As if the “Who am I “ question wasn’t enough, I sometimes, oftentimes am compelled to truly consider what Global Groove Life is.
Over the years, I’ve examined our motives, especially when folks ask us questions about the GGL “brand”. I don’t know why, but the word “brand” rubs me wrong. It feels empty. I guess it’s pretty much the same reason I’ve never had a business card that referred to me as an “owner”.
I mean who really owns anything at the end of it all anyways? I’ve never thought of us as a brand, I’ve always thought of us as a team. Our family, volunteers, artisans, loyal patrons; Team GGL.
Through this self-questioning, I’ve realized that there’s a strange and interesting psychology behind starting a business with a thirst for spirituality, lost (yet found) in India, with a backpack and a bamboo flute.
Global Groove Life at that time was simply a means to facilitate getting back to the wonderful people we’d met on the road; It was an opportunity to share these wonderful and inspiring people with the people and place(s) we’d grown up with in our home towns. It wasn’t something to “brand” at that time.
It was a time without phones at our fingertips, no Facebook, no “Stories,”.....A time of handwritten letters, a full-days adventure to locate a fax machine to send said letter, and oodles of laughter with the colorful people who would bend over backwards to help us search for that fax machine! It was a time of faith in humankind and lessons of realizing a strangers neighborly love. One didn’t brand the journey of life back in 1997!.
I remember the exact moment the name Global Groove Life sparked in the ol’ noggin. I’d spent one week cooped up in a tiny room, common bathroom, drinking flat Coke (if you’ve been there you know) suffering from giardia after an overland trip to Kathmandu from Varanassi, in a leaky bus during monsoon. The moment I was well enough to leave that room, excited to FINALLY explore Kathmandu, I got halfway down the crumbling stairwell when I had my Global Groove Life awakening. And it’s a very good thing we’d only printed a sample run of business cards with the last awakening I had ;) !!!
So let’s break this Global Groove Life thing down, shall we?
Global--That’s easy. The world. All inclusive. No limitations. Family. Planet Earth.
Groove--The Groove over here is simply the love Groove. You can sing it, you can dance it, you can skip down the street and hula hoop it! It’s curiosity and adventure. It’s the courage to have your ideas disproved (again & again), your comfort zone shattered. It’s ethical and kind and interested and grateful. It’s compromise and co-creation. It’s hope, faith, and trust…..and a little bit of pixie dust. It’s simply the love vibe, this Global Groove Life.
Life -- It’s a lifestyle. It’s how we prove our groove. It’s how we are all showing up in the world, supporting marginalised artisans, and women artisans in developing countries. It’s action. It’s supporting fair trade and buying fair trade and making ethical decisions with our purchasing power. It’s how we walk our talk, It’s how we keep things human, and it’s how we anchor the frequency of love.
So who is it that we are? We are family, friends, artisans, volunteers, and patrons…...we’re much more than a brand, we’re a team. Because without everybody, we would be nothing. Team GGL, we welcome you and we thank you.
