My Part of the World

I am surrounded by ocean, mountain ranges and the Fitzgerald National Park in a very small town in the Southern part of Western Australia. We have some rare plants in the park on the mountain ranges that are only found here and we are often visited by dophins and whales out in the ocean. The serene sandy beaches are often empty and the rocks are filled with quartz.
Life here is very peaceful with one pub (hotel), one small corner shop, a couple of cafes and one furniture and gift shop. It used to be a sleepy little retirees town until a big mining company came to town. Many people came from South Africa, around Australia and overseas to live and work here for the mine. There were a lot of challenges to overcome for the locals, the new people, the local Shire, businesses and infrastructure. The locals wanted there town back the way it was (although they enjoyed some of the benefits that the mine brought to town), the new people experienced a culture shock and had feelings of isolation and boredom. The corner shop was constantly busy and the pub was constantly full.
There seemed to be talks of depression, marriages failed and a general feel of unrest.
Over a period of time things started to settle and everyone made a general effort to bond. The ones that couldn't handle it left and the ones that loved the area and wanted to make a go of it stayed. My job as the Business Development Manager for the Chamber of Commerce became the connector and communicator between the community and business, the locals and the newbies, the community and the key stakeholders. Helping empower women has always been my passion so I relished the opportunity to to be a part of this. The feelings of isolation of depression concerned me most so we created forums for the women to meet and bond and discuss opportunities and support that they were not aware of. We had a lot of amazing women in the community that were very talented and yet were not aware of it either because they felt they were 'just a mother', not skilled enough or lacked confidence for one reason or another. We discussed how they could be a part of the community in many ways and particularly in business as, after all, that was my job, supporting business in the town. We also had the extra challenge of having another town half an hour away that the community and shire had issues with our little town and that was where the Shire was. I had the added challenge of connecting the two towns on so many levels, especially the women. Out of 15 women that attended the forums 5 of them went into business, either home based or in a shop.
Eventually the people that stayed came to love our little town. So much so that when the mining company
decided to close the mine after only a couple of years and still bringing employees and families into the area it create absolute confusion and fear. Everyone was spinning as some people had just moved there and still waiting for their furniture and personal items to get here. It was chaos! What I learnt from the experience was not to buy into the chaos and just focus on what I wanted, accept what I couldn't change and have the courage to take the steps towards what I wanted.
A lot of people have left and are still leaving and the town has fallen into the sleepy hollow again with the peaceful mountains looking on and the soothing ocean providing a certain amount of calm.
I enjoyed meeting these amazing women and learning from them as they learnt from this experience. We have choices in where are thoughts are and even though I had my fair share of spinning I am now choosing peace.
In love and light
Jataia