It's been a little over a year since I joined Steemit, all guns blazing after being emboldened by my introduction post which did really well (for a little plankton like me). When I first joined, I loved being able to say whatever I wanted, however I wanted, because I only knew one other person on this platform when I joined, my dear friend
, and so I felt like it was a zone totally free of the judgments of people I know in "real life". People here may judge, but so what? That's just normal human internet noise. Sometimes it is easier to put yourself out there with a bunch of strangers. So I did, and I'm so grateful for it.
Steemit, Let me count the ways I love thee...
What I adored most about Steemit what that it was a fun, new platform that got my creative juices flowing, and got me writing again after years of drought. I was motivated by the encouragement of others (and yeah, a little crypto didn't hurt when it came along). I am so grateful for this gift - this re-injection of inspiration. It enticed me into cooking more creatively, putting stock in the careful composition of beautifully presented delicacies, and to use our finest dishes - the dishes that also had stories to tell. I started looking at the familiar in a new light. I started asking my dad for the stories he knew. Suddenly dusty books and art and old wooden spoons caught my eye again - "what's your story?" I found myself thinking about everything. Vuja De at its finest.
This, I remembered, is my calling. To feed people delicious food, incite creative & thriving lifescapes, and remember the stories to tell each other in order to delight our imaginations as our lives are transformed by the influx of sensory fireworks blossoming like flowers on our tastebuds, in our nostrils, in front of our eyes, all over our bodies. To invite us to feel as alive and healthy as our food felt right before it died to feed us. To gather people together around real fires instead of screens. To remember to be grateful for all of this and so much more, as often as we possibly can.
You are probably thinking: So, wait, why did you stop using Steemit?
As I used it more and more, I started wondering about how healthy it really was for me to be taking pictures of all the food I ate, looking at all my meals as a potential portal to a viral post. Feeling disappointed when others didn't see the magic I saw in, say, a Chanterelle Mushroom post - like "What? How can you not LOVE gourmet mushrooms!?!". But then you went bizonkers for Bungarian Mushroom Soup. I mean, it is my favorite soup, so I get it, but I couldn't help wonder...Was it all a timing thing? Was I writing the wrong thing as a title? Am I getting buried by some algorithm I don't understand?Were my thumbnail photos wrong? Should I learn about bots? Should I learn to play some game I don't even know about? Should I optimize for Europe, too?
All of a sudden I realized: I'm over-thinking this. I'm killing the fun and stifling the creativity that I started off with.
So, I stopped posting for a while. It wasn't hard, because I was in Ecuador for the winter and internet was spotty at best. I had intended to blog from there. I make some seriously dank tropical noms when I am down there each year. But I resisted the urge. I did other fun inspiring things instead. Life goes on. I'm a busy mom, traveling mucho and showing my daughter the wide, wild, wondrous world.
So, the reason I am back is that I still feel the way about this platform that I felt in the early days. This is a space that feels open for my creativity to flow right now. And I recently lost my phone, which has opened me up to thinking about my relationship with technology and different platforms what I use. I'm not the first person to ever realize that it is all about relationship. Facebook is not evil, or Instagram, or Pinterest, or Steemit. It is our relationship to those tools that makes or breaks it. What are we using these tools for? What is thriving here? What do I want to be cultivating in the garden of my mind? That is how I'm starting to think about my online presence. It is the garden of my mind. I'm tending it. It responds when I neglect it, and when I nurture it then it bears delicious fruit.
So, I'm going to keep blogging on Steemit, and connecting with other foodies and Earth-lovers and health nuts and wild parents on here. There seem to be a fair number of them. In my time here I've been particularly awed by 
l look forward to getting a new camera and getting back to writing about and sharing photos of what I love on here, to hell with who notices!
Here's a basket of freshly harvested shiitake mushrooms for those of you who made it to the end. Enjoy the umami-nom!
Love,
Lily