issue no. 780

CREATIVITY IS KEY . . .

This message came to me while still in bed this morning. It wasn’t ringing like an alarm and it didn’t feel like someone was whispering it to me. As I repeated it: ‘creativity is key,’ I had this feeling that it was almost as if someone had just placed it there, which felt funny because when I first woke up, I remember having the distinct realization that I had gone to bed early - feeling tired and unable to write the draft for this newsletter - not yet clear what message felt ready to weave into words.

I said a little prayer, hoping that the message would come to me in my dreams. I recall seeing the sunlight creep in this morning and realizing I still didn’t have a clear direction. A little wave of disappointment and nervousness washed over me, knowing I had to send Dorothy a draft for review this morning to meet our Tuesday at noon weekly delivery.

So instead of getting lost in the overwhelm, I went about my morning routine - while still in bed I did a little guided breath work, and while I was in the brief final meditation, the words just appeared in my head: creativity is key . I felt a little tingle work it’s way through my body all the way to my extremities - a confirmation that this path felt clear. Even though I didn’t see the whole route, there was a trust that I could start my way down this open trail.

I went out to make my cup of tea, and while waiting for the water to boil I pulled a card from The Magic Pantry Tarot deck that Dorothy gave me last year. This has become a welcome daily ritual in the past few weeks, to give me a little guidance for the day ahead. Although I am new to tarot, I appreciate all of the ways we can work with the energy around us - even (or especially) if we can’t see it - to make our way through our days. At this point, we can use all the help we can get.

After shuffling the cards, I voiced my usual incantation: cards, show me what I need to know for today. As if I needed confirmation from the universe, the first card that practically leapt out of the deck was The Empress: Vanilla - with an image of a goblet loaded with four visible scoops of vanilla ice cream (the number being significant because it’s my favorite), adorned with orchids all around.

I looked up the interpretation in the guidebook to find the first element of vanilla to be none other than CREATIVITY, reading, “Vanilla makes a wonderful base for all sorts of creative flavor choices - whatever you add or sprinkle on top is sure to taste good. This card encourages you to lean into your creative side and make something that’s exactly your own.”

When I reflect a little deeper on that message and the image on the card, I’d take it a few steps further…Even a creation that’s ‘exactly your own’ is co-created. Yes, the additions to the vanilla make it your own - but the vanilla is the canvas or the foundation that helps you create. Just like this newsletter edition is one that I ‘penned’, enriched with my own experiences and stories, the original idea - ‘creativity is key’ - is a message I’m entirely certain a force greater than me placed in my head this morning. I was only able to access it once I cleared my mind, connected with a wisdom greater than my own, and opened myself to hearing it.

The other more fun interpretation of the card is that ice cream has always been the building block on which Good Food Jobs was founded. Dorothy and I had our first one-on-one experience riding home from Dryden Dairy Day back in 2004, drawn to the next town over from Ithaca by an ad in the paper that promised 25 cent ice cream cones. Dorothy and I both had to return home earlier than our cohorts, so I offered her a ride. It was on that drive that our connection sparked, laying the foundation for a rich relationship of learning and growing that now spans decades.

It was five years later, in 2009, on a road trip to Ithaca, that we returned to Dryden Dairy Day, and filled a little Moleskine notebook with ideas to bring a project to life - notably, the name and many of the elements of what you now know as Good Food Jobs . Clearly, ice cream holds a key to our own creative pursuits, especially as it relates to co-creating Good Food Jobs with each other and with you.

And finally, we have all of the orchids adorning the card, solidifying a truth that we hold close to our hearts: the nourishment that we all need, crave, and enjoy comes from flavors in foods that are connected to the natural world. The answers that we seek with regard to how to ‘build a more beautiful world’ always go back to the simplicity of understanding we are one with the landscape. The most nourishing and flavorful foods that we ingest come from and are heightened by nature - whether that is the maple syrup boiled down from the sap of trees indigenous to our area, the ramps foraged from the woods in the northeast area of Turtle Island right at this time of year, or the foods that fuel our everyday, like coffee and cacao beans that not only come from a plant, but also work with microbes to undergo the magic of fermentation to create flavors far more complex that we humans could create or come up with on our own.

The flavor we know as vanilla comes from the seed pods of a specific orchid, which undergo a lengthy caring process to coax out the ethereal complex flavor we have mistakenly come to consider pedestrian. But real vanilla is far from boring. It is essential. It is magic.

Having a reverence for, and to be in reciprocity with, the natural world is to remember who we are. To revel in the majesty of the life force that is in all of us and every element that you see when you go for a walk in the woods, when you watch the sunrise and sunset, when your heart swells seeing the tree buds bursting into bloom, and when you fall asleep to the sound of the peepers calling …all this is to understand that there is already so much magic, beauty, and wonder all around us, your own continued contributions only require you to slow down, open up, and tap into the energy swirling among us. That creativity comes when you co-create with this life force of which you are already and always will be a part.

So what does this mean in practice?

This week, we come to you with yet another week’s worth of unfathomable headlines - the compounding and unfolding of traumas perpetuating traumas, of gaping wounds festering and infecting and inflicting pain. The ‘isms’ that plague us (think capitalism, racism, sexism, colonialism, etc.) have delivered another round of real stories, filled with real people, suffering from violence in all of its forms.

In the backdrop, so many of us - especially those working in or with small farms and food businesses - are struggling to pay the bills, and treading water figuring out how to make enough money to survive and thrive as the vice-like grip grows ever tighter.

These truths need to be named - not to stoke fear, inflict paranoia, or cause overwhelm or paralysis. To simply state our truth: the world can be so much more beautiful and abundant than this . To open ourselves and each other to the necessity of co-creation and the possibilities of what that can look like. To entice everyone with alternatives - ones that are already available if we reject what has been forced on us as ‘reality’ and lean into the life force that already exists - that brought us here - to create in tandem together.

The -isms create an awful lot of isolation, overwhelm, and shame - designed to keep us exhausted, paralyzed, and quiet. These conditions cloud our creativity.

Are you feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and at a loss for what to do next? We invite you to join us. We know that the only way through is to name these truths, link arms in a web of support, and come up with creative solutions.

With that, we’re experimenting with our first ever virtual ice cream social. Mark your calendars for next Friday May 1st at 8 PM EDT . Next week, we’ll chime in with more details and a link to RSVP, but get ready to come with curiosity, care, an open heart, and an ice cream bowl, cone, or sundae of your own creation.

Let’s get creative together,

Tay + Dor

tidbits...

resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we’re reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . .

Do One Small Thing . . . tell us in the comments: what challenges feel insurmountable of late? We’re collecting them to digest and get creative with at our virtual ice cream social.

Megan Falley eloquently articulates the power of engaging in art - particularly as a way to communicate with loved ones who have left their bodies. I dare you to make it to the end of this piece of writing without crying.

As I was ‘penning’ the newsletter this morning, Sara Sadek’s latest dispatch landed in my inbox and quite eloquently articulated the same exact message, in a totally different way . Creativity in practice is powerful. (PS I was already going to link to her last week’s newsletter , which also spoke to me.)

This week I am tearing through Elspeth Hay’s book, The Trees Will Feed Us , which reminds us that working in reciprocity with the land sustains us. This might be the most important book I read this year to better understand what is unfolding in the world and how to establish a path forward.

As you can tell from our words above, we’ve come to love, admire, and appreciate the power of tarot to help guide us through this world. For Brooklyn-based (or accessible) folks, check of the launch party for The Wisdom of Birth Tarot Deck on Sunday, April 26th. A chance to engage with the epic imagery , interpretations , and artists who birthed this beautiful offering into the world. We’re excited to add this to our tarot deck collection, and use it (and gift it) for all that we physically and metaphorically birth into this world.

Speaking of tarot, Dorothy gifted me a food-themed deck last year. It sat on my bedside table for a whole year before I integrated it into a daily practice of picking a card to help guide me, as described above. Now I covet The Magic Pantry Tarot and can’t imagine my days without it.

Mark your calendar for next Monday, 4/27 at 7:30, where I will be attending Adam Wilson’s ‘story and conversation’ entitled This Food Is A Gift in Copake, NY.

The never-not-true reminder that ‘ We’re in this together ’, this time courtesy of the land, channeled through Megan Leatherman.

If you need a little extra help to encourage you to Make Art Anyway , Katrina Rodabaugh can help guide you.

This newsletter was penned in the woods at Wally Farms . Although only ten minutes from where I live, sometimes a little change of scenery can work wonders to inspire you. If you are ever looking for a retreat, I highly recommend.

A new issue of What the Wolf Wore , Dor’s newsletter on personal writing projects and the passion of spiritual creativity, is out now . You can sign up to receive monthly essays, plus news on her forthcoming book .

View and share this free guide to How to Write a More Equitable Job Post , and stay tuned for new resources to deepen this work.

" Plenty has been written about the economic impact of the pandemic on the food industry, but not enough about its lingering effects on the bodies of people whose mission is to nourish us. " Read the latest GFJ Story on the creator behind Anjali's Cup, with words by Nicole J. Caruth and photos by Christine Han.

got a tidbit? drop it here for us and we’ll share it in next week’s newsletter.