Happy New Year, folks.
Welp, a lot changed in 2019. Not sure how long you’ve been following but I left a beloved full time job of 7ish years in May to pursue this next food phase of what was, at the time, just my childbirth doula business. It started out as Nourish the Mama, but after a transformative postpartum doula training with Birdsong Brooklyn in New York, I realized that name wasn’t inclusive enough for what I wanted to make of this space I’m now calling Nourished. Or Nourished Folks, I’m open and don’t know 100% yet.
Learning how to turn off my mind from one workspace and turn it on in another was unexpectedly tough. Working from home and managing your own time and making your own money - WHOA. I spent some time at the Bellaire Blooms flower farm and is was HEALING. Way more than I could’ve imagined it to be. I started writing stories about all the life metaphors I was coming across while shoving compost into buckets with my hands, cutting flowers with morning dew still on them, and ferociously ripping out entire beds of flowers that were ready to be pulled by the roots.
Totally having to put myself out there, doing the ongoing marketing for Nourished which is basically selling myself and what I truly believe in: it’s humbling every day. I’m constantly faced with my own insecurities and it feels like I’m taking some kind of huge risk almost every day. But when I’m at my best, I’m just going out there and doing it, being 100% myself and learning to lean into that with Nourished. It has brought an incredible amount of freedom to me to own this whole space and throw my ideas and aspirations for it into the air with full force. Nourished is mine and I work really, really hard on it every day.
Some personal realizations during this time? Relationship and friendship with others is the golden ticket to a lovely and happy life. We live in an individualistic society that gives trophies for us doing things on our own, working ourselves to death and comparing our life to other folks’ lives. It’s nuts. Something I really want to work on in 2020 is protecting that fact that it is well and good and completely freakin’ essential for us to take care of each other. I want to learn more every day about being my people’s biggest cheerleaders. So many people doing really good work out there.
Truly, it brings me great joy to serve people here. 19 babies were birthed under my doula guidance in 2019 and I remember every single one with great detail. Some really lovely, life long connections were born in that birth room . There is no way explain adequately the admiration I feel for birthers, their partners and even their babies. All of them work so hard. It is bittersweet to say that I’ll be needing to take most of 2020 out of the birth room to focus on this food thing.
Y’all, food is such a great love of mine. So much of my time is spent daydreaming about past, present and future ways of sharing food with people. I love the feeling of dropping food that I’ve shopped for, chopped and cooked at the doorstep of someone who really, really deserves a meal made with a ton of love. I love creating things people enjoy and that make their bodies feel deeply cared for. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. Whatever it does I just want it to be good. Really. I’m not a professional chef and didn’t go to culinary school but I am pretty proud of what I can make with my hands. Thankfully, I’ve got that husband that goes for seconds and tells me its the best thing he’s ever had, even when I know its not. He and Eva have probably eaten some weird stuff this year, haha!
I’ve known since this last July that 2020 was going to be prrrrretty big. I sat at Broomwagon with the owner of the old Greyhound station here in Lexington and pitched him my concept. He was on board immediately and I secured a space at the Greyline Station that will likely open in June 2020. We’ll work on finances, equipment and construction until and like, really dig deep into what it is going to take to run this space.
My ultimate dreams for the space? I want it to feel like home when you walk in - if you’ve seen my own then you know that means plants everywhere, cozy stuff, weird stuff, people and color and warmth. Likely smells of garlic and parsley. There will be a few daily menu items that you can sit down and devour or grab at last minute to take to a friend. PS. Please take food to your friends. Please. We will host beautifully curated dinners on some evenings to celebrate all types of people. The staff, ie. me, my mom, and probably one other person for awhile, will be ready to serve with joy and laughter. There will be a small selection of gifts. It will feel good to come in alone, with friends or with children to feel rejuvenated via something good to eat or drink and a comfy chair. The fully-equipped commercial kitchen will be where we cook meals to be delivered to you and yours.
An even bigger dream that I’m scared to tell you but am going to anyway? A cookbook. That ain’t gon’ be this year, though. Check in on me about this time next year. Don’t let me let that dream die!
I’ll be working hard on myself, my family and Nourished over the course of all these new 2020 days. One major goal of mine is to integrate this love of creating into the business. I’ll keep writing, trying to paint, and make things that taste good. I want you to feel good in this space always. Bring all of you to Nourished. Always. Don’t hold back and I’ll do the same.
Things we’re gonna try for in 2020: Keep bringing our full selves to spaces — but also letting people be their full selves. (Better be kind, though.) Cheer people on that are doing good things. Learn how to love sweet potatoes — I don’t get the hype y’all, for real. Be increasingly better at saying ‘I don’t know’. Saying no and yes but mostly yes. Let more people, including my own husband, see my silly side and not feel all awkward after wondering if it was actually funny har har I don’t know <— Quit overthinking. Always unfollow or mute people on social media that make you feel yucky in whatever way (comparison, judgement etc.) but if its just because what they’re saying makes you feel uncomfortable, maybe lean into that a little. Don’t put too much turmeric in stuff, Riah, geez! Keep following the journey’s of entrepreneurs we admire. Keep learning, never stop learning. Supporting not only human rights for all people but the love behind it.
Feed as many people as we can. Let’s do this, folks.
Love, Riah
