Rebranding

It's been over a year since I've blogged here. I can't even begin to say where I've been and what I've been doing during that time. I can say that my thoughts turned inward and my writing attention turned toward journaling. It's been a deeply spiritual journey. I promise I'm not going to get all mystical or New Age-y about this. I'm far too earth-bound for that.

So what's food got to do with this?

There hasn't been much time or money to indulge in my food passions over the past year. And even more than that, food just stopped tasting as good for a while. Everything fell flat. Something was missing. I started devouring books to learn more about myself, about my dog, and about this spectacular world around us. My reading list ran the gamut from Temple Grandin to Thich Nhat Hanh to A.A. Milne, all of those serving to cleanse my palate in between bouts of heady reading on Integral Theory and on the neuro-physiological intersection of our brains and our souls. I didn't take the time to even browse through a single issue of Saveur. I'm three or four or five seasons behind on Top Chef, I don't even know. I'd occasionally pour myself a delightfully complex microbrew as I experimented with a few new flavors to meld with the fond in the pan after searing one sort of protein or another -- one time sending a three-foot wall of flame screaming up to the ceiling. Nice.

What was missing was... me. My heart just wasn't in it. The kids were mostly not around for dinner now that they're busy with high school and I lost my social connections in the divorce and it was just me and the dog and I discovered that food means nothing when it's not shared. There's nowhere for all that love to go. I realized that I kept the dining room covered in a mass of paperwork and storage boxes so I wouldn't have to be reminded that there's no one sitting at the table. I'm not saying any of this to elicit sympathy. Life is there and it's up to me to live it. We all have our barriers to fulfillment and mine are fairly steep; they're also about 40 years out of date. Time to get on with it, Jane.

With this passion for life reignited, I was inspired to rebrand myself. I'm diving into this "Surreal Food" concept. I'm throwing myself back into the world full of confidence and doubt. In the coming weeks I'll flesh this all out a bit, lay out my manifesto, expound on my inspirations, get all philosophical and get back into sharing food -- eating and drinking it, writing about it, clearing off that poor dining table and inviting new friends to it.

Come, eat and enjoy. Every moment we have here on earth is too precious to waste on bad food.