This week, a friend of mine mentioned that her mother lives in a part of the world that’s currently seeing violence and instability. In the midst of it, she told me, her mom has rediscovered cooking. Her mom’s children left home decades ago, and she hasn’t taken much interest in experimenting with new recipes in the years since she’s lived alone. In the past month or two, as the world around her becomes increasingly unstable, my friend’s mom has had an unexpected cooking…

Ooof—this was a week! So many goals, so much to do, and so little that went as desired. Weeks like this shove me into two unhelpful mental spaces. The first is overwhelm, which leaves me thinking, “I can’t handle this.” The second is disappointment in myself, which makes me fixate on everything I didn’t, or couldn’t, do. When a client of mine expresses overwhelm around food or cooking or planning meals, or any of the things that tend are affecting nutrition, I try…

I mentioned some weeks back that a local urban garden, the Elizabeth Street Sculpture Garden, has been slated for demolition. This had been public knowledge for a while, though I wasn’t aware of it till September. It felt heartbreaking to learn, as the garden has been a quiet, peaceful oasis for me and many thousands of others. City residents have been coming together in support of the garden, and for the past month its fate has been uncertain. The demolition wouldn’t and couldn’t…