Smile

Someday, we’ll look back on all this and smile. Every once in a while, however, we realize exactly how great all this is right now. And smile. Sunday was one of those days. When 2 o’clock rolled around and the first farmer’s market customers started approaching the first farmers, we knew something special was happening. Everyone seemed to feel it. Smiles were miles wide in every direction. I’ve flirted with spirituality from a distance since my Baptist upbringing, but if ever a case could be made for divine intervention, it was the way the sky cleared and the rain dried up for the exact two hours of our first market day.


Recently, I’ve been wondering what has kept Kemptville from sustaining a farmer’s market long before now (yes, I know that this is not the first attempt). And, to some degree, I’ve been thinking how much fear plays a role in our lives. Be it fear of the unknown (or the unknown food, as it relates to cooking and eating), or fear of change, or the fear of failure, it seems we are constantly being controlled on some level by our fears. For me, I came to a point where I either had to face my fears, or I wasn’t going to be able to get on with my life.



I was in my early twenties and I was beginning to realize that my chances of finishing college were about as good as my chances of making a career out of the theatre degree I was pursuing, which is to say, next to none (apologies to Sarah, my sister with the theatre degree). I wasn’t going to be a rock star after all, and I was Single Again. For years, I had talked about travel, specifically going to San Francisco to pursue my career as a cook, but fear had kept me from it. Growing up in a smaller town, we spoke of “The City” as a scary place, with Crime and His Cousins lurking in every shadowy alley (smaller towns have fewer alleys but I’ve since discovered that that particular family doesn’t seem to mind…). Travel in general was met with equal suspicion, and admittedly can be quite harrowing, especially without the cushion of financial stability or a network of friends and family in place to buffer the dangers. But the biggest roadblock, far and away was not the fear of the danger…it was the fear of loneliness.



We humans are not an incredibly large animal, nor do we possess razor sharp teeth, claws or the ability to out-run, out-jump, or out-swim, well, (speaking for myself, of course) much of anything (hey! I’ve got flat feet!) As such, and being social creatures, we love more than anything to stay close to our pack. As for the fear of being alone, I really think that it’s just the way our brain decodes the blips and bleeps of our subconscious that are telling us, “wait, slow down, let’s just watch from a safe distance, if she eats the toadstool and doesn’t die, then the rest of us can try it,” or “let’s all just wait on the shore, we’ll watch this potentially insane ape walk out on the ice, if he doesn’t fall in and drown, and this does turn out to be an excellent shortcut, then we’ll follow” etc. It can be a rather useful instinct, when you think about it. Though we do celebrate, as a culture, those who are willing to step away from the crowd, we just don’t like to commit to joining them until they’ve proven themselves to not be insane. We like the winning team (Go Sens Go!) but are anxious, cautious and doubtful until the results are tallied (Senators in 6, I’m told). For me, when faced with my choice, I realized that I had to be the one to eat the toadstool, to walk out on the ice.



At the age of 24, I packed a bag and went west. Alone. I knew I needed to find something, and I did. I found that I survived. For me, that simple discovery was a big deal. As important and useful as our instinct to cling to the warm comfort of the pack may be, the fact is that someone has to be the loner, the innovator, the one to take chances; and without that wacko gene, we wouldn’t evolve as individuals or as a species. The best part is that once a person learns that lesson, how to put aside one’s fear, life starts to become easier. In the years since I took that first big risk, I have traveled both this continent and abroad, I have written a cookbook, I have made a good and important career out of something I used to think of as nothing more than a way to make the monthly payments on my microphone and P.A. Best of all, I met and married the most important person in my life, and wasn’t afraid to tell her so.



Last year, Nicole, Brent, Jenn and I each set aside our fear of failure and opened a business, offering creative & tasty organic food in Kemptville. There are those who think we are silly or weird, but it seems like more and more people think it is a good and timely idea and are willing to take a chance and try something new. A month or so ago we set in motion a plan to open a farmer’s market. And last Sunday, with smiles as bright as our own personal patch of sunlight, we saw that without question Kemptville was ready for a taste of the local foods movement. Time and again, we have seen that fear alone should never be a reason to not do something, and that life rewards the innovator. So don’t be afraid. Go west. Or east. Or even just go down the street to meet a new farmer, make a new friend, or maybe just to try something new...



Trust me, someday you’ll look up...and smile!