Story time...... 😀 There was once a builder who was given a piece of land. She did not choose it. Nor did she choose its soil, its contours, its history, or what had happened there before she arrived. It was simply the ground she had been given. So before she built anything, she studied it. She discovered where it was firm and where it shifted. Where water gathered. Where the earth was depleted. Where roots had once grown. Where something had disturbed the soil. Some parts were fertile. Some needed work. Some surprised her. There were things in the ground she had never known were there. She could have spent her life wishing for a different piece of land. Instead, she began working with the ground she had. She added compost. Introduced organic matter. Loosened what had become hard. And gave life back to places that had become depleted. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the soil began to change. But the builder didn't wait for the ground to become perfect before she began building. She began with what was there. And while building, she continued to cultivate the ground. Season by season, the soil became richer. What had once seemed depleted began to hold life again. The builder looked at the land and realised something: She did not choose the ground. But she could participate in what it became. So she keeps building and cultivating. And the ground keeps becoming. 🪱🌊 ☀️🌻

I'm going to pause on the coffee chats for now until I have finalized the AVA APP. I really appreciate every single piece of feedback I got from you, and realized how important it is to create from real life experiences. The programming is solid, the execution at times let us down through ChatGPT, so this is my new mission. 🚀To build AVA as a much more reliable, personalized version with her goal being to develop the person's own capacity to notice, understand, choose, act AND LIVE differently. Real Transformation. I don't want her to be a heavy in your daily workings, and how I'm building her, will be much less unpacking, without losing catching the core beliefs and connecting the dots, not merely rely on memory that gets clouded. If I look back on my AVA journey I get so humbled by what we all get to learn because of it. Forever growing, expanding, enhancing ourselves, our tools. our skill and our daily choices. Thank you for the feedback! I HIGHLY appreciate it!

A video of Megan Fate Marshman came across my YouTube feed today. As I listened, one sentence stopped me in my tracks: “I realized that God gave me this gift, but I love that I discovered it in one of my most vulnerable moments of weakness.” Not simply because she discovered a gift. But because she discovered it in a moment where she felt: Exposed Ashamed. Vulnerable. Far from the person she thought she was. She hadn't gone looking for a speaking career. She certainly hadn't planned for a courtroom sentence to become the doorway to one. And yet, standing in front of thousands of high school students, telling the story of one of the lowest moments of her life, she discovered something God had already placed within her. The vulnerability didn't create the gift. It revealed it. And that made me wonder: What if some of the things we discover about ourselves only become visible when life takes us somewhere we never intended to go? What if the moment that exposes our weakness can also reveal a capacity we didn't know we carried? A voice. A strength. A new area of creativity. Compassion. A new way of looking and seeing. A gift. Perhaps the question isn't always, “Why am I in this difficult place?” Sometimes it might also be: “What might I discover here that I could never have discovered anywhere else?” Remember, a doorway does not always look like a door.... 😉 Listen to Megan Fate Marshman's full story here: https://youtu.be/kMXjwegjrBw

Ok, I'm going to be transparent. Since losing my husband and trying to find my feet, I felt lost and overwhelmed most days - nearly 9 months and I'm still trying to stay afloat. And ONCE AGAIN, things got too hectic and I stopped. I stopped with my pattern interrupt, BUT it somewhere on my TO DO LIST I still had it as a huge priority in the back of my head and I finally completed DAY4! Small, baby steps and I'm super proud of myself. (Even though it feels like the only productive thing I did today - apart from sending out some emails). I personally know how much AVA has helped me in my solo journey so far and I'm determined to finish it! After a recap of my first 3 Days of my Pattern Interrupt, this is my line and realisation: I’d rather risk disappointment than abandon my dreams and play it safe. There is too much at stake.

One of the biggest things that struck me during this process was that the “money pattern” didn’t actually feel like a new pattern. It felt more like an existing pattern had simply put on a money jacket. As we worked through the different beliefs, I could recognise themes I’ve encountered before in other areas of my life — the need to prove my value, usefulness, carrying others, performance, needing certainty before I move, and struggling to trust myself. Money was simply another context in which these deeper patterns were showing themselves. That was a really valuable shift for me. Instead of only asking, “What is my problem with money?”, I could begin asking, “What is this situation revealing about a deeper pattern in me?” That opens up a much bigger opportunity for change. What has made the process even more meaningful is that it doesn’t happen in isolation. I really appreciate the time Surina took to sit with me one-on-one and work through the material. Our feedback session gave me space to explore what was coming up rather than simply receiving a report and being left to figure it out on my own. I also really value Surina’s willingness to be honest about her own struggles and what she is still learning. For me, that gives the whole process authenticity. She isn’t presenting herself as someone who has “arrived” and now has all the answers. She is also on a journey, and she is willing to be vulnerable, accessible and real about that. That combination of a framework that helps me see patterns differently, together with honest and personal engagement, is what has made this experience particularly valuable for me. A big thank you once again @Surina Joubert 🌻