Heartful of Food

I really like eating. The world is full of a great variety of delicious food choices. Cooking at home, eating out at nice restaurants, a cheap burger and fries, milkshakes, pretzels, waffles, New York style pizza, Chicago style pizza, Chick-fil-a sandwiches, gelato, cheesecake, cookies, blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls, sushi, steak, green beans, asparagus, lamb, hummus, carrots, Pal's peachie tea (light ice), hot chai, iced chai, dirty chai, loose leaf tea, apples, peaches, bananas and pears, Oreo's, pie, pot roast, enchiladas, the list goes on and on.

As wonderful as food can be, my favorite meals have little to do with the literal food. Instead, my favorite meals are those meals with food for the heart. Meals with the nourishment of good conversation. These are the meals with the comfort of friends and family.

This season of Unto These Hills has already begun to be full of tremendous meals. We've had two meals provided for the company, during which we gathered around long tables before our evening rehearsals. I have shared my own cooking with company members, as well. I took cookies around to folk one evening and had a small group over for cinnamon apples one afternoon. I hosted a wonderful dinner one day--I made a pot roast, my roommates Other Dan and Carson made salad and broccoli/bread respectively. The literal food was great--we don't get enough legitimate home-cooked meals on the hill--but the highlight of our time together was the time together itself.

Yay "family dinner!"

I've also had great opportunities to eat out with folk. I've made trips to the local Japanese restaurant, Kobe, to the sandwich shop Sassy Sunflower, and today, had lunch at Rancho Viejo, the Mexican restaurant. This evening, after a day of travel, a couple of my new friends from the company (Steven and Jeff--who is a cool dude from Canada and who has been begging to get talked about on my blog; he doesn't say "eh" all the time, though I can see him thinking it....) ate a picnic with my family back in Johnson City, followed by a stop at Dairy Queen. Each of these outings have been lovely times of heart food alongside the tasty items on our plates.

Kobe time!

I am really loving getting to know new folk at UTH this season, as well as reconnecting with old friends from last year. This has kind of been a refrain in my blog so far this season, but it's because it's simply true. I'm generally a pretty introverted person. It usually takes me a pretty long time to warm up to people. While I have not had full conversations with every company member at UTH and suspect there will be folk I never really get to know, I have already found myself warming up to folk here. I haven't even mentioned the many evenings around the nightly bonfire, the afternoon chats at the coffeeshop, or the discussions on the stoop outside my apartment. While I certainly loved UTH last year, I find I am comfortable with people earlier in the season this year. It may be that it feels like returning home to be here in the first place. It may be that I simply feel like I connect with some of the new folk. Whatever the reason, I'm excited about it.

One of the things I'm particularly excited about this year versus last year is that I've begun to attend church on Sundays, an activity I never did during last season. Frankly, I've been lazy about my faith and beliefs for a while now--I'm ashamed to admit that for a while I was even kind of being embarrassed to admit to my non-Christian friends that I am a Christian. Attending church when I'm at home is easy, because my family all go, but when I'm doing theatre gigs away from home, it's easier to let it slide. A few weeks before I came to Cherokee this year, I traveled to Indianapolis to visit my friend Rachel. I chose to go with her to church, honestly mostly because I wanted to hang out with her for as much time as I could--she's one of my favorite people in the world and I don't get to see her very often. That service was very different from those held at Hopwood, my home church, but it woke me up and reminded me that, regardless of where I am, worship can refresh me. I decided then and there that it was time to get back into the habit of being an active Christian rather than a passive one.

As I set off for Cherokee for the summer, I decided I would force myself to attend services this time around. The first weekend here, I attended Cherokee United Methodist. It was a lovely, simple, genuine service, although it could've used a little more singing, in my opinion. As we went into the second week, I discovered that a few other UTH cast members had attended Cherokee Baptist Church. Ecstatic to have found others choosing to attend services, I joined them for the service there this weekend. It was so good to be among friends. I am thrilled to have others who, simply by being present, will help keep me accountable. Worship, especially when done with fellowship, is another type of heart food, as far as I'm concerned.

Fellowship is so important to me. I am an introvert, but I hate being lonely. Theatre's nature forces a type of community into company members. That's one of the reasons this is my chosen profession. Eating good meals together, laughing together, telling stories, spending time with one another, performing together, and worshiping together: this year life on the hill is full of food for the heart.