I am a day late on this one. But I made a promise to show up every week and write about the happenings at KAEIU, and when I fall off the wagon, I intend to hop right back on.
So. What happened at KAEIU HQ last week?
A whole lot.
I did a product shoot at home for the new BFP Woven Crossbody and two additional new styles, with a friend in our living room as the studio. I launched the Mother's Day sale campaign with a new angle I had not tested before, and the results have been... let's just say Meta ads and I are still getting acquainted. And I did my fourth consecutive pop-up of the spring season, this time in Princeton with the Art Council of Princeton. My first ever pop-up in New Jersey.
Four weekends in a row. Safe to say the tank is running low.
Which is why, when a friend invited me to a tarot card dinner hosted by our neighborhood mom group, I said yes! Sometimes you just need an evening that has nothing to do with inventory or ad spend. Everyone got a twenty minute private reading. I knew going in that it helps to have an intention, so I chose a question: is there anything in my life that I am blind to? Anything I am missing?
According to the cards, I am in a state of preparation. Getting ready to level up from Maria 1.0 to Maria 2.0. But I also pulled a card that represents burnout. The reader told me that what I am actually missing is time. She said: I know you are low on time. But if you want to level up, do you know what that requires of you? Do you have a plan for how to get there?
I told her eagerly that in September, when my youngest starts school, I would finally have the space to plan properly and think bigger. She looked at me and said: oh no no. If you want anything meaningful to happen when your son starts school, you need to start planning now. Not then. Now.
This was not new information. I have written about it here before, the need to slow down, zoom out, and do the big picture work instead of just running on the hamster wheel. But there is something different about hearing it from someone outside your own head, because I heard that loud and clear.
The question that keeps me up is not whether I need to plan. I know I do. The question is how. How does a person carve out time for big picture thinking when there are not even enough hours in the day to eat a proper meal? When every minute is already accounted for before the day even begins?
I've been waiting for a version of my life that has more space in it. But that version does not arrive on its own. You have to build the space before you feel ready to fill it. And if last night taught me anything, it is that September is not a plan. It is a postponement.
With love,
Maria
I wish I had thought to photograph my tarot cards. This is the only shot I managed to grab all night.