" Everything works in balance. Yin & yang. But somewhere along the way, we've forgotten. We're told to work until we burn out, or disappear to escape it all. We don't agree. Ambition is essential, but the quiet kind. Built in late hours, refining draft after draft, making something that lasts. But just as importantly: The pause. To breathe. To savour. To share. . . "
Our first visit to the Stourhead Estate was in early spring. It was the kind of day where the light was unsuccessful in burning through the clouds, creating that soft blue cast we know so well in Britain. On the walk I caught it, that first waft of the freshly cut winter grass. It made me stop, I'm not quite sure for how long but it was long enough to make me notice how much I loved the smell.
Lately, everything it beginning to feel like it's picking up speed. There's hardly a moment to stand still & really appreciate before it's onto the next bigger & better thing . It's always what's next. The next launch, the next week, the next version of ourselves we're working towards. Phones in hands more present in other lives that our own.
We've all done it. Wished years forward, fixated on some future horizon where the plan has already worked out & everything's fallen into place. A good way to miss the moments.
Hour long family laughters that bellow around the table. Walks with the dogs through misty fields on winter mornings. The smell of freshly cut winter grass in spring. These are the moments that arrive without announcement, the ones which if not careful, can go unnoticed. But they've always been the ones worth pausing in. The ones that make life, rich.
My family built in quiet rooms. Uncles at the workshop benches, weighing fractions of precious metal under a buzzing light. A Mother & Aunt at the barre, repeating the same movement over & over again until it became effortless. [Nanny Baby] spent hours in her studio, making every altered stitch on the dresses feel untouched.
But without resistance, the tools would always come down in the evening. The studio would empty out. Their life around the crafts were never the afterthought. Family, friends & moments. These weren't ever the reward for the work. They were the reason for it.
Work & rest. Ambition & presence. Meeting || moment.
The Pause: Two vertical lines, side by side. A small deliberate mark we sew into every piece. A quiet reminder.
MEETINGS
MOMENTS
