A Coffee With KLRU's Tom Spencer

June 14, 2007

Author: Ricardo Gándara

Source: The Austin American-Statesman

http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/06/14/0614Coffee.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild38c=11vdG4TN6fQfsjsRtzBQyG8VvlDW5F3BLdYz86CyBF4vflsL9GKr!-1990140194&UrAuth=`N_NUObN]UbTTUWUXUVUZTZU_UWU]U]UZU`UZUcTYWYWZV&urcm=y

To hear Tom Spencer tell it, the garden is everything. There, his faith — the practice of caring for plants and flowers and even pulling weeds — awakens him. "Hanging out with hummingbirds!" he says with excitement. Once, he witnessed a praying mantis break out of its egg shell in his backyard. He felt fortunate to be part of something grand: new life and possibilities.

"A garden gives back," says Spencer, the familiar face of KLRU-TV for a quarter century and the soft, soothing voice spewing beautiful words on the "Green Thumb Hour," a gardening show on KLBJ-AM radio Saturday mornings. Sipping on organic fair trade coffee, the host of the "Central Texas Gardener" is at home at the funky, laid-back FoodHeads restaurant on West 34th Street, one of his favorite "real Austin kind of places." He loves the herb-rubbed chicken sandwich. "My partner (Victor Martinez) and I love coming on Saturdays. The fare is simple but with a twist. They love food here."

It is no surprise that Spencer, 50, is returning to his roots — he began gardening at age 6 while growing up in upstate New York — for his latest project, a new TV series that is in the developmental stage.

"The working title is 'Cultivating the Sacred,' " Spencer says. "It will be a 13-episode series that examines spiritual practice from a multifaith perspective. Our intent is to create a gorgeous high-definition program that provides insight about different aspects of the spiritual journey and shows real examples of practices that make a difference in people's lives. This could be as simple as families sharing their meals together, a ritual that has largely passed away in our culture, to things that we would recognize as being more overtly spiritual like meditation or prayer. Our emphasis will not be on theology but on the simple things that people can weave into their day-to-day schedules to help them feel more fully alive and engaged with the world around them."