Making & CARE-ing Imperfectly
I’m back home in Massachusetts after a few months around the country.
In my planning for 2023, I said I’d throw myself a travel curveball in Q4, and here it was. I spent all of September and half of October in the glorious Pacific Northwest (you can see more pics on Insta, but here are a few).
There were trees and mosses and orcas and trolls. There were saunas and mountains and rustic hot springs with new friends.
I saw wonderful museum & art world friends (not all pictured here) like Priya and Aletheia and Joanna and Rachel and Beck and Mike and Bryna and Jess and Stephanie and Michelle, and got to realize the several-years-gestating dream of sharing some Airbnb and adventure time with Miriam.
Miriam and I are both shifting modes in our lives these days (Ball Bearing Era, remember? All pivots, all the time), and it was great to share space and nature time and put our heads together about dreams for the coming months.
I also spent a chunk of time in my college friend Stacey’s serene Seattle pad, including days hunkered down in her sewing room with her guiding me through the process of making a dress.
I’m not a sewist, but Stacey very much is, and I found myself going through the meticulous step by step process very grateful for her help (and also her serger). It was a good test for myself, because I’m trying not to give in to my perfectionist tendencies, and this was a big project with lots of room for the Temptations of the Just So.
There were plenty of seams that had to be unpicked and resewn, and I found myself much more easily able to compromise with my perfectionism than I’d predicted. The dress came out really nicely, and I’m proud of myself for tackling such a big project and accepting that it wouldn’t turn out perfectly.
To take that metaphor and run with it for a bit, that’s the feeling I’ve got right now as I open up the registration for the next cohort of CARE (the Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs), my membership community for entrepreneurs in the arts and culture sector. I’ve been wrestling with some of the backend details, and it’s coming at a time when I also have a handful of other projects on the go, all of which means I’m spreading the word later than I’d originally planned.
But, like with the dress, I’m trying not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. So if you’d like to join this community of supportive, kind, thoughtful people who are working at making their own ways bravely in a strange and dark time in the world, then come aboard.
The last round led to people forming new collectives and presenting at conferences together and re-structuring the pricing of their services. More than that, it led to human connection and conversation that left people feeling reassured. Cohort members said
their work felt more manageable in company
they were reassured to see others wrestling with the same concerns
they’d tightened up their marketing strategies
they appreciated seeing people at different stages of entrepreneurial businesses
there was an openness to experimentation and generosity of spirit that they’d had a hard time finding anywhere else
There’s more information at the CARE home page, and you can read about the birth of this offering and how it looks in practice in my previous posts.
To be totally frank with you, I wasn’t sure whether—with the delays in getting the word out and the other work piling up on my plate—I shouldn’t push this cohort back and start it in the new year. After all, November and December are tricky months for many people. Holiday and family commitments arrive. In the Northern Hemisphere the cold sets in and the light goes dark.
Then I caught me telling myself a whole story that was mostly an excuse to not put this offering out there, in case it wasn’t perfect. Which is exactly what I’m trying to do less of these days. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
CARE is very much me creating a community that I want to be part of, and I miss having that community in my life. As I head into the dark and cold months, I want folks to touch base with about how they’re handling their own seasonal shifts. As I take on the balancing act of new work projects, I want to know how others do the same thing. As I reflect on my work toward the end of this year and dream about what I want next year to bring, I want to do that in company with others.
And, in a moment of intersecting global war, climate crisis, and political darkness, I want to be fostering and turning toward abundance, which has been my guiding question throughout this, my Cornucopia Year.
So CARE is open for registration. The deadline is November 10. Yes, that’s soon. I hope you’ll join me and/or spread the word to others who you think might like to join, too. (Truly, if you can share this offering with 1 other person, that’ll help my one-woman-show marketing efforts immensely.)
Let’s be in community together. Let’s be imperfect and generous of spirit. Let’s push back against the pressures of isolationism and domination and hierarchy in this collective nest of sharing and support.
Creative Prompt Coda: Pick one thing that you’ve got on your plate right now and share it with the world in all its imperfect glory.
