January 2010, I received a call from my previous employer. The husband (CEO) and wife (CCO) team were looking for an assistant to help with every aspect of their high end bridal business and thought of me. The 30 hour work week provided a paycheck, valuable experience building a business, and time to work on my side hustle.
My husband and I popped champagne (the cork from which I still have) and celebrated the end of a very long season of looking for the right career opportunity and the official beginning of my company.
Here's what I've learned in the 12 years since then, about mothering dreams:
How to recognize your dream
A dream is simply a passion, or frustration, that combined with your personality, natural gifting, a little special sauce, hard work, humility and time - becomes something you can't imagine.
Don't look at what you think is possible to achieve, and where your interests lie, but rather the problem that you continually encounter. The reality you can’t escape. You take it at surface level, an annoyance. But what it may be, is the seed that will start your revolution.
How to pursue your dream
Dreams are too big for your heart. If you recognize the beginning; you can’t see the end; and you don’t know the path to get there. They are impossible; outside your capacity and skillset.
To pursue something you don't understand requires plunging before knowing the way; being wrong more than right; traveling blind, and messily feeling the way forward.
UN·DONE
/ˌənˈdən/
1. not tied or fastened
2. not done or finished
Undone is our resting state when we go after our goals: accepting that we do not understand fully, but are fully committed.
There is freedom in being undone.
If you don't know the way, then there's no wrong way.
If it hasn't been done before, then there's time.
This is what I meditate on, during difficult days.
Cat Lady
I recently learned that the Hebrew word for meditate is also the word for growl - specifically as in a wild animal growling over their prey. I started googling tiger videos like this one as I designed this tee, thinking: Instead of groaning under the weight of things that make us question our identity, what would it look like for us to pace and growl over our borders?
After a few months of preparing, I almost postponed introducing this tee, feeling there was more I could tweak before launching my one-tee-a-month project in 2022. Then I remembered to aggressively defend my original inspiration:
When my favorite song comes on, I feel my tense shoulders relax, my breath deepen, and my eyes lift from my work. As I design and release one new tee each month this year, I am singing over you. I want to be your favorite song: relaxing, taking stress, renewing hope and increasing vision.
Enjoy this tee! She's in the shop here. Unisex, with a raw neckline, she fits true - I'm in the small. The poly cotton blend makes for a soft flowy silhouette, perfect for tucking. And ohmygosh do you see my scissors? And the safety pin - I use it on every skirt to tunnel the elastic through the waistband.
XX
Emily