Welcome to my new website, launched as we live through the biggest stories of our lifetime. From this humble beginning, I’m sending a grateful hug from my corner of the world.
When we can embrace one another again, I’m readying myself for the moment this emotional dam welling up inside us will burst. Maybe it already has. We will cry and cry and love, for all that has been lost and found by way of pandemic.
That’s why I want to acknowledge that it’s no small thing you’ve dropped in for a few minutes. Chances are you are experiencing disaster fatigue, stuck in the narrative of this past year:
“2020 proven as worst year in history”
“2020: Pummeled by pandemic, political strife and racial unrest”
It’s true that we are the stories we tell ourselves. In many ways, wrestling with these grim realities is a solo trip, as we work from home in our silos or try and turn off the loop on a sleepless night. We’ve written 2020 off, quite deservingly, but where does that leave us?
It’s easy to reduce all this hardship to a headline, and I’ve definitely been trapped in this mindset at times, thinking:
This isn’t how my story was supposed to go.
All the suffering in the world, this is so heavy and unfair.
So, as I share the launch of Seavert Studios, my own storytelling and video production company, I believe it is stories can move us forward, exposing complex narratives through a compassionate lens. I admit it was never really part of my life plan to become an entrepreneur, let alone to launch my own endeavor, especially now.
But, on second thought…especially now.
I am starting Seavert Studios because I believe in the power of the stories that have yet to be told, and I want to shepherd them forward in a new capacity, focusing on more in-depth storytelling and documentary work. I also want to be able to offer my family more focus and presence.
A friend recently reminded me, “Creativity comes in times of constraint.”
We are all pressed with limited capacity right now, but if there is anything that I have learned from my decades as a journalist, it’s that following the light has yet to fail me.
I’ve always clung to stories centered around hope, or tales of the triumphant underdog. I believe some of the greatest stories of my career have chosen me, and I’ve learned to listen, recognize these moments, and let the stories lead the way. For they are the roadmap to the next right step. They reveal our shared humanity. I’ve witnessed how:
· Stories spark empathy: by shifting hearts and minds and revealing hidden biases or blind spots.
· Stories spark change: a call to action, by putting a spotlight on what harms or helps our society.
· Stories highlight solutions: providing information and examples essential to solving problems.
· Stories reveal heroes: by showing us how to transform our lives to reach our highest potential, inspiring us to become heroes ourselves.
· Stories build community: by giving a more immersive and inclusive view of our society and teaching us about our connections with other people.
The compelling stories within us and around us hold the power to restore faith, they can help us shed our former selves. They ready us for a seismic shift that can move us into the next, necessary realm.
That’s where I stand, in a new and disorienting space, holding great hope we can seek these truths together, never forgetting what is possible when you harvest the light.
Especially now.
With love,
Lindsey
