Picking Joy Over Perfection + The Value of a Different Perspective
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Issue no. 8 of the magazine arrives next month!
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Every good conversation starts with a single question. Whether it's wondering how, why, or what, it's the place we jump off from—and into the moments where all the good stuff happens.
For a story in the upcoming issue no. 8 of the print magazine, Hannah talked to our friend (and founder of the beautiful brand Sophie Williamson Design) Sophie von Oertzen about how to live with an appreciation for the magic that exists in everyday.
Hannah: Leah and I talk a lot about the idea of “don't save the good stuff” in terms of your wardrobe. Leah is especially good about this; she'll get dressed with no other reason except to just get dressed and that you don't save all this stuff for some special occasion.
I started to think about that during the holidays because I felt like I was just trying to get to the holiday table, instead of living with this mentality that every day can be a little bit special.
How do you shift your mindset to make room for that magic?
Sophie von Oertzen: The moment that we are living right now will never come back. You only ever live once and every day is once. You can't move back. I'm very connected to the past because of my family history, but you have to grab life by the balls. There's a film called Life Is a Long Quiet River, but it's a joke, because the movie is just completely up and down and everything goes crazy and life isn't a long quiet river, but life is a river.
It's always flowing. It's never stopping. You will never get to the point where it's like, okay, now it's perfect. Like you said with the holiday table, now it's this. Now it's that. No, you have to live in the moment and you have to take the moment as it is because it's always evolving. And so why not make it special? For me, obviously table linen and decor is really important. My kids are having lunch right now and we always use the nice napkins. Every day can be made nice. Especially when you have kids, actually. I'm so opposed to this idea that you need to Ikea yourself down when you have children because they would break something. They will never learn to appreciate nice things if they're not surrounded by it.
Does that go back to how you grew up?
One hundred percent. That's what I mean with the whole looking back. Coming from two families that are both from this Eastern European background [and] had to flee. They lost everything. And especially [with] my mother's culture, all that we have is the way that we behave and the way that we live our lives. The houses, the money, the jewelry, the art—I don't know, whatever it was—is gone. But the way that we behave and the way that we live, that's something that we can pass down and that's something that we can [do to] make this culture still feel alive.
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