Photo: DH Parks. The Berkeley Wire.
You can't talk about living life well in the bay area without talking about Berkeley. It's a place that defiantly has it's own character, and take on the world.
So it was over to Berkeley last week for the summer solstice on an unseasonably cloudy evening. Convened by creative chef and event producer Kristin Cole and singer Francesca Genco to celebrate the songs and savors of the season, this was, I think, the first time I’d ever marked this moment in the year. Until now, it had gone unnoticed, at least by me (not of course by those thousands at Stonehenge and elsewhere).
The evening had the key components of classic Berkeley: vegetarian farm-fresh food cooked by Kristin, wonderfully uplifting chanting, meditation and rituals by Francesca and a serious commitment to giving back to the local community, on this occasion in the form of 18 Reasons. Can you do all these things over one evening, while imploring the sun to shine? To shift modes and tone, to bring together artists and community managers, or someone from St Anthony's Foundation and someone from a drumming circle, to share dandelion salad while making a public intention for what you’d like to invite into your life over the coming months. It seems so.
Over that the longest of days, there were two things other than the promise of balmy late nights or fertility (depending on your viewpoint), to acknowledge:
The first is a person: Francesca Genco, who led the song component of the night, and managed to shift between joy and abundance to calm and introspection. She’s someone who is new to me, and I found her to be utterly mesmerizing. I learned later that she uses the tools of music, of voice and rhythm, for healing. She is also a yoga instructor, bodyworker and interdisciplinary arts teacher, all of which feed into the classes, workshops and retreats at her organization, Song of the Body.
There’s also of course Kristin, who co-organised the evening, and who I met at a workshop that she co-taught at 18 Reasons on Mindful Eating. In her practice as a chef, she combines food, well-being and event planning. But we’re going to focus on Kristin, Mindful Eating and wild-soul in the next post.
The second is an organization: 18 Reasons. That evening Sarah Nelson, Executive Director of 18 Reasons, a community food space in the Mission, talked about the recent merger with Three Squares, an organization that she founded to bring nutritional and cooking advice to underserved communities in the bay area. Communities provide the space and the people for the classes. 18 Reasons turns up with the teachers, the curriculum, and, most importantly, the cooking equipment. Which brings us to the other reason for the evening. Not just giving thanks, but giving balloon whisks and disinfectants, gas stoves and dish towels.
The Cooking Matters program needs supplies and 18 Reasons is trying to source these through the novel idea of a gift registry. We’re used to this way of giving with weddings and baby births, but as a way of giving to a charity, maybe not. The registry lists those things that are needed to create a fully-functioning kitchen off-site, within an underserved community. You can buy one or more of the listed items directly from Amazon and then the item will be sent directly to 18 Reasons. Here’s the link.
One to ponder, before you decide not to do this; this week The Greater Good published an article on how it takes only $5 to increase your happiness levels, but that’s $5 that you spend on someone else, not on yourself. It’s called ‘prosocial giving’ and it works best when the act of giving is a choice, rather than imposed, you can connect on a personal level with the person or cause you are helping, and you can see a real-world impact of your generosity. That's $5 that could go on coffee at Local 123, or towards pizza at Cheese Board (either of which would be good choices on any day), but that could also be used to buy a vegetable peeler. You might just help a low-income family eat better, and in so doing feel and function better.
I almost didn’t go that evening. That idea of ‘not my kind of thing’ has such a strong hold. But I grabbed a new friend, we agreed to head to a bar if it was totally Berkeley bonkers and we gave it a go. And it was fine. More than fine. Enjoyable even.
While shaking my plastic avocado during the drum circle and listening to the sound of birds during the breathing meditation, I realized that we all have our levels of comfort and trust, of intimacy and interest. The key it seems is to engage on a level that is comfortable to you: if that means listening to the singing or participating in it, placing something on the solstice altar or merely being aware of it, or staying close to the friend you went with or engaging a new person in conversation, that’s all ok.
But first you have to show up. Maybe make an extra effort and cross a bridge. Oh, and then buy a spatula.
