At the heart
All great things are born of commitment.
Seven years ago, long before I proposed, I whispered to my wife Michaela, "I want to build a home with you." I remember the feeling more than the words: the quiet certainty of wanting a life that could hold more than either of us had known how to carry alone. Years passed. With her, the future did not arrive as a grand plan. It arrived in small ways: in the way a table became warm with conversation, in the way a room would grow still around someone who was truly present, and in the way our home would take on a quiet glow, softened by the care with which she listened and received.
The birth of Interwoven was the culmination of years of shared longing. I remember the first mixed culture dinner we hosted in our home with such vividness. As we went around the table and shared our stories, something awakened in me that is difficult to name: kinship. Each story was so unique, so colorful, full of loss and resilience, grappling with erasure and belonging. And within every story, no matter how many thousands of miles away from me it was, no matter how different the culture was, I saw myself. Around that table, I saw others and felt seen by them in ways none of us quite expected. While our stories were vastly different, what connected us was a shared experience: straddling multiple cultures, navigating erasure, and living without a single cultural home.
Interwoven emerged as a natural expression of who we are. For me, it comes from sitting between my Persian roots and Western upbringing. For Michaela, it comes from being half white and half Chinese, while never feeling fully able to claim either. We realized there was no community or shared language that captured us wholly, and so we set out to build it, with the hope that one day our children and others like us will have what we lacked growing up.
We have shaped Interwoven with incredible care. It is for people finding belonging in the space between cultures — people carrying pieces of different worlds and trying to make meaning from all of them. In doing so, we hope to make room for the parts of ourselves that have been forgotten, hidden, or left unnamed. We celebrate the nuance and complexity of our identities, not as something to simplify, but as something to honor. Beyond identity, Interwoven is about community in the truest sense: a place where people return, contribute, care for one another, and become known over time.
At the heart of Interwoven is the belief that a life centered on relationships is more fruitful than one centered on consumption and the self. Most importantly, we believe that all great things are born of commitment. This core value is what drives us in everything, from how we show up for one another as spouses to how we show up for our family, our community, and the spaces we hope to create.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. We're excited to build culture together and create spaces for connection, depth, beauty, and all things Interwoven.
Until next time,
Parsa
