Hello Kalabash family. It’s been a quiet start to the year. With all lessons being online only for the first two weeks of January, the daily melodies and voices that drifted through our studio each day were notably absent as we made our way through the dawning of this year. It becomes easy for a certain Ship Captain to feel nostalgic for such comforts when they’re gone, but perhaps we have all felt the pang or two of nostalgia at one point or another during this tumultuous year.

We might find some comfort during this specific time and cycle of the season, however. Instead of shying away from the necessary rest, perhaps we should embrace it. In Ireland there is a holiday in January in which women were allowed to have a break from household duties and tasks such as loom spinning. If this break was respectfully observed, and the women took the day to relax and spend time with family and friends, the goddess Perchta was said to leave a gold coin in a pair of shoes, or bless the livestock of the family.

While the presence of livestock in La Jolla is negligible, I would argue that this period of rest for our teachers and students will be rewarded in ways that might surprise us. How grateful will you be when you can sit next to your teacher at the piano and create a song from your imagination? Or spend an afternoon in the outdoor garden studio, sketching comic book characters with Rodney and crafting adventure storylines with your best friends?

Perhaps those much needed sparks of inspiration are the little coins dropped from the hands of Perchta, after a long winter break of solitude. So rest well! Turn inwards towards your dreams and your lazy afternoons, tend to your gardens, your pets, your neglected baking tins. Spend a rainy afternoon trying to draw what your favorite song would look like if it was a magical make believe animal. Write a letter to a grandparent, drop it in the mail and look forward to a reply. And soon, when we can gather in our community and create again, all sorts of gems might await you.

In the meantime, a simple yet comforting soup I love to make is West African Peanut Soup. With ginger, sweet potatoes, and peanuts, it checks all the boxes of a warming comfort food. You can blend it a little to transform it into more of a stew, or omit the chicken, or keep it as it is in all of its spicy, savory, sweet luxury.