Hearts of Romain- Why Now?
For months, I’ve been wrestling with the desire to both connect and create. While this year has been brutal, it’s also forced me to listen more closely to the call on my heart: “Inspire beautiful spaces. Inspire beautiful conversations.”
Our world is so severely wounded. There are times that the suffering in this world seems to swallow me whole, pulling me away before I can outstretch a healing hand. There are other times that hope wraps its arms around me, and cradles me into believing that although we are all so tired and weary, we’re in the process of walking each other home. Often times, it’s both of these things, all at once.
In times of profound sadness and despair, I have turned to the solitary act of creating. Whether it’s writing, designing, decorating, building, or refinishing- using my heart and my hands together has been a way for me to give purpose to all of this pain we’re sitting with. Some of the most beautiful spaces I’ve made in our home have been created during my darkest and loneliest seasons- “beauty for ashes” if you will.
While the process of creating is therapeutic by nature, making something beautiful, and being unable to share it with others is just not particularly fulfilling. Of course I am proud to make the living environment of my immediate family more joyful and hospitable, but I crave a greater outreach. I recently began sharing images of our home transformation on my social media accounts in hopes of inspiring others. The response has been encouraging.
As grateful as I am for the fellowship I’ve found with new friends over things like functional decor and modern farmhouse furniture- I also feel the need to be fully transparent and authentic in admitting that I am struggling deeply with so many of the pressing issues facing our world. I’m so happy to help people make their homes beautiful. All I ask in return is that they remain open to having conversations beyond “Can I get a link for that?”
Living as an interracial, blended, frontline medical family these past five months has been sobering, to say the very least. It would be entirely outside of my character to have conversations about how to paint a staircase for $250 while leaving out the heavy questions on my heart about how to make this world more kind and gentle. I cannot and will not do that.
So here I am. Heart cracked wide open, ready to share it all.
I hope to use this blog space to bring a deeper connection between our family and our community. Watch out for detailed posts sharing our process for big home improvement and DIY projects. We’ll share shop-able links and images that make it easy for you to find items from our home that you love. Most importantly, we’re going to tell our stories- because that’s what makes us who we are. That’s what inspires the love between us, and the spaces around us. We can’t wait to hear yours in return.
Cheers to the beginning of a new chapter for Hearts of Romain. Thank you for being part of it!