Pickin Pure Michigan

Yesterday was a wild one! I started out the day with Jeremy still with me, we got ready, drove to location at 8:30 AM (wheels up) due to a few hiccups we spent most of the morning waiting around, planning, plotting the day, filmed in the pull up, when we arrive. By the time we were finished with the pull up it was time for lunch, we broke for lunch, I had some salmon, thank God I ate!

We ended up leaving this pick pretty late. I got to the hotel at about 11 PM, Jeremy had gone back to Puerto Rico at 2 PM. I was missing him quite a bit but really excited to just lay down and rest and hopefully find a bite to eat. Unable to find anything to eat as everything was closed at that time i went to bed without any dinner so I’m incredibly happy that I actually ate that salmon at lunch! It’s about an hour process to pack or unpack my bags each time we change hotels so after unpacking my bags, setting up my humidifier, scrounging for any snacks that I had left in my backpack, there were a couple, I had an orange in there and some peanut butter and dried mangoes, fortunately I always have snacks somewhere! This is why.

By the time I got my bags unpacked, Had a little backpack snack, showered and was ready for bed it was about 1 AM. Thank God we had our call time pushed back this morning until 10:30 AM (wheels up). It gave us all an opportunity to sleep. I got to the hotel early compared to the rest of the crew. They had to stay and do interviews and load up the truck so I’m sure they probably got to the hotel at about 1 AM just as I was falling asleep. It’s no joke out here… It’s extremely hard work, it’s dirty, it’s exhausting, we earn our paycheck that’s for goddamn sure. But even exhausting, Dirty work can be incredibly gratifying. I got to spend yesterday with a householder that I fell in love with. Joe was his name. He was a very sweet man and treated us with such kindness. It’s a really long day for us on the road but it’s also a really long day for our house holders. Many of them not understanding what the filming process looks like. Many of them thinking we’re going to come in and buy everything they have and leave with a full truck and just so happen to get a TV show out of it. The reality is we are there to film this production and pick at the same time and that makes a two hour journey into a 12 hour journey real fast. If we were just picking, we could be in and out of there quickly but while we are filming the process, everything takes 20 times as long. Constantly having to stop down for noise, batteries, lighting, switching locations, etc. While we are the ones who film the process of all of this, it is our house holders who are being overwhelmed with a completely new experience each time. It’s important that we watch out for their emotions. Often times we are picking through there lifelong collections or collections that they have inherited from loved ones who have passed on. There’s a lot of emotions involved. Not only is it physically demanding but it’s emotionally exhausting for them and for us. It’s important that we treat them with kindness and respect. It’s important that we understand when they’re starting to feel emotionally overwhelmed or exhausted. And that also lengthens the process. But it is a process… And it’s the process that we love about picking. It’s hearing each individual story, feeling those emotions with our householder, hugging and sometimes wiping away tears etc. Something about this experience is incredibly important to me. Something about this experience keeps me coming back out on the road for the last 13 years. Draws me closer to the ones I love in my crew out here on the road. Something about this process makes me thankful for each item picked and each story told. I know that the people that we pick from are experiencing something very intense and we are experiencing it right alongside them. I feel like often times we bring some sort of closure to peoples lives and other times, going through lifelong collections can open up old wounds. There’s something very heavy psychologically about what we do yet I always leave with a lightness of being, feeling the history of a family is so much different than seeing it. And when you get to feel it and see it at the same time and also get to pick it up and touch it and hold it and possibly take it home with you, it takes that experience to a completely different level. It feels like ghosts are attached to everything. It’s important that we don’t walk into a home and step on sacred ground. It’s important that we leave people feeling seen, heard, felt, understood. You can feel a persons ancestors when you walk through their front door in a job like ours. Not only can you feel them but you get to see them in photos and hear their stories. Anyhow, that’s all the time I have to write for this morning because we have another pick waiting for us right now. It’s 9 AM and I have an hour and a half to prepare myself for today’s pick, so I will leave you with this thought. It sounds silly and it’s a very old saying but please remember that it’s not what you wear, how much you weigh, what you say or how much you buy, it’s how you make a person feel… That’s what they will remember for a lifetime, how you made them feel. So when you’re out picking, keep that in mind. Open up your heart, turn off your judgment, just be with that person, be with them in spirit and emotion, in intention. That’s how i nurture these types of relationships pickin on the road.