Photo by Annie Nyle on Unsplash
By: Stella Orange
I write this note to you from Buffalo, New York, where we’ve been collectively going through some things. Not least of these: a big snowstorm that had us in our homes for multiple days, some of us without power or medicine or emergency medical services.
It was illegal to drive within city limits. Our street had five-foot snow drifts and didn’t get plowed for five days.
My household got off relatively easy. The power stayed on. We had heat and plenty of food.
And still, for all big picture good fortune we’ve experienced, we have been changed by what we have lived through.
We’re buying shovels for the car. We’re looking into generators.
But also? The animal inside me is shoring up pleasures big and small.
She’s dreaming of future voyages.
She’s signing up for races.
She’s scheming on the small actions that give her – me – outsize delight.
In other words, she’s doubling down on Being Alive, in the ways she knows how.
Because otherwise, as Rebecca is fond of saying, what’s the point?
This is no small thing. You know as well as I that this Being Alive is an act of grace, devotion, and creativity.
I write this in a business newsletter, because the compartmentalization has fallen away. Grace, devotion, and creativity in my personal life, I am now noticing, has become grace, devotion, and creativity in my practice of business.
Being Alive in my personal life is Being Alive in my business.
You know, Rebecca and I want this Being Aliveness for you, as well.
We want you to feel good in your bones when you make business decisions. Whether it’s about how much you charge your clients, what your work is becoming, how much rest you give yourself, or where you show up to rub elbows with prospective clients.
We want you to feel alive when you declare what it is you want to experience in the future, how you want it to feel for yourself and for others, and perhaps even more importantly, on what terms.
And ahhh… may the terms be your own!
Even when there’s stuff around you that’s out of your control.
Especially then.
Let us not underestimate the power and raw beauty of daring to believe that you can have a business – and a life – that honors what you love most and grows the most delicious — and meaningful — fruit.
And may everything that is Not That fall away, if we let it.
Big love,
Stella
P.S. Every season, Rebecca and I host a series of conversations on topics that are coming up for the people we serve. Last season, we walked people through how to streamline a business that’s feeling overgrown; cultivating business relationships; and the story of the journey (one of our all-time favorites!). Season passes are on sale now!
Stella is cofounder and copywriter at Las Peregrinas, a creative and consulting agency. As our resident word nerd, she writes copy and points out the stories everyone is living and telling through their work. She is also fun at parties.
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