WHY PAPERWEIGHT?

I grew up with several now-ancestors who collected paperweights. After I inherited a few, I put the paperweights on my desk at work to bring order to piles of papers and files.

My colleagues have often been drawn to the objects, picking them up and shifting them from one hand to the other. I revel in the sense of safety and groundedness they seem to feel from holding these beautiful, weighty objects. And I enjoy the sense of connection that comes from working with people who know they are welcome to touch the stuff on my desk.

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BEAUTY + HEFT

Paperweights carry not only the heft to protect a stack of papers from a breeze coming through the window, but, for me, also hold the heft of history we have both shaped and weathered. And they do their jobs with joyful, often exuberant beauty. They aren’t there to blend in or hide, and they keep important ideas from blowing away.  

CLARITY + ORDER

While many paperweights feature clear glass, the clarity I’m invoking comes from taking the exciting mess of life – ideas, possibilities, credentials, values – and organizing them in a realistic way. Many of us want to have every move perfectly filed, labeled, collated, and filtered. What we often need instead is to get our data, ideas, and decisions sufficiently under control to move forward. 

CHOICE + ACTION

While paperweights are inanimate objects (and I love them for their steadfastness), our interactions with them are not. We choose which ones to collect, where to put them, what to put under which ones, and how they fit alongside the rest of the collection. This is analogous to so much of what I aim to do in my practice: support people in deciding what and how they will change, grow, and pursue what’s next.