A few things about communication, creativity feminism and nature that delighted us recently

With a few more spare moments in our days at home, we’ve found ourselves letting curiosity take the driver’s seat. We’ve been reading books, blogs and articles around topics like creativity, communication, feminism and nature (it’s especially interesting to us when these topics intersect). With less of a to-do list mentality, we’ve been more present to the information we choose to consume. Through this curiosity mindset, we’ve learned a number of random things that have awed us into wonder and maybe even changed the way we see the world.

We wanted to share these with you, and we’d love to know what kind of extraordinary things have caught your attention these past few weeks. It doesn’t have to fit any particular category – just the fact that they made you pause and wonder is good enough!

1. Writing Herstory

Did you know that before TIME magazine named a “Person of the Year” in 1999 they had named a “Man of the Year” for 72 years? This International Women’s Day, TIME recreated 89 new magazine covers chronologically featuring the faces of influential women starting in the 1920s. It led to an interesting discussion in our office about how to acknowledge the absence of women’s voices in the past while moving in a new direction of inclusion, hope and equality for the future. What are your thoughts? Can history be rewritten into “herstory?” We sure hope so.

You can find the article here:

https://time.com/5793732/time-100-women-of-the-year-covers/

2. Commun[icat]ing With Nature

We’re always on the lookout for new ideas around human communication (in fact, two of our most recent discoveries came from Talk Triggers and Words that Change Minds). But since picking up Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, we’ve started to think about an even bigger picture of communication. As it turns out, trees actually have a language which they can communicate through scent, visual signs, electrical signals and, get this – SOUND WAVES! Yes, there is evidence that just like humans, trees use sound waves to communicate. We recommend picking up Wohlleben’s book to learn more, but here’s our main takeaway: we really are in a universal dialogue with all living things. We see trees differently when we go for walks, we are “those guys” who talk to their plants every morning now, and it’s also gotten us asking the question, is there more we can learn about healthy communication from the natural world?

3. A Feminine Economy

Just as we’ve been digging into Jennifer Armbrust‘s work on the feminine economy, an article appeared in our news app titled ‘This Is Our Moment’: Commission on the Status of Women proposes a feminist COVID-19 recovery.

That’s right. A feminist economic recovery plan has been proposed by the Hawaiʻi State Commission on the Status of Women that would ensure the work of economic recovery after COVID-19 does not leverage unfairly-valued labour of women, who not only make up a disproportionate amount of essential service industries in Hawai’i but also are traditionally leaned upon for general caregiving in families and communities. There are certainly some things that communities across North America could learn in their report, and we were so inspired to see feminist economic values showing up through tangible, legislative actions, which you can find here.

4. Creative Solutions

Something that gives us hope in the midst of a pandemic is the creative ways that people have continued to solve problems together, gather together, make art together and celebrate life together. Here are a few of the stories that have made us smile this April:

• As one reporter cleverly puts it, Love in the Time of Corona has been the theme of many impromptu weddings this spring. We especially love stories of weddings over Zoom, and even one where they recreated an audience with life-size paper cut-outs.
• Making music over Zoom has to be one of our favourite things to come out of this. (And how can we not mention this Hamilton performance on Some Good News?)
• Through the little ones in our lives, we’ve been so impressed to learn of all the children’s literature authors who’ve started doing live readings for kids to watch from home!
• Ripley’s Aquarium has started live streaming of their exhibits with tutorials from experts! … Sign us up to watch the jellyfish for hours on end, are we right?

It’s been fun to have the time to click on that blog article, or look up that “thing” you’ve never heard of before, purely for the sake of following our curiosity! Something feels more inspired in us lately, and we think it has a lot to do with this aspect of the creative process.

Conclusion

Let’s not give up on learning and growing during this time, even if it’s at a difference pace and with a different kind of purpose. That inner soul work is just as important when it comes to growing your business.