Today is a landmark day.
Today we launch our new (sales-capable!) website and journal.
Today we’re grateful to be starting our 19th year of business.
And today I celebrate my 50th birthday!
Furthermore: Today is the first day of my favorite sun sign, Leo. 1995 seems like yesterday. I remember—very well—awaking on my birthday that year (I was 32). I was deep into the process of building-out my original shop on Bleecker Street. I was doing it (almost) entirely by myself. With great ambition, but little money, I greeted each morning with a stiff and achey body. And that day was no different.
As I walked down to the space, the sun just rising on the sleepy Village streets, I thought “There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing today!” I can still recall the simmering sense of purpose I felt as I built something tangible from a picture in my mind.
Now, older (but, gratefully, not much “creakier”), I still have occasional moments where I feel that same thrill of advent: when I opened my second shop or when I set-off on an overseas buying trip. And, for the past six months, while preparing this new website for you.
The Wizard behind the site—the man who built it keystroke-by-keystroke—is Brad Soucy. He walked into my shop eight years ago, an art school graduate, looking for a job as he made his start in The City of Dreams. In the intervening years, he’s grown as an artist, a father, and (most important to me) a loyal and trusted friend. Please contact him should you ever need an illustrator, artist, or aesthetically-inclined website creator. You won’t regret it! You’ll find his link at the bottom of the LEO website home page.
Keeping alive a sense of purpose and wonder is not always easy, especially in New York. Especially while serving the public! My hope for the next few years is to incubate just such a sense, looking for opportunities and experiences which kindle a sensation of great expectations. And, I hope to remind myself, “Every day is a new start.”