What’s in a Name?
Notes on a good conversation, finding new ways of working, and naming a fledgling business. Our inaugural edition. Welcome, friends.
In 2018, journalist Krista Tippett had Reverend angel Kyodo williams on her podcast, On Being (which, you should know, we love. We love many things, many of which we look forward to sharing with you here in the months and years ahead.).
The conversation is expansive.
Heart-opening.
Healing, wise, and wonderful.
In discussing the “transformative potential” of our historical moment, Rev. williams says things like "We can be more spacious" and "We’re evolving into a greater and greater sense of what it means to be fully human.”
She says, "We can create meaning out of things and ways of being and work that we choose to do. And we can recreate it, over and over again."
We believe her.
She speaks beautifully about wholeness and vulnerability, transformation, understanding, fearlessness and grace, language, and skillful action. She also suggests our work, whatever it may be, is an opportunity for learning and growth. She suggests:
"The world is our field of practice."
On Being re-released the episode in 2020. Also in 2020, Nermin, Lauren, and I—staring down an uncertain future—joined hands and leapt. The world had tilted sideways. We’d been knee-deep in various flavors of burnout. Work was not working for any of us. We chose to rebuild it together.
We knew what we wanted to build: an intentionally small, nimble, and wildly competent creative studio.
We knew who we wanted to work with: people like you.
We knew how we didn’t want work to feel—chaotic, cold, and rigid—and, more so, how we did: imaginative, collaborative, caring, and adaptable.
We knew what we valued above all else:
Thinking and doing differently.
Abundance over scarcity.
Progress over perfection.
Design without ego.
Here’s what we didn’t know: Would anyone hire us? Will this work? Can we actually, factually find and maintain a supportive, creatively nutritious work-life balance?
The only way to know was to try.
So we did.
(The path is made by walking.)
But first, we needed a name.
Finding our name was hard until it wasn’t. We talked about it so much, turned to our strategy so often, tossed out so many ideas—Studio With, Elsewhere, Hello from the Future… We talked ourselves in spirals, circling closer to the answer, until one Sunday morning over slow breakfast, while re-listening to the good Reverend’s gracious wisdom, the path revealed itself.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing, there is a field.
I'll meet you there."
— Rumi
We agreed then—as we agree now—that we will always be a work in progress.
We will enter into every year, relationship, and project with an open and curious mind, bringing whatever questions, ideas, experiences, and skills we have to offer.
We will experiment and learn and adapt and evolve.
We will continuously create and recreate spaces that allow us to be fully human, as we explore new ways of thinking, being, and working together.
We will be a field of practice.
Thank you for being here with us. We hope to work together soon.
