by Angela Melfi & Kara Valentine
Threads Worldwide Founders
We have been taken to task these past couple of weeks (is that all it’s been?!?!?!) to live our family values. When things are going well, choosing to be our best selves and embrace our values is pretty easy. The real test is when the going gets tough – and the going has surely gotten tough.
When we first realized the seriousness of Covid-19, we worried. A lot. How does a company whose model is to gather women survive social distancing? Will people care about jewelry right now? Will we be able to keep our orders up? What will happen with our partners in India and Uganda? First we worried and then we became resolved. There is no way, but forward. Our path wasn’t clear and we knew to take our first step. First step: wonder.
Wonder: caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. Be curious to know something.
When we wonder, we open the door to our imaginations. At Threads, we practice collective wonder. We checked on our partners around the world and wondered. We met more frequently with our Fair Trade Partners here in the US and we wondered. We wondered with Threads staff and customers and supporters. Questions bubbled up:
- What if we were made for these times? (We are)
- What if this is our opportunity to double down on community building and enhance our impact? (It is)
- What if we just took the next right step trusting that our paths would appear? (We did and it does)
Starting with wonder we ramped our business up online. We created new trainings, locked arms with the field, grew our team, and pledged our continued orders to our partners around the world.
Now we wonder –> what else is possible?
