Trying to balance work and life in a wounded world? A cat can help.
Reflection too, and learning from/with friends.

Any second now it will be June. The spring winds in Santa Fe will calm for a moment before quickening into summer monsoons. Delphinium and hydrangea will go buckwild in Chicago. For a few weeks more, the days will keep growing longer. We plan to be present with every moment.

CATS OUT OF THE BAG

Buckle up tigers, there’s a new cat in town. Meet Rumi Shadow Moufti, a beautiful Bengal who in just three weeks has turned Chez Nermin into a certified Fun House. You ever had a bunch of neighborhood kids lined up at your door at 6:50am to play with the kitty before school? If not, and you’re interested, we have the solution: it’s a cat.

No matter how fast you run, your shadow keeps up.

– Rumi, Shadow and Light Sources Both

GOING RETRO

In other high vibrational news, we recently wrapped up a truly dope bit of branding for the Center for Reflective Intelligence and you know what we did? We asked them to join us for a project retro, using our beloved 4Ls framework.

ICYMI: The 4Ls is a super simple tool for reflecting on past work. It asks:

What did we love?
What did we learn?
What did we long for?
What did we let go of?

Highly recommend using it with any team, and especially with clients. We can learn so much from each other.

WORK(SHOP) IT

If you, too, love to learn, here’s a few upcoming workshops etc. to put on your radar:

Ink Workshop with Linda Abdullah

Step into a quiet, experimental space to explore the potential of ink through simple, intuitive mark making. Whether you’re a seasoned artist or a curious beginner, this session invites you to experiment with unexpected tools to create bold, intuitive works on paper.

June 14 and 21
Hyde Park Art Center
Register Online

To Write is to Think, To Think is to Be Human: A Workshop on the Sentence with Kyle Beachy

We’ll gather for two morning sessions to move through a series of craft lessons and generative writing exercises that explore the connections between subjectivity and syntax. Together, we will read and appropriate, sharpening old tools to carve new paths into the realms of consciousness and language.

July 12 and 13
Online
Email Kyle to Register

Writing into the Mountains: Fall Poetry and Movement Retreat

Join poets Mark Doty, Gaby Calvocoressi and Emily Hyland (also Kristin!) for a five-night retreat at Lundy Farm, a 62-acre estate situated among protected forest in the Hudson Valley. Spend your days immersed in poetry workshops, yoga classes and group hikes as part of our warm, mindful, heart-centered community.

September 29-October 5
Lundy Farm, Hudson Valley, New York
Book Your Spot

PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS

We don’t just play with cats and learn everything we can all the time. We’ve also been getting shit done.

We’re in the thick of it with Seeds and Specialty Būn, spinning intricate webs of ideas and intentions into beautiful brands. We’ve also been working on a very cool naming project for one of our oldest clients, nearing the finish line on a comprehensive rebrand for the Terra Foundation of American Art, writing and designing a chapbook of poetry, and celebrating the brand launch of Almond + Fig. Nermin hauled down to Hyde Park to guest lecture for a UX Design class at the University of Chicago (thanks for the invite André!). Kristin’s spending Saturdays in Albuquerque as part of a peer learning fellowship with the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Lindsay is learning to grow butternut squash and carve a new path out of flagstone. Like we said. Getting shit done.

ON OUR SHELVES

We’re also reading. And writing. And reading some more.

The library’s got a waiting list for The God of the Woods by Liz Moore for a reason. “Makes me wish I was at a summer camp in 1975, reading Creem Magazine” says Lindsay, who’s double dipping with Pizza Night by Alexandrea Stafford. Did you know there’s a wedge salad recipe for every season?

Kristin’s got a couple poems in the first issue of Wild Willow Magazine and five in Always Crashing. For more poem, try You Are Here, an anthology edited by Ada Limón. Nermin’s keeping company with Soulekia Jaouad’s The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, a guide to the art of journaling, and McSweeney's 76: Aftershocks, a collection of contemporary Syrian prose, edited by Alia Malek.

Sitting outside season is upon us, friends. Let’s keep a good read close by.

PARTING THOUGHTS

They say it is difficult to get the news from poems, but you can sure find good advice there:

sunlight. water. sunlight. water. sunlight. water.

— José Olivarez, You Must Be Present

An Inspired Life