Why our life journeys are not always unicorns and fairy dust.

Why our life journeys are not always unicorns and fairy dust.

A door literally opened the other week that gave me some powerful knowledge and reinforced that there is a plan for us all in life and a reason why our journeys are not always unicorns and fairy dust. I had doubted that for many years now.

I travelled to Brisbane to hear Samantha Wills speak about why she has closed down her ten-million-dollar jewellery line named after herself.  A decade ago the SW brand was more like a cult with my friends and we would all celebrate birthdays and special occasions by buying the boho costume jewellery that came in those gorgeous wooden boxes.  It was more than bling in a box: it was a way I connected with my gal pals. SW jewellery was on our bodies for weddings, at family funerals and at parties.

Samantha was the ultimate success story who had gone from making her jewellery on her dining room table when she was just a kid to sell at markets to being the darling Aussie living in New York with fabulous hair and a breath taking apartment. Samantha was on the labels of bottles of booze and the star of countless ads and started an organisation to help empower women.  Samantha Wills had it all.  Except she did not.  Does anyone?

The glamazon stood in front of hundreds of women and humbly told us of her ups and downs behind the scenes with her business life and the lessons she has learnt about being authentic in business and staying loyal to your origins of where you came from.  Then the whole room gasped as the creator told us all her boyfriend of 3 years had cheated on her.  This hurled her into a pool of grief where she would cry for hours on the shower floor of hotels as she travelled the world running her empire.  When Samantha asked him how long the affair had been going on he told her he had cheated on her with 8 women.

Needless to say, the jewellery designer went to a dark, dark place for a long time where she doubted everything, she thought she knew and crumbled as she staggered through life while keeping up her appearance of being the golden girl. “I could barely form a sentence and my friends would come over and force me out of bed while they changed my sheets before I flopped back into bed,” says Samantha. “I would just sit on the floor of the shower crying and just trying to breath.

The pressure of grief along with keeping a business going can feel overwhelming.  So, there I was in grief and it down here that it really hurts, and it is dark and we try to avoid being down there.  It felt too dark and murky but if we do not touch the bottom, we do not feel the entirety of it all.  In the dark we truly see ourselves.  To be able to sit in darkness is when we can start to move through the pain.  I was not meant to be in that relationship.  I learnt so much from being so down about self-worth,” Samantha adds.

After so much soul searching, she decided it was time for a new chapter after designing 12 thousand pieces of jewellery and making hundreds of thousands of gals very happy.  The new chapter is sharing her wisdom. So, the night I travelled to Brisbane in the pouring rain to hear Samantha speak I arrived at the golf club to find myself lost.  I opened a door to the wrong building for an elegant slip of a goddess to run past me out of the rain wearing a gold and black floor length gown.

As she swept past, I exclaimed “My God! You are Samantha Wills!” The star of the night turned and thanked me for coming to listen to her speak.  I was in a panic we were late, and the main attraction was lost with the village clown of directions. Samantha was calm as we walked in the rain to find the room where the function was being held.  I was star struck and giddy as we came to an actual crossroad and Samantha turned to me and said “I talk a lot about crossroads in your life tonight so it is really interesting we are standing at one.”

She gave me a warm hug and set fire to a little flame inside me that urged me to trust my intuition and to embrace the tough times as there is a higher plan for us all.  Can I leave you with a quote from Samantha that I adore?
“The Universe only ever has 3 answers…
1. Yes.
2. Not right now.
3. Something better is in store for you.”

What a way to live a life without fear and to embrace your crossroads.

Sami xx