We're still emerging from the darkness of quarantine and isolation. Hopefully, we can move into the light without forgetting the parts of the experience of darkness that make it now so much brighter. We also seek the light and are sometimes blinded by it. But when you close your eyes, you can still feel the warmth, find your own space in the brightness. This book is about all of that - comprised of 5 song collections: Chasing Light with Darkness, Finding Space in Brightness, A Place to Grow: Charting the Swoon, Reclaiming Our World and A Warm Embrace. One of Chiemi's songs, "Always Time to Climb" contains the phrase "odd simple beauty." When she first posted it, in February 2022, someone said to her "I like the 'odd simple beauty.' It would be a great title for something.…" All proceeds are directed to Asian Women for Health, a community-based non-profit organization advancing Asian women's health and wellbeing through education, advocacy, and support - a diverse group working together across differences in age, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, socio-economic and educational levels, to address individual, community-wide and systemic barriers that affect Asian women and their loved ones. For more information, go to https://www.asianwomenforhealth.org

We're still emerging from the darkness of quarantine and isolation. Hopefully, we can move into the light without forgetting the parts of the experience of darkness that make it now so much brighter. We also seek the light and are sometimes blinded by it. Stunned. But when you close your eyes, you can still feel the warmth, see the golden tint behind your lids – your own space in the brightness. And we're coming back, despite lingering vestiges of the pandemic. Home has changed shape, but at the very least, it can be a safe place to regenerate, and grow. It's our world to reclaim, and there's joy in the tentative new freedom to mingle with others - something to embrace with gratitude, that we want to keep. All proceeds are directed to Asian Women for Health (AWFH), a community-based non-profit organization advancing Asian women's health and wellbeing through education, advocacy, and support. The AWFH is a diverse group working together across differences in age, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, socio-economic and educational levels, to address individual, community-wide and systemic barriers that affect Asian women and their loved ones. For more information, go to https://www.asianwomenforhealth.org

Chiemi was born in Hawaii and lives with her family in Massachusetts. She is a singer-songwriter among other things, dedicated to expanding horizons and promoting diversity, empathy & connectivity. She has been writing songs for years, and you can access recordings of her current and new songs online. Her first publicly performed song was "Steps to Find" in 1988, when she conducted her high school class in a four-part harmony rendition of it at graduation. In college, she was graced with singing the part of the female angel in Haydn's "The Heavens Are Telling" with the University Chorale at the Vatican. While in graduate school, she sang in an acapella group called "The Wandr'ng Mistrials. Chiemi also released a CD "Living on 2 Coasts" in 2005. "Odd Simple Beauty" is her second book. For more information about Chiemi, go to www.ChiemiMusic.com.