For ten days, we are bound by clay, water, sand and straw – in various ratios and textures. Bamboo, tapioca, and cement show up from time to time, but basically, we are women with red hands and feet. Kahlo (as in Frida) is 18 months old. Susan is 77. We are every decade in between. We are Thai, French, Hungarian; Canadian, American, Mongolian. We are Pakistani, raised in Canada, living […]
I never imagined I’d go to Tokyo. I always said there was so much to see in the US that the thought of traveling overseas seemed so… foreign to me. But, in the Fall of 2016 I found myself with the opportunity to travel to Japan with a group of 12 -14 year old female gymnasts, two of their coaches, a parent chaperone and my husband, the delegation leader, for […]
This month, we feature re:home, a For Freedoms exhibition exploring the plight of political and social refugees, examining sanctuary city, homelessness, and the flight of the creative class intersect in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit re:home Dec. 1 – 29 at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco Opening reception on Saturday, December 1 from 5-8pm. Family + Community Day on Saturday December 8 from 11am-2pm will feature free art-making workshops + interventions. For Freedoms […]
We tend to think of our goals in life as a place, a set destination. Calendar dates become oases, the sensations of completing a major project take on an almost physical definition. We follow “roadmaps” to promotion and advancement. These are the reference points many of us use to define our lives. When the word “travel” is entered into a search bar, the computer screen will explode with a full […]
I was upgraded to the first class cabin on a morning flight last year and was excited to learn I had two choices for breakfast, a scrambled egg burrito or oatmeal and fresh fruit. Oatmeal sounds like the healthier choice, right? Yup, I thought so, too, and that’s the one I picked. (Also, I’m allergic to gluten so didn’t have much of a choice.) Then, when my tray arrived, […]
By now we all know that productivity is a function of balance: factoring in periods of recovery in order to perform at our best. I struggle with this. Being surrounded by extremely ambitious people and setting high standards for myself, I am prone to letting the drive for excellence crash land into rigid office hours, borderline burnout, or comparing myself to your Instagram life. It’s a losing battle. Will the […]
Pablo Picasso once said “I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.” At first that statement might make us laugh, due to the irony in it, but it gets at the heart of two important issues that are often different sides of the same coin: living simply while enjoying the small pleasures in life versus spending our life amassing money and possessions. Like many people, I’ve […]
Sometimes being on a team can feel like a hindrance. Perhaps you feel a team member is holding the team back or that one team member is bringing the whole group down, but when you work with a team that shares your vision for success, then that’s when truly magical things can start to happen in your collaboration with others. Recently, my sister Laurel gave up her full time job, […]
In 2017 I left a successful career as a restaurant manager to work for myself. Hospitality, when done well, is an act of endurance; of tirelessly putting out fires. After two decades of rewarding but unceasing work in the hot zone, my personal life was collapsing under the pressure. My partner and I simultaneously decided to resuscitate our aspirations of careers in writing, a dream I had suppressed to better […]
Yasmin Nguyen is a thought leader, speaker, podcast host, and veteran entrepreneur of 17 years. He is committed to inspiring over 1 million acts of gratitude to grow magnificent relationships, businesses, and communities. In 1978, at the age of 5, he, his mother, grandmother, and two younger siblings snuck through the jungle to board a small fishing boat. Fleeing Communist-controlled Vietnam, they were rescued at sea as their boat sank to the bottom […]