Nourish

There is a line in a song that goes something like this: “… life is a prize, but to live doesn’t mean you’re alive…” It’s from a Nicki Minaj rap that my son listens to and each time I hear that line in the song, it makes me pause. It makes me think of all the ways I choose to live my life and how I hope that every day I am truly living and not asleep at the proverbial wheel, waiting for something else. Speaking of waiting, my blog site has been “live” for many weeks ready to receive that first juicy blog entry to make the site truly alive; yet it sat there, empty, while I “waited” for what I felt was the appropriate, FIRST entry. I am a perfectionist that way … sometimes stuck in the quagmire of inaction because “that” action might not be “the” action, but in reality, most likely “any” action would probably just suffice! So, here it is, my first entry – god help us all!

I run Nick’s Cove in Marshall on Tomales Bay and my office overlooks one of the most spectacular bodies of water on the Northern California coastline and while there are days that I wonder how or if I will ever get through my ever-growing to-do list, I simply take a walk in our garden or scan the bay and am reminded that this life is a journey; one that we walk through together, sometimes holding hands with our moment, sometimes running ahead or trailing behind but always a journey and that’s when I remember, yes, I am living (whew!).

Last night, before I left work, I ran into the garden and grabbed a handful of arugula to make pesto for our dinner. Making pesto is so ridiculously easy and fun and just as I was adding in the oil and watching the sauce come alive, I thought, “Hey, I could blog about this!”

Anyone who knows me will not be shocked that my first blog is about food … of course it would be about food! And, not just any food; food that was made with ingredients from the bounty of the place I work and love and that nourishes me in more ways than one. I have always said food is an expression of love, but to pick delicate, deep green arugula from the garden, and make it into something so incredibly healthy and delicious for my family, well, now that truly makes me feel alive.

There’s no recipe!  I figure I will leave that to the experts out there! But, I think you can probably gather how the pesto was made from the photos. At one point while we were eating dinner, engaged in comfortable conversation that only exists in the intimacy of a casual, simply prepared meal with family, I watched as my tiny expression of love was being gobbled down by my grateful family.

That’s living…