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Food for Thought Friday: what's the point?!
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View of my kitchen window, still dark at 10:15am on Wednesday, September 9, 2020.
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On Wednesday, the sun did not rise in San Francisco. (Well, technically it did but we couldn’t tell!) I slept in much later than usual, confused in my sleepy state because it was so dark outside when my alarm went off. The sky glowed with an orange-ish haze, and yet, when I finally got out of bed at 8:45am, my apartment was still practically pitch black. I texted all my local friends to confirm the weirdness, and then all I could do was sit on my couch in the dark looking out the window, watching the bleak orange glow barely creeping in. It was completely unnerving. It felt like night time, but the clock said 10:41am.
There are so many things I’ve realized during these last 6 months that I take for granted - first it was popping in and out of the grocery store in 20 minutes, then it was simple hugs upon greeting someone, then it was having plans on the calendar, then it was the energy of simply being near strangers. In the last month with seemingly unending smoke in San Francisco from a state full of wildfires, I’ve realized I take clean air for granted, and being able to go outside whenever I want. I certainly never thought I’d realize I take the sun rising each day for granted, but here we are. I truly can’t describe how unnerving it was. It really felt like if the world was ending, this is what it would feel like to wake up on that day.
Throughout this pandemic, when the days feel dark (figuratively and literally), I have struggled - as I'm sure many have - to get to work. "What is the point of this?! What am I working for?!" I've wondered. It's felt pointless to write an optimistic, peppy cooking email when the state of the world makes me so sad and scared.
But... one of the main things I believe about life is that we can find meaning in the fact that we get to choose how we show up. We can’t control the circumstances, but we can control our attitude towards them. (This is the essential theme of one of my favorite books of all time - Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor.)
In this pandemic, I have gotten to what feels like the bottom of the sadness/despair barrell multiple times. And at the bottom I have seen only two choices: I can succumb to the despair, or I can keep choosing hope. I realized that choosing hope doesn’t necessarily mean *feeling* hopeful. Definitely not. But in any moment, I can take the "hopeful action" - which usually just means taking good care of myself (eating well or moving) or doing a small thing that makes me even one ounce happier. And I can keep doing these things - I can keep surviving, in hopes that it won't feel like this forever. I can keep "faking" the hope till I make it. I can keep showing up for myself and for others, even when I don’t *feel* like it.
For me - I have to choose the hope, even if it feels fake, because the other option is despair. And even when despair is totally justified - as it often feels these days - I can at least find a small empowerment in that I get to choose between the two. (And some days I do choose to just feel the despair. And that's ok too.)
SO - I am finding a reason to write this email to you today because I realize that... *little drumroll here*...
Living like you accept that any day could be the apocalypse, while ALSO taking a hopeful view of the future, is actually PERFECTLY in line with my eating and cooking philosophy!
If tomorrow is the end of the world, I sure as hell want to eat a FREAKING DELICIOUS meal today! That's why I want ALL my meals to be crazy delicious. However, I also take a hopeful view that I will have a long life, so I want my food to be consistently healthy enough to get me to age 112. And that’s why the 80/20 lifestyle is how I eat and cook. And doomsday gives me all the more reason to teach this to others. Because as long as you have *something* you want to do, *something* you want to fight for - even on the days when your fight is simply getting through the day - on all those days, you STILL have to eat. And I want you to eat well. So I'm gonna keep doing this work, showing up here, and also doubling down on my actions and fighting for the big things I care about - most especially a healthy planet.
Today I thought I'd give you a few ideas to bring a tiny bit of joy to your day; a few ways to show up for hope, to keep on keepin' on.
3 recipes to make the most of the end of summer tomatoes and zucchini:
1) Simple Sunday Tomato Project for 15-min deliciousness all winter long!
2) This recipe came to me in a DREAM: Cauli-Faux-caccia!
And stay tuned, because very soon I'll be announcing sign-ups for a free live class I'll be teaching:
The 3 Secrets to Intuitive Cooking
Learn how to make super simple, exceptionally healthy, mega-delicious meals in under 20 minutes, every single day - without recipes, without much planning, and without food waste
Hang in there, friend!!
Love,
Jess
PS. If you liked this email, do you have a friend or family member who might like it too? If so, I'd LOVE if you forwarded it on to them and encouraged them to subscribe. Spread the hope / share the love !! :)
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PPS. Like FREE STUFF?! Download my Craveable Salad Guide to print out and hang on your fridge for inspiration!
If you like this email, I would LOVE IT if you forward along to your favorite food-loving friends, or better yet, forward and then cook something together! Wannabe subscribers can sign up here. Thanks for reading!
In case you missed out, here are a few past issues to check out:
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Hi, I'm Jess! I help health-conscious, busy people transform their cooking from "chore" to "lifestyle" through intuitive cooking, which I teach through online classes, free content, coaching and more. This is my newsletter, Food for Thought Fridays, where I share highly actionable tips and inspiration to help you cook more intuitively (which makes cooking feel easier and SO much more fun!). Once a month, I share a recipe that's really worth making, and I only share those with my email subscribers.
I currently work + live on land that is the unceded territory of the Ramaytush Ohlone. And I can't wait to eat at Cafe Ohlone when they reopen someday! Check out this article about them.
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