Category: Creativity

Plettenberg Bay.

6 January, 2025.

We have been in Storm River today, walking a difficult trail to visit the resting place of Charl’s Opa’s ashes. His name is Andries and Maximus has his middle name.

The trail through waterfalls and high stairs pushed us all to the limits physically as a family, but the suspension bridge at the end was worth it. The view, the rounded rocks from years of shaping and the fresh water flowing off the mountain ranges.

Nature truly has a way of resetting our internal clock, to find rhythms of eternal perspective. I love to write at this time of year, it is a liminal space between Christmas and New Year, that holds hope. Like a Monday morning alarm clock, asking that we begin again.

Scripture promises that every new day holds within it promises of good hope. Moments where we can wipe the slate with forgiveness and find new pathways forward. This year’s journaling pages, have worksheets that are designed for this new reset. Opportunities where you can print out one page and find an eternal mindset for a blank page of tomorrow. Simplify, was designed to help you reset at any point of the year, to find the perspective needed.

After a long day of hiking and driving across the garden route, we have arrived in Jeffery’s Bay. Each night we have checked into little accomodations across South Africa. Today’s house is special. It is full of eccentric, local, antique artwork and the welcome WhatsApp message included a curated playlist which enhanced the glass of port left on the sideboard to welcome weary travellers home.

I’ve always dreamed of having my own writers retreat. A place with curated artwork, simple furniture and a place to welcome creative sojourner’s to reflect, to find perspective. I find myself dreaming of this future place, when I have some space to think about the future. I long to host people with a sense of possibility and beauty. I want to help people to retreat, write and begin again. Would you like to go on a retreat with me and some friends soon? I’ve been dreaming about it.

I grew up in a house that was filled with hospitality. Family was the focus, with friends spilling out of each nook. My mother is a great cook, who loves to set a table for conversation. She has modelled the power of an open door and the healing gift of allowing people to rest, for hope in her home.

Imagine a place where a song list, creates the ambience for inspiration and writing. Although this curated moment, is one of beauty and possibility, we each have the potential to host personal retreats for ourselves.

Pour a cup of tea, pull out a journal, print out one worksheet from Simplify and start to be honest with yourself on a page. Writing heals. I have coached many people who have found new stories, by processing the ones where we are stuck. Journaling helps you exit the roundabout in your mind, to find new ways forward.

Rituals help! They are little moments like pouring a cup of tea, reframing the critical voice within and setting a new page of space for new chapters to be written.

Although my dream of having a writers retreat, in the forrest of South Western Australia has not come true, I have curated a song list for your personal retreat. A simple reminder; life does not need to be perfect to write for insight and hope.

Light a candle, pull out an old journal, grab any pen you can find, set a timer for 15 minutes and just write. Don’t edit as you go, give yourself permission to be awkward and be honest.

Be brutally honest.

Say the things you don’t want to say.

Let it fall out on a page.

And breathe deeper than yesterday.

A new day is dawning. Mercies are found in this place of surrender. It is time to do something different in 2025.

Creatively Yours,

World Water Day is observed globally to highlight the importance of fresh water. It is hard to understand the context of the availability of water when it has always been there at the turn of a tap.  

Today, as the world slows to recognise the importance of this sacred resource, we wanted to highlight some of the impacts of fresh water in the developing world.  

Clean water is a privilege. It takes infrastructure, environmental policies and the capacity of communities to work together. This is something that often can be assumed to be a core part of every human’s existence. But it’s not! We are not all one and the same. The privileges afforded to some are not the same as others.  

When safe water comes to a community, everything changes.  

Access to safe water and sanitation is essential in preventing malnutrition, particularly during challenging times like the current global food crisis. When children have access to safe water and sanitation, they spend less time sick and more time playing and learning, while families are no longer forced to spend hours collecting water. 

Currently, there are 345 million people experiencing severe food insecurity, and that number does not include 2 billion people globally who do not have access to safely managed drinking-water services. 

A moment of reflection: What does it feel like to drink a glass of fresh water when you are thirsty? 

Every person is made in the image of a loving, kind and generous God and they have the right to fresh drinking water. Two billion people can’t just turn on a tap to get water. This can be a shocking truth to digest in modern times.  

It is an opportunity for us as Christians to reflect on what our response is and to help those who are most vulnerable.  

A Collision of Crisis 

The difficult collision of the global food crisis with unsafe water and sanitation is placing children’s lives at risk. Water is a key element that impacts children’s nutritional development. Safe water is even more important to children impacted by the global food crisis because unsafe water and sanitation can lead to, or worsen, malnutrition. Up to 50 percent of malnutrition is linked to chronic diarrhea, parasites and other infections caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.  

These conditions leave children unable to absorb nutrients properly, regardless of the food they eat. Because of this, access to safe water and sanitation is just as important as food for children and families facing food insecurity.¹ 

Lessons Being Learnt 

Lessons learned by Compassion globally can show us how we can continue to find ways to advocate and support this vital need in the developing world:  

• Water solutions need to be facilitated locally. Compassion knows that an important aspect of development work is that it needs to be facilitated by locals, and our local church partners have decades of trust and relationships within their community. 
• Another key to a successful, sustainable intervention is community ownership and education. As part of the project, the community is empowered with knowledge about hygiene, sanitation and water storage.   
• Access to water is for all, not just a small group. They have learnt that water initiatives have a far-reaching effect, often being open to the general community and not just the children or families involved in the programs. 

Some countries that these lessons have been gathered from are:  

• In Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Uganda, roughly half the population do not have access to basic drinking water (47%, 50%, 56% respectively). 
• In Kenya, Togo, and Haiti, roughly a third of the country do not have access to basic drinking water (62%, 69%, and 67% respectively.) 

A moment of reflection: How can I learn more about the lived experience of poverty and the impact of water and sanitation?  

Today, on the 22^nd of March, we would like to encourage you to take a moment and pray.  

Pray for those who are experiencing the Global Food Crisis and its impact. Pray for those who are experiencing the effect of water scarcity and its impact on their local neighbourhood. Also, let’s together remember to pray for the infrastructure and skill required to maintain these services in places of poverty, so that when safe water flows, everything changes! 

Amanda Viviers 

Amanda is an author, public speaker and radio presenter with a BA double major in English and Comparative Literature and History. She studied Musical Theatre at WAPPA, birthing her deep love of creativity and innovation, and is the co-founder of?kinwomen, a radio network created to inspire women to start conversations that matter. She is an Executive Director at Compassion Australia. Driven by a passion for justice, she loves finding innovative ways to support children in developing countries and to help people find their voice.  

Across the last week, I have been recreating the paths that bought me here today. If I was really honest with myself and you, I haven’t been feeling that great. Maybe it’s peri-menopause, or the aftereffect of a big few years of change— I’ve found myself questioning everything. 

I had breakfast with a dear friend and we encouraged one another as fellow creative writers with young children. Unpacking the change in season as our parents get older and the juggle of jobs, businesses and the desire to be present to our families. 

We chatted away and I found myself reflecting on the lessons I had learnt from swimming over the last year at the local pools. It’s a little bubble of humanity with so many different narratives and stories writhing. Each week, even through winter, I jumped in the pool and swam laps. 

A lot of my conversations with my therapist ended up talking about my swimming. The cold water and it’s reset of my nervous system. My inability to stop thinking about my work, spending most of the laps, trying to solve problems. My changing body and the desire to move it, but how sluggish and overwhelmed it feels. 

Last week I lost my AirPods, the awful part of the story is that I had only worn them a couple of times after getting them late in the year as a unexpected birthday present from my husband. He said to me “keep looking they will be somewhere random.” He smiled and said “your stuff always reappears”.

The deep sadness at the loss of my little sound machines, was this overwhelming disappointment I just could not shake. The feeling of loss, was the blur of what the last few years has entailed. I just kept repeating, my life is a blur and I spend so many days trying to help others, that I lose my own things because my kids, my family, my work are all swirling around my heart and life. 

Those big feelings these days often precede my time of bleeding and the anxiety that rises in my soul is a breaking of my need for more. Then I slow down, I dig my feet into the sand and watch the sun set on another day, reminding myself that tomorrow is another day. 

The air pods were found tucked away to bed in a little blue basket, I’m sure somewhere that I had once thought was a place of safety. And I find myself wanting to crawl into that basket and hide myself away as well. The daze of lost things always moves heavy on my soul, because I want things to be simpler, easier and less hectic. 

As I listen to friends who’s children have now grown up and left their house they tell me “suddenly your days are quiet and you miss the meaningful hurry. You miss the chatter and full table. One day, it will be so very different”. 

So how do I keep hold of my things, stay present to my family and still dream up ways to reconcile the hope I deeply feel in my heart when writing. Can these things ever reconcile? 

I remember the little sentences I spoke to my friend at breakfast and reflect the mirror of advice back to myself. 

“Just keep swimming. Swim through the problems, swim through the heartache, swim through the exhaustion. Just show up to the pool of your everyday and swim again.”

The fluid nature that my heart longs for, is to not hold onto it all so heavy. Just let the past remain there and the future is held in the hands of God. 

Just be present, to each stroke, each breath, each anxious thought and release it into the hands of an ever-present loving God who wants to traverse this season in the everyday with me once again. 

Each time I am present in those moments that I want to run away with my thoughts and solve all the problems on my own, I remember that my helplessness is met in the messiest places by the helper. I’ve realised lately that the things I worry about and obsess over, when released into his care are profoundly lighter. 

Everything is going to be okay. 

And even when it’s not, we can continue to show up to the difficulty with the honest answer of telling the truth. 

Three journaling prompts I wrote to my subscribers this week focus on the following themes- connection, authenticity and gratitude. 

1. What am I thankful for?
2. What do I need to be honest about?
3. Who can I reach out to?

Write your answers to these three questions and you will be surprised at the perspective shift that comes quickly. We all long for connection, truthfulness and a realistic view on what we have already. 

Continue on dreamweaver. Just keep swimming, show up for another day. Let’s be honest, especially with one another. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t set revolutionary goals this new year. Each year I choose a book of the Bible to focus on, rather than trying to rush through the whole and this year, I am going to read a Psalm as often as I can. Mostly each day, but also give myself the grace, to just lean towards Jesus, no matter what the day holds. Not out of religious practice, but seeking out the answers of His present help in time of need. To delight in the beauty of who He is. 

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Psalm 27:14