"Leisure is a form of that stillness that is necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear. Such stillness is not mere soundlessness or a dead muteness; it means, rather, that the soul’s power, as real, of responding to the real — a co-respondence, eternally established in nature — has not yet descended into words. Leisure is the disposition of perceptive understanding, of contemplative beholding, and immersion — in the real.”

— Josef Pieper, "Leisure, the Basis of Culture"

In the name of choice, here are a few ideas we’ve had lately that live in the leisure neighbourhood:

① Remembering to breathe deeply (take notice if you’ve been sighing a lot – a marked sign of stress in the body).

② Lying down (see above).

③ While this is more of a “don’t try this at home” scenario, you, like us, may be familiar with “revenge bedtime” by now. Consider the phenomenon a form of sleep procrastination in your attempts to regain the leisure time that’s “taken” away from you by the day’s seemingly unrelenting to-do’s.

④ The unmanageable and universal lightness of laughing really, really hard.

A 'delight' is a kind of otherworldly sensation, one that has perhaps been lacking in a year of grief, isolation, and restrictions. What in recent months has been a source of delight for you? 

I’ve really enjoyed being in nature this year. Spending time on an empty 10 acre ag property in Nevada County and slowly working to convert it into usable farm land for our products. It’s been grounding and has helped me to make sense of what I’m doing. There’s also something about the energy there. It’s simple, every time I’m there I feel good which makes me want to give to it as much as it gives to me. I’m in love with a bunch of trees and dirt and grass and rocks.

Each of your collaborations feels like a story. Do you think of Rose Delights as a tool to transport you to another time and place?

I guess I’ve thought of them more as a tool to bring me into the here and now. But, I do like when food ingredients trigger a response bringing the person eating them to a place where those ingredients originated. Most the ingredients in delights are local to us in San Francisco. Somehow delights end up all over the world and I really like that people everywhere get to taste flavors from this soil. I like that sense of connection.

This year has forced us to sit with ourselves and look deeply at our inner landscapes. Can you speak a bit to how you regard an altered state (however you interpret it) to offer a fresh vantage point? 

For me being sober can sometimes feel more altered and controlled by circumstances than being intoxicated by a plant. Not only weed, it can be any plant or form of intoxication that offers me a break from the monotony of my own formula. Often I just need time in nature to help balance me and that’s the altered state I enjoy most.

You work with a diverse and geographically vast community. What has it been like tending to that community throughout the pandemic? And how do you see your community growing/shifting in the future?

The pleasure of working with all these people is pretty immense. Continuing to contribute something valuable into this community and grow with it is the goal we’re working towards every day. Everything feels very living and it’s moving to watch it all come together. We’re continuing to build our team and collaborating with more and more great people to work on our farm, creative work and recipes. The next few months are going to be really fun to watch it all unfold.