Mindy Tsonas Choi

It's been such a full, full, week, and I am still sifting through a lot of it... all the girls at camp and their stories and ways they changed and illuminated so many things for me... my kids being gone on a trip to Mexico with their dad and feeling that immense distance between all of us... pushing myself a bit outside my comfort zone to work at Wild Vibes yoga and art festival to body paint... the full moon eclipse and everything going wonky as we headed back into retrograde... the one year anniversary of our Alaska cruise (where I also met Anthony Bourdain) and all those feels... and life that just keeps happening at a seemingly breakneck pace, no matter how slow and low I try to go. The other day I plugged in my kid's school calendar. I can't believe summer is already half way over, which also means another year is almost upon us. September has always felt like my true 'new years'. New notebooks and school clothes always feel like the marker of somethin

I am so grateful for this small space of connection and abundance. In innumerable ways this little blog and your support has literally kept my life afloat. No exaggeration. As I've been working to fully get on my feet as a single mom, every ounce of love coming from here feels like a daily whisper of  "keep going",  which has become my steady, quiet mantra.  There have been so many things to work through, parenting schedules, holiday traditions and the way we celebrate birthdays and other life milestones, health insurance, the unclear division of in-laws and friends, as well as gathering all the stuff one needs to make a life. I took me several months to simply get a real bed, and I still always forget I no longer own a cheese grater. In all the tiny and immense ways it has taken to break down and rebuild, you being here along for some of it is a gift.  As my work has turned a big corner too, I'm in that transition phase where it feels like it's all b

Some of our favorite pieces from our trip to the deCordova Owen is in the photos for scale (and posterity ;) - this rolling lawn pieces was incredible! The stainless steel room of the Kusama exhibit was beautifully reflective on the outside too! Even though we had to wear gloves and booties, "Where the Lights in My Hearts Go" was pure magic. I could have stayed in there for hours (you only got a minute). This sculpting with air exhibit was truly magnificent - it was made of plaster and will be smashed when it's ready to be uninstalled! Loved these giant hearts, of course...  And up close you could see all the meaningful objects and ephemera that was used to create them. Such an inspiring day! If you live in the Boston area, it's definitely worth the trip.

A few times a year a huge wave of creativity will swell and suddenly come sweep me off my feet.  It makes me feel freshly inspired and energized, and I want to see, smell, feel, listen, and taste the world with all my senses.  It is a place of great calm yet also a space where wellsprings of ideas and inspired creative flights come soaring through like the dance of birds on the wind. I have come to recognize that these times happen when my life is harmonizing just so, where the rhythmic alignment of my mind, body and spirit is set within a specific range that's attuned to my true cosmic flow.  This is the place where I strive to exist more often, and I am learning to better circumnavigate obstacles that tend to bump me off the path so I can create on a more wavy-like trajectory and less on one that's wildly up and down. It's clear to me now that these inspired times always open up in the wake of off-loading and working through some hard stuff.  It is the act of ex

There is nothing like family time to bring into focus the myriad of feelings, memory, and story that inevitably become the wild and complex stew which feeds our lives. Our past is deeply embedded into our narrative DNA, and we all carry both blessings and broken parts. There is so much for each of us to unearth, discover, celebrate, and heal. I think it is this human part of living that is most compelling to me - that we all have burdens to carry, lessons to learn and gifts to share as imperfect, evolving human beings, and no matter what the heartaches and triumphs look like in our lives, underneath it all it is simply a universal quest to love and be loved in the best way we know how. It is often a tough gig. I feel the pull to prevail, to not be defined by the past, but to find my own ways of happiness and peace - to only carry with me what it is good and strong and beautiful. There is so much. But I also want to understand the mythos and lean into those spaces where our hist