My friend Brooke Holm just gave a transformative TED talk this weekend about the permeable nature of time and perspective. Her talk, like her fine art practice, challenges us to reframe our understanding of the world through time and space, as a result reframing our understanding of ourselves and what we are capable of. Not so much capable of doing, but capable of seeing, capable of understanding, capable of feeling.

This month, we are yielding to our evolving perspective and bringing a few things to life that you have shown us you need. I'm so excited to be launching our Interior Design Consultations and reopening our Collection Consultations. We want to be your sounding board -- for your home or your creative practice -- and we now have a way for that to happen easily and affordably. 

Launching on November 19 is our first ever Holiday Shop, a collaboration with our friends at Available Items. Design gifts under $200 should not be a revelation, but for some reason we haven't until now.

We should all be taking notes from Brooke. Intention creates purpose. Purpose creates gravity, and gravity in all its forms keeps us present in each moment. Savoring, grateful, nervous, worried. Not all good, not all bad, but if we aren't paying attention, we might miss the obvious (like a holiday shop in Tribeca with gifts we can actually afford). Let's take notes and not rush through the real stuff.

-Jean Lin

At the playground, there is a diabolical fixture. A cup sitting at a tilt on top of a short post. The slight tilt is all that’s needed for a child – or hapless adult – to gain their own momentum and spin with increasing speed in a tight spiral. Finding a single point to focus on is impossible because of the undulating velocity of the spin. But when you’re on this thing, you are desperate for a focal point so you can start the urgent and necessary business of a safe return to solid ground.

What are we right now, if not on tilt? Not in a Carl Sagan, third planet from the sun kind of way, but a politically, socially, fiscally, morally, WTF is happening kind of way. I’ve been desperately trying to figure out where I can fix my gaze for hope and safety, but every time I think I see some light, a new spin throws it all into dark disarray. 

I’ve come to realize that these points of focus may seem trivial in their brevity, but are in fact our most hopeful source of purpose. Someday we may have the luxury of time to dissect and bask in the warmth of our inspiration. But here and now as we tilt to the whims of ruthlessly powerful men, we must be relentless in the work of reflecting back that ever-fleeting light.

-Jean Lin