Dear You:  Dear Debbie,  What's an Avatar?    Letter #1

​Dear Debbie, 

I know that your time is precious, and that the world you live in is busy. It’s busy for so many of us. So I want to start this letter first of all by saying thank you for agreeing to me to being here in your inbox and thank you for taking the time to read what I want to share and for allowing us to be connected, using the modern wonders of email. I have mixed feelings about technology and its place in our modern world, especially when it comes to our children, but nonetheless it is a wonderful way to bring together information, people and make things happen. 

This is a letter to celebrate and appreciate you and your importance in the world of our children's mental health and wellbeing. I have decided that I am going to write a good old fashioned letter, every week for 52 weeks, to help us grow as a community and to allow ideas and actions to converge. 

I concocted this idea because I was challenged during a recent I Matter board meeting with the question “How are we consistently sharing our message and news with our community?” My instant response was “I don’t want to bother people. People are very busy.” The response back to me - from the I Matter team was one of shock.  They reminded me that people who are signed up to receive updates from I Matter WANT to hear about what we are doing, want to receive refreshed information and want to continue their own learning journey.  I guess I had not remembered that!

So Debbie, you are an “avatar” for our perfect I Matter ambassador. 

The word “avatar” is used in the digital world to describe a person who is the 'ideal client' for that business or charity or venture.   Seven years ago I hadn't heard that term and I didn't know what it was but slowly I have been learning how important it is and in the process I have been getting to know you intimately - and me. Because of course, I am also an avatar for I Matter. 

I have travelled a long journey that has produced the I Matter Framework and I Matter Training because back when I started I wanted the tools and the processes and the support to do my job better and to parent better and to be a wiser human being.   Back then and at points on the way, I quite often felt rather lost.  However in this unfolding process, the better I have come to know you - and hence me too - the more privileged I have felt to be sharing this I Matter Journey with you.  

I know that you care deeply about children’s mental health and wellbeing. You’re passionate about what you do, and, sometimes against the odds, you continue to believe that we can change the situations we find ourselves in and make a positive difference in a world that can feel full of so much injustice and unhappiness. 

What I particularly love about working with you Debbie is that you are a person who combines many talents. You move seamlessly between being so skilled in your work role with all its formal responsibilities - and its contrasts - to the somewhat fraught and messy realities of everyday family life.  You are a deeply loving person who also somehow manages to extract more hours from the day than really exist.  You work so hard and help so many people and you give your all, as much as you can, to help those people feel cared for. 

Yet when I first met you you were on the search for something robust but also practical that could help you straddle both your professional and your parenting role.  You wanted that because at that time you were feeling overwhelmed, confused, very frazzled and weary.   Do you remember the confusion and the Fog of those times? - How very thick it was back then?  It is great to see you so much happier and more confident as in I Matter Speak that is what 'the Direction of Travel' is all about. 

And this is why I’ve decided to write a letter to you more regularly, to help us keep travelling on together, navigating this rocky road, adjusting our backpacks as we go, weathering the inevitable storms. We have now shared so much together that I feel it could be really exciting - a way to get clearer on the impact and contribution that we make, individually and collectively.  We can talk about what we have learned together and what we continue to learn on the way towards brighter clearer skies. 

I hope you’ll stay on this journey with me.and thank you for your belief that we can work together to make a difference and thank you for being here on the I Matter map. 
​
Appreciating you!


Cathy