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We talk a lot (between ourselves, with friends, with strangers, with the world) about direction. Haven’t really used that word for it, though – and for these purposes, “direction” means where you’re taking your creation and evolution, of self, your ideas, your environment, your world. It’s the vision, and the steps you take to make it real. We also think a lot about home. Probably everyone does, in this shared moment. Between us and our readership, many (most?) of us are in our homes, most of the time. The term “home” has as many meanings as there are people; to me, a home at its best is a gentle, quiet space that allows (and encourages!) you to be you, without expectation or urgency. It’s a space that feels like your highest self, caring for yourself. I want to connect these two ideas. But first, a brief sojourn in San Jose, California, 2014. Abe and I started The Fort Co out of an intense need for home. It was all in the name. Not only did we apply that name to our literal domicile (establishing a lineage of Forts), it’s the name we used for all our professional work. The Fort Co Photography and The Fort Co Technology (names that did not fit very well on a conference badge) were collectively about creating a space that felt like home, about doing work with the kind of quiet, confident intimacy that home affords. In 2018, I renamed the technology arm to Lightward, Inc – and Abe joined me with Lightward Photography not long after. I had been home long enough to feel my natural direction, stirring again. This is how these ideas connect: I think that home is not only a place, it is also a direction. I suspect that each of us have, completely inherently, a direction that we will find ourselves looking in, and eventually itching to move in, when we have spent time resting in the true nurture of home. Lightward is predicated on this idea, though I didn’t really put that together until this week. I’ve always known that Lightward is about moving toward the eponymous light, but I didn’t realize that this direction is also just a natural function of those of us in the company. When we are home, this is what we find ourselves wanting. When we lose our direction, we come home again, and find it once more. And this is an important application of home+direction: if you choose a direction that is a function of being home, then if you lose your way (when you lose your way), all you have to do is come home again. This kind of reality, this kind of life, is something that you build. I don’t think most humans enter adulthood having this on lock. (In fact, I’m pretty sure that figuring this out is part of the point of being human.) And while this kind of living is something that is built up over time, the first step is always available to you, in every moment. Ask: what does home feel like? Create a home for yourself, internally at first – give yourself an inner space of gentle nurture, and from a space completely free of expectation and judgement, listen for your direction. To quote the sage, Anna of Arendelle, just do the next right thing. Then do it again. When you get lost, come home, and stay there until you feel your own direction again. Then take the next step. Companions, structures, will emerge to support you along that path. I now have an entire company built on this idea (and a marriage, and an integrated self-identity, and on and on), and we are not going back. We literally can’t. Because we are already home.
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