Season Three Episode Seven 

In Karen’s book ‘The View From Breast Pocket Mountain’ before I even got to page 50 she had introduced me to her young relationship with Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, hanging out with Neneh Cherry (childhood hero of mine). Now, I am a sloooooow reader - I like that about myself - I read about 10 books a year and these days listen to more, but I decided to purchase Karen’s book and dip in before our conversation. I couldn’t put it down. From the first page, that we don’t reveal - it has you hooked.

I am genuinely changed through our conversation - I just loved listening to her talking about being a mother and taking the next steps, humbling herself to being both inside and outside a culture and living a full life in the Japanese countryside. Karen is beautiful and one of the most wonderful things I love about being a woman is how we can traverse with ease across intelligent meaningful conversations with depth and skill to talking about beauty and today was no exception - before we hit record, we both paused and topped up our lipstick! 

We didn’t even touch on the fact that Karen almost became a dancer and taught modern dance and at the end of the conversation, Karen reads from her novel; a wonderful chapter about her relationship with her neighbours - I mean let’s just drop MC hammer in here shall we (I also drop a tasty tidbit in here about my history with the Hammer).

In terms of brilliance - you can’t touch this. (See what I did there?)

• The questions we DON’T have about our parents and how many stories live in our imagination
• We talk about imagination and living in the past and the burden of creating anxiety in our fantasies - brilliant coaching fodder! Curiosity and pragmatism
• She was raised in a time when there was no imaginings about not respecting a parent. It was simply not an option
• The power and influence of good teachers and mentors and how important the people who will see and witness your potential are. This comes up in a future conversation too (look out for May) AND in the conversation with Leza Lowitz
• DREAMS - opening the edges of our dreams through contact with people who can open our dreams
• What happens when she - she just couldn’t get enough
• Following what’s in front of you and being swept away - not reckless, not crazy, not even edgy but unafraid
• Corners - going around a corner and not being afraid and not knowing what’s around the corner
• The joy of becoming a mother and how she never found having a child limiting, she couldn’t be more grateful for children and all that role created for her
• She is absolutely clear in the book about how hard it was on a farm with no running water and toilets they had to empty themselves and 3 young kids - there’s NO BS here
• The tragedy of isolation and the joy of community in motherhood
• You will have to read the book to get the full dojo experience but Karen teases us with the year they had on a dojo
• Being in community in the deep Shizuoka countryside on Japan
• How becoming a Japanese Calligraphy 2-dan (basically better than a black-belt) opened Japanese culture up
• She stopped being a rebel and what she has to say about standing out and fitting in
• Life as a cross-cultural coach columnist
• Her life now, her four adult children and her approach to future projects

Instagram @karenhillanton

www.karenhillanton.com

Buy her book here.