Creating MoonAmaia

November 2020

I’m always interested in hearing the stories behind how small businesses came into being. The stories are often brave, educational, heart breaking, action packed, complicated, intimidating, a bit out of reach? - kinda like your favourite tv series or movie. And sometimes they inspire and encourage you to keep reaching for your own goals and dreams.

The creation of MoonAmaia has been tumultuous (especially for a Cancerian who likes everything ‘just so’), and yet the most natural and pleasing process I’ve ever undertaken. Sometimes in life, you’re presented with a situation where you know you must transform - if not to grow and progress, at least to realise that you’re doing things that are no longer serving you and those things need to be cast aside for you to be able to keep moving forward.

For many years I had followed the well worn path of working in the corporate world….in the ‘rat race’ - I worked hard and thought I had found my niche. However, despite ticking off a number of items on the checklist of expected ‘success’, I reached a point where there were signs that it wasn’t agreeing with me. Overworking, late (and early) hours, feeling unappreciated, in a constant state of stress, living for holidays and time off work, and the underlying feeling that this can’t be all there is to life - something was wrong. I wasn’t happy.

In 2017, I finished the year feeling ill and tired (burnt out) and was so ready for the summer holidays. But even the holidays felt daunting that year. I’m not sure how to describe it - midlife crisis maybe, a morbid fascination with picking over the bones of what my life looked like at the time. Allllll the bad stuff. You know, “you’re not getting any younger”, “is this all life has in store for you”, “what haven’t you done in life yet” etc. etc. etc. A girl could get pretty down in the dumps with all this swirling around in her head.

But actually, it was the process that kicked my brain into action - I knew that I had the ability to change things if I wasn’t happy, but I’d gotten into such a ‘routine’, it hadn't even occurred to me to try. So, I trusted my gut and decided to do something that I knew would make me happy, something I had wanted to do for many many years but had never thought to even try to do yet.

I got a couple of blue heeler puppies. Yep, this was the catalyst that actually changed everything.

Tsuki and Kikorangi (Kiko)
My little saviors!

It was so strange, even the process for getting the puppies, although intense, seemed to be meant to happen. There just happened to be a litter of pups in the area where we were holidaying, they just happened to be ready for new homes when I enquired, and there just happened to be two female pups in the litter. There was also a long list of people wanting the pups, but the breeder decided I was the best fit for these two pups (after I had sent her my ‘life story’ and reasons for wanting these cuties) - how crazy. I didn’t even meet the pups first - I saw photos, and that was it - they were dropped off and suddenly I was a fur baby mum! My family were surprised, had lots of questions about ‘what does this mean for work etc. etc.’ and I just said ‘look, we’ll figure it out, I want to do this’. And they were so supportive - probably thought I’d lost it, but they were coming along for the ride anyway.

The pups were my priority and it became quite easy to make decisions that normally I wouldn’t have made, even to look after myself. The first big elephant in the room was the issue of where to raise the pups. Our flat in Auckland wasn’t going to be ideal, and I had always wanted to make sure that if I had dogs that they would get to live in a place with big open spaces, beaches, places to run etc. So I made the decision to live ‘mostly’ in Whangamata - I was going to move into our bach (at least for now). Whaaaaaat…..?

Naturally following on from this BIG decision, I decided to see if I could return to work but slow things down - reduce my hours, work remotely more and use this time to reflect on next steps. Although I’d hoped that this arrangement would work well, I was prepared to resign if work requirements were not able to match my own requirements (again, setting these sorts of boundaries wasn’t something I was very good at doing for myself before). Three months later, I had calmly resigned from my job, with no other prospects lined up other than returning to my family land in Whangamata to explore what the next phase of my life might look like. For someone who lives for order/method/processes/structure/organisation, this should have been a scary turn of events, but I was strangely relieved.

With the ‘blank canvas’ I had created for myself, I was able to focus on getting well and healthy. And then from there, I naturally started to prioritise things that I discovered were actually important to me - no longer the ‘earn money, build career, status defined by materialistic means’ path. Instead, focusing on my wellbeing, family, fur babies and our family land first and foremost. And not far behind, rediscovering my love for tarot and crystals.

Tarot and crystals…..yes!!!

I’d been interested in tarot and crystals for many years - I naturally gravitated to them and it felt good when I spent time reading cards or staring longingly into a crystal I had just found/bought. But with work pressures, I had been unable to spend much quality time working/learning/growing my knowledge in these areas. I had only been able to ‘dabble’. My heart was in it, but my head was not - constantly ticking over things that needed to happen for work - it was all encompassing.

Once that ‘block’ no longer existed, tarot and crystals swept back in - and I can’t tell you how exciting that was for me. I had many tarot decks already (I’d definitely call myself a collector, my partner would say ‘hoarder’ he he…), but had not had an opportunity to use them much. I dove in. I also had started to use social media, particularly Instagram (I had avoided it for as long as I could). The main reason I started to use Instagram was so that I could easily share photos/updates of the pups with everyone who wanted to know what they were up to. But Instagram also introduced me to many wonderful people who were creating magic with tarot and crystals. A whole new world opened up and I was determined to learn about it all.

That journey opened up other doors for learning new things - Reiki, meditation practices, astrology - you name it, I’ve been soaking it all in.

I had looked at taking on contract work in the corporate space again while my ‘reawakening’ was happening (ha ha!). Unfortunately, money and work expectations never really take a back seat, do they? This has been something I’ve really struggled with as I recalibrate my expectations to fit my new life - we are programmed to see value or status in things that have monetary value only, so changing that (given I had lived deeply in that life for many years) was (and still is) a challenge. So yes, I did look at going back to work in that space (on my terms - I didn’t want to slip back into bad working habits again), but I knew my heart wasn’t in it. Besides, I didn’t have much luck finding anything that would meet my very strict requirements - thanks Universe. I eventually realised that type of work was no longer the right fit for me at this time.

Intuitively, I knew that whatever I did next, I wanted to do something I loved, something that could help others, and something new that would challenge me - and when I thought about working with tarot and crystals especially, I was so excited and inspired.

It didn’t take long before a little thought in my head began to grow and take shape about setting up a business to work in this space…

A new challenge and
business venture…

It has been nearly three years since the pups arrived and changed my whole outlook on life. And it has taken that amount of time to also grow my knowledge and confidence enough to start up this new venture - MoonAmaia. A good chunk of this time felt like it was spent just trying to find a new name for this little business (it was a bit of a block for me for a while - such a perfectionist, ha ha!). I do believe things happen when they are meant to, so the timing feels right to me.

When I look back at how all of this has come about, I’m surprised, slightly daunted and scared, but overall, deliriously happy…and determined.

Thank you for joining me on this little venture, adventure, challenge, journey. I will be using this platform to provide you all with the opportunity to see, find and have beautiful treasures that I also love, and to create magic. But also, I want to be able to make a living for myself and my family by doing something I absolutely love.

With all of us sharing in a common love of these treasures and practices, we’ll also create a place to share. We’ll establish a sense of community and belonging - and you can’t tell me that this in itself isn’t magic.

The journey begins!

Kristel x