Last month I wrote my column a week before our beautiful county went up in flames. I went on about fall and pumpkins, excited about the festival, craft market and the upcoming remainder of the season. Little could any of us have known what Mother Nature had in store for us. I know many suffered losses, great and small, and my heart goes out to all who were impacted. This was a tragedy like no other in our history, and will affect us for a long time to come.
I’m deeply grateful Healdsburg was spared, though it certainly came close. On behalf of myself, the market board and our vendors, I wish to offer a huge thank you to the first responders who kept this town safe as well as so many others.
As Thanksgiving draws near, and the end of our market season approaches, I would like to use this space as a place to offer thanks for so many things.
Firstly, I am thankful to Healdsburg for welcoming me into the community, and being so supportive of your farmers’ market. It’s a pleasure to run a market so filled with enthusiastic shoppers and friends.
I’m thankful for my great vendors. People come up to me and say I’m doing a good job because I have “so and so” as a vendor. I’m not the vendor. I just went to their booth at another market, or emailed them, and asked them to try our market. The rest is up to them. You shopping at that vendor’s booth keeps them coming. I’m just the middleman.
I‘ll always be grateful for having the skills to do this kind of work: to bring growers, food producers and artisans together and create an environment for direct sales. You’re buying from the person who makes the goods. No radio advertising, internet pop-up ads or TVs blaring. So simple: as old as time itself.
Of course my gratefulness extends to my husband, family, the amazing world I was born into, and the incredible life I’ve been fortunate to live. If one has awareness of so many people struggling all over the planet it puts in stark contrast how beautiful and wonderful not only our surroundings are, but the people we have around us as well.
I’ve long believed the more we are able to find gratefulness in our hearts, despite adversity, the less breakable we are. A brilliant quote by Albert Einstein seems fitting here. “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I’ll go with the latter.
The market is filled right now with gorgeous treats for your holiday celebrations, so come spend these last few Saturdays with us, before we close for the season at the end of November. Let’s revel in fall together, and find the gratefulness in our hearts for the bounty and talent of this area.
Janet Ciel is the manager of the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market. She can be reached at
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