The Path to Home with Creative Practices

Creativity, whether through drawing, painting, knitting, gardening, writing, cooking, or taking photographs, can be a sanctuary. It is a beautiful way to be present and to reconnect with joy, the joy of creating, telling our story, and expressing ourself.

I grew up in a somewhat dysfunctional family dynamic, though I only discovered that years later. When you are born into something, it feels like your only reality. As I got older, I realized my family was very different from many of my friends’, but not in a positive way. My parents often argued, sometimes even to the point of physical violence. During those years, my dad struggled heavily with alcohol and cigarette addiction.

Both of them carried deep wounds from their childhoods during the Vietnam-American War and the extremely difficult years that followed. Their early lives were sadly marked by danger and poverty. My dad told us stories how he almost died in a fire back in his village in the middle part of Vietnam, how he often slept in graveyards overnight, and how he sometimes had to walk 10 kilometers to get to school. My mom’s story was equally haunting. Her classmates’ village was bombed and she saw body parts hanging in trees. The next day when she returned to school, half of her class was gone.

When I was young, I couldn’t understand why my parents’ emotions were always so turbulent, why they swung between highs and lows. These days, I understand much more.

One thing that stood out to me was how my parents each found a quiet refuge in their creativity. My mom is a very talented woman with crochet. Over the years, she made me beautiful scarves and tops. That was her sanctuary, her place of peace and joy. Despite her wild and traumatic childhood, she has always been a loving, kind, and generous women. My dad, too, had his creative space. He loved making wooden furniture such as tables and bookshelves. They weren’t particularly pretty (I often laughed at how funky they looked), but they were strong and unique. What I loved the most was that he would spend days or even months on them. I never saw him quit a project. Those were the times when he seemed the most emotionally steady and relaxed.

I think I inherited this love for making things from them. From a young age, I was drawn to drawing and making paper toys (also the fact that I never had toys growing up as Vietnam was very poor back in the 90s). It gave me a way to escape the heaviness at home when my parents were upset with each other, but also to return to myself, to the lighter and joyful parts of who I was.

Over time, I have noticed a familiar trait among many artists and creators. I often wonder if I had grown up in wealth and privilege, would I have discovered art at such a young age? Perhaps I would have felt less need to express my inner landscape if my childhood had been a smooth sail. Or maybe I would have been creative in a completely different way. I don’t know. What I do know for sure is that I love my own story, and I wouldn’t trade it for a different life.

Art is both an escape and a return. It gives us a place to see, to rest, and to find meaning in experiences that might otherwise weigh us down. It is a path back home to who we truly are, to the light of our consciousness.

Last Saturday (Aug 16th 2025) at The Grounded Circle in Auckland Central, we held our first Colouring & Creative Connection Circle, where a few of us came together to meditate, sip tea, colour, and share about our creative journeys and projects.

I founded The Grounded Circle in 2022, and this year my friend Alex, a writer and photographer, has been co-hosting many circles with me. Slowly, we have grown into a small but joyful community of kind and creative souls. It has taken me several years to refine the kind of gatherings that truly feel sustainable, and now I feel a lot clearer about the path forward.

From here, I would love to guide our circles more deeply into creative connection, a space for us to share dreams, insights, and experiences, and to inspire each other to keep walking a grounded yet joyful path.

A Path to Home.