The Slow Food Road Trip- Coming Soon!

Spring greetings to my online hitch-hikers. If, like me, you are antsy to get back on the road, I have good news; a sweet salve for that pesky itch. Pack your bags, its time for another road trip!

I’ve been on a little writing hiatus, resting at “base camp” in Ottawa; visiting friends, reconnecting with family and planting a vegetable garden at the downtown apartment I now “time-share” with my 22 year-old son.

We’ve decided to continue this housing arrangement;  my son as “primary tenant”  and me as  “gypsy-mom”  who occupies the daybed in the living room between van-ventures. This arrangement  involves me attempting to be as hip and simultaneously inconspicuous as possible, so as not to mess with my son’s super-cool mojo while I’m here.  This is an important aspect of a nomadic life; determining how or where a “home base” will be maintained.

This arrangement should work well for a couple weeks at a time, but would probably collapse if I stayed longer. I only have so much “hip” as currency,  so once it’s  “spent”  I pretty much just become a homeless,  middle-aged, crackpot mom. On a couch, in my son’s  living room. Who literally has a bad hip. 

So, to avoid banishment from the apartment under “Couch-surfing Guidelines: Section 32a” -which covers parent’s residency in offsprings’ homes for times exceeding recommended time allotment- I have set a launch date of June 1. Making this  your pre-departure announcement!

I want to add that timing  was perfect for being “home” … Pippa was in particular need of a little break from the road after experiencing a break of her own; a story for another post. She is well on her way to a complete recovery, but it has been a slow process and as you can imagine, replete with worry.

In three weeks (once the cast is off) Pippa and I will set off into the “Canadian portion”  of this year;  six months on home soil before (most likely) heading back to the Arizona desert for a portion of winter. I will certainly be exploring our “home country” with a deeper sense of what  I am doing, how I do it, and why I choose it.

That’s because I’ve discovered a recipe for my journey that includes all the ingredients needed to satisfy my soul-hunger. For this chapter, anyway 🙂

My recipe includes a slow travel pace, regular connection with local folks, daily meditation and reflection, extended time in nature, connection with a nomadic community, soul-satisfying physical activity, daily routines, old fashioned story-telling in the form of writing and sharing this blog, and good food.

Which brings me to our new adventure. Which is going to be delicious, I anticipate.

If you’ve suspected I have a bit of a “food thing” you would be correct. Food is a part of my inner life, for sure. Food is part of how I experience life;  a pathway of discovery.

Much in the same way the van became a vehicle for change, food is often the pin in my internal map, sending me off on adventures and directing the flow of activity in my life. At least three times a day, food also offers me a way of experiencing and connecting to others, exploring culture, celebrating life and creating physical, emotional and  spiritual health in body and mind. Food helps me explore my relationship to “self,”  community, culture, people I love, values, beliefs and Nature.

Food also offers me a pathway to heal some of the disconnection and imbalance I sometimes experience in my everyday life. As old readers might   remember, my personal journey also includes living with a stress-related trauma injury, some chronic pain (now well-managed) and managing a pesky addiction.

Food embodies hope for me, but it is also the very area in which I sometimes suffer pain and confusion. There is a growing food neurosis  in our culture and I want to talk about that too. I expect I’m going to talk about it all: Food addiction, binge eating, food disconnection, food phobias and just plain food emptiness. That’s a thing, as far as I’m concerned. In short, I think many of us are suffering in our relationship to food. It will also be about travelling simple. A large life, in a mini van.

So, I’m about to embark on an eight-week road trip to explore food as I experience it while travelling and living in my van: from a simple kitchen that pulls out the back. I’m offering my services as a food therapist who makes house calls;  a bit of a couple’s counsellor concerned with  bringing us back into a healthy relationship with food. It will be a celebration. I guarantee it.

We’re in this relationship for life, I figure. My simple desire is that it be a healthy and happy partnership.That, my friends, is why I am setting off on this  little adventure. With a pot, a pan, and one sharp knife.

For 8 weeks, I will share the beauty of food as medicine for the soul. The kind of food I find right here in my beautiful backyard, in Ontario, Canada. Food grown by actual people, in real communities, in the warm earth they turn and tend.

I invite you to join this adventure of the heart and the palette: The Slow Food Road Trip.

Slow Food… being the opposite of “fast food.”   And slow… which is how I roll.