What do you do?
I co-own Kiva Café + Kitchen. My business partner, Djuna (another Womxn Among Us!) and I teach cooking classes in Bellingham! We want everyone to know how to feed themselves and the people they love with real food, and keep alive the food traditions of their ancestors, no matter where they’re from. I also work at Cafe Blue in Fairhaven and have a million hobbies like playing music, doing pottery, gardening, and baking.
Advice/words of wisdom that affected your life you’d like to pass on?
I think the wisdom that I call on the most is the idea to observe without judgment, especially yourself and your feelings. Start watching what happens and how you behave/think when you’re happy, sad, vulnerable, content, angry, threatened, etc and realize that those feelings happen to all people and aren’t “yours”. Doing this when I remember has taught me about being human, which we all are! Beautiful things happen when you realize you’re just another imperfect person feeling feelings among all the rest and you’re trying your best. You allow so much more space for other people to be flawed and start to love them for their humanness and stop being so triggered by life. It’s made me more brave because I’ve stopped being so afraid of making mistakes or not being good enough, feelings I used to try to avoid before I realized they arise for everyone and they’re no better or worse than any other feeling! A really great friend once told me that I should go out and make a fool of myself, and I loved that. Also, my mom has always said to “Be bold.” Who cares about feeling embarrassment or anything else when I’ll just notice it and it’ll pass? Of course it’s a lifelong process, but I’m getting better at it :)