We have had a super quiet but super exhausting week.
We had a false start on Saturday night, where miss v, nearly came to town but then it seems she got stage fright.
That has left me in a funny place the last few days.
Enjoying the moments, really excited about the new adventure beginning but also super frustrated as we got so close and then sent home again from the hospital.
Our little town has had a crazy amount of rain this week which has held me a little captive as well.
Today I read this quote and it made me smile.
No rain
No flowers
It’s funny I have a friend I email sometimes and she is much older than me and lives on a farm.
Whenever the rains come to the farm, they are overwhelmed with gratefulness.
She always talks about the rains in her email.
When the rains come, they know that the crops are okay for another year.
Do you feel grey with the winter rains?
Just like me in these last days of waiting, I feel a little grey and have had enough.
If I could say one word that has obsessed my thoughts over the last week, the word has been miracles.
I can’t explain it.
I’m not a over the top zealot, screaming from the rooftop but if our world needs more of something it is miracles.
I am so over hearing bad news.
I am over hearing about people who have waited year upon year for their dreams to surface.
I am declaring a season of miracles.
Story upon story of wins rather than losses.
Remember the story I wrote about last year, my dearest friend who got the worst news of her life back in November last year?
My dearest friend and her new husband have been through a valley, that no newly wed couple should ever have to go through.
Pregnant, in their first year of marriage, she received news of a brain tumour and a doctors report where they were not sure how the little baby would survive through the struggle of this magnitude.
We were in absolute shock.
We prayed, we gathered, we reflected and I flew to New Zealand in December.
We had the most amazing dinners together, walks along the beach, I went to radiation sessions with my dear friend and we regrouped.
Earlier this year our friends first miracle unfolded, as her little baby girl Abigail Rose Carnegie was born on this earth.
She came super early and fought hard. She was one of the smallest babies born in New Zealand, a tiny 520grams.
This amazing little treasure, fought so hard in the NICU unit of Auckland hospital for over 100 days and she has gone home to be with her Mummy and Daddy in the last few weeks.
What has kept this family stable through this season of intense fire?
Their faith.
My dear friends faith has been so inspiring, the people that have gathered around this family and supported them has been intensely beautiful.
Heaven has been stormed, a new story is being written and the miracle is present.
This little angel is so purposed, she is a miracle.
She is beyond perfect.
God is so gracious.
My dear friend, continues to wage this war, with courage and strength singing this anthem from Katy Perry with passion.
“I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
‘Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
‘Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar”
The miracle is still unfolding in my friends life and the details have so much colour and life than I can ever give justice too.
As I have prayed and watched my friend walk this journey I have been overwhelmed at her tenacity and her strength.
I ask you to continue with us in prayer, to see the next season unfold with tenacious, bold and courageous miracles.
Another dear friend of mine, spent the afternoon with me yesterday and her courage in the midst of outrageous misfortune has been so inspiring.
My dear friend had an accident with her printing press at her work, what has unfolded is a crazy 3 month ride of trying to save her hand. The initial surgery after her accident went for 13 hours strong and the surgeons lost count of the amount of stitches than went into the intricate rebuilding of her right hand.
As she sat with me yesterday, my heart cried all afternoon, ‘miracle, God, miracle’.
I can’t even explain other stories that are in my world right now, but my heart continues to pour forth.
Miracle, Lord, Miracle.
I am sensing a season of change, a season of reaping, a season of miracles.
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I am deeply contemplative and spiritual, but I am not overtly in your face about such things.
Let me introduce another brilliant young creative in my world. Her name is Cassie Fox. I came across a new creative business that Cassie had launched around 6 months ago at a SPARC gathering and was super inspired at the level of excellence in its execution.
So I wanted to ask her a few questions around Shop Talk; launching a creative business and introduce you to this world changer. I am sure when you check out her page that you will be as inspired as I am…
Hey Cass,
Let’s introduce the Capture Life readers to your world with a few quick, one wordish answer type of questions…
Favourite colour; Light blue
You drink your coffee; Green….in the form of tea!
Favourite internet community;99u.com Insight on making ideas happen. BRILLIANT!
Now for a bit more detail about your new creative business and adventures…
Tell me when did your dream for IZRA begin?
Versions of it have existed since I finished high school in 2007. It has done a LOT of evolving, but it came out of a desire to connect kids with something bigger than themselves. There are BRILLIANT support services out there, but many of them have very broad target demographics and their branding and messaging has to appeal to all of those audiences.
I wanted to create a brand specifically for young people; in their space, in their language and using the channels that they frequent. The idea was to create a voice that was counter to so many of the messages in those spaces, connecting them with the good things that sometimes don’t seem as appealing or relevant.
What has been the biggest hurdle in setting up a creative business?
There have been several challenges, but a big one has been my own brain!
A lot of people had opinions about whether I should even try and do something like this, as well as the way I should do it.
Particularly after launching, I had quite a hard time not fixating on the less-than-encouraging opinions that people felt very free to share, which is really draining when you are stepping out of your comfort zone in so many different ways. It was such an eye-opener for me in terms of the environment I had developed for my creative work. While I had put so much time and energy and resource into this dream, by focusing so much on what others thought of it all, I was creating a pretty hostile environment for this new and fragile thing to grow.
Also, my need for perfection can be a bit of a pain. I had to learn very quickly that although it may not look like the big picture plan I have in my head yet, you have to start somewhere and there is no shame in giving things time to grow!
How do you refuel creatively after launching such a huge project?
I love reading about and listening to people who are doing much bigger and more effective things!
Also, just being creative without an agenda or time restraints. I can be rather intensely purposeful, with everything needing to produce results or be ticked off a never-ending to-do list. So sometimes just baking or painting or writing for no reason other than because I feel like it, is really cathartic.
Why bother with young people?
Because I remember so clearly what it feels like and I think I’ve spent quite a while working through some of the negative self concepts I formed in high school.
I wasn’t very good at managing my thoughts and the way I spoke to myself in high school, so when I faced the challenge of moving cities and schools in term 2 of year 12, my world kind of fell apart. It sounds really dramatic now, but I had no friends, I started failing all of the subjects I had been topping and I just couldn’t see things getting any better, ever, and I wanted it to be over.
Because I get what a vulnerable and emotional time of life this is, I want iZRA to connect young people with a community that says, ‘it’s ok to feel that way, but that’s when you need to ask someone for help.’
I want iZRA to say, ‘no matter how it feels, you’re never alone, you’re never the only one who feels like this, and it doesn’t have to last forever.’ If this can prevent some young people from feeling alone or trapped, then I’d be stoked!!
What do you believe about the next generation?
I believe this generation of young people are incredibly smart and generous and sensitive. They face very different battles to young people even 5-10 years ago. Yes, in our Western society they have unprecedented privilege, access to information and opportunity, but there are so many more voices fighting for their attention and offering labels to define them.
Developing a healthy self-concept has always been a challenge, but doing so with a million seemingly unattainable standards being broadcast to you day and night, really complicates the issue.
This is why our overall brand message is about ‘being free’, but our school presentations focus on ‘mental toughness’ and how to build emotional resilience. There is nothing free about being controlled by your emotions or things like depression, anxiety or bullying. We believe that learning to determine the thoughts you give ‘airtime’ to is crucial, so that when challenges in life do come, you’re not trying to deal with those challenges, plus fighting a battle in your mind as well.
How can people find you and your adventures?
Our website: www.izra.com.au takes the form of an online magazine with articles, interviews and content kids send in.
Our instagram is where we interact and continue our key brand messages through daily posts: @iZRA_au
What next?
Ahhhh….good question! I of course have big plans of how I want to see iZRA’s influence spread far greater than just Mandurah and Perth, but at the moment, I am pretty focused on consolidating the progress we’ve already had.
In the short term, we’ll be expanding our merchandise line soon and looking into producing some short videos around the key issues we address such as bullying, anxiety and depression.
Thanks so much for your time and your passion for the next generation Cassie. I think your creative project is amazing and you are even more so.
Sitting down for a quiet cup of tea with my husband as he goes off to nightshift, working with children who are the most despised in our society, he told me a little story from yesterday.
A storm has passed through our little town and the rain has been intense.
My husband quietly told me he saw a guy outside at the gym at 5.30am in the morning and he nodded at him.
It wasn’t until he had passed him that he realised he wasn’t wearing any shoes.
We are in the suburbs.
We’re not downtown Perth city.
We live in a seaside settlement, that many like to believe that people wearing no shoes and sleeping outside in winter don’t exist.
Back to the story, my husband walked back.
He turned around and asked the guy ‘Hey you doing okay?’
The guy said ‘Yeah, I’m all good.’
My man said ‘But your sleeping rough aren’t you?’
The shoeless guy said ‘Actually mate I am.’
So my husband put his gym bag down and pulled out his Nike gym trainers and gave them to his new friend.
The guy responded ‘Na, mate they’re too good for me.’
My husband explained to me, they’re not even his favourite shoes and he wished he had his best ones.
Then my man said to his nameless friend ‘You want some food?’
He said ‘Na, I’m all good.’
Then my husband said ‘No mate, I’ll get you some.’, so he drove through takeaway and bought him as much breakfast as he could, went back to his new friend, gave him food and then pulled a jumper from his car and gave the guy one of his hoodies.
My husband’s new friend said to him ‘I’ll never forget your face man.’
My man replied ‘Don’t remember mine, remember Jesus’s, he’s the one whose changed my life.’
Then my husband drove to work.
I’m telling you this story not so I can brag on my husband, but to hopefully inspire you, that it’s actually not that hard to help someone in need.
Loyal people still exist.
Quiet moments when people actually do what they say they believe.
Man, I am so grateful I waited for this amazing husband, father and friend.
