Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kim Cihlar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kim, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Defining moment? Can there be just one?! I read recently that not knowing what you want to be when you grow up is a blessing. I remember being so stressed as a kid because I wasn’t good at one thing. You know, the “one thing” you’re supposed to be good at so when you grow up that’s what you can be! I liked doing too many things. Piano and guitar lessons; be a musician? I started a science fiction novel in 4th grade, won a poetry contest at 18, wrote fashion stories in college, loved .writing; so, be an author? a journalist? a poet? What about my love for making, for sewing, for sketching? Although, I’ll never forget the contest I was rejected from for mixing red and purple in my croqui for a jumpsuit and how I let that short-sighted judgement scare me away from clothing design. Caring for animals (be a vet?). The list basically was endless. And at 63 today, I still don’t know what I want to be! So I’m learning to do and be everything that IS within my heart and sharing that with the world.

Kim, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I design + make jewelry, teach yoga, write and strategize. I champion fashion, movement and wellness for women aging boldly, maneuvering through our years with purpose and grace. I promote life as being for living, taking the risks that end up defining what being alive means.

So many people are multi-hyphenates. Today and always. Renaissance woman?! Yes, please. Even more than that, as my friend Sacha says, let’s focus on being multi-potentialites. We truly can be anything we want. I’m a yogi who writes about fashion, a poet and essayist, who designs and makes jewelry, meditates, and is now recovering from hip replacement. I’m a devoted dog mom, a beloved wife and liver of life. I tolerate glamping at a little fairy cottage by the brook the hubs and I are working toward rebuilding. Love travel and opening up to new cultures. And really, really love matcha tea! I’m Kimberly Cihlar and I embrace everything I can that exists within me to connect it with everything around me in the Universe! May sound corny, but I have a good time doing it.

Collection 13, the jewelry and essential oil fragrances I craft and create, is Nature based. Perhaps Talismanic Adornment sums up best the whole of my life. I has constantly found magical moments from life in the form of organic trinkets made and deposited by Nature on this beautiful, intriguing Earth. From scouring sandy southern beaches for relaxation, northern or midwest woods for meditation, far-flung flea markets and lifetime travels for fashion editorial passions and wanderlust globe trotting for pleasure, Collection 13 started with a small, gleaming, sun-bleached femur bone found on a wild nature preserve bay side beach near New York City. That was in 2013. I’d always listened for what the Universe wanted me to do. This bone spoke to me in upper case bold letters! I took this bone, cast it in wax and have molded this piece as the core of Collection 13. I hope you too can “Discover Your True Nature” with Collection 13’s Talismanic Adornments, artistic renderings that embrace magic and meaning for the wearer.

I bless the pieces as I create, imbuing my talismans with the love and learnings of the lyrical yoga life I’ve been part of for over a decade, teaching about for the past six years, incorporating the meridian pathways, that invisible highway of energy that exists in our bodies, to everything I do. Curating wellness workshops for groups. Currently working with a sober community of young adults and offering my services of leading them in a recovery yoga and meridian meditation class (I’m sober now for over 13 years), acupressure, ear seeds and cupping. Would relish any bookings for any groups, private or corporate that you may have need of moving forward.

Remember life is for living. Let’s live well into our years!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I moved to NYC from Charleston, SC to work in the fashion industry in the mid ’80s and within that first year I was hit by a cab as a pedestrian. I saw the cab coming in the dark of that January evening, walking in a police-barricade created path moving walkers away from a crane in the middle of the intersection around 96th St. and threw my arm up over my eyes, landing face down on the back of my hand, other arm outstretched, still holding my tote. I’ll never forget the voices that I heard around me as I was lying immobile, eyes to the cold, damp January pavement. “Is she dead, is she dead? Yeah, man, she’s dead.” I couldn’t wrap my aching brain around that, lying as I was with an arm under my forehead, trying to determine if I felt dampness through my glove, which would have indicated if my head was cracked open and bleeding. I kept thinking “No! I’m alive! What’s wrong with you people?”

I heard an earth angel from nowhere, speaking into my ear, “You’re okay, you’re okay. You’re gonna be okay..” Actually, it was a real person, a nurse who had come from her car pool driving by on Broadway as they had finished their shifts. She got out, came to help me, kept me calm and focused, talked me through all my inane comments and concerns: “I’ve torn the tights my mom brought me from Paris! Don’t let them cut off the coat I’m wearing – it’s a vintage princess style that is my mom’s from her college days.” And so on.

She came with me in the ambulance to the hospital, found my DayPlanner in my oversized tote bag to call my family, who I begged her not to call. My dad had warned me about moving to New York and I knew he would be so mad at me. Instead she called my high school and then college friends, Michael and Jeannie, who came to the hospital to stay with me.

It’s a long story. But what story about resilience isn’t?! This accident showed me that I could get through anything, physically and mentally. I had hairline fractures in my neck spine and elbow and knee, with huge hematomas on my hip and a severe concussion and had to go on leave from work. Of course, I lost my weird Dickensian day job writing for an intimate apparel daily trade paper. They said they couldn’t afford to pay for me while I was at home rehabbing from the accident.

It took me a while to come back to normalcy. My first outing to a Residents concert at Webster Hall, my equilibrium was still so affected, I had to stand in the back facing away from the band, watching from the mirror over the bar. Then, out with friends in the East Village another Friday evening, I was hit by a bike going the wrong way on Ave A and I was nearly arrested for creating a public disturbance. Yeah, I was pissed at being hit again. And again, through no fault of my own.

But like I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers and it made me know that the world is filled with kind people willing to help out even if they don’t know you. Like my unsung, unnamed earth angel nurse who helped me through one of my darkest journeys.

That goes for business too. Kind people are out there, willing to help. If the Universe doesn’t put them in your path, just ask. Ask people you know to connect you with people who are in a position to answer your questions, take your meetings, help you promote your services or goods. Ask everyone you know or meet or come across at the deli and overhear a snippet of conversation that sounds similar to what you’re doing. You’ve got this!

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Knowing that the Universe has your back. That you will be held and supported if you are following the path meant for you. I think that works for me for both yoga and for jewelry. I definitely know it has worked for the writing I’ve done.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.collection13.com
• Instagram: @collection13jewelry @fashionwhirled @yogaforboldpeople @wellintoouryears
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kim.cihlar/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimcihlar/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNyUuCRfLxsOvavGG5Q4tEA

Image Credits
Amy Kawadler