Thoughts
the afternoons are not for me
it’s the in-between.
the already-past or the not-quite-yet placeholder of time.
i like mornings. i like nights.
but afternoons are not for me.
from 12-5 i prefer to look back or look forward.
A lovely little corner of Na Nin Vintage
This is something I posted on Instagram this morning, but I had a few extra thoughts I wanted to share so I decided to share them here.
Today is Small Business Saturday. Which, if you didn't know, is a holiday created by Amex in order to promote shopping at small and local businesses.
Shopping small isn't about being trendy.
It's about supporting your community.
The place in which you live.
The hard working people who are living out or pursuing their dreams for the greater good.
It's about investing in QUALITY vs. QUANTITY.
Knowing the person behind the product.
The maker behind the creation.
A sentiment I've been working on implementing into my life more over the past year or so.
People often complain about how expensive it is to shop small/local, and I get that, but honestly when you buy one quality item you save yourself time and money down the road from having to buy five poor quality items after they quickly wear out/break/go out of style. Plus there's the whole fast fashion issue and the excessive consumerism mindset that plagues so much of our lives (if you haven't watched True Cost, do it. It's on Netflix)
Besides, really and truly think about it, wouldn't you rather know where your money's going? Who it's going to and what it's being used for? I think there's far greater value in that than we realize. And what goes around comes around. So make it a point to invest in and support small businesses, not just today, but on a regular basis. Because it's what's best for this here world of ours. We're all in this together after all. ❤
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So those were my words from Instagram this morning, but then a friend of mine brought up the additional thoughts on how so many people don't have the ability to invest in quality and well made things. That that is in fact a luxury and a privilege. And how we should also be conscious and open to not only shop small, but shop second hand.
Which I 100% agree with.
And so I want to add on some more thoughts to this topic and way of thinking.
First by clarifying that when I admonish you to shop at small businesses I'm definitely also including vintage/thrift/second hand shops. Because I do think it's important to buy second hand as much as possible instead of just buying new things all of the time. ***Insert a reiteration of the dangers of fast fashion here***
Secondly, I also think it's important to seek out businesses and artists that make an effort to give back in various ways. I in no way want to come across as elitist and privileged in my declaration of the importance of shopping small, which I know it often can be construed as because it sometimes is more expensive. Rather I want to speak to the value of supporting smaller businesses BECAUSE of how much our community and society as a whole is hurting and doing this, sowing back into people, supporting each other and helping one another out, is so very important in helping out the greater good of our communities.
It's a hard issue as a whole to address because of its various intricacies and how it goes so much deeper than the surface of just how we shop.
I think I tend to get overwhelmed when looking at the bigger picture of our country and how it's hurting and impoverished and then seeing the privileged and those more well off (which I undoubtedly am one of, simply because I have a roof over my head and the ability to put food on the table on a consistent basis. Not to mention how I have extra to spend on much sillier/trivial/unnecessary things). I think my way of approaching the issue is hitting at the hearts of so many at the middle/upper class line and how consumerist we are, which is so toxic to not only ourselves and those in this country but those in other countries as well. We have so much in comparison to many who have so little or often even nothing. And my heart is at a place where I'm trying to speak to that issue on the surface so that we can then work our way down to the deeper issues and turn around and give to and help those who are maybe hurting a little more than we are.
It's what God calls us to do after all.
Be a good steward of the blessings he's given us.
I definitely have been wrestling with more extreme ways to do that though. I recently cleared out a lot of stuff and gave a carload of things to a halfway house, but even things like that make me sick to my stomach. The fact that I have a carload of excess is just wrong on so many levels.
I'm definitely trying to figure out what living a life centered on Gods will in this area looks like.
But more than that, what it looks like to not stand above reaching down to those less fortunate, but stand beside them hand in hand.
This is something that's been on my mind a lot lately, not just because I am one of those small businesses, an artist and a maker I hope people will support, but because I want to make a positive impact with my life and what I'm doing with it. Whether that's with the services I offer with my knitwear and photography or whether it's with being a consumerist/shopper myself and where I spend my money and what and who I choose to support with it.
It's also a topic of conversation I would love to hear your thoughts on, whichever side of it you take, because I want to be able to openly discuss this. So if you have some thoughts, please share them in the comments or even shoot me an email.
xo
twelve year old freckles
blank walls showcasing a single photo
ink scrawled words on a well worn page
the comfortable silence between you and a someone you feel at home with
sun splashed hardwood floors
a cleared inbox
routine how-are-you phone calls
a knowing smile between friends
a knowing smile between strangers
the thoughtfulness of a mother
slow burning candles
a clean sink free of dishes
the smell of rosemary
a cup of coffee brought in the early morning by a loving friend (or, honestly, any cup of coffee)
the satiny feel of endlessly used knitting needles
a song with words that hit you right in the chest in that place where you really and truly get stuff
bike rides on chilly-grey days
these are the overlooked, not-as-noticed things i’m thankful for.
i, of course, could go on and on about the big abundance i’ve been blessed with in the way of my family and friends and a home and my dreams and passions. and i do go on and on about them from time to time. but i wanted to take today, this day we reserve for thankfulness and being grateful, to take note of these small things.
actually, now that i think about it, these small things speak of all of those aforementioned big things.
they, in their smallness, just altogether make up the big things.
the just-right things.
Photo by Meagan Abell
i love the words people use to describe me now.
sassy. independent. free spirited. strong. wild.
people who’ve known me for years and people who’ve just met me.
their words are the same.
i think that’s when you know you’re you. you’re consistent. you’re just as you were meant to be. when people you knew before and people you know now use the same words to describe you.
learn to let a little more green into your life.
speak only good and kind things about yourself. because subconsciously, whether you realize it or not, good-or-bad you will step into and become whatever you speak over yourself.
so speak positively.
share what is vulnerable, not what is intimate.
sometimes it comes down to books or groceries.
it’s okay for books to win.
the value in having your own space, really and truly a space all your own will be a part of your life you didn’t know you were missing and will only help you embrace and become more of who you were meant to be.
few people will understand this.
be okay with that.
journeys are, above all, a way of getting closer to yourself.
you chose this.
if you didn’t, choose something different because you have the freedom to choose.
keep only the things that speak to your heart and spark joy.
discard the rest.
this includes thoughts.
innovation happens at the intersections.
it is incredibly dangerous to assume.
you will miss out on so much if you get into the habit of doing this.
there’s a scarcity and sacredness to living slow.
when you’re able to, hold onto it, don’t let anything come along and speed it up.
the people.
it’s all about the people.
do not lose sight in the dark, of what you came to know to be true in the light.
you’re exactly where you need to be to get to where you want to go.
there’s a lot i’ve not forgotten.
about those star crossed days.
heat rising from asphalt we dance-sat-ran on.
to and away from each other.
beautiful, close and young.
it’s a fine line between remembering and being stuck. recalling and wallowing. recollection and depression.
it’s a line i feel as though i’ve almost-all-the-way mastered the walking of.
almost.
i wonder if it’s even possible to all the way master a line like that.
a line like that with a person like you.
everyone looks like someone i know from far away.
the faded colors, the rounded corners, the symmetrical shapes that have captured in time so many moments from so long ago.
i recently spent time with some of my very favorite people and ended up discovering a drawer chocked full of these moments. photographs. creased, bent, faded, preserved, folded, saved over decades and decades of family history.
maybe the effect old photographs have on me is in part due to the fact that i’m a photographer. or maybe it’s the other way around… but regardless, there’s nothing that can get the water works going for me faster than looking at old photos.
i don’t even mean just my own family photos. i recently spent an evening looking at a dear friends old family photos and i was literally shedding tears over them (this also included touching the actual negatives from find the girls on the negatives which also gave me chills). but it’s not just limited to close friends family photos either. it includes forgotten photos of strangers collected by friends too.
i don’t know what it is, but give me a handful of images circa the 90’s or earlier and you’re going to have to hand me a few tissues as well.
there’s just something so special about old photographs.
they’re an archive.
they’re pieces of me.
really important things are not that great in number.
true friends.
sacred keep sakes.
good photographs.
— a revelation i had last friday
this is the time in which you'll be split down the middle on things. in a sentence: it’s a transition from i-believe-this-because-you-do to i-believe-this-because-i-do.
this is the time in which your opinions and beliefs are traveling from the side of blind following to hard earned opened eyed searching and seeing for yourself. which will sometimes entail a fight-for-it-even-when-it’s-hard believing. this is the in-between moment of those two times.
be okay with that.
you'll end up on the other side eventually.
this is the time in which you'll curl up under your covers late at night in the dark and have a three hour transatlantic phone conversation with your best friend. a conversation about what love is.
something will shift in your understanding during that conversation.
don't let go of it.
this is the time when you'll realize it's far more important to look people in the eye and offer them your hand, than it is to be comfortable.
this is the time in which you'll understand, finally, why it is you do the things you do and how you are the way you are. but what's more than just understanding it, you'll love it. you'll love yourself. fully.
this is the time in which you'll finally realize that, really, no one else gives a damn and so you shouldn't either.
this is the time in which you'll realize there's a secret club. that you're the head of it. that everyone, in fact, has their own secret club. and what's terribly important and sacred is the people you choose to let into it.
but in the same vein: don't be close minded and overly selective about who you let in.
this is the time in which you will be told it will be okay.
this is also the time in which you will actually believe it.
this is my hustle.
this is how i work and move and progress.
this is how i make the motion of going forward. of growing. of changing. of being somewhere different than i presently was a moment ago.
this is my going-through-motions.
this is my taking-action.
this is my ambition.
