Ally | Kening Zhu – Vulnerably Creative
I stumbled into Kening Zhu’s world a while ago, in the midst of an internal reckoning about my work and business. I’d been scouring the internet, as we do, hunting for tools and advice to help me sort out the conflict between doing what I wanted to do in my business the way I wanted to do it—the way I felt intuitively drawn to do it, versus doing the things I was “supposed to” do, according to so much of the advice I found online, little of which seemed a good fit for me.
At my favorite table at the downtown public library one day, I toppled into Kening Zhu’s website, taking refuge in her world and viewpoints. I nodded as I sat there inhaling one thoughtful, beautiful article after another, spurred to reach inside myself to locate more and more of my own worldview and my own unique path.
What I love about Kening Zhu and her material is her vulnerable creativity. She is an artist, a traveler, a sensitive person, a thought-provoking ponderer, and more. She shares the journey of figuring things out, weaving together her art, experiences, and wonderings. What a treat to be invited inside.
“I want my website to be more than just the opposite of flat. I want it to be so deep that you get lost, that you linger, that you stay and drink a cup of coffee with me—in the space that we create together.”
Kening Zhu
Later, when I emerged from days of my own ponderings, spurred by Kening Zhu, I knew exactly where to go with my own work, in my own way, with less fear and more calm confidence.
When you’re searching for missing pieces of yourself, it’s important to keep going until you touch the place inside that knows you are in the right place for you. In my experience, this process can take years, require moves to other places, encompass painful growth... and then begin again when new questions surge up. All of that wandering for sustenance shapes us to recognize the click when we intersect with someone or something that shows us our own selves more clearly.
Above all, Kening Zhu shows me the benefits of taking an unconventional path, not in order to reach more people, but as a continuous act of self-reclamation. It’s like following your nose (trying to live true, even when it’s really hard) to what you assume will be a terrifying place (the loneliness of being the only one there), only to find everything comfortable and just so and your best pals making you your favorite meal (a community you'd assumed didn’t exist). And you let go with a sigh. Oh. I’m home. You’ve found your own right place in the reflection of someone else having found theirs.
“[Your website] needs to be a space where you don’t measure your success by metrics of more likes, more traffic—but by how deeply and truly you inhabit your own creative essence, in public.”
—Kening Zhu
I’ll wrap this up, in case you’re interested in checking out Kening Zhu’s website. Her topics include entrepreneurship, creative process, wellbeing, her travels, and more.
Here's a sampling of her articles:
“How can I be fully present with my art, and share it in a way that nourishes me?”
—Kening Zhu
The Photo Above | Bloom World
You know how different people focus on different things as they go about their daily lives? My mom noticed plants and flowers. Knowing her put me in touch with her vision and her worldview.
On day trips with Mom to gardens and botanical sites, I naturally used my own worldview to interact with my surroundings through photography, exploring to discover what the lens could capture. The photos I took helped me (as always) discover more about what I love. Like this tiny bloom as its own beautiful world, complete with bright yellow pollen spaceships.
Photo by Grace Kerina
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Grace Kerina is the author of Personal Boundaries for Highly Sensitive People and other resources for quiet people. She has more than twenty years of experience helping writers and other creators find their true voices. Get her free ebook 7 Liberating Life Hacks for Highly Sensitive People when you subscribe to her newsletter. She also writes novels as Alice Archer.