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December 8, 2010    

As you may have noticed, I’m fueled by creating and connecting. So, last Wednesday (12/1/10) about broke the needle on my Joy-O-Meter when an idea conceived in October came to life. We filmed our first Kids Cook with Local Chefs show! 

Local Chef, Laurey Masterton, generously and enthusiastically donated her time. Eight local elementary age students gathered to help Laurey create 3 Winter recipes: Squash Soup, Applesauce, and Apple Tarts.

A highlight of the cooking show was an unexpected lesson in Bees. Laurey reminded us that we owe these little winged-wonders much: most of our fruits, vegetables, and nuts are pollinated by bees; a worker bee spends its entire life making less than a teaspoon of honey; many life-lessons gleaned from bees apply directly to our own lives.

Jennifer Brewer, on behalf of Earthfare, graciously provided space for us to film, recipe ingredients, aprons, comic books, and coupons! Others at Earthfare helped with transporting equipment and baking squash and tarts.

As if it wasn’t great enough, members of the Reynolds Rocket Review came to film a segment for their upcoming December show. This was the first time that they were able to run cameras themselves; they will be editing the segment as well. Sarah Nichols, one of the Reynolds Rocket Review sponsors was a tremendous help in this multi-camera shoot!

Working with 3 cameras, lighting trees, and mixed audio was also exciting for us. Previously, we had only used 2 cameras at once. To prepare for this show, we watched a number of cooking shows online and on tv to study the camera shots, angles, and editing.

The audio was a challenge since the last person to use one of the cameras had disabled the audio and we never did find a way to restore the sound in that camera. (We're very grateful to use equipment from the Western North Carolina Community Media Center, but hope to have our own equipment someday soon!)

It’s been a week since the filming and I’m still pretty jazzed about it. The tapes are encoded and the footage looks great. Let the editing begin!  Live Well; “Bee” Well!

Terra

If you would like to support this project or others, please e-mail us!

October 1, 2010

For years people have been telling me that I should blog.  I’m finally willing to give it a try.  My initial resistance mainly revolved around “technophobia” and my inability to withstand my own self-judgment.  (Shouldn’t published writing be “perfect”?  Aren’t bloggers hard-core  techies, committed to the cause of blogging and to their blog-ees??  It seemed obvious that I would only be disappointing myself AND everyone else.)

Taking classes that required online posting and then adjusting to Facebook have helped me overcome my technophobia.  Yoga, amazing mentors, and exercises in self-connection have helped me decrease my self-judgment. So, since I do usually have something to say and I do truly believe that even cyber-sharing creates connection that is vital to our individual and communal well-being . . . let the bloggin’ begin (whatever that may mean!). 

What DOES that mean?  Am I now supposed to write here every day?  I feel writer’s block setting in already.  Wait, no pressure, right?  What do blog-readers want from a blog?  There it is—(but so soon?)!  My first concern is with pleasing you.  It seems innocent, but making my blog entries about what any possible readers may or may not hypothetically want does not further my healing work of just being me and connecting to my best thoughts, work, and joy.  Yet, we are here together.   Ommmmm.  Seeking Peace on our journey. 

Terra and I attended the Peace Rally in Downtown Asheville  last Tuesday.  Several leaders from a variety of religious and secular organizations gathered in City-County Plaza to express their desire to see people living side by side in a peaceful manner, locally, nationally, and globally.  Rabbi Rob Cabelli believes that there is a perception “that it's just a bunch of idealists who have their heads stuck in the sand who actually rally for peace,” he said. “But I think it's just the opposite. The real sticking our head in the sand is when we imagine that peace will come through any other way or when we ignore the fact that the earth is on a course of violence.”

What do you think?