Building Cathedrals
Letter from the Editor as published in the June 2022 issue
Over the last few years, the book that has most informed my decision-making—both personally and in business—is Start With Why by Simon Sinek. It was recommended at a side-hustle seminar I attended and I immediately bought myself a copy: not because I want to be a great leader, but because I wanted to channel my passion in a way that championed others.
My copy now has a bent cover; the interior is highlighted in various colours; there are notes in the margins; the pages are dogeared.
In many ways, this book changed my life.
In 2020 I sat in my annual employee performance review knowing I was on my way out because the values that lit up for me in reading the book were not the values I was allowed to demonstrate through my day-job.
Sinek says, “We don’t want to come to work to build a wall, we want to come to work to build a cathedral.”
I wrote that quote on a Post-it the day I read it and it has been attached to my office wall ever since.
What I realized was that I couldn’t properly serve my community while stuck in a place that forced me into a box of their values. That box was smothering me. Not maliciously. Not intentionally. But smothering me just the same.
I needed to build my cathedral.
I have an intense love for old churches. The history, the architecture, the smell. On vacation I like to scout them out. I find the ones that are open to the public and I wander the aisles, admiring the art and basking in the heady scent of incense and dust.
A church—or a cathedral—is not about the walls, it’s about creating an open space for wishes and dreams and prayers. It’s where magic is scribed into the columns. It is where faith can move mountains.
It is where beauty upon beauty upon beauty lives.
Recognizing a lack of beauty in the place I was giving my time and knowing that I could build my own space and project the beauty I wanted to see allowed me the courage to (eventually) tender my resignation.
My cathedral is still small but my vision is vast, and Blank Spaces is an integral part of where I see myself five years from now. The building blocks of this community are giving me life and propelling me forward and I am constantly humbled and grateful that you’re allowing me to part of your life as I share the work of others within these colourful pages.
“It is not logic or facts but our hopes and dreams, our hearts and our guts, that drive us to try new things.”
You want to know why I started Blank Spaces? Because my gut told me to. Because I knew I could listen to the voices that big publishing was ignoring. Because talent shouldn’t rely on qualifications.
And because I want us—you and I—to build this cathedral together.
Alanna Rusnak
Editor in Chief, Blank Spaces
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