Trusting the time things need to grow
Reflections on the creative process and the making of a food deck, and the patience and trust that we need to bring what we make
Hello mga ka-Ugnayan,
It feels like it’s been a long time since I’d written one of these kinds of posts for our Ugnayan newsletter. Reflective, introspective, maybe even a little vulnerable.
The “delay” is intentional
In 2024, I was intent on writing monthly posts based on the 12 wellbeing themes in our cards. After that, I’ve spent time exploring adjacent side quests with Hapag Ugnayan, a food-oriented initiative to share thought snacks and potlucks or gatherings of food and creativity to reconnect us with the land, the kitchen and each other.
If you’ve been following our sporadic updates since last year, you’ll know we’ve been cooking up a food deck, and we even wanted to come out with a prototype by October 2025 during our Luto Likha Linang gathering. We drafted some cards for the event, but I knew they were far from a final draft. In some ways, you may even say it was just the beginning (although I’d already begun dreaming about an eventual food deck when we came out with our first deck in November 2023).
Last April 3, I had a meeting with my Ugnayan co-creator Kookie, along with Char of Good Food Community for an initial attempt at maybe co-designing the food deck.
There was excitement, audacity (albeit restrained), as well as cautious optimism, as we talked about the directions it could go. A deck with a different illustration and artist for each card! A companion guide book! Launch ideas!
What followed were a series of other conversations, including some with another potential co-creator, and somehow, the project didn’t seem any less exciting or feasible, but it didn’t feel as urgent as it did to me in that initial call.
It became apparent that there was still more inner work (deepening my own learning, reflection and insight in the food space; embracing my own creativity) and outer work (connecting more meaningfully with fellow creatives and advocates; building relationships and networks of solidarity) that I needed to do to before this could take meaningful shape. And yes, sure, we can forever argue the need to “do more research”, “write more”, “create more”, etc. but something about this made me feel that it was a genuine need to take our time vs. an excuse to procrastinate or avoid facing my fears of putting work out there.
In late May, I wrote a post on Commodifying Creativity vs. Allowing Creative Ripening on my personal Substack. In there, I wrote: Iwasan natin ang kalburo.
There is an intentional co-created quality that I hope for it. And co-creation requires relationship-building, which adds friction in a creative process, but to me, this also adds meaning and intention to what its natural ripening will yield.
Nature has its own sense of time. And those living in right relationship with it flow with its rhythm.5
Process vs. output
Recently, I started an online course on co-designing with care with KA Mackercher of Beyond Sticky Notes, and this was one of the cards in their resource pack that struck me.
“The relationships are the work — do not rush the doing.” — something I was also reminded of in Hapag Ugnayan’s recent Tikim at Tahi gathering at Good Food Sundays.
While it’s evident that we will still not be coming out with a food deck this year (and I can’t even say yet that it’s a certainty for next year), there have been many initially unplanned projects that have emerged as a result of engaging in the ideation process, nurturing the relationships with Good Food Community, and finding other natural opportunities for collaboration.
There’s been a lot of energy around the partnership with Good Food Community since we started raising solidarity shares last year. Since that time, we’ve launched:
Tampipi ng Ugnayan, a limited time partnership last June, which we have now turned into a more longstanding partnership with Good Food Community
Hapag Ugnayan Writing Circle, a limited time partnership we just officially launched yesterday (August 8), where over the course of 5 weeks, subscribers will engage in writing that aims to help us reconnect with ourselves, our food, our kitchens and the land that nourishes us. After we run this initial 5-week cycle, we’ll also review what we could do to offer it to deepen the engagement with participants, as well as find ways to offer it to others who may not be able to get a slot to join our live sessions this time around.
All of these little experiments are ways for us to test some ideas and grow power and solidarity through the relationships we form in these spaces.
So while we’re slow-cooking that next deck (or not at all), we hope to stay connected with you through, whether through the food-focused gatherings of Hapag Ugnayan or in other spaces that perhaps even you hold to bring a greater sense of connection into your circles or communities.
What spaces for connection nourish you?
What spaces for connection can you create for or co-create with others?
Until then, let’s continue cultivating connection, nourishment and abundance for our kapwa.
Jen Horn | Pagbubuo
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