Joy and ease are the order of the day for me this month. It flies in the face of everything around us to proactively seek ways to feel either, but I feel we can’t get past the helplessness and stalemate of the moment without them.
Joy, and ease, invite in possibilities we might otherwise miss. They invite us to view and review ourselves and the world around us through a light that’s realistic, yet hopeful and optimistic too.
Where can we choose to focus our attention to build a future that’s more joyful? Where can we find small ways to invite in some ease, and some joy, now?
Here are some readings I’ve been enjoying in connection with joy and ease, in the kitchen and beyond:
Chandra Ram’s midwinter experiment using citrus to infuse joy into an otherwise bleak season
Meg (of Joy of Cooking fame) writes about cooking lasagne as an antidote to doomscrolling.
I talk about digital boundaries often with my holistic creativity coaching clients and this approach, of replacing doomscrolling with something else that’s more joyful, is something that works well for a lot of folks (if you try it, let me know in the comments, will you?)
In my TBR pile: This report on early microbial life, Rebecca Solnit’s The Beginning Comes After the End (currently in preorder).
SPEAKING OF PREORDERS, my next book, all 493 pages of it, is available for you to preorder: Grab a copy at Bookshop.org (or Bookshop UK). It comes out mid-May (June 4 in Europe).
In my TBD pile: Continuing to apply for grants (I apply for 3-5 grants/month). I started this practice 4 months ago and, while the fruits of my labors haven’t paid off, yet, grant funding is in part a clarity of messaging game and in part a numbers game, so I know that my efforts will pay off. Even when I don’t get grants, the opportunity to put down what I’m doing in clear language, and to dreamweave about how I can continue to grow that work with additional resources, is priceless.
I apply for small business grants, since I’m a business owner, but also creative grants. Some grants ride the line between both, and I apply for those too, since being a professional writer is, in fact, a business.
I find grants through government portals and local small business resources, and through grants newsletters (there are tons of newsletters out there with awards, grants, etc., and it can be useful to poke around and find ones specific to your interests (like this).
And finally, the below was recently posted by chef Jacques Pepin on Facebook. I remember reading Levi-Strauss in undergrad in Psychology, and this inspires me to dive back in with the eyes of a food writer to see what new gems emerge:
“Brillat-Savarin said in one of his aphorisms, “You are what you eat. I believe that for many people “I am what I cook,” because I have been defined by my cooking most of my life. Claude Levi Strauss, a French anthropologist, describes the process of cooking in his seminal book, The Science of Mythology, as the process by which nature is transformed into culture. Well, going back as far as my memory can take me I see a kitchen in my vision of my mother, my aunts, my cousins, and I visualize that process in a specific dish for each of them.
Be well. -JP”
Where I’ve appeared in the media recently:
This article on adding sauerkraut to your Thanksgiving menu
Late last year, my Culinary Curiosity School classes were featured in The Guardian. It’s great to see that aspect of my work both recognized and placed within the larger conversation of experiential gifts (rather than gifting people clutter they don’t want or need).
As a reminder, paid subscribers get 30% off all those classes, always. Find the discount code in last week’s email or email me if you’d like a reminder.
I was also recently interviewed by Food & Wine about (surprise!) pickles.
And, I’m pleased that my work here in Ireland is starting to take root, including mentions in local media for my recent fire cider class (co-taught with Aleesha Wiegandt) and the ‘Get Published!’ panel I was part of in January.
Things I’ve published recently and other news:
I wrote this roundup/guide for building simple, daily rituals into your 2026 for The Guardian
For Produce Parties, I wrote a piece on the last words my mother told me along with reflections on how being raised in a strict evangelical church shaped my relationship to food. You can order a copy here.
I’m also in the next issue of Eaten, a longtime bucket list publication for me, with a piece on food waste and feasts. You can order the issue, on feasting, here.
A reshare of this piece on gardening and climate change, written originally for Gravy and republished in Rough Draft Atlanta.
Last year, I helped with the bibliography and some of the behind-the-scenes work on this book (yes, I do some book indexing, fact checking, formatting, etc. as I have space in my schedule), and it’s great to see it out in the world: The book is part memoir, part study on ableism in religious spaces, and blends both beautifully. It’s by far one of my favorite projects I’ve helped with in this way.
The book is: Healing Ableism: Stories about Disability and Religious Life by Darla Schumm
I rarely write poetry, and even more rarely share poetry I write…but I felt called to share this one about falling (back) in love with writing:
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