Bridging the Gap; when Midlifers meet Millennials magic happens. At least in our case, join me meeting Lilach Avissar, the creative force behind Spirit Nest.
“Got that whole magic driven, gypsy warrior, soul witch bitch type of vibe.”
Wow, how cute is this? I had to have this t-shirt. My day had been packed with clients’ requests and business stuff. Instagram gave me the gift of magic; a big sigh from my heart interrupting my “normal.” Yes!! I had that soul witch bitch type of vibe, a vibrant mix of soulful yearning and rebellious, slightly guilty "I know, I stood up for myself. I'm such a bitch."
My magical life hack via Instagram came from Lilach Avissar, the creative force behind Spirit Nest, a vibrant, smart and mystical Xennial, who travels the world mostly for business and creates fashion accessories and inspirational tees.
We connected when she posted my picture in a top she designed and didn’t say, “You look good for your age.” I felt accepted in a gang of creative, edgy, wild and magical women who could all be my daughters. They wear the pink and bright red hair I will have the guts to experiment with, maybe, one day. One of the things I love about having lived for a couple decades is the power to do what we want now without apologizing to society’s expectations, to discover our true selves and embody them. Witchy, bitchy magical designs are part of it.
Like an Avatar, Lilach's beautiful creations on one of her beautiful clients.
Fashion at it’s best is the expression of our mood and at it’s arty amazingness it shows the vibe of our souls.
I use myself as the canvas for my soul. Lilach paints on real canvas and creates designs that tickle women’s truth.
Lilach graduated from a prestigious design academy as an illustrator and a collage artist. She worked as a textile designer for big global companies for years. Both experiences were of the harsher kind. Her “bitter art teachers” were “miserable and corrupted, they enjoyed abusing their students daily, put them down and not even in a constructive manner… It really made me lose all faith in all the academy structure, and it took me around 5 years to get the academy toxics out of my system, and go back to painting and designing, “ she explains her path.
My own college time was one of the amazing periods of my life; the flair of the revolutionary 60’s was still very much around in the seventies, which was “my” era. The political upheavals as much as our amazingly creative life style rebellion uplifted my spirits and shook my middle class upbringing, a mindset I never had liked or understood. Freedom had been a treasured desire and I manifested it by being the tough chick who gets what she wants; including my businesses. When women succeed they are often judged as elbowing their way to success.
Lilach and I simply did what came natural to us as free spirited women.
On a house boat she surprised her husband with in Amsterdam.
Her fierce desire to be free of her academic experience brought her to be the innovative artist she is today.
We both fought ourselves out of the restrictions of our experiences, be it parents, mindsets or horrible bosses. I opened my first business like Lilach with 30, but other than her who’s journey had gone through gruesome work situations I experienced the suffocation employment can cause only at 50. I crushed my success making a huge stock market mistake. For a decade I suffered a boss who showed me at every corner that, even if I had climbed up her ladder, I “wasn’t good enough.”
Lilach’s words could have been mine:” My last boss was such a terrible narcissist, that Meryl Streep in the “devil wears Prada” seemed like Mahatma Gandhi next to her. But I understand that I had to go through those hardships to find my self and to deeply appreciate own professional path.”
It is often proposed that Midlifers have the wisdom of experience to share and Millennials or Xennials share the vibrancy of new ideas and their unafraid twin-like existence with technology. When we go a little deeper and look into the others eyes though, the gateway to our ageless souls, there’s often so much more.
We are mirrors for each other. The so-called randomness of encounters really is an attraction of souls, connections that make sense and awaken and reawaken us, sometimes it’s just a tiny wink and sometimes a revelation.
Deep listening is an art. Being aware of what other human beings, the good and the bad, show us about ourselves is an amazing skill.
When Lilach and I went on Zoom for a couple hours her day had been packed with clients’ requests and business stuff.
Like her design had hacked my routine a year ago I hacked her day rekindling her desire to dive back into the world of design and create more than spread sheets and organize sales. Even when she likes the marketing aspect of her business she’s the true artist longing for the play with forms and colors.
I am very curious what she comes up with next.
Her first company, Alpha Gypsy started with her love of scarves.
At the time she was an avid scarves collector who, when temperatures dropped happily and immediately wrapped herself up.
From the artistic aspect scarves are like canvases but she found “what’s unique about them is when it’s wrapped, the scarves both reveal and hide, in different manners, the artwork that’s printed on them.“
You can’t live of scarves alone and together with her tech savvy husband Tomer, they created Spirit Nest, expanding into Tee shirts, jewelry, organic cosmetics, gorgeous altar items; the ingredients for a magical life.
I feel that adding ritual back into our daily routine is how we expand our lives into deeper beauty and reveal deeper levels of our selves.
Lilach’s August 13 birthday astrology predicts that she is a passionate and idealistic Leo, radiant like the sun and with a bunch of drive and ambition. Maybe that’s how we got to talk to each other like soul sisters; I’ve got a Leo moon and “know” her on a deeper level. My Scorpio sun feels at home in her mystical designs, I love it all; the gypsy, the moon child, the fairy…
Lilach is shy, no wonder she wraps herself in luxurious scarves. But even when we both feel like introverts there’s an ancient and undeniable warrioress power we own and step into every day a little more.
Who we surround ourselves with is part of our soul’s make up; I meet more and more strong, confident, uniquely beautiful warrior type women, Lilach’s clientele is creative, edgy, wild and free, a daily reminder of her truth even when business takes her over.
When I was into architectural, interior designs and landscaping during my construction business and art gallery years I walked around my house like in a trance, “receiving” the designs I then applied.
Lilach owns a collection of images she loves, mostly of the retro and mystical kind. Meditation about and around them though is the main source of her inspirations. It can take a long time of spiritual and intellectual work and tossing of drawings before a new design is born. But the most successful designs, she said, flew in “just like that.” She created “Stay wild, Moon child,” in the spirit of a moment and it became the bestseller of Spirit Nest.
We met in the magic and mystery of ancient archetypes and the promises they make for a life that’s as earthy as it is metaphysical.
In all our similarities there is a difference that became an important reminder to me; there is a “young” innocence and trust in love and the magic of relationships, which we sometimes lose when memories of mistakes we made or pain we let other people inflict upon us cloud our perception.
Meeting Lilach means to me to be open to magic, on ALL levels, to not just be the Warrioress Queen I call my essence but to also embody her fierce believe in “everything is possible.” Even romantic love.
What would I advice a Millenial?
Stay wild, Moon Child.
