Browsing Category

My Story

My Story

FROM BOARDROOM TO BALLROOM

Everyday Hero

Cristen Cable fits a lot into a very busy schedule. Cristen owns a successful marketing company, Kis Marketing, has four children and is taking on the challenge of learning ballroom dancing for a very special cause. She is an everyday hero.

Family is everything to Cristen, and it is family that has inspired a monumental step out of her comfort zone. “Having a grandmother who was a cancer survivor, as well as losing a grandmother and a cousin to this awful disease, this cause is extremely close to my heart. Ironically, the grandmother I lost to cancer was a professional dancer, so I will definitely be giving this competition my best efforts in her honour.”

Cristen is excited to be participating in the 2017 Stars of Newcastle. Now in its third year, Stars of Newcastle is a dancing competition raising funds for Cancer Council NSW. Showcasing local celebrities and prominent business figures as amateurs on the dance floor, the stars are each paired with a professional dance partner and attend lessons to learn and perfect their routine in the genre assigned to them. Cristen remarked “I’m using muscles I never knew you needed to dance. Ballroom dancing is much harder than it looks!”

All the hard work culminates in a glamorous performance at the Newcastle Exhibition Centre on Saturday 17th June, 2017. The next few weeks will be filled with gruelling training sessions for Cristen’s stage debut and a busy schedule of fundraising for this worthy cause.

The current statistics predict that 1 in 2 Australians will be diagnosed with some form of cancer by their 85th birthday. Cancer Council NSW receives 97% of it’s funding from the community. All money that is raised from the Stars of Newcastle event will remain in the Hunter to help local families affected by cancer. Along the way, the stars will be holding their own private fundraisers leading up to the big night. Cristen Cable will be hosting a private screening of Wonder Woman on its opening night in the Gold Lounge at Kotara. For more information on this event visit:
https://www.stickytickets.com.au/52061/wonder_woman_gold_lounge_fundraiser_for_stars_of_newcastle.aspx
or to simply donate to the cause visit:
https://starsofnewcastle2017.everydayhero.com/au/cristen-cable

My Story

Missing Mum

Every Day is Washing Day

It was one of those ‘I don’t feel like facing the world’ kind of days. I was in the bathroom applying my make-up. Masking my weariness so that the outside world would think I was actually OK. My eldest son came in. He was about 13 at the time.
‘Are you OK mum?’
‘Yes honey. I just don’t feel like being a grown up today.’
‘But Mum… that’s your job.’

He’s right. It is my job. I am a grown up. I am responsible. I am a solo mum of two amazingly beautiful teenage boys and I am extremely grateful for that. But there are days I want to stamp my feet and have a little tantrum. I don’t want to be responsible and grown up. And that’s OK.

Some days I still need my mum. I miss my mum. I only realised when she was gone how much she did for me and my two boys. When I came home from work I would get cranky at her for hanging up my washing. She was having chemotherapy at the time and yet her obsessive compulsion for making sure the washing got dry in the winter months couldn’t keep her in bed. I also struggled with my feelings around wanting to be self sufficient and not letting anyone help me. I could do it all! A few months after she had passed away I was hanging out a load of washing at midnight. I was so busy at the time and finishing chores at midnight was becoming a regular occurrence. I missed my mum. If only I could get cranky at her again for hanging out my washing.

I miss her for so much more than just that.

Wishing everyone a blessed and peaceful Mother’s Day. I think I’ll have a day off from hanging up washing.

Tania.

My Story

Laura’s Story

My missing Link.

There’s a certain type of love that I think we all crave in this lifetime. A love that mends a broken heart, a love that fills a void. A love that comforts us, a love that feels like home. A love that makes us feel whole, like we’ve found our special place in the world. A love that let’s us breathe. Finally…

In 2016, I found this type of love. I grew, nurtured, protected and fiercely loved this love for 8 months.

It was the perfect manifestation of my entire life’s dreams. The dreams I had as a lost little girl, a desperate teenager, a reckless 20 something young woman. I longed for this love, and for this life, from the deepest depths of my soul for as long as I can remember.

Finally, a baby. My son, Link.

Like all expectant Mothers, I was eagerly anticipating the birth of my baby. Nervous, excited, emotional. All the feels. Among the nesting, nursery decorating, last minute shopping trips and ticking off the never ending to do list, I was also thinking about my families future. My future.
I spent my days looking at tiny, bright, hypnotising squares, scrolling and scrolling into the deep, seductive abyss of Instagram… #nurseryinspo #nurserystyle #nurserydecor #babythis #babythat #babyEVERYTHING.
Within the scrolling pages of my feed, I stumbled across the most stunning baby basket of all. A handwoven, one of a kind, Moses basket. I had to have it. #need. 

When my package finally arrived after it’s long and expensive journey from overseas, I thought, perhaps I could be the one to supply my region with this beautiful product. My days as a travel agent were wearing thin and I really wanted to make a change. I felt like I was wasting my creativity, like I could be doing something more, like life had other plans for me. 

But you know how it is. Life get’s in the way and you dismiss these ideas as a dream and get on with things. I had a wedding to plan, a house to renovate and you know… pregnant.

My last day of work was a Friday. The 11th of November, Remembrance Day. I was so ready to finish. You know them feels right? RIGHT? I was exhausted. The long days. The heavy traffic. I just wanted to be at home. I remember waking up on Saturday morning, my first day of maternity leave. I was so excited. For the first time, since the dawn of time, I had the one thing that no one ever has… time. I couldn’t figure out what I was going to do first. Would I have breakfast? Play with the dogs? Sleep in? All of these things at once? I could do anything! But, something just didn’t feel right. 

With my Husband at the gym, I thought I’d just make a quick call to the midwife. Just to, you know, check in. Just in case. I felt embarrassed to call. I didn’t want to seem like one of those paranoid mothers that called at the slightest feeling of discomfort. I’m pretty tough, I can handle more than most, ’I can handle anything’ I thought.

But not this…

Two days later, it was the 14th Nov 2016, I was 35 weeks into my pregnancy & the moon was full. That night, with the help of the almighty Mother moon’s power, I gave birth to my breathtakingly beautiful, sleeping baby boy, Linik ‘Link’ Allan Grzelak. His heart was still and for a minute, so was mine.

He was placed onto my chest and I couldn’t bare to look down. 

I couldn’t face it. I had to deny it until it wasn’t true. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. 

When I finally had the courage to look at him, at my beautiful baby boy, my world as I knew it, my soul as I knew it, everything as I knew it, changed, forever…

My whole life had led me to this moment.

His pure, innocent beauty and the deeply intoxicating love that I felt in that moment, just took my breath away. A moment that can only be described as transcendent, sacred and profoundly heartbreaking. A spiritual awakening, unfolding in slow motion.

It’s funny you know, I was sort of waiting for his presence in this physical realm to fully and finally heal me. To make that lost little girl, that lonely teenager, that reckless young woman, whole. And in those moments when we found out he was gone, I thought I’d lost not only him, but I’d lost my chance at peace. Like I was so close. I nearly made it. But I couldn’t quite get there. I felt like it had slipped through my fingers and I’d be better off just giving up. 

But, as the days unfolded, I realised that I have still found peace. Link still completed my puzzle, I still feel his presence, I still feel his love and he has still made me whole.
I’ve spent the past 5 months trying to figure out who I am, without Link. What is my purpose in life, without my baby? Why was I chosen for this experience? What the f$%k is ‘normal’ and will I ever be that again?

I realise now that I don’t have to have it all figured out, I just have to trust the process. 

So, I’m getting out of my own way and letting the universe do its thing. And the universe has led me right here. With the strength that Linik gave me, I took the plunge and started my business, aptly named Link & Luna. Throughout the process, I have encountered extreme depths of fear and anxiety so acute that I found myself literally unable to breathe or swallow. I feared judgement, I feared failure, I feared success. 

Exposing myself like I have has been terrifying, but not making an impact or a difference wasn’t an option. I had to make sense of losing Link, I had to find the positive, I had to make him proud. I had to somehow make his existence one that mattered. I was desperate to find the meaning, to create a ‘reason’.

I know my heart will never fully heal, but Linik has given me so much strength. My heart is now full of gratitude and my home is full to the brim with beautiful, vibrant baskets. 

I feel sadness every day. I miss him terribly in every moment, but Link gave me peace after all. 

What a soul and what a gift.

To help me raise awareness, to help me raise funds, to follow my journey or to purchase a beautiful basket please head to www.linkandluna.com , sign up to my newsletter or join me on Instagram @link_and_luna 

With nothing but love in my heart, 

Laura xx