Mar 20, 2022Life’s Organizing Principles — Part II: Shapes, Structures, and Patterns of LifeThis is the second essay in a three-essay series on life’s organizing principles. I’ve gotten into Marvel superhero movies over the past decade after my husband took me to watch the first Avengers movie in 2012. One thing I’ve picked up on in all the Marvel movies and TV shows…Fractals22 min readFractals22 min read
Feb 20, 2022Life’s Organizing Principles — Part I: Intrinsic Qualities of LifeThis is the first essay in a three-essay series on life’s organizing principles. Ecological design at its core is about designing with life and in support of life. This means that in order to practice ecological design successfully, we need to understand what life is. What is life? How do…Living Systems Theory20 min readLiving Systems Theory20 min read
Jun 2, 2021Building Regenerative CulturesI was born in Burma. For the first eight years of my life, my family and I lived in a dilapidated, wooden house in a rural neighborhood far from the bustling downtown of Yangon, Burma’s largest city and former capital. My family was poor. We didn’t have basic amenities like…Regenerative15 min readRegenerative15 min read
May 17, 2021Orientalism Is the Root of Anti-Asian ViolenceViolence against people who are racialized as Asian is anything but new. It has been taking place ever since the first Chinese indentured servants landed in the United States in the early 1800’s and experienced forced residence in Chinese ghettos which evolved into modern-day Chinatowns, police and mob violence, lynchings…Stopasianhate9 min readStopasianhate9 min read
Jan 18, 2021Healing from the Violence of White SupremacyWhat more can I say about this month’s siege of the U.S. Capitol by white supremacists that you haven’t already heard from journalists, writers, and elected officials? I am tempted to share my outrage and anger but those emotions have already been strongly reverberated on media outlets and social media…Liberation5 min readLiberation5 min read
Jul 27, 2020Qualities of Regenerative and Liberatory CultureWhite supremacy is not fringe extremism that occasionally rears its ugly head when “White power” groups, like the KKK, hold a rally. White supremacy is an entire economic and political apparatus that pervades all aspects of White-dominant societies. White supremacy is also a cultural apparatus that reinforces a particular set…White Supremacy Culture12 min readWhite Supremacy Culture12 min read
May 10, 2020Member-onlyI’m Embracing the Term ‘People of the Global Majority’I am ethnically Chinese. I was born and grew up in Myanmar for the first eight years of my life before moving to the U.S., so I also consider myself culturally Burmese. These two aspects of my identity and upbringing play a critical role in feeding my anxiety around identifying…People Of Color8 min readPeople Of Color8 min read
Apr 25, 2020Nature Is Teaching Me Gratitude During This PandemicMy partner and I went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn this past Saturday after being cooped up in our apartment for 36 days since we started following the stay-at-home order due to COVID-19. It wasn’t the first time we stepped outside, of course. We had been taking daily walks in…Gratitude7 min readGratitude7 min read
Mar 26, 2020Member-onlyPrecepts of Regenerative Practice (An Ongoing List)I have been on a journey through my entire twenties and now through my early thirties to cultivate a profound understanding of the organizing principles of living systems in the hopes that I can interpret and apply them to what I’m passionate about — the design of regenerative and socially…Regenerative11 min readRegenerative11 min read
