I am announcing a new course, which begins May 1! I wanted to share a bit about the origin of this course, The Flowers and The Beautiful.
Back in 2010, I found a treasure in northern Thailand. Part coffee/tea shop, part art gallery, the space was created by a man named Aie who retired from the busy life of filmmaking in Bangkok to live slowly slowly, as he said. The backpacker’s life, the simple life. His cafe was called La-Liead in Pai, which meant Slow Life in Pai. It was filled with handmade artifacts that he made from collecting found and foraged objects. The whimsical space was permeated with a soundtrack of heart melting piano music. I drank tea out of his handmade ceramic cups while gazing at the biggest air plants I had ever seen, which he had tended for years. Aie roasted fresh coffee and made it with devotion, and the space was always set for creativity to flow.
In me he saw the book I am to write someday. He was so excited. As he witnessed me create art and share my love of flowers with him, he would often said to me, “The flowers and the beautiful! The flowers and the beautiful!” Since this time more than a dozen years ago, this phrase and this feeling has always been in my heart. Reclaiming the slow life, the backpacker’s life. Noticing the small things, tending to the beauty. Being in the magic flow. Honoring the time to sit and create and feel and be.
Many years later, I return to this phrase and this feeling. I will never forget this sweet man and the way he shared his journey, and encouraged me to do the same. And so now, the flowers and the beautiful is born. And I hope it evolves into a book. Poetry, visual weavings, special art, travel moments of presence. Everyday slow sweet magic, like dripping honey and piano music that tugs at your heart strings. Songs of the heart, painted in rivers of color, created in devotion to the flowers and the beautiful.