Serendipity or destiny?

I once called Chicago home. I attended University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. It is where I learned to be a researcher, labored over economic derivatives, and got over my fear of math (mostly). At the University of Chicago, I attended my first Creative Non-Fiction class. It is there amongst the gargoyles where I gained the tools to write, Eat Less Water.

 

As I enter the final stretch of a four-year long journey of researching and writing the book Eat Less Water, I find myself again on the shores of Lake Michigan. Tomorrow I meet with Helen Cameron, founder, and owner of Uncommon Ground restaurant to discuss her organic beer label, Greenstar Brewery.

I had my sights on another organic brewery located in the Northeast, but it didn’t come to fruition, it got too hard to coordinate. Guided by the sage words of Carlos Castaneda, I let it go:

“A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.”

I wasn’t sure I’d write a Beer and Water chapter. But then, I found Greenstar Brewery, and immediately it fell into place, and my path with a heart led to Chicago.

In Chicago, my daughter and I are hosted by dear friends, Todd and Geeta, and their three children. We met when they lived near my true home, Oxnard, California (a.k.a. the Center of the Universe.) Geeta Maker-Clark works to change food systems and teaches her patients and medical students how clean, healthy food has the power to heal. They are the only family I know with a labyrinth in the front garden.

Later today, I’ll tour Hyde Park and the University of Chicago campus with my eldest daughter, Isabella.

Serendipity or destiny? Does it matter? I steep in gratitude to be here now.

Eat less water at the kitchen table.

There is power in the collective!

Be well,

Florencia Ramirez