Close your eyes for a moment & think about that one person in your life who is equal parts walking sunshine, beautiful kindness, & abject awkwardness. We all have someone we love that keeps us laughing & inspired (and, let's be honest, on our toes!) & Clare is this person in my life.
Clarey & I met at work a lifetime ago & quickly became family. She is one of the most talented storytellers & videographers on the planet (SERIOUSLY, SHE IS!), & she's driven by an indefatigable curiosity which means her stories always tug at our heartstrings.
Clarey, thank you for being a #KindnessWarrior. We adore you here at CR&Co.
Q & A with Clare Cheyne
1. What three words best describe you? Kind, creative, mare-prone
2. Why those three words? I always endeavour to be kind, as I think that’s one of the most important things that you can be in this world—so I hope that’s how I show up for others. Creative because I’m lucky to have found a passion and profession that allows me to explore the world through the back of a lens, and through the stories that come out of that. And mare-prone…because no matter what, I’ll always have a lot of mares. There’s a reason they call them Clare Mares…
3. What did you want to be as a kid? I wanted to be a lawyer, which would have been an absolute disaster. I’m a real ‘ask for forgiveness rather than permission’ type of human and I’m pretty sure that’s the opposite of a lawyer’s mentality…
4. Tell me about compassion & how it shows up for you daily. I think it’s being able to step outside of yourself and into another person’s shoes to see their point of view, understand their struggle, or imagine what they’re feeling. And maybe letting that mould your heart a little more to the world around you. I’m lucky that I’ve been surrounded by incredibly compassionate people for most of my life, and I’ve gotten to learn from them along the way and the way they approach the world. Daily, that means trying to understand someone’s actions or words before attaching judgement to them.
5. Who inspires you most in your daily life? Anyone that’s willing to take the time to be kind to others. I see that in small acts of kindness from people every day—someone that lets a stranger use their phone when they desperately need to make a call, who holds the subway door open for another when they’re running for train, or who buys someone a meal who would have otherwise gone hungry. The little things are the big things, and they inspire me to be better every time I witness them.
6. Name a moment in your life when you were courageous! When I moved from New Zealand to New York, took a gamble on an artist’s visa and let the chips fall how they were meant to.
7. What does kindness look like/mean to you & how does this manifest in your daily life? Like I said, it’s the smallest acts of kindness that I think make the biggest ripples. A selfless gesture, a hand of help—people going out of their way for one another when they do not have to, but because things are simply better when we help each other out. We can’t go through life alone—and kindness is the way we stay connected and human. For me it’s trying to keep this in mind every day when there’s so many things in the world that are trying to make us harder, and instead having the courage to remain soft, vulnerable, and show up for others. I think the more people witness kindness, the more it cues those people it to be more kind—there’s a ripple effect that is powerful and important.
8. What motivates you to do what you do? I think storytelling has a really beautiful power to connect with people and impact them for the better—in whatever small way that shows up. And so it’s looking at that possibility to tell a story in a unique way that could potentially inspire, motivate, move or educate someone and doing that in the most positive way you can. And that’s pretty motivating, to create something like that from nothing. I also get inspired by other storytellers, cinematographers, and photographers, and that propels me to do all of the above better. I think when you’re passionate about something, it’s easy to go deep on it—that’s when you know.
9. When are you happiest? Either behind a lens, or with good friends. I truly did not mean for that to rhyme, but whoa.
10. We’ve all got a zinger of a power song what’s yours? LOVELY DAY by the late and great Billy Withers.
11. Introvert or Extrovert? Extrovert.
12. What’s one thing we could all do to change the world for the better? Be kind, and cut down them carbon emissions fam.
13. Name a deal-breaker for you. If they’re rude to the waiter/treat anyone as though they are not a worthwhile human.
14. When did you last sing out loud? (Also, what were you singing?). Yesterday, during a hip hop yoga class. That Drake theme got me…(it was an at-home home flow, don’t worry).
15. What’s your biggest hope for the world in 2020? That we learn from this crisis that we’re currently in, and everyone comes out of it a bit more kind, a little more grateful, and treating the world like it’s a gift we have to treasure and take care of.
16. What’s your biggest fear for the world in 2020? COVID-19 has really put these fears into perspective…I think we all currently share a common enemy here.
You get one super-power, what is it? Flying. That freedom though…
Find Clare online here:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarelouisa/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-cheyne/
Comments