We did something INSANE. We closed our shop for several days over a holiday and we took our little family to the beach. This was our first non-working family vacation since we opened our shop three years ago. Whew. Whoa.
Look, we live our dream. It's true! We have worked hard to design a life that holds all of our values at the center, that we wake up every day and get to ultimately do the thing that fires us up and fulfills us and, yes, pays our bills (and employees!). And it is a shit-ton of fun.
It builds community and relationships and puts positive vibrations out into the world, and we have this vision of everyone else making these positive little ripples in the world, too. That is how we can all make a positive change in the universe. We 100% believe this and are fueled by this. It's all about love and connection.
So what we do-- whether you look at it on this cosmic level or on the day to day "cool, they run this rad little shop and throw these cool ass parties"-- it takes a lot of work. Like, wake up at 4am and maybe go until 11pm kind of work. The kind of work that you don't get weekends because you do your thing on weekends too.
We live in a culture that praises busy-ness, entrepreneurial hustle and also is like, "boundaries, boundaries, balance, self care." These expectations and impossible standards will mess you up! There is no balance. Balance is an illusion-- because nothing will be in perfect symmetry.
The weeks, days, moments are each their own living and breathing things, and the most sustainable way to navigate it is to be like the rock and the water. Wait, you're what? Huh? I don't remember where I heard this. Maybe it's like old biblical or maybe I picked it up from a Buddhist monk or maybe it came from the mouth of a kid or something.
But basically-- envision a cool, babbling brook. A little creek. And you see this beautiful, sturdy rock that is firm in its spot. Has probably been there for decades or centuries maybe. It is SOLID. It is there. It's smooth. And it's smooth because of the years of that cool water moving over it, shaping it in minuscule ways all the time.
So you're the rock. But you're also the cool water. You flow, seemingly without effort. You are fluid, your particles are ever moving, ever changing and always flowing. Where there is something in the path of your flow, you flow over and around and through it. There is no exertion, there is simply your flow. And that flow shapes things.
You're the rock. And you're the cool water.
That's how we survive. And that's how we thrive.
Oh, and occasionally take a vacation. It's good for you.