Lots of rain lately.

I’m headed to Vietnam on Sunday for the next month.

I found a literal hut in a remote village up north where I’ll get to see their traditional form of paper making and calligraphy, explore the stilt house designs, the landscapes and temples.

Little keys to little hidden places.

It feels like a solid research trip before I’m back home with Nyoman for the year.

And I am ready to be home.

I rode down to Sanur with Ami the other day. We went for “Sunday Roast” which I didn’t realize was an English thing. I had fish and chips, my first fried meal in some time. My skin is throwing the biggest fit as I try to gently coax it to it’s chill state prior to.

I happen to find myself next to couples lately — subtly observing men dominate conversation or dismiss her voice entirely. I’m trying to hold space for why this is, but when I sit with it, this liberated strength rises up in me, reaffirming the integrity shaping around my own voice in this world.

I love returning to these stories — it helps me return to myself, beyond the surface to my honest interpretation of it all. I made an internal promise I wouldn’t BS these, but I actively choose to write the story I want to remember.

In doing so, I think I live a better story.

I will miss the warmth of these lights each evening as I get ready for bed.

There’s a lantern workshop in Hanoi I feel particularly jazzed about. Back in the US, I plastered lamp bases that went without lampshades the whole time I had them. I remember coming across a beautiful “kozo” handmade paper (which I now have come to know as paper mulberry), thinking to myself “I wish I could make my own shades,” but feeling the level of knowledge and resources so far away. Now I feel uniquely positioned to execute. To not just mimic a style, but to deeply absorb and embody a life integrated with soulful, tactile creation.

Admittedly, in the past, I’ve been defiant against the Christian cultural pressure to “read your bible” mainly out of principle with the biblical belief “he has given us everything we need for life and godliness” and because the new covenant says “he has put his laws in our hearts.” I know this is equivalent to blasphemy for some, but for me, it was deeply conflicting to hear “you NEED to read your bible” over and over when Jesus liberated us from the need to do anything other than to surrender and receive life in him.

I still believe this. I think I had to leave the expectation behind so I could find it again in my own way.

I say this because I’ve been waking up with curiosity — wondering what will be revealed. “I thank you Father that you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children.”

There is such a liberation and potency, reading within the context of a new place. It feels like my secret portal to Heaven.

I came across this cutie wandering about. A bunch of workers came over and told me I should take him home.. so I did.

I brought him inside and started crying — the purity, the vulnerability, something about his precious soul alone out there.

I started making arrangements to adopt him and then I could hear someone calling out. Sure enough, this boy and his mom were looking for him. They were so grateful, thanking me over and over.

See you, little Kito 🤍