Oh, ambition! How it drives us… and drives us crazy. I’ve been feeling into this quite a bit recently.
The idea for “Adventure through Food” came about August of 2023. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to make private cheffing my full-time gig. In most ways, it’s been a dream come true. As a private chef, I have traveled to Joshua Tree (and cooked for 22 people under the stars for 8 days), Sedona, Creede, and Boulder. In the coming months, I’ll be cooking for a stunning retreat on rest + creativity at Ghost Ranch, in Abiquiu, and a “Wild Women’s Heart” retreat in Mancos, Colorado.
Almost a year into “Adventure through Food,” business is more consistent than it’s ever been. Don’t get me wrong; over the past year, there have been weeks where I’m back to back for ten+ days straight, and then weeks where I wonder if anyone will ever reach out to me again 🙂 (Such is the life of an entrepreneur, I’m told.)
As I’ve embarked on this cheffing journey, I’ve also experienced deeply transformational shifts in my being. The past year-plus has brought about an undoing and a rearranging (to say the least). I’m not the same person I was a year and a half ago, let alone the same person I was six months ago.
Some questions that have woven themselves through the twists and turns of the past year: Where am I best placed? What is the best use of energy? What’s most important to me, and how do I build a life around that?
I’m surprised at what’s come up and through recently. Like being offered a *dream* private cheffing opportunity, and realizing that it might not work. Not because it doesn’t align, but because the logistics of the position might compromise what’s most important to my soul these days (slowness, quiet, family, home).
The idea that I might not step into a dream role because it goes against values that I’m committed to cultivating and furthering is crazy to aspects of self. There are voices that gasp in disbelief that “expanding” my career (in an environment that is deeply aligned) might not be the most important thing to me.
I didn’t necessarily create “Adventure through Food” as a career move. My private cheffing business was birthed from a way of being in conversations with land and the natural world, a conversation that feels like the right use of my being. That is what’s most important to me: to honor the lands with which we live, to listen deeply, and to FEEL better (not feel BETTER).
What’s most important to me is not saying yes to every opportunity that could “further” my career; what’s most important to me is the magic that moves through when we still our beings for long enough to remember all that we’ve forgotten along the way.