THE PRACTICE | after you choose your word

I’ve been putting words on jewelry for years — 19, for anyone counting. Names, dates, lyrics, reminders, tiny messages that mean something to the person wearing them. Somewhere along the way, I started paying closer attention to the words people chose for themselves.

Words like brave, enough, play, simplify, present.

They weren’t choosing them because they looked good on a ring. They were choosing them because they needed the reminder.

That is what led me here.

I believe a word can help us stay connected to what matters. It can remind us how we want to move through our lives, especially when life gets loud and it is easy to lose sight of ourselves.

But what I found was that many people had a hard time narrowing down their word. Turns out, “pick one word” can feel very overwhelming.

So I created the Word Guide.

The Word Guide helps you slow down and listen before choosing your word. Instead of picking from a list and hoping one magically jumps out at you, you reflect on where you are, what you need, and what keeps asking for your attention. The jewelry gives that word a physical place to live — something you can wear, touch, and notice throughout your day.

But there’s another piece to this.

Choosing your word is only the beginning. Even wearing your word is a small step in the process of actually living your word.

You choose the word. Maybe you write it in your journal, put it on your phone background, or wear it around your finger. For a while, you notice it everywhere.

And then life starts lifing... Because, of course, it does.

You get busy and your word gets quieter. You forget about it for a few days, or maybe a few weeks. Sometimes you still remember it, but you are not quite sure what you are supposed to do with it.

That is the part I kept noticing, both in my own experience and in conversations with customers. Once the word was chosen, there was often this lingering question of what comes next.

How do I actually use this word?
How do I stay connected to it when life gets busy?
What do I do when I drift away from it?

That is why I created the Circle.

The Circle is a guided five-month experience for learning how to live with your word. It gives you space to notice your word, use it in your actual life, return to it when you drift, and let its meaning deepen over time.

Living with a word is not about thinking about it every single day or doing it perfectly. I mean, that sounds exhausting and defeating.

It's about learning how to come back to it, again and again, as your life changes around you.

Eventually, I realized I had created three different ways of supporting the same practice.

The Guide helps you choose it.
The jewelry helps you carry it.
The Circle helps you live it.

Together, they turn a word from something you choose into something you can practice.

Because I don’t believe the power is in finding the perfect word. The power is in what happens when you keep coming back to it.

One word is enough.

Don't get so busy making a living
that you forget to make a life.
DOLLY PARTON

what I'm loving

When we lived in Tennessee, I had my son. Within a week or so of bringing him home, books started arriving in the mail. I remember thinking, What a kind gesture...but where are these books coming from?

A little searching led me to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program she started in 1995 that sends free books to children from birth to age five. It began in her home county in East Tennessee and eventually grew far beyond it.

Until then, I mostly knew Dolly for her music, Dollywood, and two of my favorite movies, 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias. Learning how much of her life she had spent giving back, especially to children and the community she came from, made me admire her in a completely different way.

And then, of course, there was the way she moved through the world. She could be glamorous, ridiculous, smart, generous, and completely in on the joke at the same time. One of my favorite Dolly lines has always been:

“I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes,
because I know I’m not dumb,
and I’m not blonde.”

That combination feels like such a big part of her legacy to me. She never seemed interested in making herself smaller so people would take her seriously. She let them underestimate her and carried on being Dolly.

If you want to spend a little more time with her this week, I highly recommend Dolly Parton’s America, the podcast about her life, music, and the strange magic she had of belonging to almost everyone.

in the studio

I think I'd be remiss not to share a piece that brings together words and sparkle. It only feels right in honor of Dolly.

She was always fully herself. She wore what made her feel good, what made her feel beautiful, and she never seemed interested in toning that down for anyone else.

That is part of what makes jewelry so special. It doesn't have to be serious or symbolic. Sometimes something sparkly just makes you feel good when you put it on.

The Mini Coin does both - combining meaning and sparkle. I think Dolly would approve.

We’ve lost a few women this past year who seemed to know exactly who they were. Women who built lives that looked like their own, not someone else’s idea of what they should be.

It has made me think a lot about how easy it is to put off the life we actually want.

Maybe you feel stuck.
Maybe you don’t.
Maybe there is simply something in your life that has been asking for a little more attention.

Pay attention to what inspires you. Notice what you keep thinking about. Listen for the words that seem to follow you around.

You don’t have to change everything at once.

But you can start somewhere.