make this moment matter

The theme of this year’s 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen was Make This Moment Matter. I’m not sure I thought that much about it during our planning, if I’m honest, yet when I reflect on the past week, I find that I experienced a whole lot of moments that did indeed matter. In both small ways and large.

Starting with the small, I had an unplanned opportunity to get my nails done. I almost never do that, but I was walking past a nail salon near Kongens Nytorv late Sunday afternoon and saw the lights on. On impulse, I went in and asked if they could do my nails. And indeed they could. So I chose a nice mocha color that matched the new kitchen we were showing. An unexpected moment of self care.

This moment, I knew would matter to me — the chance to display my handwoven tea towels in one of our drawers. It started in April as a casual conversation about the cool drawer insert that we had that our salespeople weren’t really that aware of. 88 hours, 41 minutes and 18 seconds later, my tea towels were in a drawer with that drawer insert at 3daysofdesign. Every bit of spare time I had for 6 weeks went into these. I’m very thankful for all those spring holidays in Denmark, or I’d never have gotten them finished. All those hours were moments that mattered, as I planned and wove and imagined them in the drawer. It was a different experience to weave tea towels from the standpoint of how they would look, folded in a drawer.

Another moment that mattered was another intersection between my personal interests (e.g. weaving) and my work. We had one of our Horizon Chairs covered in cloth woven by Danish weaver Astrid Skibsted. We hung it together with one of her weavings which was made from the same warp. It was truly a showpiece that everyone loved during 3daysofdesign. I have this feeling that it’s a story chair now, as when you sit down in it, you feel yourself wanting to tell stories.

Up on the penthouse floor of The Conary, I encountered another moment that mattered. Devon Leidtke’s Portraits of Self project. She invited visitors to fill out a blank card with their answer to the question, “There is so much beauty in….” After filling out one, I wanted to do a second one, as did Astrid, who was with me. I had gone into The Conary because another friend had been project manager of the site, and it felt like such a pleasant surprise to encounter an unexpected moment of delight while visiting.

I have one last moment that mattered to share this evening. It was in the File under Pop special exhibition inside of the Marble Church. It was quite the experience - more art than design - a cross between music, light, artworks and color experiments. But most striking was the moment when a man offered some scented hand lotion. He took my left hand, put a pump of lotion on it and gently massaged it in for just a moment. It smelled heavenly and it was a lovely act of kindness that was enhanced by the music and light and atmosphere of the round dome of the church. It most definitely felt like a moment that mattered. 

It’s funny how I felt like I forgot all about the theme of the festival, but yet it was there the whole time, underlying everything I did and experienced.

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this is another one of those things i wrote over on substack.

just want to save it here.

waiting for clarity

it feels sometimes like everyone else has all of the ideas. which sounds odd, because i've been babbling on of late about how many ideas are swirling in my head. so maybe it's not a lack of ideas, it's that everyone else actually sits down and acts on them, while i sit here stewing in my idea soup. but it's also that other people's ideas seem profound - like these beautiful little art quilts that commemorate the zeitgeist by exploring the theme of foreclosure.

i can't really remember the last time i had a profound idea. i guess my ideas come in quantity and not quality these days. and that quantity can be paralyzing, leaving you unable to act on any of them. or even just get started. so i sit around, making what i can only begin to characterize as an obscene amount of clarity birds. there is, after all, a kind of meditation in repetition. and i remain hopeful that clarity will come. but i don't feel very patient here in the waiting.

a perfect day

think about it for a moment...what would your perfect day look like?

what would the texture of it be?

would you zero in on one perfect, shining moment?

or would you breathe in the whole of it?

or would it be an entire landscape of perfection...
every moment as beautiful as the moment before it and the one after.

and would you remember to savor it, every bit of it?

achieving moments of perfect clarity

dec. 12 – body integration:  this year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? did you have a moment where there wasn’t mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present? (still working on reverb10.)

i'll admit these moments for me are few and far between. my attention is too often divided - one eye on the computer, one on the phone, one on the stove, one on the stitching and one on the t.v. (how many eyes is that anyway?) suffice it to say, i spend a bit too much time in an unfocused state.

i have, a number of times this year, had an awareness that i have to appreciate the time with sabin, right in the here and now. she's such a fun age - she can do so much for herself, it's great fun watching her form opinions and beginning to be the person she will be. she's tall, graceful (except when she gets in these periods of fast growth, where she trips and stubs her toes a lot), has style and has such a lovely, fresh way of looking at the world. she sees things, really sees them, and always lives in the moment. i so admire it. and i really do try to learn from it.

on our recent trip to manila - which i wouldn't trade for anything - i had several of those golden moments of being perfectly in the moment together with sabin. whether we were out by the pool, swimming in the evening or giggling and dipping fruit in a chocolate fondue or choosing our nail polish at dashing divas or deciding which fabulous outfit to try on next in a fitting room at gingersnaps, we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. again and again, there were moments where we thought only about what we were doing and nothing else. moments of perfect clarity.

i want way more of those moments in 2011.