Enjoying the freedom in exploring the backroads, sans data, fully embodied.
“You may not be exactly sure
just what’s around the bend,
but new beginnings only come
from some other beginning’s end.
You’ll find in life when everything
has all been said and done,
Our job is to surrender,
Letting go can be more fun.”
I’m honored to share that my art will be featured in Mighty Kind Issue 3: Breaking Bread!
This issue will explore the world of food and share the many ways that food brings us all together. As a registered dietitian, this resonates deeply since food is often the uniting hub for many shared experiences with those we love. Learn how people all over the world show gratitude for what’s on their plates, hear from a chef-dad about how he cooks up kindness at home, and read about kids from all around the world who are finding ways to reduce food waste, feed the hungry, and forge friendships around food. There’s also recipes and games included in this issue to inspire young chefs. In this particular issue, we visit France, practice sharing, and provide information on ways you can serve up kindness.
This issue is available for pre-order now and you will be supporting a special community of writers, artists and foodies alike as we unite together over our love for food, culture, and connection.
Purisma Creek Redwoods
“I find you
In the morning light
Under the forest canopy
Of my mind
Your love letters
Tucked within delicate spider webs
On velvety mushroom caps
In trickling streams
I find you
Between wake and sleep
In new places
Unknowingly known.”
My first printed cards! Available in my shop.
Four years ago on a roadtrip to Portland, Oregon I heard about #the100dayproject. Choose one creative action and make something consecutively for 100 days. I called my friend and asked him to join me for accountability. I chose to make 100 handmade cards for friends and strangers. Little did I know that this small act was the portal to a career shift and a huge life transition and transformation. Carving out some time to creating a card daily, irrespective of how busy or stressful work had been- fundamentally taught me how to prioritize my creativity. It taught me how to be still. It taught me how to be comfortable with the blank page and the possibilities it held. It taught me to be brave enough to make the first mark. It taught me to keep going even when I felt lost. It taught me how to listen to my intuition.
When an old college friend who I hadn’t seen in 15 years visited me in 2017, we sat together outside a cafe, notebooks in hand, and wrote out in detail where we’d be in 15 years. I looked up at the sky, dreaming big, explaining in detail the projects I was working on, the book I was editing, where I’d be living and who I was spending my life with as he furiously scribbled down my words to capture the magic of dreaming big.
Somewhere in the mixture of my ideal future I said, “I have my own line of cards that I’ve designed and sell as a way of spreading love and encouragement.”
I had no idea.
We begin to step into our own dreams and make them a reality with each small step. I chose to continue making cards even after the project was finished because it’s freeing and liberating and connects me to my heart. It’s something that brings me great joy, and I love how it’s a vessel for spreading love to others.
And I am smiling now as I write this- the seemingly huge milestones in our ‘big dreams’ sometimes aren’t all that far off from becoming our reality. If you’re willing to try, willing to laugh and learn from your mistakes, and willing to keep going and keep making, there’s magic in all of that. And who knows? Your 15-year plan may turn out to be well within your 5-year plan.
My first printed cards arrived in the mail today. I couldn’t be happier. I’m sending off a shipment to a store that sells my cards. These little bits of magic are reminders that the things we make and do daily add up. They become a body of work. Every day we have the opportunity to make our dreams a reality.
Thanks for sharing in my journey and for being a part of this magic.
Joshua Tree, CA
A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to the region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying,
SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES
The other writes back triumphantly,
GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES
Each scout perceives the situation in Africa through a different lens; each returns with a story that matches that perspective.
When you talk about your last job, your major relationships, the things that happened to you in 2013, what is your top story?
Do you lead with, “I injured my foot and couldn’t run for six months” or is it, “ I obsessively met and networked with a variety of creative entrepreneurs, set up a business model, and started playing around with watercolors and acrylics.”
Because both are true.
Our perspective informs our narrative, and our narrative shapes our future.
Lettuce be aware of our default, subconscious thought patterns.
“There are two young fish swimming along who happen to meet an older fish. The older fish nods at them and says:
‘Morning boys, how’s the water?’
The two young fish swim on for a bit and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and asks:
‘What the hell is water?’”
Our natural tendencies, attitudes and beliefs of the world are often the hardest to see and recognize. We interpret our experience through our own lens of self and rarely question our hardwired default settings.
Our ‘water’ is largely influenced by invisible subconscious patterning and social conditioning. Once we zoom out and closely examine the water we’re swimming in, we have a choice. We can choose to stay in that automatic default setting, or we can consciously decide to change our thinking. The so-called ‘real world’ encourages us to blindly swim in the murky water, exhausted in an effort to succeed in an environment whose default settings of money, power, fame determine our self-worth and value.
Question everything. And most importantly, know the water you’re swimming in.
Watch David Foster Wallace’s full commencement speech:
Three Redwood trees growing from a single Redwood stump. Captured on my run today at Purisma Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.
For all the fathers and father figures who are rooted in truth and integrity. Who weather the storms and fires and droughts and remain grounded and faithful. Who stay. Even when it’s uncomfortable and difficult. Who help us feel safe and build trust on a secure foundation. Who share knowledge and sacrifice resources so we can thrive and grow taller. Who are as life-giving and good to us as trees are to the world. It’s upon your shoulders that we stand. You make our lives better. So we promise to make our world better.
As a yonsei (fourth generation Japanese-American), I’ve always loved miso. It was normally in the form of soup and as a vegetable glaze. But never in cookies. The umami flavor adds a unique twist that hands-down makes this the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. Miso also contains probiotics, making this a win-win for your taste buds and your microbiome.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 stick (8 Tbsp) Miyoko’s unsalted vegan butter
1 chia egg (mix 1 Tbsp chia seeds with 3 Tbsp water and let it sit for 5 minutes)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup white miso paste
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand is dairy-free)
DIRECTIONS:
In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and Miyoko’s butter until creamy.
Add the chia egg, vanilla extract and miso paste in and beat until well mixed.
Add the flour and baking soda and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour (this is important to ensure chewiness and to hold form).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Drop by 1-2 Tbsp balls onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 13-14 minutes and rotate halfway through.
ENJOY!
I made this clay model earlier this year, and now it’s more relevant than ever.
As children, everything is new. Our cultural perspectives are formed in our community and home, and we learn a vocabulary for the things we see around us. School. Home. Car. Dinner. Greetings. Nonverbal cues, expectations and customs.
When we remove ourselves from the familiar by moving to a new city or country, we unlearn each of these things and reshape it into new model. The context has changed. Home looks different. Dinner looks different. Nonverbal cues are different. Our brain expands and begins to include more elements into our definitions.
I’ve been playing with this idea of ‘unlearning.’ It’s liberating. It’s shifting from an “expert” mentality (we are the authority in that field), to a “beginner’s” attitude (a curiosity and acceptance that there is so much more to learn). For most of us, a subtle transformation begins when we set aside our expertise. We become humbled and curious, malleable, observant and open.
We begin to deconstruct and reshape our beliefs and attitudes because we recognize our prior definitions were cages, limited by our experience and perspective. It’s this shift that enables us to see how larger systemic values and concepts- healthcare, poverty, wealth, opportunity- have been built- and now challenge those definitions with our voices, money, action, and vote.
It’s only by dismantling our current system and the injustices and racism baked into it before we can rebuild a better one. I hope we continue to move in a direction with more equality, freedom, and understanding for all. One conversation at a time. One donation at a time. One protest at at time. One headline at a time.
.
“If you believe that you have something special inside of you, and you feel it’s about time you gave it a shot, honor that calling in some small way–today.
If you feel a knot in your stomach because you can see the enormous distance between your dreams and your daily reality, do one thing to tighten your grip on what you want–today.
If you’ve been peering out over the edge of the cliff but can’t quite make the leap, dig a little deeper and find out what’s stopping you–today.
Because there is a recurring choice in life, and it occurs at the intersection of two roads. We arrive at this place again and again. And today, you get to choose.”
