This is Kali’s first contribution as a ‘interviewer/featurer’ on One Portrait of Us,  I am so excited for her to join our little team. Before introducing you to her first featuree, I wanted to make sure you could get to know her just a little bit. Thanks for your contribution Kali! -Tif

I’m Kali! I’m a designer-maker living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with my adventurer husband. I’m lovesick for details and life at all scales. The ways to my heart include: monochromatic color palettes, mid-century furniture, confectionary treats, and time spent with anyone who is down to hunt for bugs with me. 

Meet Halley,

Halley is my sister-in-law. Halley is my soul mate. Halley is my soul-antagonist…. She is so unlike me in every way; she is fiercely bold, extroverted, dramatic. She is faithful and passionate, and explosive in all the best ways. She and I come from completely different places, backgrounds, ideologies…. but we always meet in the middle in friendship. It’s people like Halley that make me realize that the world is a wonderfully weird place and even the most unlikely friendships can be found and cherished. She is one of those beautiful souls who believes that every person she meets is just a friend she hasn’t made yet.I love Halley… Even when she bursts into song without warning…

Do you believe that people are innately good?
I believe that we are all born good. I have been around enough babies and young children in my time to know that there is perfection in infancy. However, I believe that we live in an imperfect world, and that the needs of the world and our natural, selfish natures often get in the way of our good intentions. Below everything, I believe that there is a desire to be loved, that there is a need to belong to someone or something, and that there is an appreciation and drive for joy.

Do you believe one person is able to change the world?
I believe that there is great power in an individual. I believe that one person can inspire a change in the world, but that it takes others who follow that example to truly change the way the world thinks or acts. The world itself doesn’t change until many people change, but I believe one person can inspire those people to change.

What is your greatest goal/aspiration? Why?
There is nothing I want more in this life than to be a wife and a mother. I would give everything I have and all the wonderful experiences I have had the blessing of living, in order to reach that goal. Going back to the belief that there is perfection in infancy, I know the amazing beauty that accompanies watching and helping a child grow and learn and discover the world around them. I believe that the changing world comes about as children are raised in loving environments which encourage them to think and explore to be adventurous, to live and question and discover. I can think of no greater blessing than to be called mom by tiny little humans who may one day be the inspiration in changing the world.

How do you define joy?
Joy, to me, is a long-lasting, deep and penetrating happiness. Not a passing, pleasurable moment, but a way of life. I believe that there is joy to be found in every life at every given moment. Regardless of the pain and misfortune which one may be experiencing, if you look for it, in the right places, you can find joy. There are many things in my life which bring me joy, perhaps most notable among these are laughing, spending time with loved ones where you feel loved and accepted and as though you belong, and music. The source of my joy will not be the same as the sources for others, but there will be sources of joy. Life brings about pain, true, but it is far more likely to bring about joy.

What is the greatest lesson you’ve ever been taught?
The greatest lesson I have learned in my life is that I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who knows me and loves me in every moment of my life. I have never alone. There may not be many who can commiserate with my particular circumstances or understand the complexities of emotions I feel in my experiences, but I am known and loved. There is a plan and purpose in everything, good and bad, we must look for the good and learn and grow. In that we are able to find peace, and joy.