A RISKY YEAR…

For lil ol me, this has been a year all about the risk taking...Yay! I gotta say it has been a year of truly entering into a lifestyle of freedom…of living more dangerously and authentically seeking the thrill of stepping out in faith…and you know what…it has turned out to be simply yummy!  Can I share just a couple of my adventures of this year with you…?

Sooo…pursuing my love of drama and joining an acting class had been a huge risk for me, trust me! Hahaha! When you have to stand up in front of people week after week and act crazy knowing that you might get laughed has totally been an adventure. Having to expose my inners acting "mad", "sad", or "glad" was not an easy feat (my fellow thespians will agree with me I'm sure!), oh but it was so darn rewarding even when I did fail!! And trust me I failed repeatedly. Lol! But the joy of coming through and growing in character and overcoming my pride, fears and anxieties was hooooooooge!! To discover that I loved acting even more than I love fashion was totally a thrill! Imagine if I'd never pursued it for risk of failure?! So much has come of it! I've opened another door of creativity in my life? Whoop whoop!! Did I become the next big star? Hardly! But am I glad I took the risk? YES! YES! YES!!

And then there was the small matter of me leaving the teaching profession after eight years. Talk about a precarious move!! Hahaha! Soooo God showed me in the summer that it was time for me to leave my job as a Secondary school teacher. So I say OKAY!!! And I handed in my resignation! Did I know where I was heading? No? Was it an easy place to leave? Again - NO!! I had tons of different roles, untold opportunities, perks and privileges and a faaaaaaaat salary…so why leave the security?? Because security is safe and does not equate destiny!! And destiny is dangerous but brings forth true adventure!! Seriously…where's the adventure in SAFE?? There's nothing courageous about the comfort zone! There's nothing razzmatazz about the rat race!! And although I have nooooooooooo idea what the future holds for me I knew I know it’s gonna be exciting!! I know I could have done it the safe way where I waited for God to bring me another job and then resigned but that's just DRY!! And so I took the plunge and I have absolutely no regrets about stepping out in faith…on the contrary it feels DELICIOUS!!!

Then there’s the greatest risk I have taken this year…walking in LOVE! I know it sounds corny!! Sick bucket purleeeeeeeeeeeeease! I don't care what you say but TRUE UNCONDITIONAL LOVING is a dangerous game because you gotta totally put yourself on the line! You have to totally expose your inners and choose to see the best in people, choose to ignore your pride, choose to not get offended, choose to get rejected, choose to forgive again and again and again and again…and then when you've been battered, bruised and broken from LOVE cause it hurts so much, you gotta keep on keeping on and love even deeper than you thought you had in you!!!! CRAZY LOVE!!

Yet despite the deep vulnerability I faced of truly yielding to walking in love it held the greatest reward of this year. There has been nothing quite like responding to evil with love, nor have I experienced anything quite as beautiful as letting love be become my heartbeat… finding that in the encounters that have come your way each day I have had the choice to let LOVE dictate my words, thoughts and actions. It has truly become a beautiful adventure. Am I saying I have always succeeded in the LOVE WALK this year? Nooooooooooooo!!! Despite my best efforts of walking in love, many a time I have instead acted like a pit-bull!! Hahahha! But that's the joy of it, knowing that I mess up everyday but being able to get back up again and again and DARING to try again!!

Sooooooooooooooo lollipops!! I don't know what your riskiest, most vulnerable battles are…but may you be free to pursue the dangerous in order to gain the truly wonderful…And may this poem speak to you like it has spoken to me…

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental,
To reach out for another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self,
To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure,
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing,
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love....live.
Chained by his certitude's, he is a slave;
He has forfeited freedom,
Only a person who risks is TRULY free.

So as this year comes to a close and a new year full of possibilities, discoveries and miracles invites us to dream in a new season…I dare you to TAKE A RISK…whatever that may mean for you…x

Envisaging the Light

Okaaaay...so I'm just waiting for all the techie geeky stuff to be sorted until the Living in Light website can go live...soooo mind numbingly boring...trust me, there's only so many times you can have a conversation about managing domains, URL's and nameservers before you want to kill yourself...yet I am kind of getting excited...because I’m thinking to myself...yay I'm going to finally have a little business...yet at the same time a part of me is wondering...what if no one wants to buy the stuff?...And what if everyone thinks the website is lame...?  What if I fail miserably?  And then I am reminded...lol...that I actually don't care...

And it really REALLY doesn't matter because more than anything, it’s about stepping out...about taking what you've got and doing something with it...taking risks and not fearing the failure...it’s about having fun with life and extending your boundaries each day in some new way...woohoo...it’s about proving faithful with your stuff!

I have seriously had just sooooo much fun doing the first shoot...Anna, Annabelle and Robyn...all modelling for me... Michelle, Ondine and Shaun doing the photography...wow they totally rocked.  I even had Ron help me with the location and my own lil runner...thanks Jen.  The shoot photo's exceeded my expectations totally.  I lurved the fashion pictures.  To think I was originally going to postpone the shoot because I had so much going on.  Yet deep down I knew I wanted to go ahead and get this baybeee on the road…and maaan, I'm so glad that I did…

That's the thing though...you can kind of avoid doing things because you think they aren't going to happen quite the way you want them to happen...so we can often have a tendency to not even go through with our ideas or our dreams - for fear of the finished result not being good enough…so we almost give up before we even get started...but the thing is this...it's soooo much more exciting, liberating and powerful to actually GO FOR IT...and to just see what happens...EVEN if it goes nowhere…and hey, if you do fail in one aspect - no matter what - you'll have stepped out, you'll have come out of your comfort zone and strengthened who you are...we all know Edison - the dude who developed the final light bulb concept - well he must have tried untold times and messed up repeatedly before he actually succeeded in creating something that could realistically be used...so the lesson for us all is…before we can succeed we will often FAIL!  Note to self…failure does not have to be scary!!

And the most amazing thing is this...when you surround yourself with creativity and share your vision with love...you simply can't fail...I know...pass me the sick bucket...its all soooo frickin mushy...but it's true!

And another super amazing thing is that when you persevere and push through a door that you'd only ever previously allowed yourself to glimpse through the keyhole of, it's amazing what lies on the other side…even if it's not what you expected. Often times…the door leads to better places of opportunity. Cameron my gorgeous lil niece recently said something pretty deep to me for a mere seven year old.  She happened to ask me if she could hold the keys to my classroom at school.  And then getting pretty excited she informed me that..."She loved keys!!  She really did…”I love them because they get you into places..." she said...

I love that.  It has prompted me to consider what keys I have in my hand…and the only keys I feel I am carrying right now are my creativity…my ability to design, sew and my passion to write.  That's all I have to open the door to Living in Light.  As small as my keys are they are all I need to get started.  So question for you…what are the keys in your life people...what are your talents, gifts, abilities, resources...what are your passions?  Are you using them to get through the doors to destiny?  Have you tapped into the keys you hold in your hand and are you using them to get you where you really wanna go?????

Don't hesitate…go on…give it a bash…I dare ya…just take what's in your hand and dare to use it...start today if you haven't already...because those little keys are your secret weapon (I know it sounds crazy but it isn't!!) and trust me the doors they unlock lead to more than you could ever imagine…but first you must be willing to make a start with the little you have.

xxx