She Was a Hurricane

“She just wants the world to know she was a hurricane and not a zephyr.”

These are the words of Australian performing writer Candy Royalle.

Aren’t they beautiful words?

Can you relate?

Do you know that feeling of desperately wanting to shout to the rooftops…

I am here.

This is my purpose.

This is who I am!!!

I do.

In fact, when I read these words two years ago, I cried. I sobbed out loud as these words penetrated through my laptop and into my heart.

At the time I was 35 years old, mum of two young kids. I was surviving my days with the kids on autopilot.

My life had no excitement… no adventure… no juice.

I was pouring my lifeblood into these two kids…

Yet I felt invisible.

And when I read Candy’s poem…

Something broke inside me.

Because I realised I was hiding out in life when I knew deep down I was a hurricane.

And I was letting my life – and my passion – slip by.

What’s even more shocking is that Candy died of ovarian cancer in 2018.

She was 37.

She performed her poem just two weeks before she died.

And these words have stuck to me like Velcro.

Because this has become my ‘why’.

This is why I write.

This is why I tell stories of my trip around Aussie.

This is why I pen gratitude notes, raving rants, and letters to my kids in my journals.

And this is why I write these posts to you.

Because I want to be heard.

I want to be seen.

I want to be remembered.

And words have the power to do that.

Once they are created and released onto a page, words can travel great distances. They can pass through time. And they can leave behind a footprint of your soul.

Just as Candy’s words reached out to me and touched my soul after she had left this world.

I never knew her.

I’d actually never heard of her until I came across an article by the journalist Julia Baird.

But Candy had an impact on my life.

And I want to do the same for you.

So that’s my real ‘why’.

Anyway.

If you feel like you’re in a twilight zone, surviving your life like I was…

Consider discovering what lights you up.

It might be singing… Or painting… Or starting a business… Or running… Or maybe you’ve got a few different ‘things’!

But it will be something that lights a fire in your soul.

And if you’re not sure what your ‘thing’ might be, consider this…

It’s the thing that scares you most.

So.

I really hope this has inspired you.

And I invite you to ponder…

How are you going to tell the world that you were a hurricane?