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The Big Summer Potluck – Giving Vs. Getting

Big Summer Potluck #3

I’ve attended more than my share of food blogging events over the past five years.  I’m a veteran of icy cold air conditioned conference rooms, Power Point presentations about stats and SEO, and hallways filled with anxious participants who fear being irrelevant. I’m no stranger to food conference agendas, food vendor giveaway frenzies, the anxious shaking of hands, and camera/gear/gadget/logo/design/fashion/friend envy.

But at the Big Summer Potluck–a third annual gathering for new and veteran food writers, photographers, and recipe developers put on by my good friend Maggy (Three Many Cooks), her mother Pam, and the lovely Erika (Ivory Hut)–everything is different. The focus is on small and intimate. The food is simple and made by people you know (or will know) over the course of the weekend. Speakers like Joy (Joy the Baker, Molly O’Neil (Cook n’ Scribble, and myself shared about what matters most in our hearts. Great food making demos from Marissa (Food in Jars) & Max Hansen offered attendees insights into invaluable techniques for canning and curing they can use at home.

Rather than focusing on technology or new frontiers of financial success, the retreat’s themes were on sharing, vulnerability, honest work, and mindfulness. The location itself–at Silver Buttons Farm and the Anderson’s secluded home in the Pennsylvania woods–invited frank discussion and forging of friendships.

Silver Button Farms Buck's County Food Blogging retreat

Thanks to the masterful work of the team behind The Big Summer Potluck, attendees felt safe enough to get honest. We opened up about the things that scared us and mattered to us most. We got still. We put away our cameras, stowed our iPhones, and spent time listening to each other, rather than running off to the next thing. We shared personal issues and realized we weren’t all alone.

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Mindfulness at The Big Summer Potluck

Big summer potluck 2012 preview

When your day starts, what’s the first thing you do after you wash up and have that first cup of coffee? Do you turn on the computer to check in with the world via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, your favorite blogs, your go-to online news source, or sites like Tastespotting and Tasty Kitchen? Do you wade through the slosh pile of emails, follow up on your blog’s comments, and check your website’s stats? Do you send out a Twitter message after you’ve photographed your breakfast and posted it on Instagram?

Let’s face it, we’re drowning in information before our day even really starts.

Somewhere after all that social media and networking, we also need to find time to have a life, be with our family, exercise, and maybe even pet the dog. But in order for us to make wise decisions, experience joy, and create something significant in our lives an on our blogs, we have to be truly present in the moment. But how can we appreciate or perceive anything now, when the endless chatter of information overload has taken over the space in our day that was once dedicated to quiet contemplation, creativity, and real human interactions?

Technology and new media is an important part of our modern world, but the necessity for downtime remains. It’s in the silence–the moments between moments–that real life happens. Great ideas, life changing meals, and brilliant solutions are discovered within a pregnant pause, a forced break, or a little get away. It is in the stillness–quiet places like the shower, at the top of a mountain, in the middle of a field, or at the edge of the ocean–that inspiration comes. Inspiration comes when we’re not paying attention or gripping down on some problem we’re trying to figure out.

But who has time to slow down, take creativity breaks, unplug from the internet, or even meditate? How can we inspire others if we can not give ourselves the gift of time and space to be inspired?

Later today, I’ll be joining eighty technologically savvy and warm-hearted people at this year’s Big Summer Potluck in Bucks County, PA. This small gathering of food writers, photographers, and bloggers are taking the weekend off to recharge batteries, meet internet friends, and spark the creativity that fuels us to continue creating great content.

My husband and I are flying three thousand miles across country with the effervescent Gaby Dalkin (What’s Gaby Cooking) so we can take part in this year’s Big Summer Potluck in Bucks County, PA. This small, close-knit group will be gathering at Silver Buttons Farm in Carversville, PA for a weekend of lavish meals, honest conversations, cooking sessions, and inspiring talks with people like Joy Wilson (Joy the Baker), Maggy Keet (Three Many Cooks), Pam Anderson (Author of the Cook Without a Book series) and myself.

I look forward to sharing about the topic of mindfulness and how we can apply ancient and modern techniques to accessing the internal wisdom needed to create beauty in the world. Tune into what’s going on via Twitter feed @TheBigPotluck or the hashtag #BSP3.

I look forward to seeing good friends and making new ones!