Good Karma in good hands with KG

Interview

KG, while based in Boston, is on the road a lot. She’s not just a writer; she’s a travel writer, writing for Lonely Planet for the last two decades. She happened to be on the West Coast for this interview, finishing up three books. A lot is happening in Kim’s world right now, not the least of which is heading up Good Karma Publishing. More is about to happen, as she has decided to move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the very near future.

VFJ: So how does it happen that you are moving to Albuquerque?

Kim: Here’s how it happened. I was writing a book in Provincetown on the Cape. I was driving around one night—it was really cold and rainy. Things hadn’t been going well. I was in the dunes, and this little frog hopped across my path while I was driving. I had to come to a screeching halt. There was something in that particular moment with the simplicity of this frog—hopping across the road to get to the other side for no other reason. That’s what frogs do, they hop. In that blink of a moment, I had this epiphany that I want to be as simple and as purposeful as that frog hopping across the road. I have to go to New Mexico! It was the strangest, clearest thing beyond logic—it doesn’t make any sense, but it was one of those moments that when we do TCC we trust those moments.

VFJ: You must have been thinking about it before to some extent, no?

Kim: It’s true, I’ve been thinking about it for a year and a half. I have a great life in Boston; the choice to leave is my own, except it doesn’t feel like the choice is mine, like what Justin talks about—the choiceless choice. I just think it’s time. And what I’ve learned over the last year and a half is that everything changes—huge lesson—and so nothing has to be forever. And that makes my decision a lot lighter. I can go to New Mexico thinking, okay, if it works, great I’ll stay; if it doesn’t, I won’t stay. And, my God, I’m going to New Mexico because Justin is still alive. He is gracious and generous enough to give me his time and his wisdom, and I just can’t ignore that any longer. There’s not a single thing in my life that I regret, but I also came to the conclusion with this frog that I would regret not having spent more with Justin if he died. And I don’t want to regret that. So that’s why. You know, I’m incredibly attached to my house. I’m attached to my friends, so I kind of want to test that attachment—see how real it is. It may only be real in my mind.

VFJ: Will you sell your house?

Kim: No, I’m going to rent it because…

VFJ: Yeah, because.

Kim: I’m probably not going to give up my life as a travel writer; I’m just not going to write as many books as I usually do. I mean, I wrote five books this year. So I’ll write one or two books a year, be reasonable about it, and try to live a more simple life, and really devote—and here’s the key—a heck of a lot more time and attention to Good Karma Publishing. As Carmen always says, and I’ve putting it into practice for the last few months, energy follows attention. I keep repeating that over and over, and sure enough, it’s true. As soon as I put my attention on something, some kind of other energy kicks in and something happens, so I really want to. Good Karma deserves it; Justin deserves it; T’ai Chi Chih deserves it; and more people deserve to know about TCC in what he’s written. I can’t afford to live in Boston and devote as much time as I would like to to Good Karma because it’s too expensive. Just a practical concern.

VFJ: Could you go in some detail about what Good Karma is?

Kim: Here’s what I always say. Good Karma exists to produce, disseminate, and promote the work of Justin Stone and T’ai Chi Chih in two ways: one, to the community, to our teachers and students, and two, to the outside world. That’s the part that I really love and intend to focus on next year. For example, I open up a New Age catalog and see all the yoga tapes and Tai Chi Chuan tapes and I think, man ya know, our tapes should be in there. I’m booked a year in advance with book contracts. They are ending now and I’ve only taken on one for next year. So I’ve kind of cleaned my plate and I’m ready to heap some Good Karma onto it for next year. I want to really grow it outward to the bigger community. It’s poised to take off. Maybe it’s reached a saturation point within the TCC community; the only thing to do is to go outside the community and grow it that way. The other thing I think is important for me to do, although it’s not a specific charge that I’ve been given, is to start doing my own publicity campaign in a way for T’ai Chi Chih. I write books and articles all the time. I have great contacts and I understand the publishing world because I’ve been writing these books for 20 years. I think one of the things I am in a somewhat unique position to do is start submitting articles to big magazines. That takes time, but again, if I lead a simpler life with fewer financial demands, I can afford to plant those seeds and wait for them to sprout. The story needs to be told on a bigger level. We all take it for granted; we know what T’ai Chi Chih does, but other people don’t. I think I can do that.

VFJ: That’s a big hat to wear.

Kim: I think my faith in T’ai Chi Chih has grown over the years, so I really do believe now, in a way that defines faith, that if we do the right work, something will kick in and the universe will support it. I hate that kind of language—it all sounds to airy-fairy—but I think it’s really true, so I want to give it some discrete amount of time, because I think something really will happen. Whenever I’ve decided to do something, it’s really been phenomenal, when I’ve decided wholeheartedly to jump into something, it works. Two summers ago, I was in a somewhat dark period, I remember pounding my fist on the kitchen table, saying out loud, “I just want to go to Hawaii. Or New Mexico.” The next day I got a call from my publisher and he said, “I know you’re in this tough stage now, Kim, but… is there any way that we can convince you to do books on Hawaii and New Mexico.” No kidding. I said with full conviction I really want to go to these two places, and then it happened. So, I think that if I really put my attention into doing this for a year, somehow it will supported.

VFJ: So, you’re the right person for this job, I can tell.

Kim: I feel completely grateful to have been given this. I feel like it’s a huge responsibility. I take it pretty seriously. And every day when I talk to a teacher on the phone, and I may be in a cranky mood before I pick up the phone, inevitably when I hang up, I’m in a really good mood because they’re all really great people. I don’t know how that happens; it surprises me every time, but I’m smiling when I hang up. That feels like a gift that I’m given, to have the opportunity to step outside myself to do something for someone else and for bigger reasons. It feels like to be of service. It feels like I’m giving back to Justin. That’s truly from the heart, that sentiment. It feels very pure and so I know it’s right.

And then there’s the pretty obvious stuff to do. I want to put out his video as a DVD. That should be done by the end of January. People are clamoring for it. I think that will reinvigorate people’s interest and the outside world’s, too, in Good Karma. Around the same time, “Justin Stone Speaks” will be on CD. I just reprinted the textbook. Those are the three things that really sell the best. I want to get a unified look for all the books. I have to wait until we reprint them, but I want like a brand identity. I hate to sound so corporate, but you go to the bookstore and you can recognize the Shambala books four feet away, and that’s what I want to start happening to Good Karma. I’ve been a photographer for 20 years, and I do think that image matters. I think the way that we present ourselves as a community, as a company of Good Karma, as a practice called T’ai Chi Chih, I think it matters. Should it make a difference? You know, when someone goes to the bookstore, if they pick up a shiny book versus a not-shiny book, no, they should pick up the best book that’s out there. But the fact of the matter is, that is the world we live in. I photograph book covers; I help design books; I did Justin’s art book, which came out really well. I have high hopes for Good Karma. I said to the new teacher candidates at the training that I feel like I’m sitting on a diamond mine with Good Karma. It’s like diamonds in the rough, ready to be polished.

VFJ: You have your own corporation called Bindu Press. Is it still going strong?

Kim: Yes, I have this line of cards—black and white abstract cards. I’m not sure what I’m going to with it. It is still around. It’s funny, because bindu means “point without extension,” or “point containing infinite possibility.” So, I did the card thing with it, and now I’m waiting and I’m not sure what it is going be for the next thing to do with it. It could go anywhere because of the name. I was out at an informal meditation retreat with Justin, and I had been thinking, thinking, thinking for a couple months, what can I name this company. All of a sudden Justin used this word, Bindu. And it just sang. I have this notion to write—I hate this term, but kind of more spiritually-based travel. I’m a reluctant travel writer now. I don’t like to go anywhere. I like to sit still, and so I have this notion about doing a series called, “Slow Down, See More,” which totally fits in with all our meditation and TCC… like go somewhere nice, like Banff or Lake Louise, do TCC on the edge of some fantastic lake and do one thing that day and do it really well, and then just sit still.

VFJ: That’s great. What a great idea!

Kim: It doesn’t make for a thick book, but it makes for some good web essays.

VFJ: There are some books out there. “Hard Travel to Sacred Places,” “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” “Bones of the Master.” Lots of pilgrimage books to take inspiration from.

Kim: Yes, I want to find a little bit more spaciousness in my life. I can think that the New Mexico sky and all the space there is the perfect sort of grounded reality check for what I’m feeling.

VFJ: So how many books have you written?

Kim: Probably …. [counting, thinking]… either authored or co-authored, probably 15 different books, but some of them five or six editions of them. From scratch, I’ve probably written 10 books. I continue to update a lot of them—they change fairly significantly. If you check into kimgrant.com, you’ll see. There’s a T’ai Chi Chih section, too. There’s a photography section, travel writing, Cape Cod, and T’ai Chi Chih. It has a little film clip of quick-time video of Carmen doing T’ai Chi Chih.

VFJ: So who is the biggest pain in the neck you have to work with?

Kim: You know who it is, it’s me. Nobody is harder on me than myself. I think most people who are self-employed say that. I think it was Ann Rutherford who said to me about a year ago now, “Are you afraid to move to New Mexico because you’re afraid Justin is going to be really hard on you?” I really laughed out loud, not at her, but… I said Justin can’t be harder on me than I am on myself. I have such high expectations, and I’m a freakin’ perfectionist. I don’t judge other people, but I’m really hard on myself. It’s the only way I think I make any progress.

VFJ: I’m trying to think of some dastardly consequence of being hard on oneself.

Kim: Well, I tell you, this book that I just finished yesterday; it was the easiest, most graceful project I have ever completed.

VFJ: Because?

Kim: I think it’s because of T’ai Chi Chih. I have been doing it really regularly lately. When I do it regularly, my equanimity is maintained, and I can sit down and the right words come out in the right place at the right time, with ease. It’s astonishing. I continue to marvel at it. When I don’t feel like doing it, Carmen frequently checks in with me when I’m on a deadline. “How you doing? Have you done your T’ai Chi Chih today? Just do five minutes.” Of course I know that when she says just do five minutes, what happens is as soon as I start, I love it and don’t want to stop and I do the whole practice. It’s like night and day. I can see it when I’m writing and doing anything creative—when I’m doing it, versus when I’m not doing it.

VFJ: When you started TCC, was it out of some curiosity or because you needed something at the time, how did that happen?

Kim: Well, you can’t be around Carmen any length of time and not do it. I didn’t know what the heck this thing was. I only knew that here was this person I respected, and who I was not going to be escaping from any time soon, and if I didn’t try it, she would make my life just a little bit miserable. And my God, I’m so grateful. I come from a Midwestern family that is really kind of a “show-me” sort of family. I did it on faith for years and years. I don’t feel like I felt anything, but I just kept with it—albeit irregularly. And then one day Carmen said, “All right, enough whining. Just do T’ai Chi Chih every day for 30 days, and then talk to me at the end. Just promise me for 30 days you will do it. Can you just give me that?” I said all right fine. At the end of 30 days, I really felt a huge difference. And then I really was hooked and couldn’t give it up. But I had been doing it in fits and starts, not heeding Justin’s sweet admonitions: “The effects are cumulative.” They are, don’t you think?

VFJ: Yes, I do.

Kim: I hear that little mantra in my mind all the time, which is bringing it around full circle. That’s why I’m going out to New Mexico. It’s just priceless. If we’re open enough and willing to change, then man, it’s a gift. You see it every day. It’s been great to just fly in once every six weeks or so, and get a big ol’ dose of him and everyone and then go home and digest it for six weeks, but I think that there’s something to be said for just diving in, not holding back anymore. There’s no turning back. You can’t go home again because you change. I’m not a sentimental person.

VFJ: So if you’re not sentimental, then what are you? Hard as nails, ha? Actually you seem quite vulnerable, honest—you put stuff right out there and allow what happens.

Kim: I may sound vulnerable to use your word, but I feel quite the opposite.

VFJ: Vulnerable is a positive term. We need to look for that, because if we won’t open ourselves and be vulnerable, we risk turning into self-repressed iron maidens. That kind of softness and vulnerability that comes from that place of honesty and knowing that they can’t hurt you is an ideal, not a weakness.

Kim: That’s what Justin talks about, the softness of the willow tree, yielding, taking things, but then surviving the storm.

VFJ: As opposed to the big tree that gets uprooted because it can’t go with the wind.

Kim: A traumatic experience opens you to the potential for learning.

VFJ: So, the world… do you vote?

Kim: Hey, I live in a Blue state. And I’m moving to a Red state?

VFJ: Do you read books, ha ha?

Kim: I don’t remember the last book I read cover to cover. I think it might have been Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True. I really don’t read books anymore. I don’t do things that are traditionally “fun” until I’ve done my TCC for the day and my meditation for the day. I read little Zen books of poetry, like Ikuyu’s Wild Ways. I don’t know if it counts, but I read once or twice a year T.S. Eliot’s long poem The Wasteland. I could tell you the whole thing in the same way that I can chant the Heart Sutra at Justin’s house. I read it so often. It’s a beautiful timeless piece.

VFJ: I’ve always believed T.S. Eliot to be enlightened.

Kim: I read him for the first time in the 11th grade. I wrote a freshman paper on Four Quartets, my first year in college, and then I got an award at the end of the year for Best Writing Student. I chose to jump into that. Here’s a quote from No. 1 of the Quartets:

[INSERT QUOTE HERE: T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, No. 1, ten lines beginning “Time present and time past”]

VFJ: So, Kim, you’ve answered all my questions without me asking them.

Kim: You trying to get Oprah’s job? Okay, here’s a quote to end with:

[INSERT QUOTE HERE: T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, three lines beginning “What we call the beginning is often the end”]