The joy of invitations
Plus, join us on Monday for a co-creating call and coffee chat
Hey friends,
This morning, I received the kind of email that made me do a little dance of joy. As a writer, I’ve become so accustomed to rejections that when a surprise “yes” lands in my inbox, it feels like magic.
I could wax lyrical about how much I struggle with invitations - especially ambiguous ones. Any shadow of a doubt and I often find myself second guessing things.
It took me years to summon up the courage to cold-pitch editors without overthinking. Sure, I had a great idea for a story and thought it would be a good fit for their publication, but I wanted to be invited to send it to them, first.
While I can now send pitches without thinking twice - although I don’t do it as much, these days - I still live for those invitations that drop right into your lap.
Today’s email came from someone who’d found my website (thanks, SEO!) and wanted to chat about running a series of in-person creative writing workshops for women who’ve experienced - and are living through - domestic abuse and trauma.
The goal would be to help them tap into the power of creativity to rewrite their stories and reimagine their futures.
While I haven’t expressed or shared about it much publicly, this is exactly the kind of work I want to be doing in the world - including within my creative community, The Lemonade Factory.
At its heart, this space, with its writing circles, coffee chats, and co-creating calls has been designed to help us all connect with our inner creative power - and the power of creative community - and carve out time and energy for it.
If I’m totally honest, I fell into creative mentoring and business coaching because it felt like it was what people were seeking from me. I felt like I was invited into the space because I had the knowledge, the experience, and the expertise to pull it off.
But, something always felt like it was missing. Not least the word “mentoring”.
I didn’t feel like a mentor - more like a guide or a companion. Someone to open the door for people going through tough times or pivotal moments, and walk through it alongside them.
And so, one of my “secret” goals for 2025 was to open more opportunities for the work I want to be doing - like running in-person workshops with disadvantaged groups and promoting the power of writing and creativity for wellbeing.
For a long time, I thought this meant going back to school - studying to be a counsellor or a coach, and waiting for someone else to give me permission and sign me off as qualified to do the work.
This “waiting to be invited” thing goes deep.
But, no matter how much I looked into the options, they never felt right. Just like studying psychology at university didn’t when I was 18 - and still doesn’t, now (despite coming from a family of two psychs).
Instead, I thought about what I actually wanted to learn - where I wanted to grow, and where I didn’t feel like I needed to. Instead of just following the “natural path”, I let myself think creatively about it.
I wanted to get better at trauma-informed spaceholding, so I’ve been training as a trauma-informed circle facilitator.
I also wanted to learn more about the power of our stories, so I’ve been dabbling in narrative therapy modules via the Dulwich Institute (which I highly recommend), and have been reading a lot about the value of using creativity as a modality to heal and change our lives.
A few months ago, my therapist guided me through a visualisation to meet a future version of myself and to see where I was and what I was doing.
In my vision, I found myself in nature, facilitating creative retreats, circles, and workshops - where I worked with people to own their stories and rewrite their futures. Sometimes, this was supporting them writing books. Sometimes it was creating shitty art - something I am also incredibly passionate about. Other times it was about pursuing and building creative businesses.
The difference from what I’m doing now, though, is that the work I was doing there wasn’t about the practical stuff - instead, it was all about giving people permission to go after those dreams and to make them happen.
It was about creating a space full of possibilities; where it was easy to imagine and to dream big, and then to find ways to bring that vision to reality.
This feels like the work my therapist was doing with me.
She wanted me to imagine a time when I didn’t feel so weighed down by life, caregiving, or the minutiae of everyday, and instead to think bigger. Big enough for my logical mind not to leap in and come up with a million excuses why it wouldn’t be possible.
Now, I feel like I’m starting to see what is.
On the surface, not much has changed in my day-to-day reality since we had that call, but on the inside, everything has. It’s given me some much-needed clarity and confidence that those secret dreams don’t have to be secret anymore.
Whatever comes of this opportunity - it’s very much the early stages of the idea - I’m so grateful to have been invited. To feel like the seeds I’ve been sowing are paying off, and those big dreams are slowly sprouting and becoming reality.
My work may also be very different to my therapist’s, but honestly, I’m finally seeing that that’s the point. That we all have our own things we bring to the table, and I have lots that I’m bringing to mine.
And so, speaking of tables and invitations, we have three upcoming Creative Community Calls within The Lemonade Factory this month, and I’d love to invite you to join us.
These are:
Monday 7th July @ 9:30am AWST – Co-creating session (time/space to work on your own projects, followed by a coffee break chat)
Thursday 17th July @ 5pm AWST / 10am BST – Co-creating session + coffee chat
Thursday 25th July –Writing Circle
If you’d like to find out more about what the latter entails, you can check out this post on why I love running writing circles - especially for non-writers - or check out last week’s prompts.
To join us (and receive a free copy of my journalling ebook), upgrade to a monthly or annual paid subscription. To keep it as simple and easy as possible, everything is done/delivered via email and video chat, and participation is always optional.
Any questions, please feel free to reach out.
For now, though, I’ll leave it and you there, and close my computer and let myself end this rollercoaster of a week on a high. More on that next week.
Sending you all lots of love - and good vibes and invitations are also welcome and encouraged, too!
Cxxx
PS - If you enjoy my work or my words, you can:
Join me for a 1:1 creative mentoring call where we can talk about all of this and more.
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