A Profound Question on a Morning Walk
Recently on a morning walk, I had a good friend ask me a rather basic, yet rather profound, question: “WHY do you do what you do?”
Funnily enough, I was easily able to answer without any on-the-spot soul searching, because Chris and I had lately been reminiscing about the birth of the vision, mission, and values of The Hare & The Hart. We’ve been fondly remembering the beautiful September Saturday four years ago at an outdoor table of the iconic Thomasville treasure, George & Louie’s restaurant.
The shop had already been a “thing” for almost two years, and while I had everything in my head as to what we believe at The Hare & The Hart, it had yet to find its way to paper (or Google Docs, or iPad Notes, or wherever).
My lovely MBA/CEO husband had been nudging me for a while to formalize our vision, mission, and values. But he knows how my brain works, and how, as a creative shop owner, I was never going to WANT to sit down at my laptop on a weekday to do so (not when there were so many other compelling things jumping for my attention)!
So, sneaky guy, after we sat down with our yummy seafood (and a glass of wine for me) – SURPRISE! - he pulled out his iPad.
And we started talking. And brainstorming. And... it was fun!
We started with our values, which include ideas like: beauty and functionality; kindness and warmth; and learning through travel, shared experiences, and local events. (I won’t bore you here with a list of all our values -- just know that they are imbued throughout everything we do!)
From there we came up with our vision: “Inspiring everyone we meet to live life beautifully.” The book "Living a Beautiful Life" by Alexandra Stoddard was very inspirational and helped shape me as a young, working mom and wife, and it continues to do so. I love home and I love the idea of useful things and everyday things being beautiful, just as the famous William Morris quote describes.
From there, our mission statement was born. And because of Chris' and my recent conversations that reminded us of why we do what we do, I’d just had it printed (thanks to Maddie’s graphic design) and framed to hang beautifully above the fireplace in the shop (see pic below):
“At the Hare & The Hart, we adore celebrating the beauty of the places people love, embellishing the spaces surrounding them, and sharing in the extraordinary joy of the everyday.”
And that’s why it was so easy to answer my friend’s question. It gives me such joy to bring our mission to life, and I cannot imagine doing anything else!
