I’m Corinne, passionate writer and editor, amateur photographer, and mischief maker with too many interests to fit in this space. I’m also committed wife, friend and confidante to Nils; dedicated sister and aunt; and I try hard to be a good friend.
My husband, best buddy and fellow geek, Nils, is a senior manager at a large multi-national consulting firm. He’s a lover of sailing, team sports and the general outdoors. We share a fondness of books, movies and lots of other stuff.
The importance of having an impact is nothing new to either of us. But, a few years ago, I had what some might call a mid-life crisis, others would term an epiphany. I realized that though I was having impact in my work, the world wouldn’t be a better place because I developed another praise-worthy management training guide or wrote a spectacularly concise corporate process and procedure manual. But, making the world a better place was how I wanted to make an impact. So, how? And in what way?
The first step toward those answers came accidentally when Nils and I took a vacation in the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa. We quickly fell in love with the country, people and region and soon became proud owners of a farm in the Kamberg Valley.
But there was still much to do, learn, and understand before taking the plunge to change jobs, professions, countries and lifestyles. Would we plunge into eco-farming and self-sustainability? Develop bee colonies to help combat the growing threat of their extinction? Perhaps open a cooperative specializing in local Zulu crafts? Or use our business acumen to help young, aspiring entrepreneurs? We needed time to research and plan for this change from being mostly sedentary, stiff suit-attired/stiletto wearing city-dwellers to active, gum boot, Levi-clad country residents.
In the meantime, we decided we didn’t need to wait until we moved to South Africa. We wanted to have impact “NOW!” So, “52 Weeks of Impact” was born: our effort to make the world a better place, one week at a time.
We learned so very much through our 52 weeks in 2010 and approx. 27 weeks in 2011. Most significantly, we learned that we, indeed, wanted a change in lifestyle that incorporated Impact not just week by week, but day by day, moment by moment. We’re working on that at Chrysalis Farm.
We invite you to peruse our Impact Efforts here at 52 Weeks of Impact. We hope it might provide some ideas or inspiration for your own efforts. And, of course, we’d love to see you at Chrysalis Farm.
Corinne Westphal and Nils Westphal
