yearofplenty

Kicking Cancer's Butt

On October 4 I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I'm going to start migrating some of my ongoing reflections to this blog. 

Here's the update from October 17.

I've been out of the hospital now for a week and the chemo fog has lifted. I had my first full night’s sleep in over month last night. Instead of waking up at 1:00 a.m. to medicate some ache or pain I woke up to the sounds of Nancy yelling at the kids to get out of bed for early-morning jazz band practice. 

“Noel! Lily! Get out of bed. I mean it this time. I need you in the bathroom.” Five minutes go by. “Are you guys awake?! Come on. I really mean it this time. You have to wake up.” “OK MOM! JEESH!” Five minutes go by. “Are you out of your bed? Oh my goodness…” And so it goes. One downside to feeling better and getting a full night’s sleep is that I will soon be re-enlisted as the morning bouncer to physically drag the kids out of bed.

It’s been two days since I took a pill for anything, thank goodness. I have so many pill bottles in my book bag that I sound like the maraca section of a mariachi band when I carry it anywhere. 

I’ve even been to the gym twice to get on the treadmill and do some light circuit training. I’m going so slow and lifting so little weight that I feel a little self-conscious. Maybe I need a T-shirt that explains to the others in the gym, “I work out like a 90-year-old because I have cancer.” 

My first trip to the gym was precipitated by frustration. Just as my intestinal distress was subsiding I was struck by debilitating lower back spasms. Instead of lying on the couch in discomfort I got up in a fit of angry defiance and went to work out. I spent 40 minutes on the elliptical and felt good, other than some back pain. When I got home Noel asked me what I was doing and I responded with bravado, “I was at the gym kicking cancer’s butt.” 

It was an empowering moment but that soon gave way to back spasms that were so bad I couldn’t hardly breathe. I spent the majority of that night slumped over an ottoman like I’d been washed ashore by a huge wave. It was the only position that provided some relief. To make matters worse, when we went to the doctor the following morning he recommended we get an MRI of the lower back to see if it was being caused by a mass. 

What? We had just gotten a handle on the extent of the cancer, and now this? I wasn’t prepared for more scans and more question marks about my diagnosis. 

So much for my triumphant efforts to conquer cancer by vigorous joint-friendly stepping on the elliptical. Thankfully the back spasms went away as quickly as they arrived and concerns about a lower-back mass have subsided.

My little failed foray into “kicking cancer’s butt” has got me thinking that defiant anger and metaphorical battles are not the most constructive ways forward. I need to fight this cancer but I can’t let this turn into a fight against my own body. 

This summer I studied the history of asceticism in the Christian church around food and I learned that too often food practices fell into this trap. Fasting became an effort to starve and punish uncooperative desires and tame the messy materiality of the body. Even if we’re not familiar with the history of the early church we are all familiar with instincts that lead us to battle our overweight, not-attractive-enough, fatigued, breaking-down bodies.

The early church spent considerable energy pushing back against these tendencies toward self-hatred and promoted a much more grace-filled approach. They envisioned food practices as a way to wake people up to the sacred wholeness of life; body and soul, soil and table, hunger and pleasure. They were means of holy cooperation that promoted healing and wholeness. Those are the kind of practices I need right now and that’s the approach that will serve me best.

There will be plenty of anger and frustration on the road ahead but I’m not going to turn that against myself or my cancer-riddled body. I’ll aim for practices that are energized by faith, hope, and love, and an approach that is built on the foundation of grace and humility. 

I returned to the gym last night for my second outing. I settled for 30 minutes on the treadmill walking like a limp noodle and a couple pulls on the machines. I went home, had a beer and called it a night. Gone were the grand visions of kicking cancer in the behind, but unlike my previous outing I slept like a baby.

Thoughts for a New Year - Make Time, Defy Expectations, Consider Limits

I stumbled across a few articles this week that offer some helpful thoughts on the New Year.

Anne Lamott offers some good advice at Sunset Magazine where she implores us to find time for creative expression. Lamott is one of my writing inspirations. I just love her playfully profound "voice" in the written word. She sums up her writing advice, which is good advice for most things worth doing in life:

I begin with my core belief—and the foundation of almost all wisdom traditions—that there is nothing you can buy, achieve, own, or rent that can fill up that hunger inside for a sense of fulfillment and wonder. But the good news is that creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.

Then I bring up the bad news: You have to make time to do this.

Lamott's book Bird by Bird was the inspiration for me to make more time for creative expression through writing which, in part, led to the adventure of writing a book. 

She says the key is to make time:

This is what I say: First of all, no one needs to watch the news every night, unless one is married to the anchor. Otherwise, you are mostly going to learn more than you need to know about where the local fires are, and how rainy it has been: so rainy! That is half an hour, a few days a week, I tell my students. You could commit to writing one page a night, which, over a year, is most of a book.

If they have to get up early for work and can’t stay up late, I ask them if they are willing NOT to do one thing every day, that otherwise they were going to try and cram into their schedule.

Another interesting article is from a palliative care nurse reflecting on the most common regrets expressed by people who are at the end of their lives.

Number 1 on her list is that people said, "I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me." She writes:

This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. 

It is very important to try and honor at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.

The last article I'll reference is one I wrote a couple months back on Steve Jobs' advice to not settle for anything less than doing what you love. It serves as a counterbalance to the advice above that is wonderful, but can degenerate into narcissism and shallow selfishness. This post was one of the most read and most shared from this blog during the last year. I wrote at the time:

The passing of Steve Jobs last week combined with the amazing current success of Apple has created a firestorm or adoration and accolades that I have been as much a part of as anyone.

I was especially moved by Steve Jobs' often referenced 2005 commencement address at Stanford in which he lays out a vision for passionately pursuing what you love in life. He says:

You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

He concludes the address by saying:

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

After a week of adoring Steve Jobs and his advice to make the most of life, my attention today has turned to the Apple supply chain and the thousands of primarily Chinese low-income workers who have literally built the Apple empire. I'm struck this morning by the meaninglessness of Jobs' advice to the majority of the people who have worked to build Apple products all these years. If Jobs had delivered his Stanford commencement address to the morning work shift at one of Apple's factories in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, or Czech Republic, how would they have responded? What kind of sense would it make in their lives to hear the admonition to not "settle." I have a hunch that the advice to "stay hungry" would confuse these workers who are all too familiar with a very different kind of hunger than the metaphorical variety Jobs was promoting....

I still appreciate the amazing design and efficiency of my apple products this morning, but I'm restless to find out more about their journey to my desk in Spokane, Washington. I'm reminded that I can't just enjoy this technology as an end-product, but there is a story that accompanies these items that is important to know about and that impacts the way I experience them. There are dozens of other hands that touched this computer in a far off place and that truth brings with it some accountability to those workers.

And I find this morning that I have a growing skepticism of Jobs' advice. None of us are superman or superwoman. We all "settle" in a thousand different ways in life. We all come up against limits -- even Steve Jobs, which he speaks to in his commencement address:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 

That's advice that stands up better to scrutiny. It might even resonate on the Foxconn factory floor. Life is fleshed out not so much in the often narcissistic pursuit of what we love, but more so in our grappling with human limits.

I had better stop here because my preacher's voice is about to kick in with a message about how we are all like grass, but the word of the Lord endures forever. I generally try to save my sermons for Sunday mornings. :)

Photo: Saw these birds along the Centennial Trail in Spokane. Finches?

Anticipating the Christmas Feast - My CNN Article

I have an article that posted today at CNN's Belief Blog that explores what we're learning as we follow the Orthodox Nativity fast. Go here to read it.

Here's my conclusion in the article:

At minimum, it’s time for American Christians to recognize what many of their nonreligious friends have discovered – that food practices are important for the journey of spiritual formation. They are a meaningful way to connect with the mystery that underlies all of creation.

Better yet, maybe it’s time for an Orthodox moment in American Christianity where Protestants and evangelicals rediscover the generative role of fasting and feasting on the journey of following Jesus. We’ll all be better off for it, both body and soul.

Merry Christmas.

The Spirit of Food - A Book Review

The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God (Cascade Books, 2010) is a wonderful collection of essays by an all-star cast of gifted writers on the connections between food and Christian faith. 

The book reminds me of one of those summer food festivals that feature samplings from all the best restaurants in town. I remember growing up with the annual Bite of Seattle. We would pay an entrance fee to get in and then tent by tent we would make our way around the festival stalls, gobbling up appetizer-sized portions of gourmet mu-shoo pork tacos and blackened salmon. In the same way The Spirit of Food invites the reader in to sample the gourmet writing of Lauren Winner, Wendell Berry, Ann Voskamp, Amy Frykholm, Alexander Schmemann, Robert Farrar Capon, and Leslie Leyland Fields who edited and coordinated this event/book. Interspersed among the more well-known authors are unique perspectives from dozens of others, all organized around the themes: On the Way to the Table, In the Kitchen, The Ways We Eat, Fasting, At the Table of the Lord, and Feasting. 

Given the nature of the book I'm going to approach this review like it's a conversation in the car with a friend driving home from one of those food festivals. Let's call it "Bite of the Kingdom." 

Friend: So how did you like The Spirit of Food/Bite of the Kingdom?

Me: I don't think I've ever read so many tasty morsels of food writing. (yes, the puns are irresistable) Just when I was savoring the offerings in one chapter I was drawn to the next. They did a really good job representing different perspectives on how food intersects with faith. I like that each author was given the freedom to engage the topic from their experience. I could tell that the authors really enjoyed writing on the subject and that came through in the reading of the book.

Friend: What was your favorite chapter?

Me: I'm a sucker for Berry, Schmemann, and Capon but I'm familiar with their work so their chapters were like comfort food that is flawlessly prepared, and tasty as usual, but its familiarity makes me look elsewhere for a favorite. I really enjoyed Amy Frykholm's treatment of Orthodox fasting rituals in which she writes about her experience as an exchange student in Russia where she "witnessed a fuller understanding of the body and soul in communion." I resonate with her desire for this kind communion. Suzanne Wolfe's description of her struggle with an eating disorder was wonderfully honest and served up just the right combination of the sweet hope of hunger satisfied and the sour despair of irreconcilable hungers. 

Friend: But which was your favorite.

Me: Okay, if you're going to make me choose I'd have to say Lauren Winner's reflection on her experience with Kosher food laws as a Jew and the ways her experience with kashrut, as she calls it, might inform her foodways as a Christian. I was intrigued by her statement, "While Christians are not bound by the particularities of Deuteronominic dietary laws, we still may want to pay attention to the basic principle that underlies kashrut: God cares about our dietary choices." In summing up the provocative potential of Kosher food laws for Christians she says, "At its most basic level, keeping kosher requires you to be present to your food." She cites the "logic of kashrut" as she sketches the contours of a food ethic that includes paying attention and seasonal eating. She writes, "Food is part of God's creation. A right relationship with food points us toward him."

Her chapter really got me thinking about what other practices in the Bible and the history of the church might inform Christian approaches to food. It seems like an under-explored area in many church circles.

Friend: Yeah I enjoyed her chapter too. It sure is hard to choose a favorite.

Me: The only downside to The Spirit of Food is that you only get a small portion at each stop on the journey. Many of the chapters left me wanting a leisurely 10-course meal of reading to follow-up on the tantalizing appetizer. 

Friend: But it's nice that the authors provide a recipe to accompany each chapter. I bet you could make a nice 10-course meal from the recipes in the book. My only complaint is that their wasn't a beer garden.

I think food may be the next big topic among American Christians and The Spirit of Food is the most accessible guide yet to the potential of food to shape Christian faith, and a convincing argument that it should. It would make a great Christmas present for your foodie friends. Buy it here. 

See Eating as a Spiritual Practice: Is Food the Next Big Spiritual Discipline for American Christians for more on this trend. 

Year of Plenty Book Update - More Lessons Learned as a First-Time Author

It's hard to believe that it was about a year ago that I was finishing up edits on the manuscript for Year of Plenty. I wrote a post at that time reflecting on lessons learned as a first-time author. Here are some more thoughts.

The journey since March, when the book came out, has been a great adventure. I've learned how to psych myself up for live radio interviews and how to sign books and hold a conversation at the same time. I've learned that Amazon bestseller rankings are the ultimate slippery slope of self-worth if you pay too much attention. I've learned the great joy of people reading the book and making changes in their lives. One of my favorites is, "Because of your book I started a vegetable garden," or "Because of your book I ordered a CSA with a local farmer."

I've learned that even with a great publisher and publicist, the author needs to be the chief-marketer. Before my book was released, an author friend told me that during the first year of a book's life you should think of the marketing of the book as a part-time job. I'm 8 months in, and that sounds about right. I also had some publishing friends tell me that no one really knows what works to sell books other than having someone on TV hold the book up and say, "Buy this book." It's been interesting, since then, to notice that when an author appears on TV, the host holds up a book for the camera and says, "Buy this book." Every time that happens I think a publicist gets her wings.

While most promotional efforts don't work nearly as well as you might think, I've learned that some things do work better than others. Doing speaking events is a great way to sell books. (By the way, did you notice that I'm available for speaking engagements.) Bookstore book signings are generally disappointing unless they are connected to a speaking event. 

People ask me how book sales are going. I usually respond by pointing out that the average book sells 500 copies and I've surpassed that threshold by a bunch. So, on one hand, sales are great. On the other hand, I still have a ways to go to sell enough copies to cover my advance from the publisher, so I'm still highly motivated to get the word out. By the way, Year of Plenty would make a great Christmas present. :)

Here is some other recent YoP related stuff:

Book review at Evangelical Enivronment Network.

Book review at UK-based Good Book Stall.

Book review at Blessed Earth.

Book review at Flourish Online Magazine.

Book review at Presbyterians for Earth Care.

Year of Plenty Book Update: Publisher's Weekly, Humane Society, and More Cowbell/Wendell Berry

Reviews keep coming in for Year of Plenty.

I really like David Crumm's review at Read the Spirit. More than anyone else, he grasped the way our focus on local living in Spokane opened us up to our global connection in Thailand. In describing the local-global focus of the book he writes: 

These two principles in their book make the “Year of Plenty” a work of genius—perhaps genius stumbled upon out of real-life necessity, but a work of genius, nonetheless. This Norman Rockwell family sewed together a patchwork quilt of principles that real people can duplicate—and that takes the century-old adage “Think Globally, Act Locally” one step further. The Goodwins—with modest means—managed to “Think Locally, Act Globally”!

Along with the above article the site has also posted a interview, which was especially fun because Nancy was given a chance to share her side of the story.

Speaking of Nancy, she wrote an article that went live today at Her.meneutics: the Christianity Today blog for women.

Other notable reviews include:

Amy Frykholm at the The Christian Century:

Goodwin writes with humor and insight. In one of my favorite passages, he takes the reader step by step through the connection between American Christianity and consumer culture. His discussion is personal and unassuming but also incisively critical and deeply theological. While I've felt this connection many times, I've never seen it laid out quite so clearly.

Christine Sine at Godspace:

I thoroughly enjoyed Craig’s stories and the way that he weaves his family’s journey to learn more about the food they eat, the community they live in and the global community of which they are a part with lessons of faith, life and God....I heartily recommend Year of Plenty to anyone who is grappling with issues of sustainability, environmental stewardship and simplicity.

Publisher's Weekly:

...this little book cheerfully demonstrates to suburban Joes and Joans that sustainable consumption is doable. It also honors God's earth. 

The Publisher's Weekly review dinged me a little for including too much Wendell Berry in the book. In my defense, the reviewer couldn't help but quote Berry in explaining that I quoted Berry too much. Wendell Berry is like the cowbell in the SNL skit with Christopher Walken and Will Ferrill. In the tradition of the cowbell sketch, all I have to say is, "Guess what? I have a fever and the only prescription is more Wendell Berry."

I'm really excited about the connections I've made with the faith outreach arm of the Humane Society of the USA. Karen Louden Allanach of the Humane Society wrote a very nice review.

On that note, The Humane Society is working with others to get Initiative Measure No. 1130 on the ballot in Washington State. The new law "would prohibit, with certain exceptions, confining hens in stacked enclosures or enclosures that limit the hens' movement, and would prohibit the sale of eggs in the shell from hens so confined. I will have petitions at the Millwood Farmers' Market that you can sign to help get this measure on the ballot.

I'm hoping in the next week there will be a 6 week small-group discussion guide available as a free pdf download.

People have been asking me about sales and I think they are going OK. If you are interested in helping get the word out about Year of Plenty, the most helpful thing would be to write a review at Amazon.com and Good Reads. I would also appreciate passing on the book and my name for any speaking opportunities at conferences, gardening clubs, churches, etc. 

"Year of Plenty" Availability and Events in Spokane

Several folks have asked me where to buy a copy of Year of Plenty in the Spokane area. I just got word from Sun People Dry Goods that they have a bunch of copies that just arrived. They are located on Browne and 2nd Ave in downtown. The Corner Door Bookstore in Millwood also has a copy in stock. I'll be signing copies at SPDG tomorrow so let them know if you want a signed copy.

There are currently three events scheduled in Spokane around the release of YOP. 

April 2 at Aunties Bookstore, 2 pm - Spring Gardening Celebration
This will be a fun event celebrating gardening in Spokane, done in partnership with Second Harvest Inland Northwest and Spokane-Area Community Gardens. I'll do an author Q&A and book signing at 2 pm. That afternoon there will also be a Second Harvest Plant-a-Row for the Hungry seed giveaway for growing food to donate and kids gardening activities organized by Spokane Area Community Gardens.

April 9 at Barnes & Noble in Spokane Valley, 11 am - Spring Gardening Celebration
This event will be similar to the event at Auntie's. This may also include a Bookfair, with Second Harvest benefiting from the sale of books related to the event. Stay tuned for more info.

April 28 at the Book Parlor, 7 pm - Community Book Discussion & Reading
This will be a more extended discussion around the themes in the book as they relate to the Inland Northwest. Go here to RSVP on Facebook. 

28 Books in 28 Days - Christian Voices on Environment, Food, and Simple Living

Starting tomorrow, February 1, I will be reviewing 28 books in 28 days leading up to the release of my book, Year of Plenty, on March 1. Year of Plenty tells the story of our family's experience in 2008 consuming only what was local, used, homegrown, or homemade. Our four rules, scribbled on a Starbucks brochure in a fit of consumer fatigue, led us into wonderful conversations about locavores (people who eat local food), going green, farmers' markets, downshifters (people who intentionally seek to consume less), simple living, food not lawns, backyard chickens, and more. 

There are already some great books on these topics. The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan is a wonderful expose of how our far-flung food system has gone awry, and Alisa Smith and J.B. McKinnon pioneered the year-long-food-experiment genre with their book The 100 Mile Diet. (If I use the Canadian title to the book, it will be less obvious that I borrowed a little inspiration from their American released book, Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet, for the title to my blog and now book. I wanted to call the blog Consuming Passions, but Nancy thought it sounded too much like a cheap romance novel or daytime soap opera. Of course, she is almost always right.) Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle took it a step further by telling the tale of her family's year of eating local, and the beauty of her story is more than matched by the beauty of her prose. Colin Beavan firmly established the "bumbling eco-experimenter" genre with his book and movie, No-Impact Man, that tells the tale of seeking to live for a year with zero environmental impact in the middle of Manhattan. While Year of Plenty shares a literary eco-system with these books, it seeks to break new ground by offering a Christian reflection on these issues.

While Year of Plenty is based on a premise that there is a need for more Christian engagement with these important issues of the day, there certainly are other books that have already, in their own unique way, sought to flesh out an authentic Christian response. That's where the 28 books in 28 days project comes in. Earlier in the week I consulted the wisdom of my Tweeps and Facebook friends, and based on their counsel, I came up with a list of some of the most important contributions to date. I chose books that were overtly Christian in their perspective, with the exception of books by Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben. Their writings draw from the deep well of faith and their works are highly influential, so I thought it was important to include them. I tried to have a good representation of books in the areas of environmentalism, food, simple living, and redemptive consumption practices, which are the main themes covered in Year of Plenty. Most are more recently published but there are some classics in the mix. I picked one obscure book, titled MISSIONARY EARTHKEEPING (Modern Mission Era, 1792-1992: An Appraisal), that I found too intriguing to leave off. Some of the authors have more than one book on the topic so, in that case, I picked the one I thought to be the most important contribution.

Go here to see the full list on Springpad. The titles and authors are as follows in nor particular order:

1. Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective, Michael Schut, Editor
2. Farming As a Spiritual Discipline, Ragan Sutterfield
3. The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World, Donald B. Kraybill
4. Living More with Less, Doris Janzen Longacre
5. Global Warming and the Risen LORD: Christian Discipleship and Climate Change, Jim Ball
6. Planetwise: Dare to Care for God's World, Dave Bookless
7. Earth-Wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues [EARTH WISE 2/E], Calvin B. DeWitt
8. Redeeming Creation: The Biblical Basis for Environmental Stewardship, Fred H. Van Dyke
9. MISSIONARY EARTHKEEPING (Modern Mission Era, 1792-1992: An Appraisal), Calvin Dewitt
10. For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care (Engaging Culture), Steven Bouma-Prediger
11. Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, Bill McKibben
12. The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age, Norman Wirzba
13. The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, Wendell Berry
14. Food & Faith: Justice, Joy, and Daily Bread, Michael Schut, Editor
15. Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible, Ellen F. Davis
16. Bread for the World, Arthur Simon
17. Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God's Earth, Mallory McDuff
18. Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food [Paperback], Lysa TerKeurst 
19. Enough: Contentment in an Age of Excess, Will Samson
20. Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices, Julie Clawson
21. A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions, Katharine Hayhoe
22. Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action, Matthew Sleeth M.D.
23. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity, Ronald J. Sider
24. Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet, Jonathan Merritt
25. The Consuming Passion: Christianity & the Consumer Culture, Rodney Clapp, Editor
26. Saving God's Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church's Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship, Tri Robinson
27. Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God's People, Scott C. Sabin
28. The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting toward God, Leslie Leyland Fields, Editor

So what do you think? Does the list cover the most significant contributions or are there some that I've left off? You can lobby me to add books to the list but I'll only add them if you provide the blog post review along with the reason it is important to the conversation. I've read many of these books already, but there are many I haven't, so we'll see how it goes. I'll offer my perspectives on each book but will also reference The Englewood Review of Books for some of these titles. They are currently the go-to source for book reviews of books on these topics. If you're not following them already on Twitter or Facebook, you should be. 

Top Ten Posts of 2010 at Year of Plenty

According to Google Analytics these were the most popular blog posts on Year of Plenty in 2010.

1. Newsflash: Dairy Industry Wants You to Eat More Dairy - What's So Controversial About That?

This post created quite a stir. It got picked up by the president of Dairy Management Corp. and was emailed to all of his contacts. The folks at Domino's Pizza linked it all over the internet. James McWilliams at the Atlantic Monthly credited Bill Bishop at the Daily Yonder with being the first to grasp the way this story was being misreported, but I think I was the first one on the story. My first official big scoop.

2. World Comparison: Fresh vs. Processed Food Consumption

Google placed this high on their search criteria, so it has received a steady flow of clickers all year and also got picked up in some online communities.

3. How My Little Blog Out-Reported the New York Times

This was my follow up to the Newflash post about Dairy Management.

4. Roast House Coffee Newest Roaster on the Spokane Scene

This year I actually started doing some in-the-field reporting, visiting local businesses and writing up short narratives. Roast House was one of the first.

5. What Would You Do If You Had One Year to Live?

This was my first and only blog post to get "Dished," meaning Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish linked to it as one of his "Quotes of the Day". 

6. Wendell Berry: Gardening as Health Regimen and Holy Sacrament

This post got picked up a couple different places on the web.

7. American Farm Bureau President Declares War on "self-appointed and self promoting food experts" 

Unlike the post on Dairy Management where large ag interests were eager to see my blog as an asset, this post led to quite a push back from folks at the AFB and the conventional farming community. The AFB PR took issue with my characterization that the AFB president had declared war on consumers concerned with large ag. practices. 

8. Why You Shouldn't Rototill Your Garden

I did a whole series of gardening posts last Spring and this was the most popular of the bunch. Other popular gardening posts include; How to Turn Your Lawn Into a Vegetable Garden, Planning Your Garden Plot (Companion Planning, Rotation, and Location), How to Make Your Own Professional Seed Starting Soil Mix, Tips for Planting the Garden, 

9. How to Get Started Raising Chickens in Your Backyard: Choosing You Chickens

This was part of a series of posts on raising backyard chickens. The other posts included one on building and designing a chicken coop and another on convincing your spouse it's a good idea.

10. Year of Plenty | The Book

I'm told the book goes to print on January 15 and will be released on March 1, 2011.

Thanks for everyone who has contributed and commented on the blog in the last year. If you want to follow along in 2011 you can sign up for the RSS Feed here, you can follow the blog on Twitter here, or click the Like button below to follow on Facebook.

Lessons I've Learned as a First-Time Author

For the last ten months I've been on an unexpected journey writing a book based on this blog. I remember being enamored with the idea of being a writer when I was in high school. At one point in graduate school I had what I thought was a good idea for a book, so I proceeded to boldly tell all my friends that I was going to write a book. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I sounded just like the aspiring author in the hilarious video above.

My youthful aspirations toward being an author had mostly been dormant until our family literally stumbled into the trendy world of locavores, going green, simple living, and backyard farming. From there a series of serendipities led to a conversation with a publisher and eventually a book contract. The whole process has been an education. The book is due out in March and the learning curve is still steep, but I thought I would share some of what I've learned to this point.

1. Writing a book is hard work. Any romantic notions I had of being an author have pretty much gone down in flames as I was forced to deal with the harsh reality of a blank page and blinking cursor on my computer screen. When I first signed the book contract I spent about a month living in the glow of the idea of being an author, but as I sat down and actually started writing I was confronted by an abyss of deficiencies in my skill as a writer and my confidence as a human being. I found that the act of writing constantly placed me in an uncomfortable place where I was forced to beat down my insecurities and trust that, eventually, random words on the page would gain some coherence. The process of writing the book was a long season of intentional living in this liminal space.

2. There is no way around sh*%#y first drafts. This wisdom comes from Ann Lamott's book, Bird by Bird. I've heard people try to translate her words into something more palatable like, "There is no way around bad first drafts," but that just doesn't do justice to the depth of disgust that one feels toward first efforts to get something down on the page. Long before I set about the task of writing a book I was an acolyte of Lamott's wisdom on writing, but it wasn't until I entered the authorial labyrinth that I fully appreciated this unavoidable reality. There was part of me that thought maybe I could avoid some of this, but alas my first drafts were prolific factories of you know what.

3. The process of writing requires time. The larger lesson of my first two observations is that there is a long process of writing that requires time, effort, sacrificial offerings of chunks of existential flesh, and more time. At almost every step of writing the manuscript I fooled myself into thinking that I could get one part of the process done in a short time, when a long time was always required. Maybe that was part of my self-care, shielding my psyche from the reality that I was about to spend three hours working on one paragraph of text. There were parts of the writing process that were easier than others, but for the most part, the whole thing required an unreasonable amount of time. I'm not suggesting that it wasn't time well spent, or that it didn't come with its own rewards, but in the ways we normally measure productivity the requirements of time were unreasonable. Most seasoned authors who have learned this lesson recommend writing small chunks of text everyday. Lamott recommends a discipline of taking two hours a day getting text on page.

4. A blog can be a great way to learn the craft of writing. While the process of authoring my book was more occasional spasms of typing marathons than the steady accumulation of daily discipline, this blog has helped me learn the rhythm and skill of writing. Maybe more that that, it has helped me find my voice. One compliment I received from the editor is that she thinks my book has a strong "voice." If what she says is true, the blog has been the 24 Hour Fitness that has helped shape it.

5. A blog can be a great resource in writing a book. When I signed the book contract I initially had a sense of disappointment that I hadn't thought of writing a book at the very beginning of our year-long experiment. I figured I would have kept journals and taken pictures and recorded the journey in detail. But then I realized that I had actually already done that with this blog. Not only did I do that during the year, but I continued to write on those topics and refine my perspectives through the daily discipline of posting. All the while there was interaction with the readers of the blog. There was real-time feedback on the content in the form of pageviews, tweets, and Facebook links. There is something about the immediacy of clicking "Publish" on the blog interface that has sharpened my skills as a writer and prepared me in many ways for the act of clicking "Send" on the emails to the publisher with manuscript attached.

6. The creative process of writing is incredibly rewarding, irrespective of reader response, critical reviews, and book sales. I would be remiss in chronicling the challenges of writings in the above list without also pointing out the grace-filled gifts of the process. My greatest reward has been, at times, reading through a passage or a chapter that had taken so much work and, at the end, feeling like I'd touched upon something beautiful and true. Our lives are so often confused and tangled webs of meaning, so there is something deeply satisfying about telling a story and capturing a moment that clears up the confusion and serves as a hopeful signpost for the journey. I don't claim any grand illusions that my book will do that for others. My point here is that in many ways it did that for me, and that is reward enough to make the whole process worthwhile. (That being said, I won't mind at all if people like the book and buy ten copies to give to their friends. Did I mention yet that you can pre-order Year of Plenty here.)

I'll probably do a follow-up post with more lessons learned as the process moves forward. Right now I'm working with the editor on doing a final edit of the formatted manuscript. There is an artist working on cover design.