I’m a little obsessed with reading and telling friends about our national loneliness and social isolation epidemics and trying to figure out what to do about it. (Anyone want to make me our local anti-loneliness tsarina? I have thoughts!) But mostly, I’m soooooo thankful to live where we do, surrounded by people who like being around each other, enjoy talking to one another, and building meaningful connections so that when we go through hard times, we can rally for each other. And we do! We feel so lucky to be on South Whidbey and hope you do, too. The farm party always brings those sentiments to the surface.
For those of you who didn’t make it, we had a special guest give a quick talk at our party. She’s an acquaintance of mine, named Gina, who I knew 15 years ago when I lived in Portland. We were friends of friends and found ourselves at the same events now and then. Three years ago, after not being in touch since living in Portland, she mailed me a calendar of all the farm pizza parties she traveled to that year (she’d heard I had a farm).
Farm pizza parties are her very niche passion, which she details on an Instagram account under “Farmsthatgrowpizza.” She adores farm pizza events as they combine community, gathering on local farms, eating local food, and za! I messaged her on Instagram three weeks prior to our party to “invite her” (kind of jokingly, as she lives in Chicago, and we aren’t really in touch), she asked if I was bluffing to which I said no (but I had been bluffing just a little bit, if I’m to be perfectly honest), so she flew out from Chicago for the shindig. Hilarious! And incredible! She’s a wild one.
Gina makes connections everywhere she goes and is probably going to live forever because of it. The World Health Organization states that social isolation is a growing public health issue that “should be taken as seriously as smoking, obesity and sedentary lifestyles.” And “healthy networks of social connections provide powerful protective health effects, increasing odds of long-term survival by 50%.” May Gina be an inspiration to us all! Farm pizza parties forever!