Request For Help - Please Send Good Juju...

Those of you who've been with me for a while now know that I've been wracking my brain to find a way to get back into the business of teaching cooking classes that is more in line with my present values.

When I did this the first time around, my head, heart, and life were in a different place. Back then, I wanted to see if I could come close to replacing a pretty good corporate sector income while doing what I loved and to see if I could have value in a marketplace where upscale foodie-types were the consumers. And I indeed found that I could. By charging affluent people and corporations to be their personal *chef* <wince> and/or to teach them how to cook, I was able to make a lot more money for my time than most people who work in professional kitchens could ever dream of.

And I needed that then. I needed to get that exercise in ego out of the way at some point in my life to be able to get to where I am now. And where I am now is at a place of sincere desire to do something good and useful with my gifts while making a fair wage that will enable me and my family to have some memorable and enlightening experiences together that require money to be able to do. I am super grateful that my partner in life is willing to resume responsibility for the necessities at the moment. And while we endeavor to live relatively humbly, we both realize how fortunate we are that we can get our needs met on his income.

So, we all know how we can try too hard to solve a problem that we can't see the solution that's right under our noses. And when that happens, we need a distraction. Well, my distraction came in the form of a couple of heated confrontations with online characters over petty online drama and vehemently opposing political views respectively that ate up way too much of my personal resources. But those confrontations did serve to redirect my energies for a bit - just long enough to stop thinking too hard - and then to snap me back into the reality that I have better things to do than get worked up over people who appear to try to find personal power in stirring shit.

But I will thank the second one for forcing me to re-examine and eventually reaffirm my values. Because were it not for their vile, wannabe-bourgeois mockery of the less fortunate, it might have taken me longer to remember what I wanted to do in the first place: to pay forward the kindness of so many people who helped me when I was in deficit - be it spiritually, emotionally, or financially - from an illness that was not of or from my choosing.

And the solution that was right under my nose appears to be this community that's right under my nose: a very large community of military personnel - many of them young, idealistic, and yet likely disenfranchised in some way, men and women who signed up for the possibility of combat duty for meager wages made all the more meager when you consider what is at stake for them.

Last weekend, I put up a request for help on my G+ page for a connection to the local Marine Corps community who would be willing to help me offer low cost cooking classes to enlisted personnel and their families. Before the weekend was over, I was given a name and a number for someone who is actively involved in that community and excited to help. Again, proof, I think, that the Universe responds well and quickly to our good intentions. I am so grateful.

From a career standpoint, I would like nothing more at this point than to see this idea come to fruition. I think it would be a tremendous opportunity to connect with and contribute apolitically to my community and to try to live up to the blessings I've been given.

Please send good juju.

shinae