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Trust and Process

It’s all about trust. Trusting your instincts. Trusting the flow and sticking with it. Sometimes it’s just about letting go of any desired outcome and fully trusting the process. In theory, the process of creating something – the journey – is as rewarding and as much fun as the outcome, final product or destination. But it’s not only enjoying the process, but actually about how essential the process is. Without true process, there is no there there. You simply cannot skip over process and just arrive.

It came to me during a week of solo retreat in a one-room cottage on the beach in Cape Cod. I realized that something extraordinary happens when I allow myself to be quiet. To be truly quiet and to connect with nature, the earth, the cycle of each day and the flow of the tides. Everything has its own cycle and rhythm and way of being born. Within a few days of being by the sea, I realized it was time. I was ready to put myself out into the world. To expose my new identity publicly. To allow myself to be vulnerable… What had been holding me back was a sense that my new career was still very much evolving – and that it would continue to evolve over the coming weeks and months and even years. It was a relief to realize, there in my days of silence, that there would never be a magic moment of, “I’m ready now for a website.” And that if I waited to know, or to be ready or have complete clarity, that I would never go public. I realized that the process of creating a website, the process of articulating my passion, my why, how and what, might actually help my new work evolve.

I initially imagined launching my website as MicheleSteckler.com. I didn’t want to force a company name prematurely. Then, several weeks after my Cape Cod retreat, it happened. Fly Loft Group was born while driving to the local food co-op with my sister Katie. She said, “You have to have a name. Let’s just have fun bouncing around ideas.” And after some back and forth, it dawned on me that perhaps there was a theatrical term that would be fitting – a way to tie in and honor my past. My sister agreed and immediately said, “What’s the place with all the rigging and ropes. “The Fly Loft,” I said. Katie’s eyes got bigger as she repeated, “Fly Loft?” – “Yeah, the Fly Loft.” I knew that was it. I felt it immediately. A place of possibility and potential, ethereal yet practical.

Over the following months I debated whether I should try to create a website myself or engage a professional designer to work with. I finally realized that I really wanted a partner and collaborator. The fact that I am a Luddite aside, (I love that word, which means; one who fears technology), I was ready to share in a creative process, craving interaction, collaboration, someone to bounce ideas off of, to question and push me. But who? I started talking about it and putting feelers out into the world. And true to form, when you are open and curious, things tend to emerge and take shape. A chance meeting and conversation with a friend led me eventually to Team Eight, a group based in Richmond, Virginia led by Spencer Hansen. As soon as I met Spencer I knew it was right.

The process has been great fun and extremely rewarding. And it has informed my work in numerous ways, as the ebb and flow between website content and workshop design has intertwined. It’s all about trust. Trusting your instincts. Trusting the flow and sticking with it. And sometimes it’s just about letting go of any desired outcome and fully trusting the process. I highly recommend it.

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