Making things
I have always been a maker and creator.
As a child, crafts like crochet and sewing.
The ever-present writing.
Baking, learning the craft of alchemy of weird ingredients, an apprenticeship in synergy.
Over the last six weeks, my partner and I have been renovating the downstairs section of our 43-year-old house. We had to replace the entire floor after the March cyclone event due to water damage. This triggered a full renovation, on a skinny – we are the renovators – budget with a deadline of family visiting mid-October.
It has been painstaking, detailed work. My task has been cleaning away 43 years of age, getting into nooks and crannies. Then painting.
Ah, painting. 80% of the work is preparation. Cleaning and endless taping. The painting itself is quick and easy. Such a metaphor for anything worth doing in life. Foundation building, preparing.
Progress has been steady and slow. Unforeseen obstacles at every corner. Occasional wins.
Two steps forward, one step back. Like anything worthy in life.
Yet it is incredibly satisfying, albeit exhausting.
To watch the renewal emerge from debris.
Similarly, I am building Syntropic. So much is about to emerge in the next few months, in its own Kairos time.
Talk is easy. Critique is easy. Yet talk is an endless merry-go-round of not building and creating and committing.
Jumping into the fray and building and creating is where the joy and the risk collide.
Like painting, we get the foundations right. The excruciating, meticulous, painstaking and slow work where very little seems to be happening.
To speed up, slow down.
From the foundations of exquisite care, a Cathedral to beauty and all-human dignity emerges. A home for the human family.
Photo Taken September 15th 2025, Article published September 15th, 2025
