Inspired by the realization that our lives have become busier and more chaotic than they are meant to be, H-O-M's concept of offering simple, daily services to help busy people restore the harmony in their lives was created. In other words, putting the "ommmmm" back into the home (den-zening) has become The H-O-M mission. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Amy Bathurst Francis, founder of H-O-M. I
am a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an avid gardener, a community activist, etc., etc. Professionally, I come from a rather unique "jack-of-many-trades" meets overwhelmed working mom background. I am a retired milliner (five years), a retired restaurateur (roughly nine years) and have been a graphic artist/web designer/advertising and marketing specialist for over 25 years. In 2006 I took a leap from entrepreneur to employee by taking a position at Neiman Marcus as a luxury retail salesperson, specializing in cosmetics, skincare and fragrance personal shopping (the better part of 10 years). Throw in some other things here and there, and, yeah...I've worn many, many hats (pun intended) in my day. Heck...I'll try almost anything at least once. :)
During all of those years of working way too many 50+ hour weeks - keeping me away from my family, pets, home, garden, etc. (all of the things that I love the very most) - I felt like I was constantly shooting at a moving target. Every time I thought I was getting closer to having some sort of calmness and sanity in my life, WHAM!...something else deemed as important got put onto my plate. I was forever trying to balance my work, family, community and personal obligations, while my obligation to take care of myself (the most important one of all, in reality) was way, WAY down on the list. The truth was that I was doing far too many of the things that are the most important to me in life in a half-assed fashion...and if there is one thing that I despise, it's half-assedness! It became perfectly clear to me that there were not possibly enough hours in the day for me to do all the things that I had to do and/or wanted to do with the focus and energy that each and every one of them deserved to be given. As the years passed, the essence of who I am as a person and spiritual being was getting buried deeper and deeper inside of me. My passion for life had become maimed, at best. The glorification of "busy" was taking its toll on me, and those who are closest to me suffered almost as much as I did for it. Fast-forward ten years to the Spring of 2015 when a completely unforeseen knee injury forced me to stop all of that craziness; I like to believe that the Universe was conspiring with me to settle this, once and for all. At that point I had not much choice other than to be still, get reacquainted with myself and reevaluate who it was that I wanted to be when I grew up. I began to meditate on what I wanted the next chapter of my life to look like and how, where and with whom I wanted to spend my time with. What I figured out during that time was this: while I was definitely financially successful during my tenure at NM, and truly loved the people that I worked with (they became my family) and all of the truly amazing clients (like seriously amazing!) that I had the privilege of assisting, the whole employee thing just wasn't my bag. It was like trying to stick a round peg into a square hole. No matter how hard I tried, it was never going to fit right...and I had every intention of finding the perfect fit this time! After months of introspection and soul-searching it became clear to me that what I truly needed my future "full-time job" to be was to BE! BE true to myself. BE present. BE in love with life. BE amazed and fascinated by all of it again! At that moment I promised myself that I would NEVER try to force-fit another "full-time job" into my life again...EVER! Never again would I live to work... instead I would work to live and to give. It is with that intention in heart and in mind that I step forward every day - fitting my life into my living ... and allowing the rest to flow and grow from there. Coming out of the other side of all of that soul-searching, I now see, feel and understand that helping others with all of the zen-stealing stuff that drains time and energy out of their mental, physical and spiritual reserve - preventing them from doing so many of the things that they want to do, deserve to do and are MEANT to do - is EXACTLY what I DO want to do with my time! In other words, I figured out that who I want to spend my time with is YOU!! So, as the founder of H-O-M, please allow me to offer you my personal concierge and errand service. This is a service centered around one main thing...bringing peace of mind and balance back to you and your family's lives (aka, om-making). And that, my friend, is exactly how I believe this story is supposed to go.
