Eight weeks has flown by, and our Food For Thought—Summer series is coming to a close. We’ve covered apricot and cherry harvests, staying positive during a heat wave, the history of ice cream, the joys of a good salad for lunch, and how to welcome in the abundance of the season, among many other topics highlighting our relationship to food and eating during the summer.
But that doesn’t mean summer is over yet. In fact, I feel like I’m finally starting to get into the flow of it.
And speaking of flow, I recently watched this beautiful video of a dinner party in a river by Paul Schnabel in Germany.
I found it so inspiring that I immediately decided I wanted to do something similar. I mentioned the idea to some friends, who were all very enthusiastic, and one even offered the river in front of her house for the event.
Another friend, Elizabeth, who kindly shared her magnolia sit practice with us this spring, told me that she organized a version of this river meal back in 2013. She put a table in a stream and people waded out to drink tea and play cards with her.
While I haven’t organized my picnic in a river yet, I am planning to do so in the coming weeks. With all the craziness in the world, the grief, the violence, and the inconceivable tragedy, I am finding it so import to look for the small delights, the little wins, and the many opportunities for whimsy and playfulness in our every day lives.
As the great mystic poet Kahlil Gibran wrote, "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."
I hope that you can find time to picnic this summer, to commune with water, to share a meal with friends. These magical fragments and fleeting moments are truly the reason we are alive.
Scroll below for this week’s writing prompts.
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Here are this week’s writing prompts.
Try to find a quiet place where you can focus for 15-20 minutes. The point of this exercise is to write freely, without judgement, and see what comes out of your brain. You can answer each prompt question or start with the one that is most interesting and see where it takes you. Follow your mind, be present with the emotions coming up, and have fun. Try to keep writing for a full 15 minutes. It might sound like an intimidating amount of time, but I promise it will end up flying by. Just keep going!
Looking back on the past eight weeks, what have been the biggest joys, disappointments, and surprises of the summer so far?
What has been your favorite food memory from the summer so far?
What kind of abundance have you cultivated over the past two months? What areas of your life would you like to have more abundance in?
If you set an intention for this season of writing practice back in week 1, have you achieved that goal? Did you stick to your practice? Why or why not?
Have there been any important insights from these past eight weeks of writing? Were there any themes that kept coming back again and again? Memories that surfaced that you hadn’t thought about for years?
What goals or intentions do you have for the rest of the summer?
If you had some good insights or surprises from this writing exercise, share them in the comments below!
With love and gratitude,
Gina Rae
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