People like me don’t write books…. Until they do.
My name is Michelle, and I am as ordinary as they come.
When not working or writing, you will find me playing football, walking the parks, sitting in coffee shops, reading, or listening to podcasts.
I have completed academic qualifications and spent most of my career in sports development. My love of sport and staying active has taught me the value of strength, endurance, tenacity, commitment, and grit. Transferable skills that have served me well in life. I would say that my greatest lessons have come from living, from life and from challenges.
Life Lessons
Life has taught me some very valuable lessons, and I did not want to keep those lessons to myself. To say I loved my family well, just didn't feel good enough.
I didn’t set out to write a book. The words just appeared and as each word appeared, I would write, and I just kept on writing. This is when I got intentional. I wrote story after story.
Gradually I started to share my work, all be it in very small stages. I had no big plan. No big goal, only to write and use my words to promote love, compassion, hope and kindness.
Universal Shift
Then there was a shift, and I have never been able to articulate what caused or created the shift. Only that when you start to dream and believe, the universe pays attention.
Of the 86 stories I had, there was one that resembled a story. Not a reflective account, a story I could share.
I sat with it for a very long time, I thought ‘people like me don't write books’, but after great research, I transferred the story into a manuscript. I finally found the courage to send it to a publisher.
And so here I am! Author of a children’s book
My dream is that any child, anywhere in the world can pick up this book and feel visible. My hope is they will know the world can see them and they are not alone in their suffering. While our suffering varies, the feeling of being alone in that suffering is universal. I don’t want that for the children of today. I don’t want children feeling discarded.
Whatever environment children are born into is completely out-with their control and regardless of how alone they may feel. I want this book to remind children they matter Every life matters. Every child matters, and no one life is more valuable than another.
I know a book cannot solve the world’s problems, but I want my words to offer comfort. Offer them an escape into the possibility of love. While they are in a position that they have no control over.
I believe LOVE is the one thing no child should ever have to go without.
Just for today: Allow yourself the space to dream, to ponder, to hit notes you never thought possible.
Thank you for reading.