Beauty! Kindness! and Love!

Justin and I went to the Hague today.

Amsterdam Centraal -> Den Haag Centraal

We were brainstorming the next steps for his company, The Tree Productions, and we thought it'd be inspiring/appropriate/amusing to power lunch in the International City of Peace and Justice.

Peace Palace

Justin arrived on Tuesday and we spent Wednesday night waxing poetic about the professional directions of our lives and wanted to spend some time activating some of the good ideas we came up with.

business meeting over Amstel Bock

Not only has Justin been one of my closest friends for more than 10 years, he has also advanced my career by believing in me, encouraging me, teaching me to negotiate for cash and bringing me on board for a couple of his projects. Thanks to Justin I worked Inman Connect which led me to Inman which led me to social media marketing which led me to an employable status that many of my college educated contemporaries lack.

So I like working with Justin. Not only does it equate money - it grows my professional repertoire and helps advance my friend's dreams (while I clarify my own).

this guy has dreams.

I've been waiting since high school for a fairy godmother to come and tap her wand and tell me what the hell to do with my life.

But she hasn't shown up and I have been left to figure it out on my own.  

figuring it out and riding fair rides

Occasionally a light will go off and I'm sure I should be a teacher/communitymanager/lawyer/legislativeaid. But mostly I flounder, feeling committed only to my values, uncertain about the rest.

Speaking of values. Thats what Justin and I talked about on Wednesday. My values. I value beauty. I value kindness. And I value love. 

BEAUTY!!!

LOVE!!!

This is why production works. This is why community management works. This is why writing works.

Production is an inherently visual endeavor. And Justin makes beautiful video. And I have an eye for beauty. Or, at least, my definition of it. So today we settled on title Global Head of Community (some titles are aspirational) and Justin is sitting across from me on the train - working on my business cards.

As you likely know, I already have a gig working part-time for a super-smart business + life consultant. And I'm keeping the gig, I'm just growing my commitments. 

But enough about work. We went to The Hague!!!

The Hague is a short train ride from Amsterdam and we disembarked onto a modern square and wound our way around an old city until we came upon our powerlunching destination: Bakerlust!

Bakerlust is a sweet vegetarian cafe serving up dreamy cakes, sandwiches and snacks. I drooled over the wallpaper and my lunch. And drank tea from a cute cup and admired the set-up. It was super kid friendly (the norm here, it seems) and offered toys for tots and a Mexican oil cloth wrapped changing station set up outside of the toilet room making it easy for dad or mom to change. Mellow awesome parenting is on full display here and I'm super inspired by the way kids are integrated into all of society (rather than being relegated to specific kid-friendly edges).

I didn't take pictures. Because that would be weird. But we did take pictures of our walk. And many, many pictures of Peace Palace.

We are down to our last days together in AMS then we head up north to see our friends there.