Living vs. Existing

Last night I attended a very spiritual class about our souls. The subject of existing vs. living came up, as we discussed that each soul has a purpose or mission in this world. That concept of "existing" was gnawing at me...I had just seen something else that mentioned that term. It came to me while walking the dog this morning. (Btw, dog walking has replaced showering as the source of my "aha" moments.) I had seen a blurb by Tim Adams of www.handmadeology.com on Facebook advetising a new app for etsy shop owners called Handmade Compete. The tag line was "don't just exist....compete". Well, I'm not sure I would have chosen the word "compete" because that implies that it's you vs. someone else. I think we can each succeed without it being to someone else's detriment.

But this did get me thinking. Just as I have a mission and purpose in my personal life to (in my own small way) do good, help others, bring light where there is darkness, so too should Bloomin' Lumen have a mission. Now, I did create a business plan that started out with a mission statement. But it occurs to me that I was focusing on writing a business-oriented mission statement, composed mostly of business type jargon. What if Bloomin' Lumen had another mission statement that was more about literally "bringing light where there is darkness"?

I decided my new mission for Bloomin' Lumen would be to uplift people with good, colorful, fun design, to not take life or themselves too seriously, to add a little whimsy to their lives. To add light even to life's faintest shadows.

Shine on!

Blurring the Boundaries

I am a big fan of Surface magazine (www.surfacemag.com)! Instead of being just a fashion publication or an architecture and design publication, it is a "Design" magazine, covering fashion, architecture, industrial design, graphic design, etc. as equivalent and related disciplines. It's great that we have reached an era where a designer can cross over and design jewelry and furniture, fashion and interiors. Everything comes down to color, pattern, texture, form. Materials cross over too. As a weaver/ collagist/designer, I practically drool over the incredible range, use, and production methods of materials these days, from urethane, plastic, metals, corian, wood, glass, textiles, polycarbonate, to concrete. I love mixing the old - scavenged items - with the new, especially in unexpected ways. I love weaving together bits and pieces from here and there to form something new and beautiful.

Another great thing about Surface magazine is that the parts add up to greater than the whole. It's possible to see the spectrum of design disciplines at one time, learning more at one time about our current cultural climate, than would be possible from fashion or architecture alone.

Maybe we've reached a cultural era where we can reinvent ourselves, be more than one thing, not be easily defined. Maybe there are aspects of who we are that are constantly changing and evolving. It seems that we no longer define people by their day jobs, recognizing that we all have much more to us than how we choose to earn our daily bread. It's actually pretty inspirational - no one has to hide their creative pursuits. Go out and write music, like my brother the real estate developer (www.gregderby.com)! Try your hand at stand-up comedy, like a psychiatrist I know! Become a water color artist, like my father the chemist! Reunite with your high school band, as my friend Lisa the marketer has!

We are all an accumulation of parts and pieces, old and new, and everchanging. We are collages of our own creation, and like Surface magazine, our parts add up to greater than the whole.