is sweetly accompanied by the recipe for our infamous beignets, and yes they will be a part of dessert (with other beauties) on the 14th. Try it and let me know how they come out. Always be gentle with dough after the first rise; “lighthandedness” is key.
xx
Lisa