On the Road: California

5/29/14 : ★

One of the things I love most about traveling, is that it gives you a lot of perspective. 

Bridge over the bay.

Everywhere you go, you encounter the narratives that people tell about who they are, what they do, and where they live. And for the most part, I've found that whether these stories are positive or negative has little to do with relative physical comfort, and more to do with emotional well being.

Dad in front of his home. He retired from engineering and went into medical massage.
He spends a lot of time in farmers markets. And he is so happy. 

To a certain extent, each and every one of us constructs our own personal hell and heaven. And we re-tell ourselves the story of this hell or heaven, everyday.

Berkeley: A man named Rivers, dressed in a flashy silver suit, offers me flowers and blessed yogurt from the Hare Krishna Temple. 

We chose to feel liberated by circumstances, or to be imprisoned by them. We chose hate or happiness. We chose to love or to run.

Flower offering

I can't help but feel that to have power over our lives, we must know that we have power over these narratives. We must recognize that we are the writers of the fictions in our head--and yes, they are fictions. Because almost any circumstance can be re-written to be understood and felt differently.

And these fictions we tell ourselves--they have power. They form the ground from which we make decisions about who and how to love, about what's possible for our future, and about whether we can be happy.

Patty's new hat.

Minette

ReBOOT

Hello! And Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
As you may have noticed, I've neglected this personal blog since the end of 2012, when I launched into a long-term project called AKSHA.

Its been a large, life-changing experience which involved moving from Brooklyn to Bangkok, a year-long Fulbright Fellowship in sacred sculpture, a Kickstarter campaign, a new children's book, a new 150-meter art installation, and my first line of jewelry called LUMINOUS.

Its been amazing. And most of my journey has been documented on AKSHA's Blog and Facebook Page.

Since then, I've come to re-evaluate everything that I've done in my life. Everything, from the children's stories and piano compositions I made when I was 10 years old, my work as an artist in calligraphy and animation, to the work I did in grad school at NYU--All the work on my Brushsong.com site and this blog in retrospect now seems to just have been preparation for what I am doing now. I understand it all differently, and am repackaging it all for relaunch on the new Brushsong site later this year.


So be patient with me! All systems go. If you'd like to stay in touch, please visit my Facebook page or send me a note. I'm coming back to my writing and music, and so will post essays and video/sound pieces on this site from time to time.

Much love,
Minette