Illustration by Iris Busjahn<\/p>\n
In the spring of 2024, I was overwhelmed. I tried to write my column, and I couldn\u2019t. I was in a bit of a depression spiral and couldn\u2019t dig my way out. That summer, I had a deadline for this column. I didn\u2019t make it. I was in a hospital room, staring out the window, waiting for a nurse to take me for my next round of tests. During my unexpected PTO, I had a lot of time to think about how I need to practice more self-care in the coming years.<\/p>\n
2024 was the year of travel for me on behalf of the Cheese Culture Coalition (CCC). It started in March. I headed to Pasadena, California, for a fundraising dinner hosted by Agnes Restaurant and Cheesery. Blakesville Creamery was the cheese sponsor, and every single course was divine. I still fantasize about the course featuring Sunny Ridge aligot potatoes with braised lamb, kimchi, and salsa verde.<\/p>\n
A few weeks later, I was in Albany, New York, with a panel of Black women at the Northeast Dairy Innovation Summit. Speaking about Black bodies, voices, and businesses in the dairy, farming, and cheese industries was humbling and inspiring, but it was also taxing. Being on stage, helping to shed light on subjects kept in the dark, took a lot out of me physically and mentally. I had to hide in my hotel room for a few hours afterward to recharge.<\/p>\n
Ten days after Albany, I was in California at the Los Angeles International Dairy Competition. It was my first time judging a cheese competition, and holy moly! What an eye-opening experience it was. I\u2019ve worked for cheesemakers and have sent cheeses in for competition, so seeing how the judging went down was so cool. I want to do it again.<\/p>\n
I traveled to Brooklyn in June for the CMI (Cheesemonger Invitational). Adam Moskowitz was gracious and donated his staff\u2019s labor cost and a table to the CCC so we could do some fundraising. If you\u2019ve been to CMI, you know that it\u2019s an electric event. I was so pumped during the event and when I arrived back in Chicago the next day, I was wrung out.<\/p>\n
There was no time to rest, though. The American Cheese Society\u2019s (ACS) annual conference was approaching. The Cheese Culture Coalition had a table donated by the ACS in the networking salon, and we were putting on our very first solo conference event at Meet & Eat Charcuterie. This time, when I got home, I didn\u2019t feel well.<\/p>\n
I tested negative for Covid, but positive for strep throat. My fault for being so cavalier about not wearing a mask. I\u2019ve learned my lesson. A month after recovering from strep, I was in the hospital with a different malady.<\/p>\n
While zipping everywhere, I worked my regular, degular, non-cheese industry 8-to-5 job. I was trying to continue connecting with my community, reading (and also hiding) from news headlines, getting angry at the headlines, getting angry at myself for taking a break from the news, getting angry for not having more hours in the day to help, and becoming frustrated that I don\u2019t have enough power to make everything better. It was too much. I was spinning so many plates, and they started crashing to the ground. I needed to center myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.\u201d \u2014Audre Lorde.<\/p>\n
When discussing self-care in the media, it\u2019s often used interchangeably with \u201ctreating yourself,\u201d which is not the same. I love to treat myself. I purchase boxes of cheese to be delivered to my door. I buy books from local bookstores and yarn from a local yarn shop. I pay extra for the guacamole. This is all surface-level. I need to take care of myself below the epidermis.<\/p>\n
Self-care means strengthening communication with my community, even when I want to isolate myself. It means asking for help if I\u2019m overwhelmed. But, it\u2019s also learning to say \u201cno\u201d and only taking on what I can handle.<\/p>\n
2025 also means connecting with my ancestors. I\u2019m saving up to visit Barbados and connect with my heritage. With the loss of all my matriarchs, I am drifting, and I need to anchor myself. I have spoken to my mother, Nana, and great-gran, asking for guidance, which they have given, but I keep getting pulled toward \u201chome.\u201d<\/p>\n
I want to go home, even though it\u2019s a home I\u2019ve never been to. I want to walk in the footsteps of my great-grandmother, whom I adored, and her kin, who I never met. I want to bring pieces of my grandmother and mother’s lives and bury them there. I want to center myself by communicating with my ancestors, the land, and the water. I want to heal the parts of my soul languishing in despair.<\/p>\n
Many of us will be challenged in the coming years. While our humanity demands that we care for each other, we can\u2019t do it at our own expense. So yes, treat yourself to the things that bring you joy, but take time to care for the things that feed your soul and your heart.<\/p>\n
I am a bit wary of what\u2019s to come in 2025, but I will not give in to despair. I will continue to do what I can when I can, and when I can\u2019t do more, I will take a break. I will get myself a little treat and take time to reflect, rest, and then keep going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Self-care isn\u2019t just about treats\u2014it\u2019s about preservation, boundaries, and healing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":48945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27966],"tags":[],"coauthors":[27956],"class_list":["post-48944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-for-the-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n