15/01/2024
This must be the most difficult post I have written so far 😶
But things must change
And.....a lot of things have changed already
But first of all I finally 😁 wanted to wish all our friends here a good start into a new year, and that it will bring you many moments of joy and love, and growth and gratitude when challenges arise.
The last year turned out to be a very difficult one for us, with lots of opportunities to learn, but also brought us the possibility for a fresh start, with the arrival of helpers, local as well as from overseas. The time where we tried to do it all, just two people working without a day break, are now over, and life is not only about feeding, caring and maintaining our status quo, but also about slowly re-inviting these plans and dreams that had to be hidden under limited time and exhaustion.
With the new people arriving at our sanctuary, it is also now time to do what every person in charge of a place like ours should do: deligating.
Excepting that others can do things nearly as good, equally good or better than me, and that I only can find out when letting go and putting others in charge.
So I made the decision to share our Souls and Stars Sanctuary page with our very capable helpers, many of whom have grown up with social media, and separate it from my personal page. I will still cross-post here and there, but a lot in S&S will now come from other sources too.
In the few years (three to be precise) that I am present on fb, my absolute most important value was authenticity. It brought me a lot of criticism, as we all see the world different, and it also lead me to discover the "block" option 😁, and the emotional trauma of bullying.
Even though online life would be much easier if I would restrain myself and only show pictures of cuddly rescue animals (like the one I have chosen for this post of Freya, one of our ex-racehorses, fully enjoying her🍉 treat), and telling fairytale ending stories, it is not how I can interact solely. You will find cute pictures and good feeling stories, yes, but if life presents in a more challenging way, you will hear about it too, as that's how I run.
But all this is not the real difficulty I have mentioned at the start of the post.
Our sanctuary, as so many, if not all sanctuaries around the world, is facing financial hardship. It was brought on by the fact that, having to disappear from social media for nearly a year, there then were hardly any donations coming in, when at the same time the number of rescue animals increased, even though we have to turn away animals (and guardians) in need on a regular basis. Then, four weeks ago, we got hit by another big challenge: our dams and our watertanks have run empty!
Normally we always JUST make it through the season, but this winter was dry, and the bitter consequences unavoidable. We now have to buy water for our animals as well as for the humans, at $250 a delivery, about two to three times a week. This is non-negotiable, and even though we looked into the possibility of having a bore installed, we can't finance the outlay of at least $12.000, with the uncertainty of not even ending up with accessible water in the first place.
We are behind with our hay bill too, thousands of $$.
I also know we can turn it all around, once an income can be created, but until then we have to hang in. Managing somehow. Hoping, hoping no vetbills are coming up for a bit.
I know so many are feeling the financial strains at this time, and even though every tiny donation is appreciated and helping, I am here to ask for one thing:
please help us so we can start generating an income!
Please share with us your knowledge in how to start fundraisers, so we can buy material for our building projects! Please share this post and talk to people you know, so we can find a handy person to do work for us, paid or, even better, volunteering.
Please support us if you know how to successfully run a Gofundme campaign, or how to raise a bigger amount so we can start building our retreat.
Universe has in the past put a lot of delays on our dreams, and I accept and learn. But now I feel it is time to pay less attention to the Ego, and instead embrace all the wonderful things in our reach.
Please help supporting our sanctuary, our goal to share our love and care for animals and humans with others, and to inspire everyone to live a life as unique and fulfilled as we all deserve and can.
PLEASE HELP SOULS AND STARS 💖
