Welcome to Connecting Dotz, a card and gift company that aspires to make our fundamental connectedness more visible, more tangible, more felt. We do this by highlighting words, images and values that unite us across boundaries.

In that spirit, we’re delighted to introduce “In a Word,” a line of greeting cards celebrating unique words from around the world that have no direct English equivalent, yet express universal sentiments and experiences. Some of these words are endangered and spoken by just a few people. Others are strong and healthy. All of them speak to our shared humanity.

Why words? It’s a poignant fact that half the languages spoken on our planet could be extinct by the year 2100. When we lose a language, we lose traditions that connect people to place – and to each other. And the regions where languages are dying are often the same as those where plants and animals are threatened with extinction. Our climate crisis isn’t just an issue of resource and species protection. It’s also about culture, because indigenous traditions and languages carry so much knowledge about how to live lightly on this earth.

By creating the “In a Word” line, we’ve initiated a “save the words” campaign. Send these cards, and you not only keep these words in circulation – you support organizations that work to preserve traditional environmental knowledge and cultural diversity.

Speaking of traditions: Osani, The Circle Game, is an image that perfectly embodies our core mission of nurturing connection. Simple, playful and evocative, it is a gentle reminder to stay in touch with the basics – an antidote to those busy days when core relationships and values get eclipsed by the pesky distractions of modern life.