‘The silver tint in the clouds of doubt, And you never can tell how close you are, It might be near when it seems afar, So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - It's when things seem worst that you must not quit’ – Kurt Welton

Have you ever manifested something you wanted? And has manifestation come in the form you expected? What's the best manifestation story you have? This story's about manifestation and how sometimes, it doesn't come in the form you expect. It's also about flying, and recognising there'll always be tough times, but how rewarding it can be when you learn to work with the clouds rolling in and out, just like pilots do.

I didn’t get on a plane 'til I was 21. But I knew I always wanted to travel. So I long-harboured a fantasy of becoming a flight attendant. Or, as they’re affectionately called, a ‘trolley dolly’.

The sad reality was I'd never be accepted in to cabin crew school, or whatever, because I’d only completed two years high school (you’ll see on my post I WORE A SLINKY DRESS TO SCHOOL I flew the coop very young). So no being paid to fly the friendly skies for this little flightless bird. How was I going to travel, though?

I’m the first to admit it’s ironic how things fly around full circle (too quickly sometimes) and this story is another example of that.

I was working at the agency I co-founded in Red11, and as the head of the fashion division, I’d picked up the Overland Shoes campaign for a girl called CAITLIN LOMAX, a Perth-born Sydney-based model I’d never met.

CAITLIN flew to New Zealand one day, shot with top photographer TONY DRAYTON the next, and was gone again within days. A fly by visit indeed but I needed to know she was as good as she looked.

CAITLIN was incredible. As a person and in front of the camera, working it like there was no tomorrow. She was fun, super-professional and quite fearless. Whatever challenge I presented to her, she’d fly through it. I loved that about her.

CAITLIN continued to fly in and out fleetingly for jobs, until I managed to peg her feet to the ground with a suggestion that maybe it was time to aim higher, miles higher, like New York Fashion Week higher.

But CAITLIN had applied to be an air hostess. I couldn't beleive it. I felt she was a girl on the verge of take off.

When I see a vision for a model, and I believe they can do it, I can’t just say ‘Yup. Do what you want’. It’s just not in me. That’s not the job of a good model agent, either. We're meant to find ways to encourage people to forge beyond their comfort zone, take a leap, give it a go. Model agents are like parents and, being a parent to a gorgeous teen son, I know what I needs to be done sometimes: PUSH.

The only flying the friendly skies I had in mind for Cailtin was as a passenger, not a hostie. I wanted her to do Fashion Week runways, not airport runways.

Longish journey shortish, CAITLIN was away on about trip number 24 in less than eight months, I can’t remember whether she was walking CHANEL in TOKYO or Paris Fashion Week, when we agreed to meet up that Christmas.

It was another typically boiling day in Perth. She was dressed in a fluffy Peekacho onesie she’d picked up on one of her modeling trips to Tokyo.

We counted the trips she'd made in just over a year. With over 40 trips stamped in her passport, CAITLIN had flown the friendly skies, all right.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY?

DON’T QUIT. It’s sooo tempting sometimes when all you can see is fog, clouds and darkness made more blurred that the light on the horizon doesn’t offer you much insight. But just as darkness turns to day, clouds roll in and clouds roll out.

EVEN WHEN THERE’S CLOUDS AND FOG, YOU CAN STILL GET AROUND. Pilots fly planes in cloud and fog all the time, and you can fly in your own clouds and fog, too.

IF YOU ACTUALLY NOTICE, YOU CAN AND DO GET WHAT YOU WANT OR PUT OUT THERE, JUST NOT IN WAYS YOU EXPECTED. SO AIM HIGH. Caitlin and I both just wanted to travel the world, and we thought being hosties was a way to provide that for us. Have you noticed how you’ve asked for something and got it, but didn’t recognize it because it wasn’t in the way you expected? Which leads me to my next very important point:

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR. That’s a deep and meaningful one, but it’s true. When you sew the seeds of postivie thoughts, positive things, like flowers grow. When you sew the seeds of negative thoughts, negative things, like weeds, grow. So be careful what thoughts and actions you put out there!

TAKE FROM IT WHAT YOU WANT.

I love this song: WALK ON, by U2 (Crazy how's there's a plane in it).

'A place that has to be believed to be seen

You could have flown away

A singing bird in an open cage

Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on, walk on

What you've got they can't deny it

Can't sell it, or buy it

Walk on, walk on

Home... hard to know what it is if you've never had one

Home... I can't say where it is but I know I'm going home

That's where the heart is

Leave it behind

You got to leave it behind

All that you fashion

All that you make

All that you build

All that you break

All that you measure

All that you feel

All this you can leave behind

All that you reason

All that you sense

All that you speak

All you dress-up

All that you scheme...