Sean likes to say that ours is a love story for the ages. Maybe others wouldn’t choose our journey but we absolutely believe we’re the luckiest.

We’re just two midwestern kids (Sean is from Omaha and I’m Emily, from Chicago) who stumbled into each other’s worlds at a Texas University. We became fast friends and then fell in love as only we could have. Marriage followed and then not long after - Eva, Oliver & Oaks - our three kids and greatest collaboration. Our days presented themselves with all the tinsel and trappings of this American life and we managed to maneuver through it all, together.

Side by side we found our way home to ourselves - just a little in those early years, back then in fits and starts and then years later, with intention and pretty reckless abandon. The last few years have looked a lot like shedding nearly all of what we’d been told and taught. So much unlearning and letting go of what we thought mattered and holding fast to what we discovered actually does matter.

We left Texas, where we had by then spent more than half of our lives, in the hopes of offering our children some fresh vantage points. We left our much loved careers, our dearest friends, our family that had come to live near - all for nothing but the belief that something even more beautiful was waiting for us on the other side. We settled in Bucks County, PA and haven’t looked back since. Sheesh, it’s beautiful here. In so many ways beyond the physical. It was here that after more than just a little encouragement on my part, Sean was able to own that he is gay and finally begin to live this life as the man he was created to be.

After 19 years of marriage we divorced - full of grief and gratitude and excitement and a new bittersweet kind of hope. We ended our marriage at a time when we have never loved each other more, our friendship and commitment never more strong or true. We still all live in the same home as a family, Sean and I raising our kids together as always. Though Eva did just head off to college, sniff. Our wise and empathetic, albeit spicy kids, give us such hope for the future of this world. Sean and I are fulfilling our commitment to each other in ways that are true to us and marked by integrity. We did the brutal, excavating internal work and came thru loving each other more than the day we said ‘i do’. Damn, we’re just really proud of this crazy success of a marriage. We’ve made plenty of bad calls in our lives but choosing each other? Zero regrets.

Just after divorcing we moved in the next season of our relationship as business partners and co-dreamers. We purchased a great property in New Hope, Pennsylvania and began renovating it to be the home of The Meanings of Things, something we’d been talking about creating together since the very beginning. The realization of this little business is so much more honest and beautiful than any previous iteration could have ever hoped to be.

Our shop has been open for 2 years now and are so excited to at long last be bringing it online. For our loyal customers that have been waiting on this, thank you for your patience! We hope it was worth the wait. For anyone new, welcome. We’re so thankful you’re here.

Life is a mixed bag for sure, for all of us. But the perspectives we hold and the meaning we derive from our moments and our days shape the quality of our lives. This shop is a picture of just that. It’s about choosing to imbed meaning into our moments and letting those moments thread together into hours and weeks and years. Each thread helping to create a tapestry, a portrait of a life imperfectly but thoughtfully made. No matter the circumstances.

Here’s to this next chapter of our epic love story, one with doors flung wide open. Thanks for being a part it.

Xx

Em + Sean