We were lucky to catch up with KIMBERLY WACHTEL- REPAS recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, KIMBERLY thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?
I do take vacations! I LOVE to travel. I have to be frugal while living on a single mom income, with a business I am building, yet I believe in saving money and making time to travel to experience, see and learn new things, in new places and to gather insights and inspiration when I can. I believe in collecting life experiences over collecting objects and things.
When I travel, I am curious, and I pay attention to: How do others lead creative lives in the place I am traveling to and visiting? What is the feel of a place? What do gardens and garden design look like and provide in other countries? What is the trend of their environmental practices? What plant species and bug species live there? What is the native climate and landscape like? How do people seek out beauty in their day to day lives? How does the particular culture express their traditions, history and society?
If my ancestors lived in the region where I am traveling, I especially pay close attention to the artwork, the traditional practices and the landscape. I learn some history. I think it is meaningful and important to feel how all of this resonates inside of me. Tapping into my ancestral roots is a way I find deeper meaning and connections to my authentic self and parts of my DNA that I believe are important to cultivate. There is a lineage of ancestors and ancestral wisdom that lives in all of us. I will make an effort to connect with my family if they still live in the part of the world where I’m traveling. All these things inform me, my knowledge and my connection to what I believe is important. These connections introduce me to new things and concepts which definitely influence and inspire my life in general, work life and creative life. My artwork is linked to my ancestral roots in Poland and Hungary and the journeys there have been extremely influential and rich.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hello, My name is Kimberly Wachtel Repas and I am the founder and owner of Where Earth Meets Sky Designs. The big picture and vision around my life and work connects my heart and mind with the intersection of spirit and inspiration. Where does this meet inside of me as energy? The energy creates grounds for my creative vision and beliefs to create positive change, manifesting in physical form. My name, Where Earth Meets Sky, captures this idea: me having my feet firmly planted on the ground while being open to creative universal energy that flows in. I tap into the intersecting energy between the material and spiritual planes.
I am a visual artist, gardener, landscape designer, flower grower, floral designer and singer. My business is founded on my visual, creative interests and talents. I hope to be an example of how one’s values and passions can successfully inform the work we do in the world. I desire to make a difference and effect positive change in little and big ways, helping make the world a more beautiful, vibrant and healthy place.
The bulk of my earnings come from designing, maintaining and caring for individual home and business gardens, with a passion for and a focus on promoting, designing and creating native pollinator plant habitat for the health of our environment. I create and provide beautiful, vibrant spaces to cohabitate with the brilliant creatures that make the world work harmoniously. Pollinators are a key component and part of the system in which we live and they enable the survival of so many species. We are all interconnected! I create beautiful and healthy spaces for my clients and for native flora and fauna to co habitat. This is the vision behind my garden business. I follow organic practices. My crew and I use hand tools and physical brawn with the occasional use of a battery-operated lawnmower or chain saw. We are committed to earth-friendly, life affirming practices.
In the winter months, while the gardens rest, I offer and create floral arrangements, taking orders, buying flowers from a local wholesaler, and selling them around key holidays or moments when we all need a burst of beauty in our lives. In the summer and fall I have been growing and offering my own local, organic, homegrown flowers to individuals, businesses and events on a very small scale. I’m not sure where exactly this will go, but I’m keeping my hands in it.
I sell my visual artwork (gouache and acrylic paintings, paper cuts, embroidery) mainly in card and print form but also as original work. All my work is inspired by deep self-inquiry, “Who am I and how am I connected, in a multitude of ways, to this beautiful and mysterious world?” Ancestral traditions in Eastern Europe inspire my designs and my work. My travels to meet my family and to study these traditions in Poland and Hungary and connect with my roots in this way have been a huge point of inspiration with my work.
Finally, I love to sing. Singing allows feeling to be expressed and move in and through me. I love playing and working with other musicians and their projects, both performing and recording, whether it is in a band or with individuals: singing leads, singing harmonies, working on original material or covers. I love all genres of music. Currently I’m just beginning my journey trying my hand at song writing.
The way in which I got into my profession and business has been a slow, organic process of following my heart, my creative passions, my intuition and being open to receiving the messages and feelings about what I need to do, when, with my work and vision.
From a young age I knew I was best suited to using my creative talents and hoped for meaningful work following these pursuits. Often, I was scared, frustrated and felt like an outsider. I was encouraged by my family to go the more traditional path and was not given much support to follow my creative interests with work pursuits in a non-traditional way. I am not interested in following the masses. I do not adhere to morally bankrupt, corporate capitalism. My path in life has been to follow my heart even though the path has not been easy or always clear. It has certainly been winding and rich.
Now that I can look back over 25 years of my work life, I see that every choice, experience and decision has led me to exactly the place I need to be in order to learn about, experience and manifest the work I am currently doing. I trust in the evolution of the work I’m meant to do in the future. So much of my process has been driven by following my heart, my intuition and feeling out the situations I was in or felt I needed to be in and making choices based on heart rather than money. I rely on my feeling sense to nurture and drive my vision and my work. My efforts have been supported along the way and for this I am very grateful. This way of working has not let me down. Although the path can be scary at times it has been hugely rewarding. I believe that this mindset and way of working sets me apart from some people.
I was encouraged by my family, especially my father, to follow the money trail and the safety of a more straight forward career path but I didn’t listen to that advice and instead saw and looked for creative opportunities as they presented themselves and took action at necessary times, that in hindsight, led me to fulfilling work, incorporating many of my passions in creative ways as a business owner. I am learning I am able to support myself and my two children using my creative talents and there is no better feeling!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Some of my best and most meaningful work came from the times I was pregnant, raising babies and now still as I care for my children. Being a mother with a creative vision and creative work has many challenges. During the baby and toddler years I had the support of my now ex-husband. He was the primary earner of income. Our creative use of time and sharing childcare afforded me some time to nurture, pursue and grow my creative business. I am very thankful for having had this support from him.
As with most things… my workload started small and grew as I was able to focus and give my creative pursuits more of my attention and energy. I’m raising and caring for elementary age children, now as a single mom. In the mix of creating a full-time business, was the end of my 20 year marriage, all while the pandemic impacted, shaped and changed our lives in unimaginable ways. In the midst of my divorce process, I was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia. Unfortunately, I have an incurable form of leukemia. But fortunately, folks with this form of leukemia can live a long and healthy life. I am in good health and routinely checked to make sure I’m doing well. All of these challenges are teaching me resilience and to trust in my abilities to put one foot in front of the other to do really hard things, to do many things pretty well, as well as I can. Life is uncertain and I get stressed and fearful at times. Despite all of this I am able to juggle the responsibilities of being a single parent, an artist, creative entrepreneur and business owner.
During my separation and divorce process and while I was waiting for my diagnosis for my concerning blood work, I was in an extremely stressful place. I got through this time with some focus, patience and putting one foot in front of the other. Going from running a part time business with the support of my then partner to running a full-time business on my own, and becoming able to support my kids and me is something I’m proud of accomplishing. During mediation in the divorce proceedings, the mediator brought up my choice in being a creative entrepreneur as risky, hard and perhaps unrealistic in the face of divorce. It is. And at the same time, this is the work I’m meant to be doing right now, it’s who I am, what I do well. I’m interested in following my heart and my path and proving him wrong.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
It is ok to do things your own way and to follow your heart. We do not have to adhere to or follow societal messages, expectations, or the paths most taken. It can be extremely fulfilling and rewarding to follow your heart even if success and the rewards are unknown. Money is not the complete motivation behind my career choices. It’s part of the equation but not all of it. Taking calculated risks and facing fear is necessary. I think it all comes down to what one wants, what our priorities are and how we take action to manifest this energy into reality. How do we want to make a difference in this world? I believe it is possible to combine our true interests and talents to create satisfying, rewarding work and a career that makes a difference one step at a time. Doing work that is creative, artistic and promotes a healthier planet, biodiversity, and happy people who feel more connected to what they find beautiful is a value that is needed in our world. My life’s work is about creating vibrant, vital, beauty and I bring this awareness to all I do. Hopefully with this, I am touching others, all beings, in positive and meaningful ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.whereearthmeetssky.com
- Instagram: @whereearthmeetssky
- Facebook: Where Earth Meets Sky Designs
Image Credits
Erin Long Photography