I’ve been thinking about location lately. In part because of Gordon’s latest premium class, but also more long-term (which is why I cast my vote for this particular class). More and more, I’ve become convinced that the only way to get through these difficult times, both mentally / emotionally and in terms of solutions, is to keep ones focus local. Not just local, but hyper local. Like patch of moss on the stone by my front door local. Like bluebird having a bath in our front yard local. Like neighbors watching out for each other and connecting local. The idea of this post has been sitting in my drafts for just about forever. But I always had a hard time getting past the one first point. It’s just so simple. It’s like the “eat vegetables and less shit” diet. I mean, what more can I say? And yet, this simplest of messages — to keep things local — is the hardest to do. Now, I don’t mean we should pretend that everything is OK and nothing is wrong. Because the kind of disconnect from reality needed to believe that will break your head, I’m serious. At the same time, when we find ourselves shell shocked, eyes wide in horror, or filled with rage, the very best way to protect our sanity is to immediately look close, at the closest things.Things that you know are true (the love of your family and friends and pets, a warm safe place to sleep tonight, a piece of ripe fruit, the tree in the park reacting in harmony with the seasons). Those are the most real things. More real than you will see on any news station tonight. More real than any word that comes from the mouth of anyone who aspires to the halls of power. More real than what pundits tell you is real, even what they show you is real. When I spend the weekend making broth — taking all the scrap veggies and chicken parts from our previous meals, all the bits in the crisper drawer about to go bad, and bay leaves (you have to have bay leaves) and cooking it for at least a day and straining it and skimming the fat and preparing the jars and heating up the pressure canner* and filling and canning and cooling and labeling. I don’t do that because the broth tastes better than anything you can buy (though it does). I don’t do it because people suddenly “discovered” that broth has mystical healing properties (but it is very good for you). I don’t do it because without the broth we will starve (we won’t). I do it because it is just about the most real activity I can possibly do. The most nourishing, for body, but also for spirit and heart and mind. That’s me looking local and knowing that when things are rough and scary and the world seems to be teetering on the brink, we can have some fucking warm good soup made with my own broth. That’s real. That’s local. And yes, it’s simple, but it’s worth repeating. * I feel obliged to note that for those who don’t want to die from botulism, a pressure canner is required for shelf stable homemade broth. However, you can freeze your broth in containers and you don’t even have to thaw them before use. Just shake a broth brick out into a pot on the stove on low and it will happily turn back into broth again shortly. I recommend broth drinking for all kinds of physical ills and broth making for all kinds of emotional ones.