Becoming | 2: The Laminal Space

I didn’t realize it at the time, but somewhere between that CDC email and my third episode of Real Housewives, my life had already started to pivot.

Not in a dramatic, quit-my-life kind of way.

More like a quiet pause.

Around that time, I met Erik Stewart — a lifelong friend who had spent over 30 years in the interior design and textiles business.

This wasn’t a formal meeting. No agenda. No plan.

It was just lunch.

The kind where you’re both a little unsure about what’s next, so you just start talking and see where it goes.

We were in similar places — that weird in-between where things look fine on paper, but don’t feel quite right anymore.

And for once, I wasn’t rushing to fix it.

Because this pause felt different.

Usually, when a job ends, there’s panic. You update your resume, start applying, try to land somewhere — anywhere — as fast as possible.

I’ve done that before.

This wasn’t that.

This time, I stopped.

I let myself think. Sit. Be still.

I started meditating — not well, not consistently, but enough to notice how tired I actually was.

Burned out, in a way that wasn’t going to be fixed by another job.

So instead of asking, “What’s next?”
I started asking, “What actually feels right?”

And I didn’t rush the answer.

At lunch, I told Erik I wanted to create spaces.

Places where people could slow down. Reset. Breathe a little.

Nothing huge. Nothing complicated.

Just spaces that felt good to be in.

He got it.

That lunch didn’t give me a plan.

But it gave me something better — the sense that I didn’t have to rush out of this space I was in.

That maybe this in-between… had something to offer.

Next: how one lunch turned into weekly meetings with Erik — part therapy, part strategy — as we tried to figure out what this all meant… and what I was actually ready to build next.