What Love Can Do

During this season that is paradoxically sacred and perilous for so many people, I hope a moment to share my appreciation of life doesn’t seem self-indulgent or insensitive. Thanksgiving is a holiday symbolizing both abundance and humble gratitude for what we are given.

After months of living differently during a pandemic, I am rediscovering and appreciating the simple abundance in my life. In the absence of so much that once defined and filled the everyday aspect of my life, I understand now more than ever… What exists in a place too many people consider the ‘background’ of their lives is actually what profoundly shapes the joy we find in life. During this pandemic, that ‘background’ is being discovered by too many as either missing or severely malnourished.

Since my whole business is themed around the ‘joyful pursuit of your life’s work,’ I think it’s worth sharing some thoughts on my life’s work. I don’t know if this message is going to resonate with some prospective design clients. I don’t promote myself as the ‘designer’s designer.’ I love design, am deeply moved by what I experience visually, and I am passionate about creating beautiful spaces. I seek to be skilled at my craft. Still, my life’s work is not driven by interior design.

Interior design is just one means to a very thoughtful end – that of an existential journey we all share as humans. My reason for doing the work is that it brings me joy to do it. I won’t pretend that interior design is a primary means to an existential end; but it serves as a backdrop to events that shape the quality of our lives. Therefore it’s highly relevant. Done well, it has the potential to deeply and positively impact some of our most significant and life-altering moments.

It may be that potential clients are impressed by a self-sacrificing designer who exists on-demand to create beautiful spaces for their clients. Be careful what you wish for in this scenario. While it brings me joy to do my work, I have yet to find where this kind of self-sacrificing relationship to the work creates joyful people or results in a joyful life. From an existential perspective, you simply cannot create the conditions for a joyful life if you’re not joyful yourself. True for the people designing your space as it is for you.

I’ll continue to take my chances on whether my inclusive approach to design and life is going to be financially rewarding – because the existential rewards have already exceeded my expectations. I am truly and humbly grateful for a life that facilitates such abundance.

Maybe that’s why I’m still comfortable with the message of ‘Cause to Celebrate Life’ in my company name. I realize, particularly during a pandemic, it may have a strong connotation of death. After all, we use ‘Celebration of Life’ to describe events for those who have passed. What I learned in life has apparently placed me on a path toward expanding how we think about that. It seems profoundly unfair, especially now, that the ‘celebration’ of your life only takes place after your passing. This pandemic has exposed the fact that this is no accident – our opportunities for joy in life are facing an existential threat. The threat does not exist because of the pandemic. We need to get to work on our failure to create the conditions for joy in our own lives and the lives of others.

My ’cause’ is to celebrate life at every point in the journey, to the greatest extent possible. (And what a joyful celebration we can plan when this journey is complete for you too!) In this, there is no need to assume the joyful pursuit of a life to celebrate is either self-indulgent or insensitive. In fact, a very necessary element of a joyful pursuit is helping others shape their life into something they wish to celebrate; both while they are still with us and in remembrance. That is where you can find me, if I continue to be so fortunate.