Photo by Power Lai on Unsplash
By: Stella Orange
The littles and I were at the park this past weekend, riding scooters and chasing squirrels.
As it happened, we ran into one of my friends.
My friend, not having anything in particular planned, walked with us to the playground and she and I chatted as the munchkins frolicked in the sun. One thing we talked about was how, when we were younger, we were always planning trips.
“I always was thinking about where I wanted to go next,” she said.
Me, too. It was a part of my identity and a part of my joy of being alive. I used to pride myself on going far away. It wasn’t that I didn’t like where I was. It was just that I wanted to see and know Other Places, too. I used to think nothing of packing up all my worldly possessions (or giving everything that didn’t fit in my car or backpack away) and moving to a new city.
But these days, I’m most compelled by Working from Home.
Let’s be clear. I literally work from an office. That’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about what I think of it as a moveable metaphorical dot beneath my feet. A sort of “wherever you go, there you are” sort of thing, that I either operate inside of… or not.
I guess you could also picture it as one of those rubber bases that we used to have in school gym classes.
As it turns out, my Working from Home often looks like me being inside or near my physical home. Sort of a terroir or habitat thing. Even though I do my work from a literal office outside my actual house, I ride my bike there. I invite collaborators here. I buy flowers from the florist down the street. Physically showing up and being a presence is part of my thing.
Working from Home can also look like more of an inner zone, when I’m in my lane, being me and doing my thang.
“Thang” being a technical term for bailiwick. Or what we like to call “knowing one’s lane.”
But where was I?
Oh yes, standing in the sun with my friend.
Standing at the edge of a playground, we marveled at how much had changed.
She used to live in the Middle East. Up until a few years ago, she was scheming for how to go back. “But now there’s no way I want to go back!”, she told me.
There was a time in my life when I thought nothing of moving across the country or hopping a plane to another continent.
But that was then, and this is now.
It’s taken me a minute to recognize that I’ve crossed a threshold into a new way of being and moving in the world.
Case in point: A kind new colleague kept inviting me to networking meetings. Although I’ve enjoyed our conversations, there was no bone in my body that wanted to show up there.
And then I realized why. I actually don’t want to “get out there” like that anymore.
Scattershot conventional networking has never been my jam, really. I just thought I had to do it to drum up business.
I can drum up business that way, but it’s not as fun or satisfying as some of the other ways we do it.
You know?
See you at home,
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.
Get letters like this one, plus updates and insights, delivered right to your inbox every week. Here’s the sign-up.
Want to read more?