I've learned a lot in kitchens. Sometimes how to cook or bake. More often than that about how to be the person I am today.
Two things brought me back to that today. Denise Restauri's (Mentoring Moments) commitment to taking cooking lessons. She wants to create things with her hands and has reflected on how often her own mentoring took place in the kitchen. The second was a challenge on Top Chef Canada All Stars in which competitors received a message from their mentor that would inspire a cooking challenge. The lessons had shaped their careers as chefs, but more so as how they showed up as people.
Homes in Newfoundland and Labrador revolve around the kitchen. It's where people gather to make food for family and community gathering and its often where a party will take place. As I thought back through my own life I realized how much time I've spent in a kitchen. I've spent hours and hours in the kitchen listening to stories from my family and learning about who they were and shaping who I would ultimately become.
It struck me today that many of the community opportunities that I've instigated also revolved around the kitchen. It was an unconscious decision that had been made by my brain which associates time spent in the kitchen with wisdom, laughter and nourishment of the body and soul.
When I get busy, spending time in the kitchen, especially with others, tends to fall off of my priority list. I look for quicker and easier ways to make food. It isn't something I realized was an important part of who I am. As I'm searching for what these next 5-10 years are about in my life, I'm grateful for this heavy nudge today to get back into the kitchen with others.
Being a Force for Good 