"I’m paying attention with every sense"

An interview with Ashley Rodriguez

Oct 24, 2024

You know what I love? Obsessives. I love passion-driven individuals—and it barely matters what you are passionate about. I will listen to your stories of remodeling vintage train sets, researching your family heritage in Norway, or breeding new dahlia varieties, and I will be as happy as can be.

Because passions are what give people joy. It’s that experience when time melts away and you’re in the flow of doing or creating. When people talk about their passions, their faces light up. In that moment, everyone—everyone—looks beautiful to me.

And when I get to watch someone I know FIND their passion, find their obsession, find their joy, it’s an even deeper delight.

Ashley Rodriguez is one of those people.

I’ve known Ash for years now. Fellow food bloggers back in the day, we were connected by a love of cooking and feeding people and making things taste good—though, as a professional pastry chef and author of three cookbooks, her skills are more sophisticated than mine will ever be. Ashley is deeply talented, artistic, and passionate about what she does.

And then she discovered mushrooms.

A curiosity about foraging took Ashley into the woods, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it changed her life. She fell in love with mushrooms (which she used to dislike), started an award-winning video series about cooking outdoors, called Kitchen Unnecessary, and became a certified nature and forest therapy guide. She now spends all the time she can foraging, fishing, camping, and wandering the woods.

I’ve had the lucky opportunity to go mushroom foraging with Ashley a few times—and, let me tell you, her joy at finding mushrooms is contagious. Look at that smile!

Now Ashley has taken her mushroom passion and put it into a book. Her Field Notes from a Fungi Forager was published last week. It’s a beautifully illustrated journey through the world of Pacific Northwest mushrooms—covering species, best collection practices, and uses for mushrooms, both culinary and craft. The book is illustrated by Libby England, who managed to capture the fungi with such charm and intimacy that the artwork itself is joyful. (This is not a mushroom identification book, but the illustrations evoke the species in a way that totally surprised me; they feel happy).

Ashley’s publisher on this book also published my flower and hummingbird books, and have kindly agreed to offer a copy as a giveaway item. If you are interested, please leave a comment telling us something you are passionate about right now, where you are finding joy. I’ll pick one name at random next week and we’ll get that copy in the mail (US mailing addresses only, apologies!).

And now, on to the interview. Thanks to Ashley for joining us! Thanks so Sasquatch Books for the giveaway.

These interview posts are usually reserved as a subscriber benefit, but Ashley’s interview made me happy and I want to share it with all of you. These days are feeling so hectic, I think we could all use a dose of the woods. Enjoy!

If you want to receive future interviews, please either sign up for a paid subscription or contact me for a freebie, if times are tight and it feels out of reach (I get it).
I’ve set aside a number of complimentary subscriptions; no questions asked.

ASHLEY RODRIGUEZ: THE ENJOY INTERVIEW

What does joy mean to you? What does it feel like? Why is it important?

I appreciate that you asked “What does it feel like?”—because I often speak in the language of feelings. Joy feels like everything in my body is saying “yes!” But that doesn’t mean it’s always elation. It is more of a sense that, in that moment, I am living my life as the truest version of myself. In that moment, by some miracle, all the stars aligned and I am exactly where I am meant to be. It’s like everything else in life slows down and I can absorb all the tiny details, I’m paying attention with every sense.

My daughter is a massive fan of the TV show The Office, so this reference is fresh in my mind, but it’s like when Jim and Pam are getting married and every once in a while Pam stops and takes a mental photo. She raises her arms to imitate holding a camera and snaps a shot because in that exact moment she wants to freeze time and remember it always. Joy feels electric and makes me feel and continue to fall madly in love with the world.

What are some things you do to access joy, delight, or wonder?

For me, a sure bet to find joy, delight, and wonder is to go outside. The feeling of wonder often comes when I’m experiencing something that feels bigger than me, even if that something is physically smaller. Take mushrooms, for example, they may be small in stature, but what is happening under the soil is so much bigger. Under my feet, webs of mycelium tangle and bend in every inch of soil, sending messages and nutrients all over the forest in order to keep life sustaining; theirs and ours. This mysterious underground world delights me to no end and leaves me in a wondrous stupor.

When frolicking in the woods with fungi isn’t an option, I try to practice presence and gratitude. If overthinking were a skill, I would call myself a master. I have gone well and above the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell says one needs to practice before calling yourself an expert. As you can imagine, this overthinking does not lead me to joy, delight and wonder.

But the antidote to anxiety brought on by overthinking, I have found, is becoming aware of the present and noting what I am grateful for. In the morning pages practice from Julia Cameron’s The Artist Way, I have found help through journaling. Often, in those pages, I spend a good bit of space writing through simple things I’m grateful for: the warmth from my dog curled up next to me, my morning cup of coffee followed by my mid-morning cup of coffee, sunshine in the fall, etc.

Gratitude helps me stop fretting over the past and the future and grounds me in the goodness of now. I also spend 5 to 10 minutes every day rooting myself in nature through daily practices that I invite others into on my Instagram. This helps me have a moment of deeper connection, which for me creates joy daily.

What is something you like to do for or with your family or friends to bring the magic?

With three teenagers at home it’s hard to find and create the time for connection, but what I’ve found in this season is that I am easily content with just their presence. Simple moments of daily connection that make me feel seen and that let them know I am here even when they don’t need me to be.

They are rapidly becoming adults and working hard to identify themselves apart from us. This can be quite challenging at times, but it’s also delightful to be present to their growth. No matter how different we may be, I want them to always feel seen and known—and know that they have me as their greatest cheerleader. The feeling of being known by others is magical to me.

I also want to do right by them by living my own life modeling seeking joy in the face of great despair.

This sounds so cheesy, but stay with me for a moment. Recently, while traveling in Italy, I was lying in bed in a sort of half-awake/half-asleep state. I had the thought that I’m starting to turn my life into one giant foraging adventure. Some days I forage for mushrooms, but even more than that I am foraging for joy. Pain is unavoidable in life, but joy is there too; you may have to work a bit to find it, but I love the hunt.

What do you wish more people knew or understood about finding (seeing?) wonder or joy?

That this is our life’s work. What if we were here to find joy and to love this world? Our culture screams at us that it’s not enough, but when I’m still and listen to what feels true in my soul, it feels like everything.

In conversation with Krista Tippet, children’s book author, Kate DiCamillo says:

“If you pay attention, you’re filled with wonder—because who wouldn’t be, right? But we get so caught up in worrying, in being angry, that we don’t stop to marvel. And I think that if you walk through a neighborhood with a kid or a toddler, it’s just like, wait! Everything is fascinating. And I don’t want to let that go, because that’s a great gift. It grounds you.”

When life feels too much and I feel like I am about to drown in despair, I remember Mary Oliver’s Instructions for Living a Life:

“Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

That I can do.