I did not truly understand the meaning of vulnerability until I decided to write my own book “Heart Led”. According to author Brené Brown “The definition of vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. It is not a weakness; it is our most accurate measure of courage”. For those that know me well I’ve always preferred to hide behind my work and my camera, I am rarely on social media and love to keep my personal life private. I’ve always felt comfortable this way. However, this is the first time that I can truly say that I have come out of hiding. Writing a book about your life and having the courage to speak your truth is terrifying, but I did it for 2 reasons.
The first was to raise $10,000 towards the education of my 10yr old friend Hayden, who lost his mum Sandra to cancer last year. The second reason was to share about my unique experiences capturing the beginning of life with my newborn work as well as the memories I capture for families whose loved ones are at the end of life, and have passed away. As a professional photographer we are trained to “look for light” to achieve the best images, but even before my career began, I have lived this way my whole life. Since I was a child, I have always tried to search for the light in difficult circumstances and my book describes my journey of how it all began and how I have allowed my heart to lead me the entire time. The book also describes the inspiration behind my wild charity projects, the true purpose behind each one and how I have navigated through some dark and traumatic experiences to discover my own light in the process.
‘Heart led’ is about my truth and it is an honest reflection of what life is like when you lead with your heart first and embrace vulnerability- fully.
In 6 days’ time my vulnerability will be put to the test, as we celebrate the launch of my book ‘Heart Led’ which I have poured all my love into over the past 12 months. If you have not heard about the event, I have included my personal invitation to you here as there are still a handful of tickets left. The celebration will be held at the iconic French restaurant Bistro Mosman and I have invited 2 special guests to speak on the day. The first is Ben Gardiner, brother to the late Sandra Linell and proud uncle to Hayden, the recipient of the funds raised from the book. Our keynote speaker for the event is an influential woman whose powerful message has been felt around the world. She is the epitome of what it means to lead a heart led life and one of my favourite humans, Leila Abdallah from i4give. What makes Leila even more special is she just gave birth to her 8th child and will be speaking at the event with her 2-week-old baby girl!
I feel truly honoured to be sharing this special moment in my life surrounded by everyone that I hold dear. Even though I feel nervous about the reaction to my book, I am filled with immense gratitude that this book has become a reality, and I am especially grateful to our generous customers who donated an image from their own family sessions to help achieve our goal. You will see these beautiful images sprinkled throughout the book paired with some of my favourite inspirational quotes which adds light and magic to the book. Alternatively, if you would like to purchase your own copy of my book I would be equally as grateful, please see link here. I do hope that ‘Heart Led’ inspires you to embrace your own vulnerability and provides some light when all we seem to see at times is darkness.
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