On serendipity

I often think it strange how things seem to pop up, seemingly out of nowhere, when I am in need of them. That is, if I remember to be still, and to look and listen, be open and let go my propensity to go at things like a bull at a gate. And to let go of worry; I am an inveterate and champion worrier. If they handed out medals for worrying, there I’d be, at the top of the podium.

As you may know from my previous Musing, I follow Berndette Jiwa’s blog. Her blog was mentioned in Seth Godin’s and his in a book I had brought… and so it goes on. In one of Bernadette’s posts not so long ago was a reference almost at the end to the Hiut Denim Company.

Intrigued, I clicked on the link and was led to the story of how they started the company to get their town making jeans again, to get 400 people their jobs back. They make a great product. They care about the environment. They care about their town and their people. They’ve even got Royal approval. I was smitten, and signed up for their newsletter. Even the newsletter is ground breaking; there’s something interesting and thought provoking in each issue. And it looks and feels great.

Some little time ago, I dispensed with the idea of the tyrannical marketing spreadsheet in favour of a yellow marketing notebook. But I am still grappling with how to build my brand with very little money and precious few contacts. And lo, one day in the Hiut Denim Scrapbook Chronicles [Don’t you wish you’d thought of the name?], there was an entry about a forthcoming course run by the DO Lectures on… “How to build a great brand with very little money.” The course is run by David Hieatt, co-founder of Hiut Denim and also co-founder of the DO Lectures.

Following the Boyfriend’s maxim of inspired action, I promptly signed up and am busily working through it. It’s made great difference so far, in that I am reassured that what I’ve been doing in rather a vague and haphazard fashion, is on the right path. The exercises force me to think long and deep about why I started designing textiles in the first place. There is still a way to go. Let’s see how I do.

The DO Lectures also produces DO books. I do love a book. Some become my lifelong friends. My Dad and I share this passion. Many a Wednesday afternoon was spent choosing books in my local store. My Grandmother too. She always had at least two books on the go at any one time – one an improving tome and the other a “penny dreadful”, by which I think she meant a romance… or maybe not. One of the more distressing side effects of my cancer diagnosis was a racing, whirling brain and an inability to concentrate on the written word. But the action of writing, well that was different and actually, dare I say it, became more enjoyable, except perhaps when I am writing to a deadline. Indeed, this Musing was going to be on quite another topic but I was blocked. I had spent several days dutifully trying to squeeze out a few words, but mostly just sighing and deleting. My Dad phoned at the opportune moment. I wailed at him about the recalcitrant Muse. He commiserated and tried to help. But of course it was no good. I shut the laptop, hard, and decided to watch the tennis and read my latest DO book, Do Story by Bobette Buster.

The next morning I awoke to a text from him. One word, and magically the block unblocked. It, along with some of Bobette’s wisdom, allowing me, finally, to write… but that’s another story.

I don’t subscribe to the “everything happens for a reason” school of thought but I have become a believer in happy accident, the happiest of which of course was meeting the Boyfriend. The trick is to hold space for them to unfold and to have the wit to recognise them when they arrive. I’m learning… slowly.