What a journey you've been on, and I felt every bit of that Fairy Godmother doll story, the kind of object that isn't really an object at all, it's a person, a moment, a connection that never got to finish the way it should have, and I don't think there's an easy answer for how you let go of something like that, if you ever fully do. I can share how I got there myself, because I used to be the kind of person who held onto things. When I was younger I collected keyrings, postcards, I kept every letter my friends ever wrote me, and as I got older that turned into sunglasses, watches, even a little collection of miniature clocks. We moved around a lot when I was a child, and then I kept moving a lot as an adult too, and through every single move I carted these things with me, packed them up, unpacked them, found new shelves for them, until one day I actually stopped and asked myself why. And the answer wasn't a nice one. I wasn't keeping these things because I loved them or used them or even looked at them most of the time, I was keeping them because I needed something that was mine, something solid, something that made me feel whole in a life that had never really let me feel settled. It went deeper than just liking pretty things, I was using stuff to fill in the cracks that childhood trauma and hard memories had left behind. The collecting wasn't really about the objects at all, it was about trying to complete something in myself that I hadn't yet learned how to complete on my own. It wasn't until I actually started working through those traumas that the need for stuff started to ease. I remember realizing that dragging around boxes of things I never even took the time to enjoy or appreciate was pointless, I was just filling a void that only I could actually fill, and no object was ever going to do that job for me. My mom is the opposite, she is deeply attached to her things, and when I really looked at where that came from, it made complete sense. She was one of five children, and growing up she never really had much that was fully hers. As the siblings got older, having things and doing things became a competition between them, who had more, who had achieved more, who could prove they'd made it. Watching that play out as a young adult actually frustrated me, because it wasn't siblings lifting each other up, it was siblings measuring themselves against each other just to feel some sense of worth. And ironically, watching that from the outside is what pushed me to properly reflect on why I was holding onto my own things.

@Cate Evatt-Davey I could not agree more! And adulting is hard, we need as much fun in our lives as possible 😂

@Cate Evatt-Davey exactly!

@Cate Evatt-Davey It makes sense then. Our early morning flights and evening flights here are more expensive, flights between 10am and 2pm are typically cheaper. Yeah when Jordan is older we will travel, I would love him to experience how the world is supposed to be.

@Cate Evatt-Davey I could not agree more. One of the things I love about Jordan’s school is it is international, not just the curriculum but the students and teachers too. We have met some amazing people and learnt so much about the different cultures, it’s definitely helped him become more curious and we have started talking more about other countries, their culture and how things are different everywhere. These are conversations I never had as a child, I never saw a life beyond South Africa.

@Devorah Medwin beautiful 💗

@Cate Evatt-Davey I’m coming!!

This is one of my favourite photos, Jordan and Coco when they were both younger. They did everything together, including watching videos on the phone 🤣