Seven years ago I had to make a heartbreaking choice about my first-ever
pregnancy. It was “more than just a miscarriage,” and it took a lot of
energy and faith to put my story together. Honestly. Fully. But I did. And
here it is, in The Dive. This is a painful experience for anyone living
it, and I wanted to share here in case someone was going through it right
now so you know you’re not alone…
http://kismuth.wordpress.com/iii-the-dive/
Finding moments between Kush’s naps and bedtimes to come up with the whole
idea of why I’m even in Viet Nam right now with my four year old son,
without my husband to help with the caretaking, well, that’s been tricky.
But what’s harder has been finding the angle to tell this story well. What
am I doing here, anyways? Self-doubt creeps up quite a bit when you’re
forced to talk to yourself, and yourself only. But other things do, too.
After working in newspapers for five years, I wanted to get back to
first-person writing.
Not just writing things I see and do, that would be for journals of
course, but processing and compiling data so that readers might take
something away that has real grist. Meat. Awareness. You can see the
esoteric line beginning with the drawing above, right? Some of the authors
that have come up in conversations since I’ve been out here: Ayn Rand,
George Orwell, Thomas Mann, and E.M. Forster. I’m reminded of just how
much I love words.
From the e-letter ‘Seasons’ —>
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2cb28f3d325f70d79772e8cc1&id=e7f7e8b6a2&e=[UNIQID]
Join the Kismuth VIP list for updates each week —>
http://kismuth.wordpress.com
Tonight I’m going to be talking about the experience of hitting Viet Nam
on April 20 with no language training, no guidebook, no computer or phone,
no idea how the money works, and no idea what was in store. All I wanted
to do was introduce my son to Asia a little, since I believe in the
meaningfulness
of going and seeing what’s in the world, and talking to people, too. My
husband, Akira, is Japanese. We often take solo trips, but this time I
wanted to bring along my son to see what we could learn together. It’s
been trying at times, for sure, but honest and good in a way no other
experience has. Plus, this time won’t come back: he’s going to start
school in Sikkim, India, in the fall, and then we won’t have all this
unstructured time together to get lost on purpose in Southeast Asia.
All about the creative process: going in blind, looking around, getting
lost in it, and waiting for the “a-ha” moment. I’m also learning a ton
from how my son, Kush, who is nearing 5 (in August!), sees the things
around him. It’s encouraging me to enjoy the beginner’s mind again,
something I’ve talked about a lot at Design Kompany for the past 8 years
but am rusty at when it comes to practicing. We’ve been to: Da Nang, HCMC,
Da Lat, Nha Trang, and Dong Hoi so far, circling back to Hanoi to give
this talk and pick up the bulk of our stored luggage, and see what we want
to do next.
You can follow along on our adventures by joining the Kismuth VIP list at:
http://kismuth.wordpress.com
Beeswax modeling clay. Who knew I would be so glad I hung on to this one! Hours of joy with the boss-man, in 16 colors.
@akiramorita talks STITCH and the importance of meaningful conversations (and coming to America with not a lick of English!) That’s evolved, and now he’s heading up STITCH. DAYS to go in the campaign, back it here! —-> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stitch/stitch-you-art-and-your-city-a-word-driven-art-pro
#designthinking starts with the openness to hear in any direction. cc @fastcompany http://www.design-kompany.com/desk-notes/6095/
Something different.
Checkit —-> DAYS to go! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stitch/stitch-you-art-and-your-city-a-word-driven-art-pro
Will we? STITCH final days! Back it today :) —>http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stitch/stitch-you-art-and-your-city-a-word-driven-art-pro #dialogue #art #community
Creative: what people in Durham think this town should become. Check out STITCH, our kickstarter art project (LAST WEEK!) here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stitch/stitch-you-art-and-your-city-a-word-driven-art-pro
