To share a story... is to speak with courage. Thank you Angie for sharing your story.

I hope your week was wonderful. 

You probably have received our most recent Baum-kuchen love letter in your inbox earlier this week. (If you haven't subscribed to our monthly love letter, you can definitely check out this page to "subscribe")

During the summer months, our friend/co-curator of the BK love letter Angie Park and I will be sharing ideas, thoughts and inspiration about "happiness comes from within." To kick off the theme, I asked Angie herself if she would like to put together a little clip about her perspective on the topic. 

If you have not received our love letter, I would really really really love you to take 5 minutes to hear Angie's very personal story and her journey of saying farewell to her father early this year... and ultimately what came after. 

When Angie first brought in her materials earlier last month - raw clips and texts, she asked me if the contents were too far from what "Baum-kuchen" was. I remember vividly saying her that Baum-kuchen stands behind authenticity and real story not a kind of life that is filled with facade and made up "always happy" moments. We tend to be optimistic when it comes to seeing things but we are also fully aware that life is beautiful because of what is real. 

After seeing her materials, I didn't know exactly what we would do to finish up as a project... we chatted about some thoughts but headed home without having a concrete plan. Her story was so important to me because I had a true honor to witness her through this journey, had a true respect to who she is... and for her courage to share something that was so personal to her. I really wanted the message to be communicated in a meaningful way. 

I have worked on different creative projects throughout the years... and I knew in my gut that sometimes ideas take time to formulate and I can not force the answer to come out on a spot. The same night as I was going to sleep and thinking of her and her journey through, I had the vision of really hearing the story through her voice. Next morning I sent Angie an email with the possibility of her "speaking" the story while I edited her audio with motion footage which she captured in last few months. The result is what you see and hear on this video.

I believe it is by far one of the most important stories we have shared as Baum-kuchen and I am truly thankful for Angie to trust me to be the editor of her story and for Baum-kuchen to be the platform to share her voice. 

I hope it will help you to pause and to take a moment to reflect what happiness means to you today. 

Thank you Angie! 
xoxo
-wakako