Things I Love

"When sitting down to write about things I love, my mind floods with images of people in my life, puppies, quiet snowfalls, the smell of baking croissants, all things that provide comfort. It then extends to greater ideas and ideals: what touches me, the beauty in the world, what drives me forward. The thought of what is most meaningful to us differs by person, but the purpose it creates and the strength of the ties it provides to those and that which we love are not so different. Our sense of safety and of strength, of beauty and of purpose, are given to us by the things that we love. This translates into all aspects of our lives, including our work lives.

It would be easy for me to speak of things that I love at work in terms of objects. I love the Eames Walnut Stool from MillerKnoll. It’s shape, its scale, its simplicity, they are all perfect to me. But, beyond this, there needs to be something more than the beautiful, more than the practical, much more than material gain, that bonds us to our work. There needs to be something bigger, that encourages us, that drives us, that helps us fight through and hopefully fend off the ‘Sunday Scaries’. A sense of place, of belonging, purpose, a chance to create and change, to collaborate and compete, all contribute to this bond.

So here we are. Work is a part of us, and in it we find things that we love, a combination of people, of ideas and objects. It is both the great and the small. I love: when I’m so busy that my days flash by in the blink of an eye, when I see someone get their first (or thousandth) win, when I see people grow and connect, when there is a moment of revelation or understanding, when you can see the solution to a problem starting to form, the exhausted, but grateful faces after a successful event, months in the planning, when the route becomes clear. It is these blocks, building a culture and a community that matter. This is what I love"