What does it mean when meaning evolves?
“The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego,
the second half is going inward and letting go of it.”
— Carl Jung
As the world and algorithms speed up - telling us what to think and what words to use now - I am drawn to a slower time in my own life. A time that pre-dated AI. A time where I'd write about the happenings of the day or week, as if it was a journal entry. My first blog post was 18 years ago tomorrow (Aug 6, 2007) and it was both about a mixed drink I made up -and- wrestling with what my blog should be about:
"The truth of the matter is, I seem to be spinning my wheels in place... trying desparately [sic] to nail down not only my site’s focus, but also the comfort level guiding the content choices I make (what to say, share, post, and not?!)."
In some ways, how I used to write reminds me of how I see some of the most sincere TikTok folks create: imperfect, unpolished, without overthinking it. This passage also reminds me just how far back my consternation goes: "what to say, share, and not" has been a constant negotiation and conversation with myself. Perhaps it has been for you, too?
When I turned 40 in 2022, I stepped back from being chronically online to create the space and calm I needed to become a mom.
And while I hope to make it to 100, it feels fated that 40 is a sort of midpoint to checkin with oneself about the journey.
Like an archeologist, but for my own sense of self (ego?), I have at various points, turned to: family photo albums, journals, conversations with my mom and friends who knew me 'back in the day', work notebooks, and, in the case of my Idea Garden project: my online footprint.
The Idea Garden started in 2022, when working with coach Nitzan Hermon, I created a Google Sheet that included my articles, essays, think pieces, interviews, and presentations available online. Nitzan encouraged me to explore my relationship to what I said then - and how I feel about it now (and in future moments, return again). What's changed? What's stayed the same?
Adapting Nitzan's framework, I have created a primary label for each item and allowed myself a second category, if I need it:
"Living" - these ideas feel fresh, evocative, and building on each other. When taken together, a clear etiology and through line jumps off the screen at you. Living ideas are growing in meaning and I believe, are glimpses into the future, showing sprouts and branches that point to my life's work to come.
"Evergreen" - these ideas smell like pinecones from Serene Avenue in Tahoe Vista. When looking at what I send the most as supporting material to a coaching moment - and when I look at my own social media analytics - evergreen ideas are the most referenced by me and others. They hold their meaning. They could grow if they wanted or needed to, and become "living. But they also contain complete meaning just as they are.
"Fossils" - like my 6 inch heels and hair bump-it, these ideas are from another time. They are also the ancestors of my ideas today, so I honor them even as they wane in meaning.
The Idea Garden is also a project of homecoming; for my ideas, for my many professional lives, for my content. Over the last eighteen years, I've blogged on WordPress, Tumblr, Medium, Substack, LinkedIn, Twitter, SlideShare, Forbes, and as a guest writer here and there. Some of these places have pay walls; some of these places are only available via the Wayback Machine.
And so, I am bringing them all under one roof (lesliebradshaw.com). They will eventually be on a single blog on my site; but for now, the Idea Garden is going to link out to a lot of original places online.
When we start out in the world, everything is new. And then slowly, our senses and sense-making begins to sharpen. I've lived this over the last four decades and am bearing witness to it through my daughter's first two years.
As the physical and neurological growth gets underway, it does so in conversation with the world around us: family, norms, cues, boundaries, books, art, digital media, classmates, weather, textures, foods, and language (to name just a few stimuli).
How we interface, interact with, and experience it all is deeply unique to us; the moment we are born into, the genes we come with, the systems we navigate, the relationships we forge, the challenges we face, and the decisions we make.
Along the way we begin to think. We try on, reject, and are inspired by the thoughts, words, gestures, and expressions of others. We are rewarded, punished, and surprised by how we put shape and texture around our thoughts in a variety of scenarios: with coworkers, in romantic relationships, for online "communities".
To bring it on home, a few provocations for you, dear reader
What would be in your Idea Garden?
How has meaning evolved -or not- for your ideas that grow here?
What's the utility of an Idea Garden?
p.s. for my answers to #3, see below ;-)
A love letter to and from my mind.
A conversation with my daughter.
A Tardis.
Proof of life.
Connecting to things beyond me.
Author’s notes:
Originally posted on LinkedIn under the TRTL Company page: What does it mean when meaning evolves? [August 5, 2025]
