Back to the beginning...

new moon reflection and renewal for the chapter ahead.

Summer flowers and books on our coffee table.

"When we experience the Beautiful, 

there is a sense of homecoming".

John O’Donohue

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Hi everyone (and hello to some new subscribers since I last wrote…I am so glad you found your way here…)

I hope you enjoyed last week’s post on summer light and would love to hear how it fell for you this week (in between the heavy downpours, hello water element!); in some ways the snippets of sunlight have felt even more luminescent in my opinion.

Lunch outdoors between downpours.

This week I am writing a bit of a re-introduction (which arguably I should have done at the beginning!) as I have finally had the time to sit down and reflect on where I am at and what is unfolding. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that I have felt drawn to getting quiet and making some time to reorient myself now — the New Moon in Cancer falls tonight and is a potent time for finding clarity and renewal for the chapter ahead.

Some of you will already know parts of what I am going to tell you but I hope it is helpful in explaining a bit more about me; why I write; and what you can expect as a very valued reader…

A bit about me…

My background is in Public Relations, in the interwoven sectors of interiors, design, art and architecture. Telling stories and having conversations about spaces and the people who make them is at the heart of my role — something that has fostered my interest in the details of making a home and the part that our surroundings play in the way that we feel. 

Summer flowers picked at Wolves Lane Flower Company in our entrance.

This, coupled with a transformative yoga teacher training in 2016 which taught about the importance of daily rituals in creating sacred space, prompted me to start thethreadjournal.com — an online platform exploring ideas around astrology, interiors, sacred space and homecoming.

Becoming a mother at the beginning of 2020 initiated a great metamorphosis; a time of huge transition that continues to shapeshift and evolve every day. As a new mother (in the midst of the pandemic), I became aware of the power that the mother archetype (which comes in many forms) holds in moulding the energy of the home and how this ripples out to wider society.

The early days of motherhood were spent in lockdown.

Since the hazy early days of mothering, I have found that paying attention to the reassuring familiarity of the seasonal shifts and rhythms to be a way to orient myself. We are not separate from nature — noticing the way the light falls; what is growing in the garden; and the feel of the air has become my compass.

Living creatively is important to me; I fill the rare quiet moments with words, colour, scent and texture. I write to reclaim space for my thoughts, to explore and learn more about the things I am intrigued by — but most of all, to notice, appreciate and tell the everyday stories of our life together, in the hope of framing a fragment in time.

Lavender from the garden.

What is Story & Thread?

The name Story & Thread expresses my love of interiors and storytelling. Words hold a place in cultural consciousness and ‘thread’ means so many things — from a yarn to create a textile; a continued theme or idea; an exchange of messages; mindful movement around obstacles; the filament of a flower and even the very fibre of our being (and apparently now a new social media app…!)

Since becoming a mother, I experience the role of my home as more than a place to return to, but a foundation where everything starts from. It is a place to nurture (myself and others around me), a conduit of creativity and an anchor to my surroundings as I observe how the seasons unfold around us. 

Geranium/Pelargoniums from the garden on a bedside table.

My intention is to write regularly on the intersection and overlapping of creativity, mothering, home and the living world…

This will take the form of ‘life writing’ detailing my observations of the everyday; musings on motherhood; deep dives into the elements, the stars and seasons; notes from my experiences of slow home-making and garden-pottering in our corner of North London; and collaborative insights from others via the INSIDER series of interviews about the profoundly personal concept of feeling ‘at home’.

Story & Thread. is an invitation to myself and to my readers to take up a little more space, to reclaim a connection to ourselves and to our place in the world.

Lyndsay x

P.S. I would love to hear about your corner of the world and one thing that always makes you feel ‘at home’…