I want to take a moment here at the midpoint of the year to reflect on and celebrate some of my achievements in the first half of the year gone by.

This long May included my first in-person retreat, Work/Life, international romps with friends through Rome and Vienna, small-group coaching with the guides who lead public tours at the MFABoston, and my 20-year college reunion with another set of dear friends.

So here’s a recap of these goings-on.

Are you feeling burned out?
Questioning how work fits into your life?
Frustrated at feeling defined by your job title?
Do you want your relationship to work to feel different than it does right now, but you’re not sure how to make a change?

This retreat is your dedicated time to thoughtfully, playfully, bravely explore the role you want work to play in your life.

CARE is underway! The initial cohort of the Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs (CARE) has been coming together for just over a month now, and I’m so impressed with and inspired by this group of people.

The cornucopia spirit is one of bounty and flourishing, where nourishment can be found for the mind, body, heart, and bank account. For those who choose to partake omnivorously, compassionate thriving and a suite of surprises await.

where people working on their own don’t have to work alone

The Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs (CARE) is a 6-month long community (February–August 2023) where independent arts and culture workers join together virtually to learn, teach, support each other, and build entrepreneurial skills.

This is the new sign that crowns my bulletin board. It’s pronounced poh’-lay poh’-lay, and it’s the Kiswahili word for “slowly”. It’s come home with me from the fabulously immersive two-week trip to Tanzania I just took with my Mom.

Percolate: My ideas have been steeping and infusing me with plans like the rich red-brown of tea leaves curling through hot water.

Cultivate: Cultivating requires action, but it can’t be rushed. It can only happen at the pace the plant is ready for. And when done steady and well, it’s what creates those resilient, tender-firm, green, little shoots that poke their heads up toward the sun and thrive.

I am tool and substance
I apply force, I rotate
I give way and transform
Offering myself

This performance art piece kept right on resonating in more and more meaningful ways over the past three years, and here’s my tattoo inspired by it.

I’m here for the folks who came to the field out of passion and now know that’s not a healthy basis for a working life and want better for themselves and their colleagues.

I’m for the changemakers more than the places where they make change.