A conversation with Canadian/Australian author Catherine Greer. You can contact Catherine at: https://www.catherinegreer.com.au/

A few months ago my mum died.

A month earlier the doctors found a huge cancer lymphoma in her head.
It was unexpected, but she died peacefully and she didn’t have to suffer for months.

I made it to her bedside 10 minutes before she died. The nurses said she was waiting for me, even though she had slipped into unconsciousness earlier that day. I live 4 hours drive away. I said goodbye and thanked her for being my mum, and a tear fell from her eye before she literally took her last breath. It was surreal and I felt like I was in some strange movie. But it was very, very real.

Why do I share this story? Well apart from it explaining why I’ve not published any blog posts for a looooong time, I felt inspired to ask you:

‘Do you know what you are called to do and be?' And a more urgent question, 'Are you living it?'

You see, my mum knew her calling from a very young age.

Whilst packing up her things I found notebooks full of stories and scribbles of her life. Things I...

A little piece I wrote for Leaders In Heels. Go check them out!

Thought it might be helpful for you too!

 Click on the link below:

7 SECRETS TO DISCOVERING YOUR CALLING

Rainy weekends and being sick in bed. Kinda go together. That was my weekend. Lots of sleeping, thinking and I started watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix (where have I been for the last 10 years)! Such a quirky, feel good show.

But stay with me and keep reading, as there's a point to this...

It got me thinking about different personalities. And about passions. Most of the characters in Gilmore Girls are clearly 'passionate' about their work, even though many of them don't have 'passionate' type personalities.

There's so much advice out there to 'find your passion'. And whilst this advice is well meaning, what if you are the type that doesn't really feel that passionate? Or what if you can't identify your 'passion' due to various life experiences, stresses, constant tiredness from parenting (to name just a few)!

Here's a suggestion - try replacing the word passion with one of these instead:

1. Enthusiasm
What are you enthusiastic about? It's not as extroverted as 'passion'. Enthusiasm...

Do you write New Year's Resolutions? I don't.

Honestly, the intent is there because it's a fresh new year and all that, but intentions are usually abandoned by February. And not only abandoned but their 'non-achievement-ness' needles their way into our psyche and makes us beat up on ourselves.

So instead, I simply use my Reminders on my iphone! I've set up recurring daily, weekly, monthly (and because I'm an organisational geek even yearly ones). And these reminders just roll around, recurring as I've set them up to recur (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly). After a few months they pretty much become habits. And if I'm not 'doing them' I know it's not really my motivation to do it, so I sort what's going on in my head about that or I delete the habit! Simples.

Oh yes, I have goals. But only with 3 month deadlines. Anything beyond that is a 'vision'. And I have a yearly word-theme. Something that helps anchor me when I'm feeling wobbly. Last years word was 'enjoy', this years word is...