Your children are not your children.
They are sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
When they are young, our children can seem like the tiny thorns to our bloom: our creative yearnings confined. As they grow up, our children can seem like the blooms to our thorn: their freedoms caged.
And yet, our longings are the same, two parts of an indivisible whole: life’s longing for itself.
I’m excited to share two upcoming events that examine motherhood as the unfolding of a creative journey. I hope you let yourself out of the house and come, where you are certain to meet a part of yourself you thought you’d lost.
Lost in Living
A full-length documentary by Mary Trunk
Friday, Feb. 1, 6:30 p.m.
Free, or a $5 charitable donation to benefit the All Saints Foster Care Project
All Saints Church
132 Euclid Ave.
Pasadena
Behind the domestic curtain of motherhood, where the creative impulse can flourish or languish, are four women determined to make a go of it. Filmed over seven years, Lost In Living confronts the contradictions inherent in personal ambition and self-sacrifice, female friendship and mental isolation, big projects and dirty dishes. The complex realities of family life unfold in this documentary film about the messy intersection of motherhood and artistic expression.
Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment
Discussion and book signing by Katrina Kenison
Friday, Feb. 8, 7 p.m.
Free
Vroman’s Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena
“No longer indispensable, no longer assured of our old carefully crafted identities, no longer beautiful in the way we were at twenty or thirty or forty, we are hungry and searching nonetheless.”
An inspiring, beautiful book for every woman whose children are growing up, but who is not done growing herself. Kenison explores the belief that even as old identities are outgrown, new ones begin to beckon, inspiring readers to summon enough courage to heed the call.
Heed the call.
(If you subscribe by email and are unable to see the trailer below, click here.)
Wow. Wowwowwow. There are some days I wish I still lived right down the street. I’m putting them on the calendar. We’ll see what life brings.
Comment by Alana — January 27, 2013 @ 10:14 pm
Dear Karen,
What a gripping trailer that is; Lost in Living! It’s like I want to jump and dive in it, completely immerse…
Would love to be able to see it with other friends, sisters, mothers, daughters, artists, but even if I open the door, let myself go, it’s a long flight from the south of the Netherlands to Pasadena…
Just wondering, is there any other way? Of contributing and seeing, overseas?
Warmly,
Astrid
Comment by Astrid de Keulenaar — January 28, 2013 @ 12:43 am
This is so weird! I just watched the trailer for this last night from another website – and it wasn’t a new post. Then I checked your blog and there it is again! It looks amazing – I can’t wait until it comes near to where I live. Thank you for posting it.
My kids are still young, my youngest started Kindergarten this year and while I no longer have the Radiohead “I’ve lost myself, I’ve lost myself” refrain running through my head, I am now wringing my hands with anxiety about resuming my art career that I abandoned 7 years ago. I didn’t know I was abandoning it at the time! Now I have no idea what to do. Actually, I never have any idea what to do. Ack!
Comment by Sharon — January 29, 2013 @ 9:56 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18bpNOxBbx4&feature=player_embedded
Have you seen this video? Her teachings remind me of yours. Stick with it to the end, even if you want to get away. I just find it to be a hopeful thing.
One day I’ll make it to a retreat with you!
Comment by Tara — January 31, 2013 @ 6:36 am
“Life’s longing for itself” that is/ has been for me one of the most eye-opening sentences I have read in my life. And when I imagine, life flowing through me, through my family, and the joy that that thought gives.
Driving in our car, all the beauty around us, the sun, the trees, life, expressing itself.
I remember images from an exhibition (http://www.selectedphotos.com/artist/gabriele–basilico/0/beirut-91-a6-405), pictures from Beirut. Bulletholes everywhere, but in the cracks and edges of the deserted roads and buildings grew plants and flowers, “Life’s longing for itself” regardless of the blood and the tears that flowed there.
So much forgiveness in that. Have a wonderful day.
Comment by Simone — February 1, 2013 @ 2:03 am