How does one begin a blog? It's hard not to feel silly, introducing myself to a world full of absent strangers. I can practically hear the internet echoing as I type.
To begin, I'll tell you where I began. Not where I was born or grew up, though I'm sure those details will come up eventually, but where my current path began. In emptiness - that is to say, my emptiness. I came to the be the person I am now - passionate about the earth and our connection to it, our bodies and our connections to them, and the endless feedback of it all - by refusing to eat. I was in college and hadn't fully recovered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (incurred by years of abuse), and that disorder gave its last gasp in the form of anorexia. Looking back, I was the text book case, the perfectionist, over-achiever, actress with a controlling home environment and standards I could never meet. Basically, I was fucked. But through the help of my wonderful fiance, Joe, and later, a talented therapist, I became well. But my journey toward wellness began alone, with some books, and a desire to change eating from a mindless refeulling act, to a deliberate, conscious, choice that carried power within it - power to heal myself and power to change the world around me. Because believe it or not, what we choose to spend our money on, where we buy that food, how we prepare it, how and with whom we consume it, and how we choose to expend the energy it gives us - these are powers that can bring down empires. That is what gives this blog its name. I thought about myself, and how far I have come, but I literally had to start from scratch, from nothing, then clawed my way to the root of things to see where my food and my nourishment comes from. And then I thought about how to act on what I had found. The idea of becoming a lawyer and trying to bring down Monsanto and the like was all very Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but not necessarily for me. Instead, I believe that we can change the system by changing ourselves. As consumers, it is easy to forget how empowered we are and get mired in the illusion of helplessness. Our choices and our demands dictate how the system behaves, and that has the most profound effect on the treatment of our environment. In other words, we are the seeds.
That said, this is not a "food blog" in the sense that you might be thinking. I will not be photographing and posting every meal and morsel that passes my lips. The internet is full of these, a few of them quite good, but this is not one of them. I may, on occasion, talk about a particular meal, or wax poetic about the farmers market, but you won't see pictures of a half-eaten protein bar here. Instead, you'll find thoughts (hopefully not only my own), about what nourishes us as human beings, and that goes far beyond food. On this site you'll find discussions of holistic health, the environment, food policies and politics, body issues, spirituality, feminism (Yes, I am a FEMINIST, and it is not a dirty word. Look it up.), the arts, and probably a whole host of other topics that I cannot predict right now. Your thoughts and contributions are always encouraged. Just don't tell me to stop swearing.
