May 17th 2026
I almost forgot what year it is. The months have rolled into one another, and I am now in the third month of consciously running my business full time again. I have been listening to an episode by Esther Perel this morning. The episode is called How to Start (Even When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going?). A few weeks ago I felt called to hold an evening creative circle in my home. I thought about everyone I would want at my table, albeit the space I have at home is limited. I imagined warmth, good conversation, soup, and cheese.
I imagined warmth, good conversation, soup, and cheese. My friends arrived for an evening together, and I explained this is an idea I’ve had to host guests in my home studio. We workshopped the concept together, and they suggested some things to add to the event that would make it all the more special: “Add an order of events, like a wedding!” And this is how Bloom began. Each week I get a veggie box delivered, and I then create the meals around what is received. My dear friend has also recently had a baby, and it is also a great excuse to fill her fridge with recipes I am testing over the weekend. There has not been much to do in this weather other than make soups and bake, and it has become a family affair. Something rhythmic and warm for me to focus on each week.
I thought about all the things I would want from an experience like this. Excerpts from my poetry books, pieces of flowers from books I have collected over the span of a decade, materials I have collected in secret boxes for my guests to explore. There is a curiosity when stepping into an artist’s studio. You look around and you wonder how something works, their thoughts behind why something is the way that it is. I know stepping into Daniel’s studio or Nandipha’s studio, I thought just this. It is personal and wondrous. It feels like a bit of a timestamp walking into a room with artworks half finished. And perhaps a bit of a risk too (one of my guests put her jacket in my oil palette by mistake last week)
After my first official Bloom circle, I sat in my studio after everyone had left and I cried a little. I thought to myself, “This might actually work.” There is a need that people are craving right now; in a world with so much detachment, as we constantly look for dopamine hits on our screens, just a lot of uncertainty and madness; but behind that we are all looking for the same thing, or connection and care. What a privilege and blessing it can be to sit down together over a meal and do something with our hands, to walk away from a night with strangers having created something. What an honour to say goodbye to someone knowing they are better than when you found them.
