I Loved Knowing That You Can Choose A Life You Love ❤️

A great way to live is to simply be yourself. Show up with passion and purpose. And showcase and share the love with everyone else too ❤️

~ ~ ~

On an ordinary day in September..... myself and Choose A Life You Love.... finally found our way home.

For a long time, I tried to explain what Choose A Life You Love was....

or what I was hoping it would be.....

A publication....

A digital library.....

A growing collection of choices of the things I loved and wanted to share.....

Books and stories.... and places and products.... and people and experiences......and art and design.....and.... oh my goodness! My heart was so full of love and joy that I wondered how one little website would hold it all.

And so I began building.

A website.

Then a substack.

Then a different website.

And then another version of the same website.

And then, when that didn’t feel right, I created another version....over and over and over until eventually, both myself and the website collapsed under the weight of it all.

Because you see.....

I thought CALYL and myself needed to become "something" before either of us could simply "be."

And I know that sounds absurd!

Have you ever felt like that?

That you simply can't "be" who you are right now...without having to "be" something else first?

It's ridiculous...I see that now...I really truly do.

Anyway....to cut a <very> long story short...this is what happened:

All that trying to get the website up and running, eventually ended with me breaking the entire thing, and doing a hard reset to clear out all the old junk.

But once that reset was complete?

The website disappeared, and wordpress reverted back to the demo theme meaning I needed to put all the content back in again.

And then I was like omg....no.....please no....let's not do this again lol!

So what I did do?

Nothing.

Literally.

I sat with it.

For a long time.

So long in fact that the hosting expired.

And for a while, Choose A Life You Love had nowhere to live.

Substack was empty.

CALYL was empty and lost in the void.

And myself?

I was deep in prayer.

Asking for guidance on where I went wrong, and for love and support to find my way home.

And the answer came <like most answers do> in one of the most surprising places.

The Australian Zoo ❤️🐊

~ ~ ~

Steve Irwin was a man known to the world as the Crocodile Hunter and was known for his passion and love of animals, family, friends, and all round life in general.

Sadly, on September 04, in 2006 he passed away, leaving behind a wife and two children the world had watched him love and adore.

I never met the Irwins, and up until a week ago had never visited Australia Zoo....yet <like many other people> I felt the love and passion through every touchpoint I ever encountered with Steve and his family through the media over the years.

What I didn't know however until the other week visiting Australia Zoo~ was just how much good this man and his family have contributed to the world around us, not only whilst he was alive, but right now up until this very day...and I'm sure...for many generations to become.

And it made me realise.

A great way to live is to simply be yourself.

Show up with passion and purpose.

And showcase and share the love with everyone else too.

❤️

~ ~ ~

And so here we are.

It's September the 4th, 2026.

The day Steve Irwin died and left a legacy, and the day I decided to create my own.

Starting today, CALYL < choosealifeyou.love > is home of things I love.

Maybe it's a day out at the zoo.

A song I love.

A movie watched.

A book read.

A place visited.

A person. A thing. An...

Omg!! What??? I have no idea...

But whatever it is....it's a showcase of love. ❤️

Because I want to leave a legacy of love too.

I want to see the love. Feel the love. And share the love.

I want a place where I can go and share the love first hand.

A place where I can showcase:

I loved this....

and

I found this.....

and

I made this.....

And I thought you might love it too.

~ ~ ~

Today, I would like to take a moment to honour the life of the late Steve Irwin, and bow my head and make this prayer:

Thank You Steve, for showing me through my visit to Australia Zoo, that you can choose a life you love.

Thank you for showing me that warriors can be peaceful.

That they can preserve.

And that they can protect.

And now a prayer for our Creator:

Dear Lord,

Please Bless our little publication CALYL....

Bless myself...

Bless my family and friends....

bless our new community of patrons, readers, and advertisers.... from this day forward and forevermore.

Please help us live with love.

Surrounded by love.

Protected by love.

Today, tomorrow and always.

With Love,

Always

Nina Louise xo 🌦️ ❤️