Our Community and Cultural Engagement Manager at Small Giants, Madeline Lucas, has written an ode to our workplace, the affectionately named “White House” in St Kilda, Melbourne. It’s been eight months since we’ve worked within its lovely white walls, and we miss it dearly.
My darling White House,
I love you. It’s a been a long time since we saw each other. Life’s not been the same without you. I know ultimately the break has probably been good for us both, but my heart pines for you.
This time eight years ago, I nervously trod your front path, awed by the spring roses and blossoming trees. I couldn’t really compute why you were so beautiful, it didn’t make sense to me then. In fact you made me nervous.
It’s hard to talk about you without first talking about how you look. Your creamy walls and wrap around porch, you really do stand out in the crowd. From the street I see your regal columns, with creeping roses climbing all the way up to your second storey like Jack’s beanstalk. I use my imagination to conjure the trees from which we pick more fruit than we know what to do with in the summer months, and the geraniums that flower deep red all year long and consistently provide for our little desk vases. The lavender bushes that attract the summer bees we simultaneously love and are a bit terrified of. Your hedges of rosemary, providing herb garnishes for our lunches. Your wonky courtyard, where we sit together to eat, procrastinate and sometimes trip over.
Eight years ago I didn’t yet have the language to describe the magnetic energy of you that was pulling me in. You are a force field, do you know?
If I’m honest, sometimes I forget about your exterior beauty. It’s not because I am numbed to you, it’s because the real beauty of you is inside. Whenever I arrive to you, I rush to the side door pushing the buttons and excitedly anticipating the dinging noise that let’s me know I got the code right and may enter! Yes. It’s what you house within that has captured my heart and kept me tethered to you all this time. In your hallways, kitchen, wonky courtyard, maids quarters, stables and ballroom, I found my people. Those who made me feel like I belong. You gifted me some of my best mates, one of whom got married in your ballroom which is quite the compliment! Within your walls I have sat in a circle with my kindreds, partied like it’s 1999, watched pregnant friends go and have babies and their babies grow. I have laughed and I have cried a river in the safety of your bosom. Just like you asked of me, I brought my whole self to you. With you as our true north, we have been creating the world we want to live in. In your open-plan and sometimes very distracting and loud offices, we’ve been making magazines, podcasts and programs to help people find the thing that makes them fly. We’ve been moving capital into impact investments, showing the world that you can have profit and purpose all at the same time. We wish all offices were like you. That everyone could have the opportunity to work somewhere that encourages them to fully express themselves, somewhere beautiful, with lots of natural light and fresh air, and of course that smell as delicious as you do with your essential oils in your aromatherapy diffusers. You are the day-spa of work.
If you were Hogwarts, what would the people in the artwork on your walls say about us all? What have they heard? What have they seen!
My dearest White House, we have a love affair for the ages and I know it won’t be too long until we can safely be together again. Until then, I carry your heart in my heart and your essence continues to be expressed in the work I do.
I love you, just the way you are.
Madeline
