My parents have devoted their lives to helping people–I grew up basically in their residential treatment center for abused and neglected girls. Having been raised in an environment where doing good work in the world is paramount it is easy for me to think of my work as a designer/stylist/blogger to be somewhat frivolous and insignificant. This week, a few simple moments I had reminded me of how my work isn’t actually frivolous at all and how design and style can and do make a difference. My first reminder was after I put this new rug in Ida’s room. I plopped her down on it, and immediately plopped down on it myself.
I opened up some blocks that we have had since before she was born and we started to play. We sat and played there for about 45 minutes. This was very new for us because we very rarely hang out in her room, and hardly ever on the floor–because our jungalow has all hardwood flooring. Making this simple change in her room made me a better mom–getting down onto her level and letting her explore her space, and spending some really good one-on-one playtime with her.
The other reminders this week were from my interior styling class. Seeing the improvement in the beauty of peoples homes really does make a difference in people’s everyday lives. So many students left comments sharing how organizing and styling their homes put them into better moods–made them happy when they walk into their space and helped them to see their homes as places of potential, and help them to feel energized as opposed to stifled.
Living in beauty, sharing beauty and creating beauty in the word *is* doing good work in the world…It’s a good reminder for me. And it is with that sentiment that I wish you all a happy Friday!
Thank you for sharing. I work in the non-profit sector but also love to sew, create, and decorate, and sometimes struggle with the opulence/frivolity of the later compared with the necessity of the former. But, as you said, we build a good world in all sorts of ways!
Inner turmoil addressed! This is just what I was needing to hear, ta :-)
And found this:
http://www.good.is/posts/five-skills-designers-have-that-global-development-needs?goback=.gde_1249287_member_229812516
Thank you for sharing that Good piece–it is, indeed ‘good’!
Oh so well put! I´m an interior architect, and I know both myself and other colleagues in the business struggle with the same issue of consciousness.. So well put, I´ll put that behind my ear for easy access when I´ll need to be reminded again. :-)
Not frivolous at all! Art and beauty may not save lives but they make life worth living :-) as for me i can’t tell you how much fun taking your course was! After a hard six mo months battling post natal depression and losing my mother in law it actually made me want to get off the couch and be creative. As an artist i had missed “making” so much and while i have not painted anything since the birth of my son in september the course gave me an achievable outlet for creative expression and a space that feels good and makes me feel good about myself again :-) keep it up, its great work x
wow. you just made my day. thank you so very, very much for sharing this with me today. I really needed to hear it. Wishing you the best of luck with your creative projects and your mommy adventures–it ain’t easy! I feel your pain!
What a wonderful post. When I think of the attention the creator of the universe spent on designing every flower, animal, landscape and sunset and the immense amount of pleasure we get from just basking in the beauty of nature, I know that your creative nature is an extension of God expressing his gifts in you!
The environment we surround ourselves with (or the way we dress, what we eat, what we put our efforts into creating – all of these) impact the way we experience the world. Also, I think art allows us to assign purpose to some of the darker things in life that we cannot understand, or at least enables us to cope with those things and aids us in healing.
There is a homeless shelter where I live that caters to families, and one of the things they have groups of volunteers do is to design the rooms that families live in. These people generally are coming from nothing, the tradition of homeless shelters is something more akin to a war zone – and a roof is all they physically need. But their spirits benefit so much more by being given some beauty.
i ask myself this question often. i went to mount holyoke college, where a lot of emphasis is placed on going out + doing good in the world. i get stuck asking: what good am i doing in my job (communications at a prep school)? what good am i doing in my blog?
most of the time, i end up with the certainty that by doing things that support my family + make me a happier person, i’m doing a good job.
You see alot of unhappiness sometimes and thinking that bringing in the simpliest things into the home like flowers or creating your spaces for you can bring so much beauty in how you live your life and that`s not trivial at all.