This year feels "a little strange". We’re already in the second half of 2020, and the world as we knew it is gone forever. Our original ways of life are overthrown. But things don't just fall apart - they also get remade. And so, life goes on.

My baby girl isn’t quite so newborn anymore. Everyday I log little changes in how she interacts with me, with her sisters, and her surroundings. Seeing her poop faces turn into smiles turn into giggles and outright laughter. The pile of books I had on my bedside table have moved to my nursing chair. Three kids means less time on my hands, and in mere months the pile has tripled. At the same time, our team at Gardens of the Sun is growing and changing.

One thing I promise won’t change is that Gardens of the Sun is a vehicle to do good. 

During the great Before, we set aside volunteering hours on company time. We cleaned the beach in 2019, and are looking into what we could do this year. While physical activity is limited, there are many more ways of giving back and doing good.

The love that comes in, goes back out into the world. Whether it’s to our community of amazing clients who lovingly share their heartfelt stories with us, to the people we meet along the way. From our miners and creators, to other local businesses. 

We started with the immediate needs of our community and worked our way out, working with local businesses, orphanages, and providing communities with clean water.

I connected with Yayasan Bumi Sehat, a nonprofit that runs three Community Health, Education and Childbirth Centers in Indonesia. Motherhood and bringing babies into this world as gently as possible is one of the ways a better world begins, and connecting with Bumi Sehat made it possible for me to connect with other mama’s in need of assistance.

We also donated a solid gold ring for the annual benefit auction by Pure Earth, an amazing organization that works to reduce disease-causing pollution. They identify toxic hot spots and work with affected communities to improve the soil, water, and air quality with cost effective solutions. It was Pure Earth that first connected me to the indigenous women we now partner with for our ethical gold, so it’s a beautiful way to circle back. 

This post is one part an update of how we’re doing, and one part a thank you for cheering us on.   

There’s something achingly lovely about this particular Robert Frost poem. The underlying sentiment I interpret as one of encouragement. A quiet moment of gratitude for beauty, before we continue with our journey.

So as we've wrapped up a whirlwind first half of 2020, I hope you’ll join me in a moment of celebration for the impact we’ve leveraged thanks to the love and support of all our clients. We’ve come a long way in our journey beyond jewelry, but there are so many more things we still want to do, so many more ‘miles to go before I (we) sleep’.