Welcome to the next instalment of the Lightkeeper’s List. This is where I share my favourite things that I have recently discovered and people that are lighthouses to me! 

• I am so delighted to see that my local coastal council, along with Accessible Beaches Australia and NSW Government’s Regional Tourism Activation Fund grants, have installed beach accessibility mats, hard surface lead-in paths and increasing projects for beach accessibility for everyone to enjoy the beach! The beach mats and new lead-in paths are being trialled at the most popular and life guard patrolled beaches in the area over this summer, with further improvements to be made once feedback is received. It is fantastic to see and when I tried it out, it was much easier on the feet and balance to walk to the beach, especially from the grass area to the dunes. I hope this initiative and grants funding can help other areas and more beaches be accessible to anyone! 
  
  If you would like to read more or get involved for your coastal area, check out these links – Eurobodalla Shire Council Beach Accessibility Project and Accessible Beaches.   

• Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse: The Animated Story – Most of you know by now that I am a huge Charlie Mackesy fan, as seen in my Book Therapy post about his book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. This last year or more, Charlie and a magnificent team of creators have made the well loved book into a short animated film. I have been patiently waiting for the short film to be released and I can say that it was more beautiful than I could have imagined! The likeness to the original book is incredible, has the same comforting feel and was perfectly cast. If you have a spare thirty minutes, sit yourself down with a cup of tea and enjoy this delight! 
  
  Watch the trailer here. Available on Apple TV+ in most countries. Enjoy! 
  
  For book lovers: they have also released an accompanied book with the film images and storyline. It’s stunning and not a double up of the original book, but they did make sure to include the favourites quotes!   

• Cup of Jo are known for the realistic portrayals of life by people from all walks of life and is always a beautiful grounding reading space. Recently two articles popped up on the delightful Cup of Jo blog about disability and I was cheering! 
  
  How to Invite a Disabled Friend Over made me feel all sorts of things – relating to the stress of going somewhere unknown and having no preparation for the accessibility (or lack thereof) requirements that you need, feeling that it may be easier to cancel than cause a ‘fuss’ and having friends that are willing to make sure you can be supported AND independent. Bless them and may they multiple in our lives! 
  
  I also loved this article What Has Surprised Me About Parenting With a Disability by Chloe Cooper Jones. Rewriting our own beliefs when we haven’t seen them modelled before is so empowering. I absolutely love seeing more articles on this topic and also on the topic of parenting with a disability, I’m curious to read the book We’ve Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents by Eliza Hull. 
  
  As always with Cup of Jo, don’t miss the thoughtful comments from the beautiful community.

• The New Happy Co – You’ve probably seen their graphics all over social media over the last year or so, but if you haven’t, let me introduce you to The New Happy Co. Uplifting and encouraging graphics supported with data and community responses, their posts and now their daily and weekly newsletters are a great boost to your inbox and feed. You can join here or follow on Instagram or Facebook.
  

• Latecomers TV Show – Disability and sex together on tv? Never seen that before! 
  
  Introducing Australian tv show Latecomers starring Hannah Diviney, Editor in Chief of Missing Perspectives and Disabled Disney Princess campaign, and Angus Thompson, of Terrible Pauly fame, now showing on SBS on Demand. It was great to finally see an Australian tv show showing the perspective of romatic relationships while living with a disability and casting Australia disabled actors as the two main characters. Latecomers showcased the gorgeous Australian scenery and our classic humour, while calling out ableism and questioning beliefs around disability and relationships. Fantastic!

And I’ll leave you with this thought provoking quote by Adam Grant.

Resilience is not resistance to suffering.

It’s the capacity to bend without breaking. 

Strength doesn’t come from ignoring pain.

It stems from knowing that your past self has hurt and your future self will heal. 

Fortitude is the presence of resolve, not the absence of hardship.

-Adam Grant

Until next time Readers. I’ll keep the light on.

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