Category Archives: Gratitude

Dreaming, Grace, Gratitude, Nature, Reflection, Ritual, Storytelling

2026: My Year of Emancipation

Freedom is a vibrant palette reflecting our diverse paths to liberty. Blue evokes vast possibilities and openness; white symbolises purity and freedom from oppression. Red captures the revolutionary spirit and the courage required for liberty. Green connects us to nature, representing growth and renewal. Yellow and gold shine with enlightenment and hope, symbolising the joy of living without constraints. Each colour tells a story of the different ways we find and fight for freedom. I took this photo of the sunbird on the protea in Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town – a stolen moment of wild magic in between the hustle.

As the Gemini Full Moon of December 2025 cast its luminous glow, it invited me into a realm of introspection. This celestial event called for solitude, urging me to delve into my inner world and release the burdens quietly draining my spirit. Dreams, rich with symbolism, became portals to understanding, guiding me to let go of what no longer served me.

With Neptune’s direct station in Pisces, a transformative 14-year cycle came to a close, reshaping my inner self and dissolving outdated identities. Emotions surged, dreams intensified, and intuition sharpened, leading me back to the core of my truth. The Sagittarius New Moon also graced the sky in December, acting as a beacon for renewing my daily routines and nurturing my health, balancing service to others with honouring my own needs.

2025 was undeniably my year of Magic. This enchanted word became my guiding star, drawing me into a realm where mystery intertwined with daily life. It was a journey of embracing my roles as a WayFinder and Lightworker, celebrating authenticity and the wild spirit within. Magic was not just about transformation but about healing, tapping into Earth’s energies, and reconnecting with untamed beauty.

Standing on the precipice of 2026, my heart swells with anticipation for a year centred on Freedom and Emancipation. The Keepers of Light Life Path oracle (by Kyle Gray) reading has unveiled a path of profound change and liberation, promising a flourishing professional and public life guided by a redefined sense of purpose and success aligned with my authentic self. This is the year of Expansion of the Heart, where true growth happens in spaces of safety and emotional support, allowing me to redefine belonging and deepen my capacity for love.

Financially, 2026 invites me to reassess my relationship with money, letting go of long-held scarcity mindsets to embrace abundance through joy and passion. It’s a year ripe with opportunities for entrepreneurship and creative endeavours, where prosperity flows dynamically and vibrantly.

In this vibrant realm of existence, where love and acceptance intertwine with each heartbeat, the idea of Earth Angels shines brightly as a symbol of hope and transformation. These radiant souls, driven by a divine mission to spread love and healing, guide us towards spiritual evolution. My journey has been profoundly touched by such an Earth Angel—my Aunty Denise. Though not a blood relative, she embodied the essence of an Earth Angel with her quiet strength and boundless kindness. Her unexpected passing nearly two years ago left a void, yet she gifted me a legacy of love and liberation. In our last moments together, she encouraged me to embrace my wild-hearted odyssey, to dance to the rhythm of my own drum. Her unwavering acceptance and belief in my path have catalysed an enormous change within me, setting me free to explore the world with an open heart. Aunty Denise’s spirit continues to guide me, her indelible mark a testament to the power of Earth Angels in shaping our lives for the better.

As the sacred dance of life calls me to unleash my true self, 2026 becomes a canvas where divine interventions guide each step. I honour my lineage, healing ancestral wounds, and embracing a future rich with purpose and joy. This journey as a Lightworker is illuminated by the lighthouse versus rescue boat analogy. The lighthouse stands tall, offering steady, long-term guidance, empowering others to find their own way, while the rescue boat dives into crises, offering immediate relief but risking burnout and dependency. This year, I embrace my lighthouse phase, a beacon rooted in the wisdom of trust, light, love, rewilding, and magic that has shaped my path.

In numerology, 2026 is a year of new beginnings, a 1 year, and a 10 year. It’s also a Fire Horse year in Chinese astrology, a time of passion and dynamic change. As I embrace the words Freedom, Emancipation, Co-creation, and Beloved, I am ready to dance into this new chapter, guided by intuition and a heart purified by fire. Here’s to a year of becoming, where authenticity and balance reign, and where the wild heart beats ever stronger.

To feel in 2026… one with nature, guided by inner wisdom, held by the land, nourished and inspired, at home in my own skin, drawn to the trees, wild and free.

Toyed around with which word to use:

  • Freedom: Old English meaning exempt from a particular state or condition, evolving from a Proto-Germanic word meaning “beloved” or “at peace,” linked to tribal belonging and protection, linked to words like “friend.”
  • Liberty: Latin meaning free choice, independence, exemption from constraint.
  • Emancipation: Latin meaning to take out of hand, freedom from legal or social bondage, release from restrictions.

In the end, there are aspects of all three words at play this year.

I encountered some profound thoughts recently, and though I am unsure of their origin, I paraphrase them here: 

Each family births a soul attuned to the quakes within their lineage. This one dreams in symbols, waking weary from battles unseen by others. She mourns for wounds not of her making but coursing through her veins. She carries more than her own sorrows; she bears echoes, ancestral murmurs, and silent grief buried for ages. Labelled as overly sensitive, too intense, too different, she is heaven's cycle breaker. Born with open eyes, her spirit rejects deceit, her nerves react to manipulation, and her heart refuses to accept dysfunction as normal. She doesn’t turn her back on her family; instead, she saves it by refusing replication. She disrupts, interrupts patterns, and says “no more” when others accept “that’s just the way it is.” She questions the unquestioned, heals the unhealed, and voices the unspoken. And yes—it costs her. Comfort, belonging, and inner peace are the price. Breaking a cycle incurs resistance; inherited pain loyalists label her an enemy. She is blamed for chaos she merely revealed and accused of shattering the already fractured. But here’s the harsh truth—the chosen one is often sacrificed before being revered. She walks in solitude before honour finds her, misunderstood before remembrance. Even those she liberates may never express gratitude. Yet she stands firm, knowing what others don’t—yielding perpetuates the curse. Silence allows the wound to persist. So she becomes the fire, not to destroy her family but to cauterise what has bled for generations. When the smoke clears, the bloodline transforms forever. For once a soul awakens, the spell is irrevocably broken.

Disclaimer: the words above and the resonance described below are not to say I have a terrible family in the here and now. Quite the opposite in fact. I am sharing this part of my story as we all carry ancestral wounds, it is no one’s fault, it just is. I am only now beginning to understand my journey in terms of being the cycle breaker and pattern interrupt for my family and this includes my soul family.

These words resonate deeply! For this Wild Heart, it has been more than just breaking my ancestral cycle of wounds, but also my wider journey and the people I’ve met along the way. I only see it now in hindsight—all those nights crying in a foetal position on floors, body wracked with pain as my heart cried out, “What did I do?” or “Why me?” It has been worth the pain in the end as I have been cracked open to live authentically, and the reward is seeing how the spell has broken for so many around me. This is not me, but the universe working through me. I think back to my lowest moment on a concrete floor of my little Maun home, the energy surrounding me filled with all my broken dreams. A chink of light in the dark spoke gently and softly—be my sunshine. I still wake up each morning with that intent. I certainly do not get it right all the time, but still, I try.

I have been writing and rewriting this post since the 1st of January. Stolen moments to myself in between a horrendous list of have-to’s for work. I feel like I am on the edge of a deep and profound shift personally—a renewed soul calling for me and my Anam Ċara. But drowning in the overwhelm of an unsustainable workload in the here and now. The opposite of work-life balance, living to work has become my norm of late. Actually, perhaps it ever was. The opposite of freedom and emancipation. Perhaps that is why it is so overwhelming at my day job, to teach me just this—let go of the old hustles I felt I needed to earn my place in the world. Surrender to the flow of soul calling, allowing the healthy boundaries to show themselves and settle. Perhaps I needed these last two months to start embodying my word for the year, my year of emancipation taking shape so I could articulate the concept more thoughtfully. Here’s to Freedom.

Africa, Beginnings, Extraordinary Voices, Gratitude, Nature, Reflection, Storytelling

Life Is Indeed A Magic Thing

This mid-July, in the soft glow of a glorious South African sunset across this beautiful KwaZulu Natal sand forest of my newly found Hluhluwe Happy Place, I find myself reflecting on the tapestry of influences that have shaped my life. The recent loss of my mentor, Uncle Dave Rushworth, alongside the haunting melodies of Johnny Clegg, and the enduring legacy of Nelson Mandela, weave a story of resilience, connection, and hope.

Uncle Dave was not just a mentor but a bridge to the wild heart of Africa. My first journey to Hoedspruit at age 13 to meet him and his family, was more than a physical passage; it was an awakening. Through the years and the relatively small pockets of time I got to spend with him and Aunty Julienne at Trackers, his teachings about bushlore and the intricate beauty of the Lowveld became the rhythm of my soul. Uncle Dave taught me to face my fears, to embrace the wildness within, and to find solace under the African sky. His legacy is etched in the landscape of my memories, a guidepost in my journey. It is because of him and all he openly shared with me of his bush wisdom, that Hoedspruit was my original happy place, and always will be. I have deep roots there, a geography of soul connection. It continues to show up in my art and in my writing.

As I reflect on these memories, the music of Johnny Clegg resonates deeply. His songs, rich with the spirit of Africa, echo the same themes of belonging and identity that Uncle Dave instilled in me. Clegg’s words about being “Scatterlings of Africa” remind me of the journey we all undertake to find our place in the world. Words so indelible, I have them inked into my skin. His music, like the land he sang of, is a testament to the resilience and unity that transcends borders.

This reflection is especially poignant as we honor Nelson Mandela’s legacy on Mandela Day. Mandela, a towering figure of hope and reconciliation, reminds us of the power of unity and shared humanity. In a world still grappling with inequity and division, his call for solidarity and action is more relevant than ever. Just as Uncle Dave nurtured my wild heart, Mandela’s spirit encourages us all to nurture the world around us, to combat poverty and injustice with compassion and courage.

The convergence of these influences—Uncle Dave’s mentorship, Clegg’s music, and Mandela’s legacy—has shaped my wild heart into one that seeks wild connection and soul purpose. They remind me that life, indeed, is a magic thing.

Though Uncle Dave has passed, his spirit lives on in the wild places he loved, in the lessons he taught, and in the heart he helped to shape. As I listen to the whispering song of the wind in the grass, I carry his memory forward, embracing the magic and mystery of life.

Rest in peace, dear Uncle Dave. Your legacy, like Mandela’s and Clegg’s, is etched in the stars and in the story of my life. Thank you for teaching me that life is, indeed, a magic thing.

Beginnings, Creativity, Dreaming, Grace, Gratitude, Reflection, Ritual, Storytelling

2024 – My Year of Wild

‘Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it is about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you.’

Paul Coehlo

It started a couple of years ago and a deal made with the benevolent Universe that I would learn to Trust my intuition. It would be a journey to recognising and reconnecting with that calm, clear voice of authentic Me as separate from ego. But what a journey it has been! My Year of Trust in 2022 brought me dreams come true and an indelible lesson in how to balance what I can make happen and what I invite to let happen.

2023 has been My Year of Light and Love, the next steps on my growth journey. To find balance in how I love, but also to embrace the ‘who I am inside’ and finally allow her to be loved just as she is – Sunshine Reflected. Another incredible year of synergy and alignment and abundance, living my Dream Life. Choosing the way of love over fear always.

In this Love Lightly space, I found a muse with grace and wisdom beyond his years. He has a mind and heart wide open, paying close attention to each one of my details knowing how to take me to my very limits. He has actual depth and insight, resilient, and with a bite that keeps the world in check. So I have finally started writing the book I somehow knew was always in me. I am being pushed creatively and that is showing up in my art too.

At this time of reflection and setting intention for the coming year, some words are showing up in my journalling repeatedly….

If you have read any of my other writing, you will know that I have a firm belief in the energy that connects All that is. I have found that tapping into this energy at a cosmic level is what drives intuition and instinct. Overwhelmingly this energy is good and benevolent, in my experience. So part of my reflection time involves looking for guidance and wisdom from Nature and Universe:

The tree wisdom card I pulled from my oracle deck as I thought about my word for 2024 was the energy of Regeneration from Yew.

I used the wonderful energy of the recent full moon in Cancer on 26 December as a focus for this end of year reflection. The last full moon of 2023 brought an invitation to come back to our hearts as we prioritise nurturing ourselves to become the safe space we long for.

Venus is in Sagittarius at the moment until 23 January, with a clear energetic shift that inspires a celebratory approach to life, love and relationships, moving closer to authentic self. Sagittarius inspires us to recover our connection to our authentic, undomesticated self, to Natural Laws, and to our intuition, being drawn to freedom, authenticity and honesty. During the upcoming days, chances to recognise how freedom and connection aren’t mutually exclusive, discovering how to nurture both the need for intimacy and the desire for independent exploration of life.

A few months ago, I wrote about Reclaiming Wild, all about taking back the concepts of  Wild, Wildness and Wilderness as part of my Soul’s vocabulary – a way of expressing true nature-connectedness, a pattern of my Soul, my Soul Maker and the season I now find myself in living my Dream Life.

What a lovely concoction of Cosmic and Nature energy to feed mind and heart and set intention!

So, on the foundation of two previous words for the year, a journey back to authentic Me has begun. A reclaiming of Wild and Untamed Me, a fully reconnected back to Nature version of Me. Embracing my Wild Heart. Empowering a balanced sacred-feminine, divine-masculine essence of Me. So I am better able to live wholeheartedly and fulfill my Great Purpose.

Me empowered, rewilded, reclaiming my Wildness means pure space is open for empowering Other, empowering Wilderness. I hope by reclaiming my internal Wild, I will be more in tune with Nature. This spiritual rewilding enabling me to better serve the Conservation Collective I am part of. This Collective is all about the job of physical rewilding as a Nature-based Solution for the environmental and social ills of our time.

Rewilding. It is messy and real and imperfect. A bit like Nature really – wild, messy and full of imperfection but Nature knows how to embrace her magic. Understanding more deeply what it means to be human, to be beautifully imperfect, to be wonderfully lost at times. I am excited about embracing my magic and my happy wanderer ways in 2024 – My Year of Wild 🖤

Dreaming, Extraordinary Voices, Grace, Gratitude, Human Wildlife Coexistence, Joy, Nature, Reflection, Storytelling, Travel, Values, Wildlife Conservation

Reclaiming Wild

Wilderness

Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place,
but a pattern of soul
where every tree, every bird and beast
is a soul maker?

Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place
but a moving feast of stars,
footprints, scales and beginnings?

Since when
did we become afraid of the night
and that only the bright stars count?
or that our moon is not a moon
unless it is full?

By whose command
were the animals
Through groping fingers,
One for each hand,
Reduced to the big and little five?

Have we forgotten
That every creature is within us
carried by tides
of earthly blood
and that we named them?

Have we forgotten
that wilderness is not a place,
but a season
and that we are in its
final hour?

Ian McCallum

It was a very cold August morning as we set off before sunup on our routine morning drive around the reserve. I grabbed my favourite merino wool blanket scarf at the last minute before the vehicle left base. It was only when we got back to camp I realised the scarf was gone. As the sun rose and the morning warmed up, we all slowly delayered. I had folded up the scarf and tucked in behind me on the seat but it must have slipped out as we negotiated the bumpy dirt tracks of the reserve. It had been a risk to take the scarf along, I knew it at the time.

Two days later, on another morning drive, this time in the middle of my wildlife track and sign test, we rounded a corner and there on the side of the road was my scarf! Not all in one piece though. I had a little help gathering up all the damp scraps of wool, dirt and vegetation encrusted and smelling distinctly wild. Back at base I laid them all out trying to put the wool scarf puzzle back together. Turned out only one small section was missing!

Hyena tracks were all around the scene of the scarf wreckage so the conclusion was that younger members of the reserve’s clan had found my scarf and had a good old play. Some of the holes in bits of scarf look very much like bite marks and the centre of the scarf was ripped by claws.

The pieces of my favourite scarf were carefully packed away as my year of adventure and wandering continued.

As I have settled into my homecoming these past months, I have found time to stitch the hyena-mauled scarf back together. It as been a soulful experience and given me pause to reflect and meditate on Wild, Wildness and Wilderness.

Recently, my mom reminded me about the incredibly inspiring words of Ian McCallum. I started this post with his poem, Wilderness. I can’t express just how much his words resonate with me. I have such a Wild Heart and consider myself a bit of Wildhearted Revolutionary.

In the world of biodiversity conservation, Rewilding has become the latest in a long line of buzz words. We associate this concept as a good thing – a nature-based solution for tackling the environmental and social ills of our time.

But Wild, Wildness and Wilderness are terms very often having negative connotations such inhospitable, lack of discipline or restraint, lack of sound reasoning, neglected or abandoned or a position of disfavour, badlands or wastes.

Today I reclaim Wild, Wildness and Wilderness as part of my Soul’s vocabulary – a way of expressing true nature-connectedness, a pattern of my Soul, my Soul Maker and the season I now find myself in living my Dream Life. I claim my Wildheartedness. I claim my Wildness. I claim back Wilderness for me and all my Soul Tribe.

Stitching my hyena-ripped scarf back together has become a symbol for me of my connection to Wild and Wilderness. My own metaphor for the journey I am on, connecting me to where I have been and where I am now.

A little bit of encouragement today to reclaim your Wildness 🖤

Find your peace in true Wilderness 🖤

Africa, Birth Place, Blessings, Extraordinary Voices, Family, Girl Empowerment, Grace, Gratitude, Ordinary Women, Reflection

August in Mzansi

August is Women’s Month here in South Africa and we have just celebrated National Women’s Day on 9 August.

Finding home again in this land of my birth, I have spent a little time reflecting on why the need for a day, a whole month even, to celebrate women. My bestie reckons every day should be women’s day and he is right. But then I do wonder if these ‘days’ provide a good time to pause and consider the theme of that ‘day’. For example, we acknowledge Lions on 10 August and Elephants on 12 August. Actually I love that these two species’ ‘days’ fall in Women’s Month. A chance to champion Matriarchs and Lionesses in all their wisdom and fierceness!

My ponderings this August have largely centred around my femininity and how I feel about being a woman in the world today. I realise this is an incredibly personal experience and I am only speaking for myself in what I am relating here.

My femininity is something I have never struggled with. I am innately feminine despite many interests perceived as more masculine in nature.

Feminism, on the other hand, is something I have struggled with over the years. I should not struggle with the concept of Feminism, right? With the definition as ‘the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of gender equality’, what is there to struggle with?

I suppose part of it comes down to that human failing of taking things to extremes. Our quest as a species for equality and balance seems a constant challenge. So, where perhaps many others have been faced with toxic masculinity in their early life experience, I have come into contact more with toxic femininity labelled as feminism.

Not in my family, please understand. I have the most phenomenal of female role models amongst my relatives and I could not be more overwhelmed with gratitude to my mom, sister, grannies, great grannies, aunts and cousins for their love, support and ‘sisterhood’.

Female friendships are what I have found difficult over the years. Being part of a group of girls always seemed complicated with lots of mind games I was not cut out for. That stuff utterly perplexed me, still does. I wear my heart on my sleeve and so was totally out of my depth in this ‘mean girls’ world. As a result, most of my closest friends growing up were male.

What I am learning is that much of the negative experience around female friendships is born from trauma and disillusionment with society’s expectations of us as females. I think many of us have repeated, unconscious societal messages that pit us against one another instead of fostering kindness and compassion and embracing each other in our shared feminine experience. More recently, as I have started to delve into the concept of ‘Sisterhood’, I am beginning to realise the magic that lies here. The first time I was really intrigued by the Sisterhood concept was in reading The Awakened Woman: remembering & reigniting our sacred dreams by Dr Tererai Trent. I am currently working through the book again, this time as an audiobook which is read by the author. The beautiful African lilt of her voice makes experiencing this book an extra special experience. Dr Tererai has a whole section of her book talking through the power of female friendships and forming a sacred sisterhood.

Sisterhood
the feeling of kinship with and closeness to a group of women, an association, society, or community of women linked by a common interest

I have become aware that my strong bond with the females of my family is a form of Sisterhood. I have also become aware that I have stumbled into a Sisterhood of women in Conservation – our love of Wild truly connects us. I think to some extent it is that shared trauma and disillusionment with society’s expectations of us as females that I mentioned previously that connects us. I started trying to list the names of these phenomenal women I recognise as part of this Sisterhood. I lost count. Wow, what a privilege! How is this my life!? To be aligned with these ecowarriors, to know their names, to have shared the road, to have spent time fireside under starry African skies, to have belly laughed and ugly cried together in our shared Sisterhood is a beyond-words honour.

And on top of all this, I have my Anam Ċara (Soul-friend) Sisterhood….

“Anam Ċara is a Celtic phrase that loosely translates as “soul friend.” It describes a sacred relationship that is founded in connection, authenticity, trust and respect….. a Celtic philosophy….. that two souls that experience a unique and deeply personal connection will be stronger together than they are apart.”

So this month of August here in Mzansi, I am full of love and gratitude for all the amazing women in my life – my Sisterhood. I am thankful for what it means for me to be a woman in my world. It is safe and full of love and care unlike the female experience of so many other women in this world. I am also aware in appreciation for the wonderful men in my life and how they are just as much a part of this celebration as my Sisterhood. I see you all. I am because We are.