One week after arriving in Portland - still living in motels/working from cafés during the week and camping on week-ends - I attended the June Creative Mornings session.

Funny coincidence, exactly one year before, I had attended another Creative Mornings conference in LA while I was living at a friend's place, having just moved from Switzerland to California.

This time, I had no idea who the speaker was, but I usually trust the judgement of the CM community and went to the Portland Arts Museum full of hope and confidence, ready to hear words of wisdom and meet new friends.

After being introduced by Creative Morning Portland's host Tsilli Pines, Jennifer Armbrust entered the stage and started her talk with some meditation, which reminded me of how my philosophy teacher back in high school used to dedicate a few minutes to listening to a song or telling a story, reading a book or watching a video in order to make a transition from the outside world to the world of philosophy.

During this exercise, she said something that has stuck with me:

I don't know why, of all the many, many interesting subjects she developed, this one affected me the most. Maybe it's because I was in an unstable position, starting a new life (again), looking for a place to live, not knowing anybody here. I was pretty happy & exciting about this new adventure, yet I might just needed someone to remind me this: No matter what, you will never not be supported (by the Earth).

It's funny to see how a couple words can make you feel secure again. Octave's friend Rémy has another way to cope with stressful situations by visualizing how huge the universe is and how small we are.

The whole conference was very inspiring to me, and I keep referring to it and sending links to the talk to my friends. For those who want to know more, I'll just say that Jenn is an artist and a consultant; she approaches business as art. Amongst other rad projects including an art gallery, she developed 3 projects that piqued my interest: her Feminist Business School, her Proposal for the Feminine Economy and Sister.

Here is the video of Jennifer's conference, if you'd like to watch it.

What makes you stay strong when everything else is falling apart? What's your mantra?