His Story, Her Story

..."And I remember thinking, 'Maybe I shouldn't feel so ashamed. Maybe, one day, Allah willing, I can become a great lady too.'" - Jahan, one of the first educated woman in the history of Braldu Valley (Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson)

Sterling silver cuff by C. Casil

The marker for the beginning of this new journey.  Sketched it on my notebook, carved it out of wax, then began the cire perdue process. Created with sterling silver in a class that was just supposed to be an outlet from my nine-to-five career. The theme, the motivation, the inspiration - pretty hard to explain to strangers, in a blog post, to the world wide web.  The strength, the femininity, the humanity is hard to showcase in a cuff bracelet, but that is a brief summary of the inspiration that helped create and complete this project.

To get a little bit of understanding, I'll leave you with these suggested reads by great men: Greg Mortenson and Nicholas Kristof.

take a glorious bite of the whole world

Growing old used to be a scary thought for me, but now I've come to embrace it.  My age has been brought up several times in conversations with friends this past week and if the intention was to make me feel old, I didn't quite catch that message. What has changed with age is my love for traveling. Haven't traveled to many places yet, but I'm getting there. It's hard to describe the specifics of what it is exactly that I love about traveling; however, if I had to the state the obvious it would be: 1) the food 2) the art 3) the architecture 4) the language 5) and the location (duh!). 

The past few years I've gone on many travels for business purposes and personal leisure trips.  If you want to travel outside of Hawaii you are required to travel across the vast Pacific Ocean and there's no way out of it because, well - we're on an island! My latest trip has opened my eyes to really experiencing the joys of traveling.  Of course, there is no escaping that if you are traveling to Paris.  Maybe it was a combination of the situation I escaped, the situation I was in presently, and the situation that I envision being in the future that culminated into what I was experiencing right there in that city.  Drinking cafe la creme after a meal, sitting at the park behind the Eiffel tower, riding the bus to Montrésor, milking a cow at the local dairy farm, whatever the situation may have been - I was completely immersed in it.  Unlike the travels I've done before to Tahiti, Costa Rica, the Phillippines, etc. this Parisian experience was unlike any other.  Probably because of the whole idea of accepting and being a completely whole person exactly where I was.  

So to the rest of the world out there that I have yet to experience - I will see you in a few and I look forward to meeting you  ;)

kalos kai agathos

Balancing the good and the beautiful. I've been wanting a way to swim in this kind of notion since I've been five. The world I created in secret when I was that age was beautiful, peaceful, fun, and serene.  There was only one option and it was clear, precise and perfectly right to me. I didn't think I was a little bit crazy, what kid thinks they're crazy? I loved my little weird projects of paper dolls, carved chalk dolls, and daydreams. Of course, as we get older we change. We are influenced by everything around us.  We are faced with other options, different projects, and then our daydreams even change.

Now I am here revisiting the secret world I created and today it still is beautiful, peaceful, fun, and serene.  There has only been one option for me and it fits just right.  So going back to a comment my nephew made last summer - There is absolutely nothing wrong with basking in the thought of a "world made of jello" (except the people inhabiting the world, of course).

Must reads:  Eat, Pray, Love; Top tips from women entrepreneurs: Linda Rottenberg - How I Did It