A Pull Towards Home
Dear Reader,
It’s been too long since I wrote and I can’t help but become quite frustrated with the lack of room in my schedule for such endeavors as sharing new recipes, thoughts, and stories here on Substack.
To be quite frank the year started really calm and peaceful — a whole two months in the San Juan mountains with nowhere to go, and just time.
Time to organize my new home, time to cook, time to go on luxurious long walks, time to work out, time to meet new friends, and time to be attentive to all the glorious awes and wonders of life.
And then I started traveling again. I travelled for friends’ weddings, nanny gigs, cheffing, and for my own leisure. And with all this travel, my life is speeding up. Less time to be present, less time to enjoy every day for itself; more time worrying about what I need to accomplish before I go to bed so that I am ready for whatever my calendar tells me is next on my schedule.
Most of my career has consisted of travel, only ever spending ten or less months in any one place for most of it. It’s been an incredible joy and gift of private cheffing. Life on the road was great. I got to see so much of the world and it was very easy to abide by Jesus’s words: “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself”. My life consisted of the road: two suitcases, a passport and someone else’s itinerary. It was easy to follow along.
But then I met someone very special to me, my husband. We met, dated and got married within seven months and suddenly I had a sense of home. To further solidify the deal, we bought an actual house in Southwest Colorado and now I have a real home, a place to come back to when not on the road.
With all of my travels this spring, and all of this speed, I have only longed for is being in the mountains again, being home. Maybe this is what they call growing up? But I look forward to the quiet, the lengthy days of summer where the sun is quick to rise and slow to set, where peace is easily found and home is permanent.
We all know the world is busy. It’s hectic, loud and demanding (even in its beauty), but it is our responsibility, especially as women, to know where our limits lie, to know what we have capacity for, and to know when we have capacity for it. And I think a part of becoming a bigger and better woman for me right now will include a few more moments of extending my vocabulary to “thank you, but no thank you”.
I’m choosing to be home.
With joy,
Amanda H.
xoxo & bon appétit
Post Script
Hi there! If you’re new here, my name is Amanda, and I’ve been a private chef for the past seven years. I love to share stories from the cheffing industry, whole-foods based recipes, travel logs, and insider scoops on how I run my kitchen effectively and efficiently. Come follow along. 💫