How To Find More Beauty In Being
The Power of Presence And Details From My Recent Visit To Heirloom Market
FEBRUARY 19, 2023
2023 has brought an influx of new routines into the mix, one of which includes once-weekly strict “personal brand only days” — dedicated productivity days devoted solely to planning and content for my business (devoid of any client work or other obligations). Because as a growing entrepreneur now 2+ years into running my design studio, I recognize the absolute need to *finally* begin treating my own personal brand like I treat my clients’: with utmost care and attention (and, one that I devote more time to). Which means prioritizing focused strategy, planning, and marketing efforts that are usually quick to fall to the back burner when client obligations take center state. (Can any biz owners relate to this struggle here? #askingforafriend
With this recent realization of personal-brand-prioritization comes a newfound need to seek out more environments to support that commitment. Enter: an exciting opportunity to source more destinations as remote offices.
Amongst the many, many gratifications of running my own design studio is the wonderful perk of more freedom, which includes setting my own schedules and choosing to work from anywhere my soul desires. And as someone who savors spontaneous exploration and travel, seeking out new spaces that inspire my work and fuel my creative thinking is an ever-fulfilling venture for me.
Last weekend, I took full advantage of my Sunday, devoting the day to a beautiful work flow of business inquiry and planning. And my location of choice was the timeworn setting at Heirloom Market in the quaint, lovely, and oh-so-historic Old Wethersfield neighborhood. This spot is a true gem, and one I’ve frequented before. Doubling as a natural foods grocery store and delicious hand-crafted cafe, this rustic marketplace runs out of the longest continually operating seed company in America, Comstock Ferre. It called to me after my AM yoga flow, as I was craving a setting with good lighting, good food, and really, really, really good atmosphere. Imbued with history, meaning and all of the nostalgic details, this space was the perfect setting to support some deep dreaming for my business in the months ahead.
I spent the first portion of my time in the back greenhouse space — a lovely, all-glass addition to the original brick and wood building complex, housing open seating and peripheral countertops for additional gathering. With its glazing and raw 2x4 materials, the space inherently felt bright and inviting, while also exuding craft and care through its construction. It supported the rich history and meaning of the original seed factory too: an all-wood, timeworn space with tall, barn sash windows filtering soft sunshine into its dusty, aged interior. A simple, yet perfect balance of elements coming together to deliver a truly charming and comforting experience — dark, worn woods illuminated by the lovely natural light, which seemed to also illuminate deeper details that would have otherwise gone unnoticed in the space:
The rusty, metal farm tools, aged from years of hard labor use, strung from the overhead beams gathering layers of slow-accumulating dust
The sea of various grooves, nicks, indentations, markings, and scratches in the timber floorboards, collected over years of wear, tear and activity
The peeling, distressed and sun-faded stickers of various fruits, vegetables and herbs, adorning the antiquated cabinetry lining the bar area
These little, unexpected moments, plus so many, many more.
In observing these details, I was left with a deeper appreciation of all that this special little marketplace is: a timeworn structure of intentional preservation, imbued with history, meaning and story of industrialization and connection back to simpler routines: tilling soil, planting crops, and celebrating harvest. All reimagined and repurposed today to serve a new audience, seeking a place to gather, commune, and savor delicious, local and mindfully-made food.
This simple, yet special little day trip just 20 minutes outside of my hometown intended solely to support a spontaneous weekend work day, has unexpectedly left me with deeper reflections — considering things like why I find so much joy in taking in new spaces, the power and influence that essence of place can hold, and how is it that we can savor place more deeply by appreciating more details.
Among these contemplations, I’ve been finding a pull and curiosity around the detail discovery piece in particular. The process of coming across the little moments imbued with intrigue and surprise, that alone may be powerful and hold something unexpected, but collectively come together to inform a bigger story and essence of place in totality. How the details always seem to have a subtle, yet surprising influence on how we can “better” and more “holistically” experience a space, how they can point us to deeper insights and truths, and how beauty always inherently seems to play a role in these surprising little moments.
And therein, I found myself sitting with this question:
How can we discover more of these details and (accordingly) more beauty in our everyday?
Especially within the context of our fast-paced and demanding day-to-days, where we are prone to constantly overlook these precious opportunities that can elicit more joy and meaning to our being?
Whatever the answer, I believe a piece of the detail discovery question may in that very word: being. Perhaps we just need to cultivate more being. Perhaps we just need to be more.
But what does that even mean? To be? My overtly Type-A, go-getter-entrepreneurial and girl boss self has surely been familiar with all of the doing, but its contrasting state? For the last few years (since March of 2020 to be exact), I’ve been welcoming more and more space to sit with this “being” question, feeling deeper into all of its implications and nuances. And my Sunday visit to Heirloom Market has seemingly propelled me into even deeper inquiries. My most recent revelations: recognizing the “being” state as a two-fold experience — one of slowness and presence — that can be heightened through an intimate connection with the ever-present details of our surroundings.
Slowness: to literally slow down. Decrease the speed and frequency at which we move and take in information or complete an action. Maybe that’s walking a bit more unhurried the next time we’re on our daily neighborhood stroll. Or pausing more in between sips of our favorite afternoon tea.
Presence: to exist in the now. To feel into the very exactness of the moments that we are in. To bring more conscious awareness to the environment, object or person within our context, and also: our bodies. If that’s on our neighborhood walk: “I am moving my strong, healthy, and energized body out in this delicious, cool, fresh morning air. The sun is out illuminating the city, and there’s a beautiful warm sensation on my skin from its soft rays. I notice the timeworn brick adorning the beautiful row houses alongside me as I move, and am moved by the character and individuality of each one, that’s been retained throughout the years in this historic neighborhood”. If that’s sipping your afternoon tea: “I am holding this sweet, earthy and delicious chai in my hands. I can feel the heat radiating from my favorite, chipped ceramic mug, gifted to me from a friend for my birthday last year. I wonder how she’s doing today”.
What comes to further light when dreaming into the above examples is the inquiry and introspection that can emerge from these simple more-slow and more-present moments. Your morning walk may leave you reflecting on the origins of your neighborhood buildings. Or your daily tea ritual can elicit an old memory of a loved one, prompting you to relive a beautiful moment spent together. OR, a spontaneous trip to a vintage marketplace on a Sunday can leave you appreciating its industrial origins (along with psychoanalyzing your work/life habits, contemplating humanity’s chronically rushed lifestyles, and writing a blog post capturing all of your burning reflections on these subjects).
All of these unexpected, seemingly random rabbit holes of thought, provoked by the two-fold “being state” of slowing down and becoming present, heightened by the assimilation of details — the sweet, delicious little bits that are surrounding us in every moment of our every day, begging to be recognized, holding SO much inherent purpose. Whether that purpose lies in connecting us deeper to our surroundings, prompting a memory, or finding greater appreciation, therein lies something inherently beautiful about it all. Because isn’t anything that imbues more richness to our life experiences ultimately a thing of beauty?
Sitting with all of these reflections, I thought of one of my favorite architects, Peter Zumthor, and his writings on finding deeper meaning through architecture. In his compilation of essays titled “Thinking Architecture”, Zumthor writes:
"Details express what the basic idea of the design requires at the relevant point in the object: belonging or separation, tension or lightness, friction, solidity, fragility… Details, when they are successful, are not mere decoration. They do not distract or entertain. They lead to an understanding of the whole of which they are an inherent part. There is a magical power in every completed, self-contained creation. It is as if we succumb to the magic of the fully developed architectural body. Our attention is caught, perhaps for the first time, by a detail such as two nails in the floor that hold the steel plates by the worn-out doorstep. Emotions well up. Something moves us."
The timeworn brick on your neighborhood buildings.
The tiny nicks on your favorite mug.
The rusty metal farm tools hanging in a historic marketplace.
These moments all bear the rich potential for “something” to truly move us. And, accordingly, the potential to imbue more beauty and meaning in our everyday. The question ultimately lies in whether or not we are willing to slow down and become more present to observe them.
So then, and therein: are we willing to invite more being into your everyday?
In part two (coming next week), I’ll be drawing parallels between the tangible details of place and the digital details of branding that I explore in my 2D work, inviting you behind the scenes to some of my creative thinking amidst client process work. Stay tuned 🙂
Until then, may you savor your Monday and week ahead, and cultivate more pleasantly unexpectedly moments in your days (through beautiful details, but of course) ✨
