{"id":495,"date":"2016-10-29T11:30:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T11:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/?p=495"},"modified":"2016-10-30T03:16:11","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T03:16:11","slug":"uber-exciting-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/?p=495","title":{"rendered":"Uber exciting stuff!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

My past week has held so much excitement I can barely contain myself.
\nI have made some wonderful\u00a0connections.
\nAll\u00a0have been totally unplanned.
\nThey have all been so empowering, so strengthening, so encouraging.
\nThere is something wonderful about connections between women of kindred spirit.
\nThe gelling is so uber cool.
\nAs most close to me are probably aware, I am passionate about working with sexual assault and abuse victims.
\nAs a survivor of sexual abuse, and a crisis support worker for victims of sexual assault these connections have been incredibly moving and very very\u00a0inspiring.<\/p>\n

My first encounter was when I had the privilege to attend a forum which my daughter and her husband were speaking.
\n\"img_1187\"
\nI slightly selfishly just wanted to go to hear my family speak, but I was blown out of the water completely by the content from all speakers.
\nIt was an absolutely brilliant evening.
\nThe event was to raise\u00a0funds for Amie\u00a0Paulet<\/a>\u00a0from The Collab Nation<\/a>\u00a0 to travel to Bangladesh as\u00a0part of her\/the\u00a0work that will see them\u00a0partnering alongside women in the garment industry in Bangladesh.
\nAmie hosted and prompted responses from the panelists creating\u00a0raw real conversation around sustainable and ethical business in today’s world.
\nOn its own it was incredibly inspiring.
\n\"img_1189\"
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

But my excitement came from discovering women at the gathering connected to Bridge The Gap Project<\/a>.
\nEmily was wearing a stunning very individual jacket which of course my mixed media eye was immediately drawn to.
\nI was keen to hear more about what was behind these art works and Emily happily filled me in on the work of Amanda Betts.
\nThe work is diverse in nature but ultimately is supporting youth at risk and sexual abuse victims,\u00a0empowering them in an enriching & creative way.
\n<\/a>The back of this jacket rocked my soul – loved it so much \ud83d\ude42
\n\"img_1104\"
\nYou can see two of the jackets being worn in centre of this photo.
\nEach item of clothing is created by or for the person and tells their story in such a beautiful way.
\nAnd they get to wear it.
\nIt empowers them, helps them to grow\u00a0above\u00a0their abuse etc, helps\u00a0them stand tall and strong.
\n\"img_1188\"
\nAfter the forum was over I discovered the woman behind me was the one who was creating these jackets.
\nSera<\/a> has put her own label Selector Clothing<\/a> on hold for a wee while to help with this project.
\nAn awesome women, such a privilege to meet her.
\nWe had such a great connection,\u00a0initiating an ongoing\u00a0friendship.
\nThe lighting wasn\u2019t great but we got some photos before the night ended.
\nAmie, Sunniva and two of their tribe
\n\"img_1106\"
\nSunniva and her proud mother xxxx
\n\"img_1108\"<\/p>\n

The next day I flew home, landed running.
\nStraight back into life in the fast lane.
\nMy 10 days holiday was quickly on the other side of the horizon!<\/p>\n

I was invited to two events over the next two evenings.
\nThe first was to reveal a friends AC Cobra which he has been building for past 30 years!
\n\"img_1140\"
\nNeedless to say it was a wonderful evening.
\nI even got to sit in the drivers seat!\"img_1151\"
\nNow I know that the car is amazing, but I am not a petrol head so my enjoyment during the evening was connecting with a new friend.
\nWe had such a great time, coffee dates have been planned.<\/p>\n

Then the following day I was on the pager for work<\/a>.
\nI had a pre-scheduled client to support through her L3 Police interviews.
\nI was slightly daunted as the little I had been told prior sounded a bit too close to my personal story.
\nWasn\u2019t too sure how I would deal with it, if I would trigger in any way.
\nBut I put my professional hat on and fronted up at 8:30 ready to do\u00a0my job.
\nI was blown away.
\nShe was an amazing, strong, empowered, woman, and once again we connected on a very meaningful level.
\nOften in my work the clients are so damaged that it is emotionally draining, but this time it was so positive.
\nShe was working through her healing journey, knew what she had to do and she did it and she did it damned fine!
\nSo proud of her.
\nHer attitude uplifted me so much.<\/p>\n

Then that evening I took two of my team mates and drove out to Motueka to hear Louise Nicholas<\/a> speak.
\nMotueka SASH<\/a> had invited her and there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity.
\nI told my pager to be very quiet, I didn\u2019t want to miss a thing!!<\/p>\n

Louise stood and quietly told her story.
\nI have read\u00a0her book<\/a>. Seen the movie.<\/a>\u00a0Watch ‘The Louise Nicholas Story’ here<\/a> if you\u00a0haven\u2019t already see it.
\nI know her story too well.
\nBut to hear Louise tell it in person moved me to tears.
\nLouise is a beautiful woman.
\nI really respected the way she relayed her message.
\nShe taught me such a lot.
\nShe has always had my utmost respect.
\nBut after this\u00a0she has my heart.
\nThis woman has mana.
\nShe is lovely, she is awesome, she is – just Louise.
\n\"img_1166\"
\nI was rapt to talk with her afterwards, looking forward to a coffee date next time we meet.
\nCant beat those coffee dates \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

And that was the culmination of 48 hours of amazing connections.
\nJust so buzzy about it all.
\nThe excitement comes from seeing so many\u00a0positive happenings coming from such crappy stuff.
\nLooking forward to see where the future takes me in all of this.
\n\"img_1022\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My past week has held so much excitement I can barely contain myself. I have made some wonderful\u00a0connections. All\u00a0have been totally unplanned. They have all been so empowering, so strengthening, so encouraging. There is something wonderful about connections between women of kindred spirit. The gelling is so uber cool. As most close to me are … Continue reading “Uber exciting stuff!!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":509,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions\/509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybigballofstring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}