Meg Harvey, Tanzaina, Moshi (2026)

07/09/2026

FORGED AT 40 | 3 DAYS

We’ve been getting a little deep around here.

So, with three days left of my 30s, here are some things I know for absolutely certain:

1. Animals are almost always better company than people.
2. You can survive far more than you think you can. You will, however, complain extensively while doing it.
3. Wear the dress. You are not saving it for anything more important than your actual life.
4. If you’re wondering whether you should say something kind to someone, say it. Every time.
5. Getting older does not make you feel like a grown-up. It just means people increasingly expect you to know what’s going on. Very inconvenient.
6. Dance in the rain. Literally. Get soaked. Ruin your hair. Take your shoes off. Stop waiting for everything to be perfect before you decide to enjoy it.
7. There is almost nothing that cannot be improved by music, inappropriate laughter, an adventure or a donkey cuddle.
8. You are allowed to change your mind. About people. About dreams. About who you are. About what you want. New information is allowed to create a new decision.
9. Being liked by everyone would require me to become a significantly less interesting person. I respectfully decline.
10. Take the photo. Get in the photo. Stop worrying about your stomach, your arms, your hair or the angle. One day you will care far more about remembering that moment than whether you looked good in it.

And perhaps most importantly:

There is absolutely no evidence that I should be trusted with only three days left of my 30s.

So this could go either way. 😂

3 DAYS TO 40.

No inspirational conclusion today.

I’m tired.

And why does my back hurt? 🤣🤣🤣

FORGED AT 40

06/09/2026

FORGED AT 40 | 4 DAYS TO GO 🖤

Something unexpected has happened as I’ve got older.

I’ve stopped caring quite so much about things that were never that important to begin with.

And goodness, it’s peaceful. 😂

I no longer need everyone to like me.

I don’t need to explain every decision I make.

I can say no without submitting a 14-page supporting document.

I’ve learnt that someone else’s opinion of me can be completely valid to them… and still have absolutely nothing to do with me.

I’ve stopped making myself smaller, quieter or easier to digest just to make other people comfortable.

I’m allowed to change my mind.

I’m allowed to outgrow people, places and versions of myself.

I’m allowed to take up space.

And perhaps most importantly, I’ve realised that being misunderstood isn’t always an emergency that requires my immediate intervention.

That one took approximately 39 years to learn. 🙄

There are things I care about enormously.

My people. My animals. My work. Kindness. Integrity. Making some kind of difference while I’m here.

But whether everybody approves of the woman doing it?

That department has experienced significant budget cuts. 😂

Maybe that’s one of the greatest gifts of getting older.

You stop spending so much energy trying to convince people who you are…

and start spending it being who you are.

Turns out getting older isn’t nearly as terrifying as advertised.

You just get much better at knowing what deserves your energy.

And what doesn’t.

4 days to 40. 🖤

05/09/2026

FORGED AT 40 | 5 DAYS

Yes. The photo is upside down.

No. Your phone is not broken.

There was supposed to be a 6 DAYS post yesterday.

I forgot.

So apparently one of the things I’ll be taking into my 40s is my complete inability to maintain a nine-day Instagram countdown. 😂

In my defence, this feels remarkably on brand.

Because if there is one illusion I would very much like to leave behind in my 30s, it’s the idea that any of us actually have all of this figured out.

I certainly don’t.

I can run an organisation, stand on a stage, climb a mountain, manage a crisis, organise an event, fight for something I believe in and somehow find a solution when everyone else thinks we’ve run out of options.

I can also walk into a room and completely forget why I’m there.

Lose the phone that is currently in my hand.

Put something somewhere “safe” and ensure it is never seen again.

Forget to reply to a message I have mentally replied to seventeen times.

And, evidently, forget an entire day in a countdown I created. 😂

For a long time I thought becoming a successful adult would eventually mean becoming this beautifully organised, completely together version of myself.

She has not arrived.

I’m beginning to suspect she isn’t coming.

And actually?

I don’t think I need her anymore.

Because somewhere in my 30s, I stopped measuring myself only by the things I struggle with and started recognising the things I can do extraordinarily well.

I stopped trying quite so hard to become everybody else’s version of “together.”

I started learning how my brain works.

There are parts of myself I spent years trying to correct that I’m finally learning to accommodate.

There are things I once considered flaws that I now understand are simply part of the package.

And yes, the package occasionally misses Day 6. 😂

But it also contains an enormous heart, ridiculous determination, big ideas, curiosity, courage, creativity and an almost unreasonable belief that something can be done when I care enough about doing it.

I’ll take that trade.

So here we are.

Somehow already at…

5 DAYS TO 40.

A day behind.

Slightly chaotic.

Still becoming.

03/09/2026

FORGED AT 40 | 7 DAYS

Some of the best things that ever happened to me started with the word:

No.

No, you didn’t get it.

No, you weren’t chosen.

No, they don’t want you.

No, this isn’t going to work out the way you thought it would.

And I have hated some of those no’s.

I’ve cried over them.

Taken them personally.

Questioned whether I was good enough.

Watched other people get the thing I desperately wanted and tried very hard to be gracious while a tiny voice inside me screamed, but why not me?

I’ve failed.

I’ve been rejected.

I’ve walked into things absolutely convinced I was going to smash them… and very much did not. 😂

I’ve made decisions I wouldn’t make again.

Trusted people I shouldn’t have.

Stayed when I should have left.

Left things I once thought would be forever.

And there have been moments when I’ve had absolutely no idea what I was doing next.

That’s a strange part of getting older nobody really prepares you for.

You start looking backwards and realise that your life wasn’t built only by the doors that opened.

It was built just as much by the ones that slammed shut.

Some redirected me.

Some humbled me.

Some forced me to become better and walk through the very same door again.

Some made space for something I couldn’t see coming yet.

And some?

Some were simply painful.

I don’t believe every difficult thing needs to become a blessing.

Sometimes you don’t need to be grateful for the lesson.

Sometimes it just hurt.

But I am grateful for the woman who kept getting up afterwards.

Not always gracefully.

Not always positively.

Occasionally with an enormous sulk. 😂

But eventually…

up.

I’m seven days away from 40 and there are still things I want so badly that it scares me.

I’m still going to hear no.

I’m still going to fail.

I’m still going to have my heart broken by things I thought were meant for me.

Good.

Because I don’t want to enter my 40s protecting myself from disappointment.

I want to enter them brave enough to keep wanting things.

7 days.

Rejection didn’t make me stop knocking.

It just taught me there is always another door.

FORGED AT 40

📸 Jo Judnick-Wilson

02/09/2026

FORGED AT 40 | 8 DAYS

Okay, yesterday we cried.

Today, we recover. 😂

Because if I’m telling the truth about the life that forged me, I can’t only talk about what I survived.

I’ve had a VERY good time too.

I’ve laughed until I couldn’t breathe, danced on tables I probably shouldn’t have been standing on, travelled, dressed up and made questionable decisions that became excellent stories.

I’ve met extraordinary people, said yes to things that terrified me and been completely inappropriate at completely inappropriate times.

I’ve fallen in love with places, people, moments and versions of myself I didn’t know existed yet.

I’ve done things simply because I thought, why not?

And I’ve collected memories that still make me smile when they wander back into my head.

My 30s weren’t just about becoming stronger.

They were about becoming more alive:

Messier.
Braver.
Louder.
Freer.
More willing to take up space.
Far less concerned with whether everybody approved.

There has been pain in this decade.

But pain doesn’t get to claim the whole thing.

There was so much joy.

And if there’s one thing I’m taking with me into 40, it’s this:

I don’t want a life that merely looks good from the outside.

I want one that feels incredible and real while I’m living it.

8 days.

And I fully intend to laugh and play my way into the next decade. 😏

28/08/2026

For Avalanche 🤍

Today, we said goodbye to Avalanche.

There are some animals who come into your life quietly, and somehow take up an enormous amount of space in your heart. Avalanche was one of them.

He was magnificent. Gentle. Beautiful. And so deeply loved.

After much deliberation, consultation and hoping for a different answer, we learned that Avalanche had a devastating illness in his sinus cavity believed to be cancer. Today, we made the heartbreaking decision to let him go peacefully.

It is one of the hardest responsibilities that comes with loving animals, knowing when our desire to keep them with us has to give way to what is kindest for them.

And so, we chose him over us.

We chose to spare him pain.
We chose dignity.
We chose peace.

But illness does not get to define Avalanche’s story.

His story is in the people who loved him. In the hands that cared for him. In the moments of trust and connection. In the soft muzzle, the enormous presence, and the beautiful soul behind those eyes.

Animals never measure their lives in years. They measure them in moments of safety, kindness, full bellies, gentle hands and knowing that they belong.

Avalanche knew he belonged.

Today there is an enormous, horse-shaped hole in our hearts and in the place he called home.

Thank you, beautiful boy, for allowing us to be part of your life.

You were loved while you were here.
You were surrounded by love when you left.
And you will be loved long after you are gone.

Run free, Avalanche. 🤍
No pain. No illness. Just endless green fields.

Rest gently, magnificent boy.

25/08/2026

A massive thank you to Andrew Barnes-Roberts for helping Animals in Distress raise much needed funds at our Golf Day Auction 🙏

25/08/2026

There comes a moment when you stop proving who you are… and simply become her. 👑

Hair: Jules Hairstylist JHB Pasquale Hairstylists
Dress: Just Tonight Josephine
Lashes: Designer Lashes - Debbie Bester

Meg Harvey

07/09/2026

06/09/2026

05/09/2026

03/09/2026

02/09/2026

28/08/2026

25/08/2026

25/08/2026

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