Many Thanks

We need a bigger kitchen. I bet sooner than later all of these little dreams turned into unexpected big ones are going to catch up to us and Nourished Folks is going to be bigger than we would have ever expected it to be. You start something small and it grows and grows if you want it to.

Anyway, every now and then it hits me what all has taken place in order for us to be right here in this moment. Every single day is a ‘let’s try this and see if it works’, and all of us who work on this little team are along for that ride. You have to be if you want to be in the business of starting from scratch.

Believe me, we have had many hiccups, lots of things that didn’t work and learning how to navigate all the surprises. But we’ve all but mostly solved the hiccups, figured out how to do things better or differently, and collaborated on the next big thing. It has been hard an easy, sharp and soft and all of the things in between.

But ultimately it’s the people. You people who keep this place running with me. It’s y’all who have been cheerleaders in so many different ways, the cooks and drawer counters and idea givers, the money providers and the grace givers. I legit stood up one day and said. “this is what I believe in and how we can love each other better and are you on board?“ and you said that you were.

You’re simply the most magnificent givers. You have given me your time and energy and fire and tears and trusted me with all kinds of various ailments. You’ve seen some of mine. We’re all just figuring this out as we go and it’s really cool when we can all band together for the good of someone other than ourselves, yeah? You’ve all shown up for me in the ways I never expected needing showing up for. And really I can’t wait to try and do that for y’all.

This ‘many thanks’ would not have needed to be written if it weren’t for the people who have worked closely with me since I started letting them. This little team has let me into their lives, them into mine, and we’ve all had to trust each other a little more than we’re comfortable with in order to keep furthering the mission here at Nourished Folks. You all have such astoundingly unique gifts and getting to partner with you has been refreshing. You’ve been beside me at my lowest lows and highest highs, as they say. I can be me inside this little space.

Thanks to my family for being one imperfectly perfect bunch, always celebrating these next big things.

Thanks to my daughter and husband who keep life fun and will be my biggest teachers in life.

Even those of y’all who I’ve been frustrated with deserve a pat on the back because you’ve taught me some extremely valuable lifetime lessons that have pruned and fertilized Nourished Folks. Really, thanks.

As I sit here now, in the second half of 2021, having just gone through a wild ride opening this business and figuring out how to do life alongside it— and then, you know, there is a worldwide pandemic and uncertainty and questioning and deciding really every single moment how you’re gonna encounter the next big thing— I know Nourished Folks is gonna work.

It’s been a big ass year, am I right? I think we’re in the midst of a revolution. Hopefully one of kindness and celebration and taking care of and listening and letting. The kind where we all kind of collectively decide that what we’ve been trying to do hasn’t been working and we ought to think about trying something else. The kind where we look back and simply cannot believe we lived a certain way for that long. Right now, I think we’re a little stuck. I’ve got hope that we are on our way to something new.

To finish, this little corner of the world we’re in at Nourished Folks has been fun and scary and exhilarating and exhausting. You’ve been there for it and with me and let me hand off little pieces of myself to do what I think I’m put here to do; and that’s to learn how we can be better to each other, mess ups and all.

Thank you. For being here.