“It’s precious, this life. I hope I’ve made the most I can of it.”   This week, we journey to Iceland to visit the intrepid, incredibly inspiring Felicity Aston — polar explorer and the first woman to ski across Antarctica alone, traversing a distance of 1,084 miles in 59 days. Among her other accomplishments, Aston led the first all-women of team to cross the Greenland ice sheet, and the…

    PIECE OF MIND is a survey of the sensorial details and qualities that are front-of-mind for the women who inspire us.     Photos by Casey Zhang A place: California, always.    An idea: How do I tune into discomfort and find myself. Do I move away from it, or run towards it? How much discomfort is too much discomfort? I’m trying my hardest to discover the lessons contained in the…

"I am discovering and becoming the woman that I want to be everyday, a little at a time. My idea of that woman shifts with me organically as I find myself and grow, and as I learn to accept and embrace who I am." When we think of graceful strength and living with intention, Yuko Yamamoto comes to mind: Born in Japan and raised in Europe and U.S., Yuko has recently moved after 15 years in New…

  "There is a prevailing theory that we need to know more than we actually do in order to feed ourselves well. It isn't true." – writes Chez Panisse alum, food writer, and author Tamar Adler in her first book "An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace" Adler is on to something. There is an earnest applicability to the attitude that we can actually nourish ourselves fully – completely…

  PIECE OF MIND is a survey of the sensorial details and qualities that are front-of-mind for the women who inspire us.     A place: the library An idea: joy as presence  A palette: dusk A sound: underwater distortion A texture: hand against the grain, the back of my lover's head a few days after it has been shaven A taste: kimchi! A discovery: a brief conversation with a…