Bone+Marrow. What a funny name to call a store, amiright?
Having spent the past 15 years in marketing-related fields, I can assure you I know the uphill branding hike it is to tie visuals like bones (that could conjure Halloween-type images) and marrow (that sounds like a fatty dish at a bougie restaurant) together with shopping, personalities, and thoughtfulness.
Except, I spent the better part of a year marinating on this idea, and the word “marrow” just wouldn’t leave me alone. Like a mosquito bite, or a good book, I just kept coming back to it over and over. I even started calling it the Marrow Market while we were still in our dreaming phase. More about that later.
While I’m typically the marketeer, it’s Beth who’s been sharing and fielding the questions regarding this space (while I’m buried under wordpress, SSL certificates, and a whole bunch of other things I have to Google to understand…whatever). So, she asks me, “Why did we name it Bone+Marrow? How are we explaining it to people?”
Uh….I guess saying it was an “itch I couldn’t scratch” doesn’t sound super professional. It also doesn’t sound like a well-thought-out business name either.
So, we looked it up.
Come to find out, Oxford defines it as the soft fatty substance in the cavities of bones, in which blood cells are produced.
Marrow. Deep within the bones of a person, the skeleton framework for the rest of the body, is where our blood cells–the carriers of breath and health, are formed and renewed. In this moment, it’s not lost on me the significance of this word. In fact, now the word might seem a little more divine than random.
You see, Beth and I have always been studiers of people. We’ve always looked for the “why” behind people’s behaviors, actions, tendencies, and idiosyncrasies. We’ve used personality tools like the Enneagram, Strengthsfinders, and DiSC to give us language to create a framework–a skeleton, but by no means the whole picture. In fact, if we’re not careful, we can label or box someone into the skelton deciding what we see is what will always be. This doesn’t allow us room to change, grow, or create, and probably why some people hate personality tests (you know who you are).
No, deeper still is where we find ourselves exploring, contemplating, and admiring. It’s in the marrow where white blood cells, the protectors and defenders of our body, are created. And it’s in the marrow where red blood cells are produced–the carriers of things like breath, nourishment, vitamins, and all the things keeping us alive and vital.
“Please write a blog about this,” Beth says as our eyes get wide, and the bones and marrow metaphors buzz with an electric surge.
I mean, don’t we emotionally defend and protect ourselves? We use masks and defense mechanisms to keep people from knowing who we really are, and to keep ourselves from being hurt, disappointed, or broken…again. Much like the white blood cells, we anticipate attacks, and we defend the keep. Similar to the red blood cells, we also transform and transport the goodness (or sometimes bitterness) we’ve created and cultivated.
By the way, did you know red blood cells have a life span? They live 100-120 days, and are constantly being replaced. In fact, marrow creates 200 BILLION new blood cells every day. How encouraging is it that deep within our genetic makeup is a recipe for renewal? I am physically not the same person I was seven years ago–every single cell that once was has been replaced thanks to the life-giving efforts deep within the marrow.
That’s the heart behind this website, this store, and this community of Bone+Marrow. With the framework of personality profiles and assessments, we want to honor, explore, and celebrate the uniqueness found within the depths of you and your people, and give you the freedom to discover and transform into exactly who you were created to be.
PS: The little icon? Well, it’s meant to represent the intersection of Bone and Marrow.
