This fall and winter, I am inviting two new words to guide my creative life: attention and mischief.
A few days after Christmas I’m eating veggie curry watching the sea through the window. There’s a lighthouse on a little island that appears and disappears through the clouds. Sometimes there are figures walking on the headland near the tower.
I’m here as a kind of halfway house—after spending Christmas with my family in the suburbs and before going back to my tiny studio in the city centre.
All of the things are blooming. Have you noticed? June is here. The Cecil Brunner rosebush is magnificent this year--an explosion of flowers so heavy that its top has fallen away from the white wall of the little city cottage where Lucia is made, and is spilling toward the alleyway. There is a lesson here for me, in expectation and fruition...
Sunday, April 9, 2017 - Daily Notes, From the Editor (550 words). Whoa, April is intense. Burgeoning. This thing we call Spring is aptly named. To the untrained eye, new growth appears suddenly, but if you have been paying attention you know: this all started long ago.
Happy New Year! Oh, the plans I had for ending 2016 with a neat bow, a perfect email, and an announcement of a new offering I've been working on for early 2017. Out the window they flew sometime in the last week while I struggled to balance heart work with paid work, dreams with reality. Instead, I woke this morning unfinished. Like I always do...
As someone who makes her living working remotely, it's hard to admit that the only way to truly connect with someone is to look them in the eyes. Over the past two weeks, I have looked more strangers in the eye, many in the throes of some of their deepest struggles, and offered these words: "Buen Camino." The American equivalent? "Happy trails." The literal translation: "Good way."
February 3, 2016 - Daily Notes
A voicemail with a British accent this morning. Someone from The Economist inviting me to attend a forum. His words were crisp and soft at the same time. The polite cadence had pauses to emphasize the time-sensitive nature of his message and there was sincerity when he said, "Have a great day today." The whole thing lasted forty seconds. It shifted my perspective.
I've been struggling, as many of you know, to balance my need to make a living with my desire to take this magazine, Lucia, from beautiful fledgling to the full expression of wings-spread-wide flight. I make my living today by working in public relations. My clients are innovative companies, teams of smart people making exciting things happen as they grow. When friends ask me, "What do you actually do?" it is challenging to respond succinctly. There is a one word answer, though, and it is this: communication.
I communicate.
It is an art, a science, a process, a talent, and a skill that can be learned, honed, applied, and made into almost anything you can imagine. It is also time-consuming and energy-dependent, especially to do it well, especially to for fast-moving companies. It requires not just time, but also attention, focus, thoughtfulness, curiosity, creativity, flexibility, availability, and ability to think fast and smart.
We are all communicators. Our words are our art but they are also much more. Every text we type, every email we push, every voicemail we leave, matters. Each time we convey information to another human being we are changing the world. Words are important. Delivery is important. What you say and how you say it creates the world we all live in.
Remember this today, as you go about the balancing act of your life. Your words are crucial. They are changing the world. Which words will you choose? Where will they come from? How will you deliver them?
xo
laura
