“There's a story behind everything..but behind all your stories is always your mother's story..because hers is where yours begins.”

There's one person who inspires you to be somebody, to really live, to quietly inspire others and who teaches those around them from their humility, that love and beauty comes from within and with that you can grow and help many people from all walks of life. That person is my mother and her passion and love she has put into me has made me the woman I am today, in the past few years I have found myself growing more into who I am and who I know I can be. But this comes from knowing my mother and because of that my love and respect has grown more and more over the years helping me to see the  powerful and beautiful person she is today pushing me to want to share the same love and kindness and stand up for what is right.  From her leading in life through her ways it inspires and helps me to grow continually, so when I get the chance I try to make her proud of me*  (*getting up early, cleaning my room and doing the washing up not included).

Last year it just really came to me, how amazing my mum really is. We were flying back from Singapore on a four hour flight and even though it was the middle of the night we began really talking, we talked about everything and it was just such a powerful and beautiful conversation that while being away in Romania along with the emails and in general missing my family it hit me how precious, special and remarkable my mum really is. 

Now anyone could say that there mum is incredible and absolutely wonderful, but how well do you know my mum? Well I don’t think I knew my mum all that well and had never really thought about it. Okay so it's like they say you don't really learn to appreciate your parents until you take the challenge of bringing up your own children and yes while I still believe that is true there is a part of me that believes in the past few years I have found myself growing more into who I am and who I know I can be and because of that I have slowly learned to love and respect my mother more and more as who else could be such a inspiration? She has helped me to blossom and grow up from her wisdom and love. She's powerful, in her love and kindness to every person she comes across, the laughter, the smile, the simplicity of her touch on your back, her spirit and strength lights up others sometimes in small ways sometimes in bigger ways. 


Be it through just having a small conversation with someone who looks like they’re having a bad day or going to work and putting 100% in everyday and really seeing change in the people she works with.  She is one of those people that other people quickly feel comfortable around and like they won’t be judged, they can laugh as much as she does, and at ease tell her their life story and everyone just knows everything will be okay when she says it will, the best part is when she is cute though and acts all fluffy.

But all that doesn't come from nothing, that comes from something deep, beautiful and splendiferous inside, something moving and the strength in knowing helping others will help you, to love and not judge and love thy neighbour as you love yourself to grown in fulfillment and beauty every single step of the way.

She's taught me that life will push you back, there will be hardships and times when you don't think you'll see the light again, when things don't add up and it just gets messier not better, but she showed me that inside as long as you have that little spark always softly lit deep inside your heart you can and you WILL get through anything. And that no one ever achieved anything by sitting back and letting the worst get the better of them, but if you put your passion heart and soul into it - it is possible.

I don’t think I've ever thanked her for all the little things that meant so much to me (and still do) such as the nights she would come and comfort me and help me to fall asleep again helping me to know I would find myself with fairies and flowers and escape from my nightmares.
 Or giving me the last slice of pizza, the last glass of orange juice, allowing me to eat ‘whatever I wanted out of the fridge’ and somehow always knowing what to say when I was in a teary crisis.

Or if it was supporting me in my endless array of wanting to participate in different activities, life experiences or sports, be it hip hop dancing, running, netball, soccer, environment groups, childcare, friendships, travelling, visiting Romania, keeping butterflies and insects in my room for weeks, having beautiful clothes, seeing the snow, deserts and rain forest, my education and doing it all for us as a family to grow together and individually in our love, support and groundings.
Or believing in me as an individual and supporting me in my endeavours to finding who I am, be it through my beliefs, fashion or connecting with others and seeing the world and life from all different perspectives.
Or for her kind words when my kind words were lost, or her kinds words and hugs just because I needed my mother to be there.

And for always loving me no matter how many big or little mistakes I've made, and always seeing me as the beautiful young woman she believes I am and having belief in me that I will grow into someone strong, passionate and ready to do whatever they put out to achieve.
The trust she places in me is one of my favourite things, it makes me want to do the right thing, and show her how amazing I can be because she puts that trust in me.

She has inspired me in my life through so many different ways..
For allowing me to see so much of the world at already 17 and for that to have the ability to realize how lucky I am in life and the opportunities, support and love I am presented with on a daily basis.
For her endless words of encouragement, love, worry and humble support and the notion she gives out continually for me to follow and grow in myself.
Her stories she has shared with me over the years be it about her arthritis and how she went on to run cross country and be one of the best, or when she was growing up it wasn't always easy so she has always tried to put the best forward she has been able to for her two daughters, and continually put us first no matter what. 

Thank you mum for all your infinite life lessons, be it in the car, on our shopping trips or late night plane trip flights, I will always strive to make you proud because you deserve the best!
With an endless amount of love signing from your daughter Emily. xxo. 


"A Mother's love is something 
that no one can explain,
It is made of deep devotion 
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away,
A mother's heart is always with her children,
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

Green eggs and ham

  Yay! 

I just thought that title up with mum and my sister, thank you guys!  We’re sitting outside the ‘Daly Waters Pub’ in outback Australia – and boi is it hot! 

Those who know me know that I like to keep myself the healthiest I can, so as of this camping trip I decided I wanted to buy Liquid Chlorophyll for all the days I can’t eat heaps of vegies and to ‘save’ money supposedly (my theory anyway).  Last night as I was heading towards bed I got my pajamas out to put on, and to my surprise they were tie dyed, okay not completely but some nice green splotches decorated my pink fluffy pajamas :( . We washed them that night and it looks like I’m stuck with tie dye pajamas  Than to add to the spectacular fun I had with that, the next morning i managed to spill really strong mouth wash all throughout my sponge bag, now even my tooth brush is decorated a greenish colour.

This morning at breakfast in Katherine we all asked for our breakfast, and I specifically asked for – two poached eggs. What did I get? Two poached eggs and a wholeee lot of bacon.. and one slice of tomato. I just love bacon so much... I put the bacon on dads finished plate and enjoyed the eggs. 

A new relationship was formed while on the road

When we were almost at Daly Waters the car became not its usual self.. and words along the lines were muttered lots 'come on little car you can do it'. Finely after thirty minutes of freaking out and the engine seizing up, we made it safely to Daly Waters! Mum went into the only shop there, and asked the main guy if there were any mechanics around or near by, he said 150km away in Elliot and his name is Bob.... Well you see that was a good drive away, and our car was practically dead at this point it'd be to much of a risk we thought to go all the way to Elliot! Have no fear, daddy dear called AANT (our road recovery heroes) and they said that there was a guy down the road and he'd be here in around 20 minuets. Yes! We were saved, and our car got all fixed up, they reckon it was 'dirty' petrol since someone else had arrived the same day as us, from Katherine with dirty petrol. Watch out, BP is out to get us.

I feel like it is so summer, except no signs of a beach yet, which I can bet you most other Australians will be heading to the coasts of Australia for Christmas. Today we’re all staying in a little cabin together at ‘Daly waters’ pronounced ‘Dai-ley waters’, I think  because Daly waters is spelt different to how it’s said the owners here have almost chosen to make a joke out of a lot of things. But why not, it’s an unbelievably small town. Here are a few of my favourite pictures from around the town itself.

It is superrrr expensive to stay here, and the with that being said even if its a small cabin you'd expect most things to be in alright condition.. Well I sat down on dads side of the bed for a second, and bam - the bed cracked underneath me. No it's not me, it's the bed. Same for the shower head which regularly had fits and whacked a few of us in the head, and brought squeals in the shower - laughing in the cabin. Last but not least we ran into a leaky air con, which had mum and dad happy as their bed was underneath the air con. We moved the bed to the other side, and put the mattress on the ground, I got to walk all over mum and dads legs. They thoroughly enjoyed this:) 

Read this, it's funnay!

Considering everything from food prices, mostly friendly staff, crap accomadation and so forth - Our familys reckon the  whole ordeal deserves a 1 out of 5 stars.

Christmas tree car & cute guys

Day A - Through the centre

You can't see but it also has fairy lights

We're currently on the road to Katherine, nothing extremely exciting has happened the past few days. Except see that picture of that really cool as looking troopy above? Yeah that's our troopy, and with it we've been seemingly bringing happiness to lots of people, often though we're driving long and people stare at our car, smile and wave and we're like... "huh why are they staring?.." "Ohhh! We have a Christmas tree car". I love us, and the fact that we're sharing the Christmas love through out Australia.

On another note about our Christmas tree car sometime in the last few days we were driving through the gates into the hotel that we're staying at, and two super cute guys were walking along the path towards the car as we were waiting for the gate to open. They both smiled because of... none other than our car, and I gave them a quick smile back. My sister smiled at them, and continued to as they got closer and closer, and it got more awkward and more weird, until we drove in just at the right second. The thing is they than walked through the gates too, into the same hotel we were staying at.

Darwin to Katherine today



                                         Car photography: Hannah Barrows
                     Image of Map: http://www.australia.edu/Travel/detailed-travel-map-of-australia.html

Family is where the heart is

15/12/12

Officially the adventure begins! Well... not on the road yet, more so the throwing out literally half of our belongings, giving them away and packing many things into boxes to be taken away to go into storage... for maybe four months or the possibility of four whole years.

Yeah you read right, four years, our adventure out in the world could possibly be for four years! They say 'home is where the heart is' we just left our 'home' now 'home is where my beautiful family is' and I find that so much better as who knows where I'll end up, on this planet with my family, but whatever life brings us no what we're faced with I know that we are all only going to be getting more out of life and no less than what we chose to make every single day.

Love you mum

Photography: Hannah Barrows

We are all able to fly

Living at boarding for the past three years over and over again I've been told there are two kinds of people in this world, “the talkers and the doers” and I also in a small way figured out that horrible things in life that are complete shit that don’t ever seem to add up and seem to be a tumbling of shit over and over again there is a chance something good may come of it all.

I felt like listening to Taylor Swifts new album ‘Red’ it’s nice, it of course has some pop songs that are there to bring in the money. A song named ‘Ronan’ came on and listening to the lyrics of the song, unexpectedly I began to feel really upset. I went to Google and typed in ‘Taylor Swift Ronan’ and the first link that appeared was..  Ronan: The little boy who inspired a Taylor Swift song.

As I began to read it tears welled up in my eyes and as I listened to the song again, I read that Taylor had -written this song for (the mum) Maya (although the song is co-written with Maya) and how Maya had inspired Taylor to write this song from reading her blog and how amazing she thought Maya was for everything she had done, in bringing awareness to childhood cancer. Read it for yourself (the link is up above).

Mayas blog, you can feel for yourself how truly amazing this mother is through her heartfelt and overwhelming blog.. RockstartRonan-MissionStatement. 

Sitting here crying my eyes out writing this about a boy who I've never known, from it all what has moved me the most is that this mother has lost her whole world and although from reading her blog sounds as if she is still suffering miserably, she promised her son that she is going to in a way change the world for him and is now working towards this.

Ronan

This has made me think, today, this afternoon as I spent the morning in a hotel room watching movies and cartoons how lucky I was to be there alive, with my loving sister with fresh water, feeling happy and healthy and shortly my parents would be bringing me some lunch home. The thing is I didn't do a lot today, but now i have, because I have just decided that all though next year is about getting my soul back on track, its also going to be about getting involved in something. I don’t know what yet, but where ever we end up living for a while I’m going to go into a organisation and really get involved, also on our trip I’m going to do the best I possibly can and I'll let you know later what that is. 

I was talking to my dad yesterday, we have been having a lot of conversations lately about how messed up the world is, and I asked my dad doesn't all of it make you want to curl up in a ball in a corner and just cry and in return he told me that wherever you go in life you just have to be the best person you can be. I know my parents live by that even if they don’t talk about it to us often, my parents have always done the best they could both possibly do, be it for me and my elder sister, or in each place we've lived. They've put their hearts into it all, their love, passions and souls into it, whatever it was or where they were. That is what I must do too.

I hope you've learnt something from reading this.

Life is life, you can only do the best you can do, whatever that is do it, live every day, and what if today really was your last day? You just don’t know... You really don’t.

A year and two lifes reflection

I wrote this post agees ago, but decided it is still worth posting..

Thank you to everyone who screwed me over, decided I'm boring, helped me to realize who my real friends are, called me ugly behind my back, teased me about being vegan, gave me a hug, shared memorable conversation with me, made a new connection with, ate ice-cream with, stalked cute guys, helped people who needed it with me and who brought me utter happiness because without you people I wouldn't be the person who I am now - oh and how I love this person I am now.

I found myself again, life is beautiful and over the past year I have achieved and done all that I hoped I would sure there were the not so good parts but hey without them I wouldn't have learnt anything.

Time to put the whole of last year behind me and really FORGIVE and definitely FORGET!

I am ready and excited for the upcoming year.

I am going to go into this year knowing in my own mind that - Life is a miracle something to love and to cherish to notice all the small things (even the ones that don't matter as much) and not to take the big things for granted, its a gift and for that we should open it everyday and expect happiness surprises and maybe something that we don't like so much.

I'm ready to be who I am again because I know inside who I am, I am ready to tell the truth and nothing but the truth and to stand up for what I know is right in every part of life but only with compassion and love, I want to make this a year that I WON'T forget and I sure to hope nothing comes easy because otherwise I won't get anywhere - you live and you learn.

I won't judge at least I'll try my hardest not to I won't gossip no never unless it's telling my sister about that super cute guy who smiled at me the other day and I'll forgive myself when I do something that annoys me or hurts someone else because I'm human and unless I live my life I won't be going no where.

So tell that mother she has a beautiful daughter and smile at that old lady who is staring at you because your dancing on the street to your iPod like your the last person on earth and no don't skip breakfast you'll last longer it all adds up and make a change even if it's something so small such as brushing your teeth before bed or giving your friend a bunch of flowers and card two months before her birthday just because you can and so they realize damn they really do mean a whole lot to you!

We only have one world one body and one soul that's all we have been given so let's look after it all once and for all.

Who you are, regardless of your age, sex or culture you are worth it.

I'm not sure how yet and what it will be I just know I was put on earth to do something, something for someone, I know in my heart there is more out there in this world and more inside our selves than we may ever realize.
In the past few years I have slowly come to find this in me from the things I have found myself saying to people about love and justice and realizing the values and beliefs I myself hold.  It began from small and simple things such as really discovering my passions in my every day life and becoming conscious of ways as a world we connect and how this affects each of us individually.

I want to change the world, I don’t know how, where to begin, or exactly what it is i want to do, but that is my real life dream and aspiration. Even if it takes me until the day I die, something anything is going to happen, to see a real change, to see people entirely moved, and a world revolution as the world is by far in need of one. People are already beginning to fight back and these people are already launching into winning over the powers that control us, as we are the vast minority.

I believe we are all one, we are all equal, we are all related in that we all have souls, we all think, we all hold hopes and dreams and some of us can never achieve them because it's hard enough finding enough food to make dinner tonight.

Whatever it may be, do something for someone even if there's no thank you they'll appreciate it more than you can think (and if they don't that's their own problem not yours) share the love and expect nothing back and possibly even smile - than it could lead to the likelihood of the world and our souls becoming a little happier.