Toronto, Canada
The photo above is nearly four years ago, my second day of travel to Mexico. I look back at that and wonder if I had any clue how much my life would change. The last month has been pretty monumental. I haven’t written about Spain yet – I promise next week! But I returned feeling vulnerable, having been frustrated for so many weeks, wondering why I had spent so much time away.
A number of events and people sparked a recurring question for me:
WTF am I doing with my life?
Deciding the future of my entire life is too ambitious, but I can choose my path for this year. I wanted 2013 to be The Year of Less and while I did make an effort to be online less and connect with people more, I traveled far more than I wanted to and now I am exhausted.
I’m not complaining, I was fortunate to have so many new opportunities come my way and I didn’t want to say no. As I try to figure out how to fund this non-traditional life I’ve said yes to many things, perhaps not for the right reasons as much was driven by fear – that I’ll run out of money and have to pack it all in.
But I believe I learn more from what I’ve done wrong than right, for me it’s like a funnel slowly getting to my goal
2014 is the Year of Focus
I explain this a bit more in my newsletter but I’m restructuring my life to focus on what I’m inspired by in life:
Love
So I’m quite averse to writing about my love life here. I opened the door a couple years back about online dating in Canada and realized I did not like being so public. But if you follow me on instagram it’s clear that Chef_Rouge is someone important in my life and 2014 is about being less selfish and making room for love in my life.
Food
I would never call myself a foodie primarily because most of the world loves to eat but also because it’s not just eating that drives me. I’m more of a food geek. I read books about the anthropology of food, watch documentaries on fruit around the world and I want to know how farming is changing.
But last year I stopped listening to my food podcasts (Chicken Thistle Coopcast, The Splendid Table, amongst others), reading books about food and watching documentaries. In just a few days I feel reinspired by consuming media that inspires me and I’ve just discovered Lucky Peach magazine.
Cooking
It makes me laugh but my neighbours, who are also good friends, don’t think I cook. And perhaps it’s for good reason. I wasn’t actually in my apartment much in 2013 and when I was I was mostly eating salad and green smoothies. But I adore cooking. I could sit and chop vegetables all day. I asked Chef Rouge to give me a monthly cooking challenge to reconnect to cooking. January is one of his favourite recipes from school – Julia Child’s chicken fricassee. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m starting a new series of “Food Love” videos. The first will be how to poach an egg and then move onto things like making homemade sriracha, kimchi, chimichurri, pickled watermelon, fresh pasta, etc. I’m looking to go back and get inspired by previous travels so if there’s something you loved and want to know how to make let me know.
Travel
I still love to travel but it’s just become something I do rather than something I cherish. I’m pulling back this year and traveling far less so that it’s something I’m excited about. I’m looking to travel to work on a few projects inspired by my love of food. I’m really interested in sharing the connection of people, farmers and food producers. I want to explore the US and much more of Canada and I hope I can get back to Latin America for a bit…and maybe Italy because…well it’s amazing.
And I want to thank all of you for staying with me for this journey. Four years ago I started this journey sobbing on chicken buses wondering if I’d ever truly be happy. 2014 is going to be an amazing year.
The Year of Focus is a post from: Bacon is Magic