A very special Spring has arrived this year. After two full years of a pandemic where we could not safely go about our lives as usual, where we were shut in and dealing with an enormous collective trauma, we are now opening our doors in time for Spring. We are rediscovering the things we love and carrying the wisdom we learned reprioritizing our lives from so much time spent on reflection, from having so much removed from our plate – our social plans, our meals out, the various entertainments we went to because those were things we always had done. In pealing those things away, many of us got to get to know ourselves and to discover what we actually missed, what we actually wanted to do and what we realized was no good for us.
And so we come out of our years away from each other, the mainstream, in real life – to a different world. We are not returning to things as they were and indeed we never will. We have an opportunity to do things differently. What will we do with our health, our freedom and our newly gained wisdom? What will we do with all that energy that we no longer expend mindlessly on things we never actually liked doing? What will we do with the intense presence in other people’s company that could only come from years of longing to be with our friends and family – to realize how precious the moments we took for granted were.
I find myself with an intense, different sort of optimism these days – with the knowledge that we are being released into the world with a very different perspective on what we see, do, and spend our time and money on. I find myself carrying the lessons of open-mindedness about the paths I can take instead of those I would default towards.
What happens when people spend two years questioning the value of their work, what they spend their time doing, what they spend their money on? This world of ours needs so much attention from the needs of working class people, neglected communities, the climate and our environment, our infrastructure – too many to list here. What happens when we reenter it, approach it anew, with our eyes wide open and an intense presence and commitment to ourselves and the pursuits that are worthy of us?
Can you see it? Can you feel it? The colors and shapes of newness pouring in. The spectacular potential of human energy coming together in this way after so much isolation. Seeing and appreciating our surroundings as they are and what we can do when we work together. How much is possible.
These days I straddle the moments of working with what we know – our pattern, our clients, our Boss Blouse, the fantastic and growing team, the space that awaits us – with the knowledge that there is much potential in what we don’t yet know – the creative potential that exists before a new collaborator comes into your life, before you discover a new pattern, what your womenswear workshop becomes when a gaggle of creative women start putting it together, what Princeton becomes when we come together to get to work, indeed what happens throughout our country with this new energy.
I am so grateful for your support and your continued attention for our work.
I wish you a beautiful, wildly creative Spring.
Go, fight, win.
Reid
Please note: There will be no Weekly Letter next week. The Weekly Letter will resume on March 29th.