I have been part of the metaphysical world in South Australia since 1973 when I was drawn to a course about unveiling your spiritual gifts. I was a country girl, living in Port Pirie and when I joined the groupof people in the course, I felt like I had come home. ‘Are you a Feeler, a Visionary, an Intuitive or a Prophetic?’ the facilitator asked. I found that I was a Prophetic person, and this information was like gold to me. That inner knowing that I have always had, yet not known why, suddenly made sense.

In 1992 I totally
changed direction and went back to my roots of working in a shop, becoming a
custodian of Crystal Wave. When I was young, I worked in my parents’ deli at Stansbury and I loved the shop, the customer contact, the beach, and riding round the town on my treadly. I was behind the counter serving customers when I was 10. Everyone knew me!

I spent 17.5 years at Crystal Wave, through its many incarnations. In the early days we added a Coffee Lounge, Consulting Rooms and a Centre but eventually wound back to just having the shop. I made so many friends in those years and have some wonderful memories of those heady days.

Once I was back in Adelaide I started looking for a suitable store and after much searching, I saw the Port Adelaide ex pet store empty. I walked into it and my inner voice said,
‘You could do something with this.’

What I didn’t realize was that it would take years before this store became the place it is today. I initially created a Spiritual Homewares store, but it didn’t work well. People would come in and say, ‘Where’s the incense?’ ‘You’re the crystal queen. Where’s the crystals?’

Gradually the things I knew so well started re-entering the store, crystals, books, tarot cards, oils etc.

Gradually we became a destination store, and at 1 Emma joined us on the weekends. That girl is a natural. She loves the faerie and crystal realms and has some wonderful intuitive insights with the people she connects to at the counter. Em went to Canada in 2021 to work in the ski fields and later this year she will be off again. Carpe Diem will be blessed to have her when she is home and in return will bless her as she explores the world.

In the early days of Carpe Diem, we used upstairs for readings, meditation groups and healings but over the last 2 -3 years, with the big ‘C’ rearing its head, we gradually closed it down and the space was rarely used.

In the last year we have revamped the store and upstairs and it even has a name, ‘The Haven’. We have a select group of fabulous practitioners operating from the space and the energy created permeates the whole store. It truly has become a sacred space and even I am back doing meditation groups. Life is a funny thing, we can move away from something, perhaps for years and then come back to it and realize how much we’ve missed it and how much it contributed to our life.

One day I would love to see Mel and Emma offer their gifts to clients. We are all unique and it is one of the joys of my life, seeing people unveiling their spiritual selves to shine. It is in the shining that the contribution to our community, our planet is made. I am so blessed to be part of the spiritual world of Carpe Diem and its extended family.