Meanderings with Trudy: Recent Episodes

Trudy Chapman

Take a walk in the forest with me to hear good stories: the ones that show-off human nature to our shining best. Storytelling showing people living lives of meaning and how they got there. Regular Janes and Juans. People I know. People you know. Living their joy.

All good things end, or at least pause, and that's what I talk about in this meander.

I feel the need to clear space so I'm closing this season, and this podcast, down for a while. It's time. The pandemic, the genesis of my work, has long since ended, and while the world tumult and our fears around change have only intensified, I need a rest from monthly production. I may come back in future, but right now, I need a break.

I have tried to show up in this space cleanly, and share with you what is in my heart and mind, with honest clarity. And this episode is no different.

If Meanderings has landed in your heart and helped you in some way, I'd love to hear about it. You can reach me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Drop me a line; I read everything you send.

Thank you for joining me for any and all meanders, it has been my pleasure to sit with you and show you how joy in the every day shows up in the lives of my guests, in books that I love, and in my own life.

Be well.

Episode Links:

Trudy's Blog on her coaching website

Trudy's Substack

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Thank you for joining me as we tie up any loose ends in our book review of “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brené Brown. This has been a journey of exploration for all of us, as I've shown my work in applying the guideposts in my life. It has been a pleasure to offer these windows into one way of using her work. I hope, if it feels right to you, that you find your way into doing something similar.

I hope this book review has been of service to you in your life. Please, if you have comments you'd like to share, shoot me a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, talk about the ideas with your friends and family. I do think these practices can make a difference in your life and in the quality of your relationships.

Episode Links:

Trudy's substack, and her blog

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

If you ever wondered about the life of a Canadian actor, this is the show for you! Callum has worked for the last seven years in Canadian musical theatre. He's been featured in playhouses from the province of Ontario eastward to the Canadian Maritimes, and has done some TV and a little voice-over work too. When he's not acting, he's teaching in schools in the greater Toronto area... a pairing that he enjoys, keeps him engaged in life, and helps to pay the bills.

I hope you like this meander. Please tap that "like" button, and share this episode around because no advertising is as good as word of mouth. Shoot me comments at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com, I'd love to hear from you!

Episode Links:

Callum's Instagram

The County Stage Company, where Callum appears this summer in "First Date" and "Pinocchio"

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Yes, this will be the last PauseCast for a while. Maybe a long while. I’ve decided to close this chapter of the podcast, and if "Meanderings with Trudy" comes back, it will be in a different form. So this is the last of these PauseCasts, and we dive deeply into endings. We explore why endings matter, and what that means for bringing presence to our experience. And how endings can draw attention to the soul of our being human.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around. Thank you for sharing your ears with me over these last six years, and these many episodes with Angie. Such conversations matter.

Episode links:

Information about Angie’s community event in June is via Big Stone House

Two poets we talked about and read from today include: Richard Wagamese’s “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations” and David Whyte’s “Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words”

Marie Kondo, Japanese American expert on how to tidy, in a meaningful way.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, "Braiding Sweetgrass"

Liz Bucar, "Beyond Wellness"

Angie's substack, "The Bigger Picture"

Trudy's substack, "Meanderings with Trudy"

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

As this podcast is about joy in the everyday, I'm bringing you deeply into what brings me joy, today. We meander through the story of my garden, and how my mother helped me build my garden and her legacy to me. A gift that keeps on giving.

As I meandered, I realized how every plant has a story. Most every plant was a gift to me from someone. The lavender from my brother Steve, the hydrangea from my friend Mary, the allium from my Dad and so on. A community garden of a sort.

I hope you enjoy this little window into my world, as it stands right now. If you have comments you'd like to share, please shoot me a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We’re now covering the ninth and tenth guideposts to wholehearted living – cultivating meaningful work, and cultivating laughter, song and dance.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely. If you have questions or comments, please send them to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I will address them in the next episode.

Episode links:

The 2010 TedTalk that started Brené’s rise to international helper

Biography

Brené Brown podcast “Dare To Lead” with Adam Grant on her new book

We did another deep dive into Martha Beck’s “The Joy Diet: Ten Daily Practices for a Happier Life.” You can find the first episode here. The rest unfold after that.

Gordon Lightfood’s “Song for a Winter’s Night” is my favourite; and “The Last Farewell” is my favourite by Roger Whitaker

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Career coach Michelle Schafer returns to the podcast, but this time, we talk to her from the seat of her expertise as a career coach. Michelle has been on the podcast twice already. Both times we explored how she faced down adversity: once as she healed from breaking her leg, the other as she hiked to Machu Picchu in Peru. And both times, she had to draw on deep inner resources to persevere.

Today, we talk about the very difficult job market people are facing. Fewer jobs, more people looking, the encroachment of tech eradicating whole sectors of work. It’s tough out there. It’s an exhausting environment, and resilience is that much more important.

Relationships connect us to job opportunities, and support us as we do the shift. Michelle speaks to this and so much more in our meander: what does it take to navigate through this job market, and how can we stay positive in the process?

You can find her award-winning book, "Cultivating Career Growth, Navigating Transitions with Purpose" at your local independent bookstore. And you can read about it on her website. (You can also find it on Amazon.)

Michelle is just a delight to chat with; her clients are well-served by her effervescent outlook on life and vast array of support to offer them in their coaching adventure.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Michelle’s coaching company is called: Michelle Schafer Coaching. Here are the links to her previous episodes: healing from a broken leg, and hiking in Peru.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We meander far and wide this week… who are “we” when we are we? Why do we avoid community? What is it about being connected to others that we find so difficult?

There is no real answer to these questions we ask, but that’s ok. As Angie says here, “It’s not the answer that comes, it’s the art of asking the question. And when we can do that with someone else… we find the sweet spot.” It’s in the wrestle that our sense of loneliness and isolation evaporates, and we find connection, and compassion, caring and yes, community.

I hope you like this wrestle.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Angie, and her Big Stone House, are proud sponsors of this podcast.

Have a read of Mary Oliver’s poem: “The Summer Day” which Angie references.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

I had a fabulous time in Victoria, at a writer’s retreat with Alison Wearing. I talk about that a bit and compare this retreat to the other one I shared with Alison in Tuscany in 2024. The comparison could not be more profound! I also spent a week on the west coast of Vancouver Island, visiting with the Pacific Ocean.

There’s a wee treat in here for you too…

Thank you again to all my golden lights... new and old. I so appreciate your company on this journey.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Alison Wearing is a wonderful Canadian memoirist. You too can study with her, just visit her website to learn how!

Angie’s company is Big Stone House

And if you are interested in any of my podcasts, both soundscapes, that I did from Tuscany, you can listen here, and here.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We’re now covering the seventh and eight guideposts to wholehearted living – cultivating play and rest, and cultivating calm and stillness.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely. If you have questions or comments, please send them to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I will address them in the next episode.

Episode links:

The 2010 TedTalk that started Brené’s rise to international helper

Biography

Brené Brown podcast “Dare To Lead” with Adam Grant on her new book

If you're interested in any offerings at Big Stone House, you can find them here under "Happenings"

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

I have enjoyed many a brunch and lunch at Amir's restaurant, Grounded Kitchen.

Amir is an Ottawa entrepreneur who has built a space in which people can connect and build community. It’s important to him that his is a scratch kitchen where every bite is homemade and fabulous. His restaurant came about through relationships – with himself, with his family, with friends, with his religion, and with his staff. He’s built it from the ground up and he loves what he does.

His family immigrated to Canada from Pakistan via San Francisco. And the spirit of his Ismaili Muslem faith guides his life. Our meander is wide and the topics are varied.

We have a lovely meander! I hope you enjoy this too.

All comments are welcome. Please drop me a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Learn more about Grounded Kitchen at their website, and via their FaceBook and Instagram

"On Joy and Sorrow" from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Angie and I meander further around the idea of community, but this time, it’s through Angie’s remembrances of the communities she’s been part of in different times of her life.

Stories matter. Sharing happens here, and it’s kinda lovely in the doing. I hope you’ll relate to some of what she shares. I certainly did.

I forgot to voice the sign off properly, but I didn't add it after the fact because I liked how we ended this week. I hope you'll subscribe and share, and reivew, despite it all. Thanks, all. Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Information about Angie’s community event in June is via Big Stone House

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods... the snow and ice are melting and the world is awakening. I love this time of the year!

Today's podcast is short and sweet. I give you a brief review of what's on offer in the coming weeks, but there's wee treat in today's offering... a little sound of the season. I hope you enjoy!

Please shoot me a note if you'd like more sound. I can be reached at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send. And like and subscribe, as you wish.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

My mom and I used to attend "sound baths" at our local yoga studio. With mom gone, and the yoga studio closed, I haven't gone to one in ages, but this memory came up, which I share here.

As this is a bonus episode, I thought I'd offer a soundscape with a Tibetan Singing Bowl. I'm no expert in playing it, but I hope this is soothing and joyful nonetheless.

I hope you enjoy this sound bath as much as I did. All questions and comments are welcome, feel free to send me a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Like and subscribe as you will.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We’re now covering the fifth and sixth guideposts to wholehearted living – cultivating intuition and faith, and cultivating creativity so we can let go of comparison.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely. If you have questions or comments, please send them to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I will address them in the next episode.

Episode links:

The 2010 TedTalk that started Brené’s rise to international helper

Biography

Brené Brown podcast “Dare To Lead” with Adam Grant on her new book

Our episode on Truth in Martha Beck's book "The Joy Diet" and the book review of "Burnout" by Emily and Amelia Nagoski

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

While the rework of this is mine, the path was laid for me by Staci. She has graciously agreed to my use of it here.

One of the blessings from my Tuscany trip was the enduring friendship of two women - Cheryl Marita and Jackie Rowe, both of whom have previously appeared on the podcast (links below).

Cheryl has organized a monthly journalling group for some of us to explore aging in our own lives. Our small group of about 20 meet monthly to support Cheryl (link to her blog below) who turned 80 this year. She is about to retire her nursing work as a palliative care nurse this May. She wanted company in journalling about her experience as she contemplates retiring and her aging body. As part of the experience, I offer a grounding meditation for the group to prepare us for the writing. This month, I riffered off Staci's meditation, called "Balancing on Four Planes" and I offer a version of this to you here.

I hope you enjoy this guided meditation. If you'd like more guided meditations, please let me know and I'll consider it. I can be reached at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

You can hear Cheryl's meander, and Jackie's meander, via these links.

Cheryl's blog is called "Morsels of Marita" and it is gentle, and lovely, and so very full of wisdom. I'm a regular reader.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

By 15 he was writing music and playing professionally. A degree in music led to playing music on cruise ships. In today's meander Ed tells us about his journey through music and life.

Since he immigrated to Canada in 2011, he’s made his way in the jazz music scene in Ottawa and the country at large. Ed leads The Prime Rib Big Band, and feels as much business person as musician. “I get all of that entrepreneurial side from my mom. She’s a shark.” His philosophy of “don’t ask don’t get” has helped him build a jazz music career in our capital city, and he shares a few wee stories about how that unfolded.

We talk about the Ottawa music scene, and the value of being a big fish in a small pond.

It's hard to be so far from family, and we talk about how he stays connected with them from across the pond. We also explore what to do with mementos of our careers, and the value of celebrating our successes.

We have a lovely meander; it's so much fun! I hope you enjoy this too.

All comments welcome. Please drop me a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

The Prime Rib Big Band

Ed Lister and “The Espionage Orchestra” which plays themes from the James Bond oeuvre

Paquin Entertainment is the agency that just signed Ed and The Espionage Orchestra

Ed Lister Music Productions on YouTube

Ottawa IS a friendly place, with lots going on. Check out Ottawa Tourism

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Angie and I talk “we” – what is conjured up with the notion of us? Who are we in community and why does this matter so much? Martha Beck, in “The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life” tells us that 1+1=3… that when you and me talk, we create a third entity, we become “we.”

This is a true meander folks, and I hope you’ll sit down with us with a cup of your favourite beverage and join us for the ride.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck

The except that I read is from Richard Wagamese’s book “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations”

You can learn more about Angie and her work at Big Stone House. And Angie quoted from poet Mary Oliver's poem "Summer Day"

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Back after my two-month winter break, I’m coming in with new energy and verve!

This week I share with you what I did on my Christmas vacation, but also what I have in store for you in the coming winter and spring episodes on the podcast.

I’m also trying to show not only joy, but how I put into practice the learnings we’ve had from books that I’ve reviewed as we go along. Perceptive listeners will pick up in today’s episode some of Martha Beck’s learnings from “The Joy Diet.” Feel free to drop me a line if you discern which practice I'm using.

One quick note: you’ll hear a little new music here in the intro. This is from the Prime Rib Big Band; band leader Ed Lister has given me permission to us this song, called “Stampede.”

All comments welcome. Please drop me a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Prime Rib Big Band

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

A favourite family tradition for me and many is to attend Christmas concerts as the holiday season approaches. This year was no different. Today, I share with you two clips from concerts I attended, and I hope you’ll enjoy them both!

The first is a clip from Choir Choir Choir taped in Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa - I've included a bit of the background as to how they do what they do, as well as what was for us, the final product. The second clip I use with permission from band leader Ed Lister... a clever band member reworked the iconic theme song from Dr. Seuss' classic story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! called "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." It's a wild rendition, and I offer you a fair chunk of it. Enjoy!

As always, all comments are welcome. Please drop me a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

And join me again in March, 2026 after my winter break for more meanders on joy in the every day. Happy New Year!

Episode links:

Choir Choir Choir

Prime Rib Big Band

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We’re now covering the third and fourth guideposts to wholehearted living – cultivating resilience, and cultivating gratitude and joy.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely. If you have questions or comments, please send them to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I will address them in the next episode.

Episode links:

The 2010 TedTalk that started Brené’s rise to international helper

Biography

Brené Brown podcast “Dare To Lead” with Adam Grant on her new book

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

With ten books under his belt, it's safe to say he's got a good grip on this writing thing. I've read every one and laughed out loud at many.

This is a very generous conversation with Terry about his writing career, how it came about and where he’s going next. It was a true joy for me to chat with him about his wide-ranging novels - his first book featured Canadian politics (a comedy, really it is) and his latest is a rollicking Canadian spy story. He’s covered a lot of topics writing about what he knows in each.

We too cover a lot of ground, as we talk storytelling and the ins and outs of how he tales a tale. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun in this meander. I hope you will too!

All comments welcome. Please drop me a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Learn more about Terry here

Learn about the great author, Robertson Davies, who is part muse to the character Angus McLintock

The Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

My substack

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Once again, Angie and I wrestle over something we both love and come at from different places.

The Enneagram as I come to it is more a lens that helps me see myself. And yes, maybe help me be a better version of myself. This is what it is for me, at this point in my life and development. And it's how I introduce it to my clients.

For Angie, the Enneagram provides a means for personal transformation that enables us to be in better relationship with people we love, and with the world. It’s a spiritual thing for her, a sacred teaching that life is a gift. The Enneagram enables presence, and in this way, serves us in our relationships, both 1:1 and in larger communities. No wonder this is her approach, given she is “Reverend.”

You’ll hear this difference as we meander.

No matter how we approach it, the Enneagram gives us an opening, the beginning of a deep conversation about who we are, and that is just what we offer today.

We also dig into Hope. December is the season for hope, as dark turns to light and the year begins again. And, I do think we need to remember hope as our world changes in ways I, we, may not like so much.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, it matters. If you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Angie’s newly renovated website: Big Stone House

For background about the, visit the Enneagram Institute

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

What if there were a place, once a week, where you could slow down and feel into your heart? To explore the highs and lows of you right now. To sit with others who can truly see you, without judgement but with buckets of kindness and big hearts. How might that change your day?

That’s what “Sitting on Sundays” is. It is a practice that Angie and her husband Peter offer through their coaching company, have done so for a decade or so. Once a week, people gather on line to contemplate life. Share highs and lows. Hold space for each other without judgment or the need to fix. To slow down and just feel into who we are in that moment.

While this is not something everyone will come for, the idea of slowing down, sinking into contemplation about who we are, exploring the role of grace, of hope, of peace and so many other things… it is something anyone can create with another person, and offer space to each other to be curious about life, right, now. That's the invitation... slow down and contemplate life. Your life. Find the awe in the moments. Name the highs, and the lows, and find a friend to do it with.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Angie’s newly renovated website: Big Stone House

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

As usual, I’m running down what’s to come this month, and this time, talking about birds in my backyard. It’s a colourful foray!

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

The Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

My substack

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Hot on the heels of last month’s introduction to this book, today we’ll dive into the first two guideposts – cultivating authenticity, and cultivating self-compassion.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely. If you have questions or comments, please send them to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you write.

Episode links:

The 2010 TedTalk that started Brené’s rise to international helper

Biography

Brené Brown podcast “Dare To Lead” with Adam Grant on her new book

Here’s Dan Harris leading us into a metta meditation, which is also called a “loving kindness” meditation

And here’s my episode on risk that I mentioned in this episode

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

“Women of a certain age have a lot of beauty inside them to share,” Sylvie tells us in the opening few minutes of today’s meander. Her lovely blog, “Little Old Lady… In Waiting” is a joy to read and she is offering a window into the world of middle-aged women that is often left shuttered. In our society that values youth and beauty, women over 50 are often overlooked and left out. In her blog, Sylvie is sitting with and listening to these women, many of whom are facing a renaissance as their life opens up after child-rearing and careers end, and they spend more time learning to be who they find themselves as now, in this body.

Recently, Sylvie retired from a second career nursing, working in palliative care and sitting with people as they die. insights gleaned from this has enriched her life, and we explore some of that too. Meditation features highly in this conversation.

I loved my time meandering with Sylvie, I’m sure you will too. Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

You can read Sylvie’s excellent blog here at Little Old Lady… In Waiting

Sylvie mentioned the book “Awareness” by Anthony De Mello and she recommends you listen to it first, which you can find on Audible (this is just her recommendation, not a product advertisement)

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Angie and I believe the Enneagram is critically useful in helping us live lives of meaning and joy. You see, we trip over ourselves every day. And with time, we develop habits around that, grooves in who we be that become unconscious... like a background operating system, but one that doesn’t always serve us well.

The Enneagram provides us a lens through which we can see ourselves – the gifts and the challenges that are both burden and joy. This is how I approach the Enneagram in my own self, and with my coaching clients.

Angie comes at the Enneagram from a deeper place, a reverent one. In this context, reverence means having a deep respect for someone or something. It includes a sense of awe and wonder. In this case, the Enneagram provides a spiritual portal for showing up fully as human, and holy, in our lives, and bringing our gifts to service of this world. Angie tells us that the personal and spiritual journey on offer from the teachings and practice of the Enneagram reminds us both of how awesome we are, and also, how much space there is for improvement.

Understanding the Enneagram in our lives enables us to choose how we want to be in our life. With awareness, we engage with life from a sense of presence. Which, with any luck, enhances our relationships and creates ripples of goodness in the world.

And that's why we're talking about the Enneagram, because all of us bringing our best sefl forth is how we change the world for the better. Love and be loved... that's the ballgame, folks.

If you have questions about the Enneagram, or anything we covered here today, please drop me a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And stay tuned, there is more to come.

Episode links:

The Enneagram as explained by The Enneagram Institute

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Picking up on our previous episode on influences, Angie and I pick up the threads and look at the role of expectations and ask: what happens when our expectations are not met by those who we look up to? We meander all around this, and call “human!” on feelings that come up when disappointment comes for a visit.

Please drop me a line if anything piqued your interest at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. And share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Father Richard Rohr and The Center for Action and Contemplation

Our previous meander on Expectations from May 9, 2023

The Enneagram Institute

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

November is always a reminder to me that I can “begin again.” As light levels drop, so do my spirits. In today’s meander, I offer a wee check in to where I am at this time, and I hope it affords you the space to check in with yourself too. How are you now that winter is just around the corner – assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere that is. Drop me a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Following my check in, I’ll set the table for what is to come this month in our programming. I hope you enjoy this episode, please share it around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode links:

Trudy’s Substack if you’d like to have a read. I write about my podcast, and a few other things Canadian.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

This book was foundational to my personal development, and I hope you’ll find it equally as useful. A researcher, storyteller from the University of Houston in Texas, Brené Brown helped me to see how shame and vulnerability have run rampant through my life and upended my sense of belonging. She also helped me to accept this very human part of myself, and work with it in a healthy way.

Today, we set the table for the ten guideposts she outlines in the chapters to come. The ten guideposts support what she calls “wholehearted living.” I hope you’ll read along with it all as we go.

This is tender work folks. Brené’s got a lovely mantra that can help: “Stay awkward, brave, and kind.” I hope you’ll keep that in mind as we dig in.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely. If you have questions or comments, please send them to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I will address them in the next episode.

Episode links:

The 2010 TedTalk that started Brené’s rise to international helper

Biography

Brené Brown podcast “Dare To Lead” with Adam Grant on her new leadership book, "Strong Ground"

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Like many of us, Petra Fisher settled into a job that didn’t fit her, but unlike so many of us, she made an intentional switch and that has made all the difference!

Petra shares with us her experience of switching professions from law to movement coach, how it has enhanced her life, and why she thinks we all need to focus on “future-proofing our bodies” so we age well and increase our “joy span.”

Petra is offering a new foot fitness webinar as of this week, so please have a look at the link below if you're interested. I love all her programs, I hope you will too!

I’m keen to hear what you think about this, so please take note, and send comments to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely.

Episode links:

Petra Fisher Movement, and Petra's new foot webinar. You can find Petra's social media on her website.

Katy Bowman

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

In this second PauseCast, Angie and I explore influences from our past, and how they differ from Influencers of the now, and why that matters. And of course, we finally explore why we love Alan Alda, but also Mr. Rogers, and Nancy Drew, and why THAT matters too.

What is it about those people and things that influenced us that tells us so much about who we are?

I’m keen to hear what you think about this, so please send comments to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely.

Episode links:

The movie Angie mentioned is called “Pieowa” and here’s the trailer

Some background about Alan Alda; his podcast is called “Clear and Vivid”

Anne Lamott, author, and PBS children’s TV show host, Mr. Rogers

Ken Burns latest documentary on the American Revolution, premiering Nov 16, 2025 on PBS

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned off to raise money for PBS

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Rituals matter and so Angie shares with us what she did on her summer vacation this year. It’s the way we begin every season opener on this PauseCast, and always reminds me of my first days at school when I was a kid. You heard about my summer last week, so I hope you don’t mind me dedicating this space to Angie’s experience.

Angie and her husband Peter, and their two golden retrievers, went on a 7,000 mile (11,265 kilometres) road trip, returning to places that feel like home, seeing old friends and making new ones along the way. They did a big loop from Arizona to the east coast of the US, north to Almonte, Canada where they lived for a number of years, then back down to Iowa and back home to Arizona. They travelled through some of the reddest states in the US union, only to find that people are people, regardless of political stripe. Kindness and generosity met them at every turn, and much BBQ was had. It was a good trip, and a reminder to slow down, let go of expectations, be present to each other and to the road, and be open to love.

This was a good meander, and we’ll have more on this PauseCast. I’m always keen to hear from you, so please share your thoughts at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely.

Episode links:

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Most podcasts make only 3-4 episodes… this season, we’ll have dropped more than 200! That's quite an achievement.

I am thrilled to be back with all of you, exploring joy in the everyday. This year, we’ll follow the same cadence has last year, and I explain all that in this episode. We’ll also have a sub theme of aging well, and how that connects to joy.

I hope you’ll enjoy this coming season! I give you a sneak peek into what’s to come in our episode toay.

I’m always keen to hear from you, so please share your thoughts at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely.

Episode links:

My new trailer

Drayton Theatre Festival in Grand Bend on Lake Huron, and Penetanguishene on Georgian Bay

Canada’s five great lakes

Petra Fisher Movement

Trudy’s SubStack

Terry Fallis and his new book The Marionette

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Every fall my husband and I trek out to British Columbia to check on my aged father-in-law who lives on a lake at the edge of the wilderness. But before we go, we visit my sister-in-law who lives in West Vancouver. Her home is a beautiful, modern, cedar home which she shares with her husband, and two gorgeous cats, one of whom came to visit while I was taping this soundscape.

Old cedar trees surround her home and a salmon stream runs down the back part of the property. It's as close as you can get to nature without leaving the city. Her home is halfway up the side of a mountain... (I just can't bring myself to call it a "hill") on your way out of Vancouver. It's idyllic and I love it here. I try to capture the spirit of the place through sound, and fail every time. Although I don't stop trying.

I hope you enjoy this last "summer" episode, although by now it feels like fall. I return to regular programming next week. I hope you'll join me wherever you get your podcasts. All kind comments welcome.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Feasting… author Martha Beck tells us that feasting has three essential elements: celebration, nourishment and gratitude. That’s what we talk about today in this final episode of the book, and of this 2024 spring season.

Thank you for your good company as we close out this review of this informative guide into joy in the everyday!

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work has gone, and how you are onboarding, or playing with, these ten daily practices.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

“What Comes From Spirit,” by Richard Wagamese

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Connection! This is the chapter where I really feel like the rubber hits the road. We see how the practices support us in our relationship with ourselves, and then we can apply these skills to our relationships in the bigger world. That’s what we cover in this next to final chapter in the book.

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work is going as we meander through these daily practices.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Brené Brown on shame and vulnerability

The anatomy of a conversation

The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Laughter! That’s the focus of today’s meander, as we explore the third last chapter in Martha Beck’s book, “The Joy Diet: 10 daily practices for a happier life.” We visit a laughter yoga class from 2023 on Australia’s sunshine coast and hear from two laughter yoga teachers about the benefits of such a thing. There’s good science behind it too, that Beck explores in the book. I hope you’ll have a read of that, and explore her invitation to increase your quotient of laughs per day.

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work is going as we meander through these daily practices.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Laughter Yoga, edited, care of ABC Australia, Laughter Yoga International

Baby laughter, child laughter, royalty free, with thanks

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

In this chapter on play, I feel like I have really “shown my work.” I liked this chapter, and the invitation to make all that you do in your life feel like play. The exercises are great, and I walk through my answer to what my real career actually is, and if I am living into that in my every day. Sneak peek: I am!

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work is going as we meander through these daily practices.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

...Welcome to Lac Nominigue in Quebec for a summer soundscape by the water.

In early August, my family and I took some time at a friends' cottage to regroup and recharge. It was a gorgeous, hot week and we thoroughly enjoyed being by the water. When I collected this sound, the lake was a little riled up, just perfect for capturing for this soundscape episode. I hope you enjoy the sounds from this paradise!

Please like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And drop any feedback to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Treats! Everyone loves treats... and they can be a crucial tool in supporting you in the joy diet. They can help offset the inner challenge of taking a risk, and they can reinforce good habits.

I hope you enjoy this meander as I share some of the things that I think of as "treats." It's more than chocolate and pizza, I can assure you! I hope you'll take some time to consider what a treat means to you. Beck calls treats things that make you smile, so what's your list? Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

The iconic song, "My Favourite Things" from the epic movie "The Sound of Music" is used here with great thanks to Julie Andrews and Fox Family Entertainment.

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

As the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Risk is the pathway through something that you fear, which paradoxically, helps you grow. Risk is a skill you can practice, and this chapter helps you find your way through.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Comfortable Hiking Holidays

Zion National Park, Angel’s Landing

Zion National Park, The Narrows on the Virgin River

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Creativity is this week’s focus in chapter 4 of “The Joy Diet.” I found this chapter really helpful and I encourage you to grab a pen and a piece of paper so you too can work through the exercises she offers. She doesn’t as much talk about creativity as much as invite you into a few practices that help you explore yours, in relation to the desire you may have articulated in the previous chapter. In today's episode, I show my work and talk about what I learned about taking steps to make my desire a reality.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

After five years podcasting around joy in the every day... what have we learned? As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of theirtime, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll –by Huma-HumaLive life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We're always told to live our best lives, but what does that really mean? In this book, coach Beck introduces us to the 10 daily practices that she believes will help us live more joy-filled lives. We're on chapter three, which dives into finding your heart's desire.

Today, I meander with you from the hot tub, the site of my daily meditation practice. Truth be told, I've been struggling with this week's practice on Desire. I had a whole script written, but instead, by instinct, I set it aside and just spoke from my heart. You'll hear the hiss from the hot tub's filtre for a while, then the sound of the wind brushing the mic and the birds tweeting in the background. It's all real, I promise you! After that, I share with you what I have learned about stillness and how it has applied in my life. I keep coming back to this first practice as it is just that pivotal. Then we turn to the book and the topic of desire and how I have worked with that practice. I'm hoping you are reading along and so will learn also from Martha Beck herself as I stray a bit away from her work in this meander, and into my experience with it.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Let me know how this practice lands for you.

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We're always told to live our best lives, but what does that really mean? In this book, coach Beck introduces us to the 10 daily practices that she believes will help us live more joy-filled lives.

Today, we’re looking at chapter 2, called “Truth.” The practice in this case is all about getting quiet enough in our body and mind to hear what is true for us in this very moment. Beck walks us through just how we can do that. I also weave in a bit of my favourite Indigenous author, Richard Wagamese with a few excepts from his book “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations.”

If you are interested in reading along, you can buy her book from your local independent bookstore and join me each week to explore her offering.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Tell me how exploring your truth has worked for you!

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood. Same thing with “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations” by Richard Wagamese.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We're always told to live our best lives, but what does that really mean? In this book, coach Beck introduces us to the 10 daily practices that she believes will help us live more joy full lives.

We are starting this week with chapter 1, habit #1: do nothing. In this episode, I explore this practice a bit with you, talk about how doing nothing has helped me live a more balanced life, and invite you into the practice using Martha Beck's directions.

If you are interested in reading along, you can buy her book from your local independent bookstore and join me each week to explore her offering.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Tell me how doing nothing has worked for you!

Episode links:

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lilly. I use it with permission.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

While May 2-4 weekend (we still celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday in Canada, on the third weekend of May, typically called "May 2-4" after our cases of beer that hold 24 bottles or cans) marks the beginning of summer in Canda, nothing marks summer like the end of school followed by Canada Day, on July 1. The festivities were great this year, our new national motto of "elbows up" seems to have sparked national fervor that had wilted in the recent past. A few days later, we woke to a cooling rain, which the gardens and farmers enjoyed. I hope you will too.

All comments can be sent to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

In this final meander of the season, I spend a little time and go back over my work these past five years to see if I can articulate a more satisfactory definition of joy. Not the noun or the verb, but the concept of joy. With help from a few dictionaries, and a few poets, as well as my many guests, I show you where I’ve landed. I’m keen to hear what you think about this, so please take note, and send comments to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely.

See you in October!

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Poets I mentioned: Mary Oliver, “Don’t Hesitate”; Khalil Gibran, “The Prophet”; Brené Brown’s epic TedTalk, “The Power of Vulnerability”; “Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words” by David Whyte and his on-line class, Three Sundays Series; Richard Wagamese, “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations.”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

This is a great summer read, light-hearted and fun, just perfect for a read at the beach or on a dock by a cottage somewhere.

I hope you enjoy the antics of Angus and Daniel, but more, this book makes me think a bit, giving thought to the kind of politician Angus proves to be. What if we had more like him as leader? What if, indeed?

At any rate, please send comments to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely.

See you in October!

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

The Ottawa River House

The Library of Parliament, Ottawa Canada

“The Best Laid Plans” by Terry Fallis

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Today, I'm talking to my friend Donna Scotten. To say that Donna is a world traveller is an understatement. She and her husband Jim have travelled extensively for their whole lives, from the beginning of their relationship, then with their son in tow, and now, as retirees.

“We're free spirits, we love adventure and variety...” is how Donna explains the spirit she shares, and continues to share, with her husband. We talk about how travel was different then, ~40 years ago, pre-Internet – how it took trust and courage to step into the unknown in times when we didn’t carry a computer in our pockets.

Donna has written a blog about their travels, and Jim’s photos adorn every post… a true collaboration of kindred spirits. This meander was a lovely review of a travel-life well-lived. And there's more to come from Donna and Jim, I have no doubt.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode widely. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Katimavik

You can read Donna’s blog here, and see Jim’s photography here and here

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

On this, the last PauseCast episode for the season, we talk summer… what we hope to do, or be, for the coming summer break. Considering summer from a place of intention. But also, how to find our way into rest, and joy, and experiences that enrich our lives and memories to sustain us through those long winter months.

As David Whyte says in his great book “Consolations”: “Rest is the conversation between what we love to do and how we love to be…”. With this, rest is the great enabler of returning to our balanced self. Summer allows times for languishing (we really mean "feeling languid" but we went with the word at the time, apologies for the mixup), for watching clouds and the shapes they make; sitting under deep velvet night skies and catching fireflies. Angie and I wish this for each of you, whenever summer lands in your place in this world. And Angie will embark on a summer of “Re” – re-reading, re-turning, re-membering, re-experiencing languid summer days.

The thumbnail of our episode this week is a peony from my garden… to honour Angie’s love of this perennial flower.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Trudy's company, Chapman Coaching Inc. sponsors this podcast.

You can hear Trudy’s son Callum Lurie on his YouTube page. He’s playing in Grand Bend and in Penetanguishene, Ontario with the Dreyton Theatre Festival.

Books we mentioned: Maggie Smith “Dear Writer” and “You Could Make This Place Beautiful;” “Bird by Bird” by Annie Lamott; “On Writing” by Stephen King; Michael Ondaatje “The English Patient” and “In the Skin of a Lion;” David Whyte’s “Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words”; “Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times” by Katherine May; anything by Alan Alda but we mentioned “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed” and his podcast “Clear and Vivid”

You can read more from Angie on her Substack, called “the bigger picture”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

One of my favourite things about summer is sitting outside at a cottage in the early morning and listening to the world come alive. That's what I'm bringing you today on this bonus episode.

Bruce's university friend owns this cottage on Bob's Lake, just outside Minden, Ontario. Allan lives in the UK but returns to Canada several times a year for his fix of "home." Bruce and Allan met as young men and have sustained a quiet friendship over these many years. Both from Winnipeg, Manitoba, they share my love of nature. Allan gives us occasional use of his place while he's not here, and we take full advantage whenever we can.

Mornings by a lake are so peaceful; they take me away from any worries I hold, and just support me as I bath in the sounds of the world.

I hope you enjoy these early morning sounds of nature, awakening.

Episode links:

As usual, this podcast is sponsored by my company,Chapman Coaching Inc.

Minden, Ontario

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

It's been a cold May, and I'm hoping for a warmer June. We're getting ready for our summer break but first... on today’s podcast we do a little review of where we’ve been this season, and offer a taste of where we are going in the month to come. It’s the last month of regular programming, with a summer break from July to September coming in which I will rest, and travel, and think of new things to show joy in the every day. Do stay tuned as I will likely drop a few soundscapes over the break, just to keep you connected.

I hope you’ve subscribed to us wherever you get your podcasts; please, share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars, it really does help. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

This month’s book review looks at life and choice, through the eyes of a woman contemplating leaving her marriage, or staying put. She meets up with a woman of incredible wisdom and understanding, and with her guidance and support, our author moves through this transitional time, back into her own self.

This book, "Tales of Wisdom from an Unconventional Woman: A Walk on the Beach" by Joan Anderson, came to me in the early days of my recovery from my divorce, long before my coach training. I can now see what a pivotal part this book played in becoming the me I am today. I feel such gratitude for this book and its support at this vulnerable time in my life.

As I experience it now, I realize how much of Erikson’s tidbits of wisdom I hold to, even now. Things like:

Always be willing to dance. And know that no matter how hard you dance, not everyone will clap.
Make time for play.
It’s a gift, being your own person.
We grow from emotional conflict.
Do something with your hands when you seek clarity.
By being open, welcoming, and ready to receive, grace happens.
And live the dash. You’ll understand this one after you listen to the episode.

I hope you’ve subscribed to us wherever you get your podcasts; please, share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars, it really does help. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

A GoodReads review of “A Walk on the Beach” by Joan Anderson

A GoodReads review of “Wisdom and the Senses: The Way of Creativity” by Joan Erikson

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

It is my privilege to meander today with my friend Cheryl Marita, and we explore her book “Touching the Veil: End of Life Stories Through the Eyes of a Nurse.”

This podcast looks at joy in the everyday, and Cheryl’s work as a hospice nurse does that for her… it brings joy to her everyday, that’s clear. After a career spanning almost 60 years, and at 79 years of age, she continues to work as a hospice nurse two days a week because not doing so, well, it’s just not possible for her.

In her book, she talks about the beginnings of her career, in the early 1960s, and her entry into supporting people to their natural death at a time when death meant "failure" to the medical professionals. Since she started her career, we’ve come a long way in human-focused care. Cheryl’s book shares some of those stories. It was a pleasure to meander with Cheryl; I hope you too enjoy this episode.

I hope you’ve subscribed to us wherever you get your podcasts; please, share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars, it really does help. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can get Cheryl’s book, "Touching the Veil: End of Life Stories Through the Eyes of a Nurse" via her blog, "Morsels of Marita" or via Indigo if you’re in Canada, or via your independent book store

You can read her blog on Medium

“Good Trouble” and the history of John Lewis in the fight for equal rights in the US

“Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maude Mongomery

The origins of the quote I used: “Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'." is Viktor E. Frankl, from "Man’s Search for Meaning"; Hersh Goldberg-Polin modified it to help himself and his fellow hostages find hope while in captivity in Gaza

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Angie and I regularly look at what we consider are the ingredients of joy. Ritual is one we go back to again and again.

Today, I ask: what happens when ritual becomes empty? When Easter weekend, past just last month, is no longer connected to its Christian origins? When Christmas is all about the presents, not the love we all have capacity to share or the birth of a child, born to die for our sins (again, a Christian idea). And what does religion have to offer anymore anyway? Angie would say religion offers a container of teachings and practices that ground us in our belief; rituals help us remember what that’s all about.

This is a good wrestle between Angie and me. And we don’t wrap it up in a bow, but come at it from different places, landing in a more explored place of seeing ritual and its importance.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can read more from Angie on her Substack, called “the bigger picture”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Today, you’ll hear from me as I launch this month of May. I recap a bit of where we are going, and I leave with you a taste of summer to come… via a walk on the beach I took in Lagos, Portugal.

Please, share this around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts; and give us a review. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

As usual, this podcast is sponsored by my company,Chapman Coaching Inc.

This month’s book to be reviewed will be: “A Walk on the Beach” by Joan Anderson

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

The forest across from us teems with life all year, but no time is more magical than the spring when the frogs mate in the forest swamps. We don't always time it right to hear them, but this year we got lucky!

I hope you enjoy this bonus episode...

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Cleats bite into the icy path and the ice snaps in response. The forest path, packed down by months of winter boots, is slick, and slippery, even with the cleats on.

It always amazes me how the different types and depths of ice and icy snow make all kinds of crunchy sounds as I walk. You can hear the stream as it flows, coming to life with all the water running off the forest and into the creak. It’s lovely, and kind of magical. Just a wee taste of life in Ottawa as the world reawakens, birds tweet and geese honk.

I hope you’ve subscribed to us wherever you get your podcasts; please, share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars, it really does help. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

It’s a relevant topic for our stress-filled times of economic and political upheaval, and for our every day “hurry hurry” lifestyle, so the topic seemed apt. I’ve faced burnout in my past, and I talk about some of that here as we unpack the stress cycle and what to do when you’re stuck in that space. I haven’t talked much about this before, so this is a new experience for me. I hope you’ll find this helpful, and will pick up this book by the Nagoski sisters, “Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.” They go into the science and the “how to” of restoration in much more detail than I do here.

I hope you’ve subscribed to us wherever you get your podcasts; please, share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars, it really does help. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

This podcast is supported by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Nagoski sister’s website

Interview with the Nogoski sisters on “Unlocking Us,” Brené Brown’s podcast

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

These novels are seeped in Canadiana – set in Montreal, Quebec in 2012, the novel explores the emerging fentanyl problem in Canada and the havoc it wrecks on people in Denny’s life. The first in a series of detective novels, this is a great tale, I read it in a few sittings. With a background in poetry, Chris has a deft hand in painting scenes, truly bringing us into feeling the scenes he's painted. It’s a good read.

We also talk “inside baseball” about the process of publishing a book, independently. The big benefit – you have total creative control. There’s good insight here if self-publishing is on your mind.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please, share it around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts; and give us a review. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

If you’d like to buy his book, look for “The Freelancer,” by C.J. Fournier in your favourite independent bookstore

One of the authors Chris mentioned was Graeme Greene

“May 2-4 Weekend” in Canada is a play on words. 2-4 refers to a case of 24 beer. And the weekend celebrates the birthday of the colonial British Queen, Victoria. The weekend also marks the beginning of summer in Canada.

Book cover designed by award winning designer, David Drummond of Salamander Hill design studio

Some background about Canada’s war in Afghanistan

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

On today’s PauseCast, we catch up with Angie as she shares with about her father’s passing. And in this conversation, we talk about all the things that make life precious to us – love, loss, community, ritual, grace, honour, and so much more.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

The music here is offered joyfully by Olive Tree Hymns, and I so appreciate their offering. They are a small team of young Christian volunteer musicians from Australia devoted to the worship of God through song and you can find them on YouTube. The song: "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

So, I decided that this month, I’d look at the issue of burnout.

In Canada, like the rest of the world to varying degrees, we’re facing a sea change with America no longer willing to play the role they’ve played since the end of World War II. With tariffs applied to our long-standing trade, and threats to annex us, Canadians feel this new threat to their core. And people simmer in the stress of it without any real awareness of the havoc this is playing in our nervous systems.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing a few thoughts, and some found music from Lisbon, Portugal. I hope it helps you find some calmness in your day.

And a word of gratitude for street musicians all over the world, but particularly those in Lisbon who have unknowingly contributed to this episode. You all Rock!! And you make the world a better place as you share your talents. Thank you.

Please, share this episode around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts; and give us a review. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

As usual, this podcast is sponsored by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Meander with Maddalena Molina from December, 2022, and her company, Comfortable Hiking Holidays

Inside Lisbon was the company our Lisbon tour guide Pedro worked for, and learn more about his work in Ukraine with UNESCO

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

This gentle book explores the deep knowledge coming out of the Indigenous way of living on the land. Using stories coming from her Potawatomi ancestors, Dr. Kimmerer shares traditional ways of gardening and harvesting, as well as some of the origin stories of her people. She then weaves these together with knowledge from botany and Western Science, showing us that both traditions have legitimacy. She underlines practices of gratitude in how we live on the land, and reminds us that we live in reciprocal relationships with our world. I especially love the chapter on language and how it holds the world view of the speaker.

Dr. Kimmerer lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please, share it around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts; and give us a review. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc. and the blog post I mentioned about how to find balance

Here’s Dr. Kimmerer talking about the spring, and in it she speaks in her Anishinaabe language

“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

While he'd started soaring as a teen, Ian sought it out again when he immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1980. In reconnecting with the soaring community, he built lifelong friendships, now more than 40 years old. His life is richer with soaring in it - the connection to nature, the challenge of an ever-changing environment of wind and temperature, and the alchemy of mixing science and creativity, art and whimsey, keeps bringing him back to the sport year after year. It truly lights Ian up to be in the air, travelling with the birds, that much is clear. It was such a joy for me to chat with him about his passion.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Please, share it around, and if you’re of a mind, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts; and give us a review. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Sole sponsor of this podcast is my company,Chapman Coaching Inc.

Gatineau Gliding Club at the Pendleton Airdrome near Wendover, Ontario, the small club from where Ian flies

Soaring Association of Canada

2023 National Soaring Competition

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by American author Richard Bach

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Episode Notes

Episode link:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Discerning happiness versus joy is where Angie starts, as we wrestle with these big questions. “But happiness is a short-lived drug when it comes from outside of us,” she reminds us. And we meander from there, landing in a formula of “love is a noun and a verb + begin again + community” as one tonic for getting through these perilous times.

I hope you enjoy this wee chat. Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Book by Mark Nepo “You Don’t Have to Do It Alone”

Netflix documentary, “Join or Die” based on the book by Robert Putnam “Bowling Alone”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

It's about choice. Knowing who you BE, understanding your habits in who you are, how they get in your way, and how to develop a way to choose.

We all have habits of being that were grooved into us long ago. In how we were raised, in who we are when we're born, and in what we go through in our lives. These are unconscious, and help us navigate our world. Just as we outgrow our jeans, we can also outgrow our habits, but we don't often realize that this has happened.

So how do you gain awareness of this, so that you can stop getting in your own way and choose a life of intention? How do we manage to feel steady enough to see who we really are, so that we can ask these questions of ourselves? Well, I think, joy is key. It supports us in our humanity, in seeing ourselves without judgement, and in seeing the humanity of others as well. It enables both hope, and grace. Hope in something better, and grace for lapses in ourselves and others.

All this is why, in my fifth year, I'm doing these podcasts. These topics matter. More than ever.

Thoughts and comments are welcome. Send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

My break went well, full of writing, and a little travel. I talk a bit about that. I also explore how I find calm, and make way for joy, despite the crazy that is so much of our world right now.

As usual, I’ve dipped into "Embers" by Richard Wagamese, and also “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” for inspiration. Coming out of that, I have an invitation for you to consider… What beauty do you care for in your life? And how does it enhance your world? Drop me a note and share what you find... I read everything you send me.

I hope you’ve subscribed to this wherever you get your podcasts. Please, share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars, it really does help. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

“Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations” by Richard Wagamese

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” by Charlie Macksey

Alison Wearing, a writer and teacher I’ve studied with this past year, who is helping me grow as a writer

Book by my friend Cheryl Marita, the friend I visit in New Mexico, “Touching the Veil: End of Life Stories Through the Eyes of a Nurse”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Episode link:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Today I offer you my year end/year beginning ritual, which is how I stay on track all year. I also offer a wee recap of how I think things have been going on this podcast this year… and I talk about what I’m planning for my break between now and the first week of March when I return with new material.

Invitations and housekeeping, that’s mostly what I have for you today, but that’s ok, sometimes such things are a necessary part of our relationships… running a podcast is no different really.

I hope you’ll return to my podcast after my two-month break… I’ll have a new episode on the first Tuesday in March, and I'll let you know how my writing has been going. With any luck, I'll have some new blog posts up, maybe you'll have read a few... you can find them under "blog" on my website. Fingers crossed!

Please, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts; and please, share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars, it really does help. If you have comments or questions, go ahead and send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything you send!

Happy New Year to us all. May 2025 bring kindness, and grace, and yes, joy, to your life. Thank you for listening.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

CJ Fournier, “The Freelancer” is the book I mentioned and the author I hope to interview this coming season, and a review of his first mystery novel on goodreads

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

In this fourth week of the month, I’m offering you another book that I love. This week I bring you a rip roaring tale about the early years of the 21st Century, and how a driven journalist finally found his way into a more calm and balanced life through mindfulness meditation.

This book plays two roles for me. First, it's just a good story about affairs as they unfolded in the US in the early days of the turn of the century. 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, all told by someone who covered them on the ground. Secondly, Dan shares with us how he managed to shift from hard-driving journalist into a more balanced version of himself. His invitation into mindfulness meditation via his app helped me find my way into a more relaxed version of meditation that I follow to this day. He's a guy out there truly doing good in this world, and I appreciate him. And this book is great.

If you’re of a mind, share your thoughts with me about this, or any, book review at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. If there is a book you recommend, let me know and I’ll give it a look, no promises though.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dan Harris’ Ted Talk about how he became less of a jerk to himself – I laughed, and cried, when I watched this one.

The revised app is called “Happier”

And his podcast is Ten% Happier with Dan Harris

Poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” just 'cause it's tradition

The book, reviewed on Good Reads

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

I met many lovely women while on my writing retreat in Tuscany this past October. Jacki Rowe was one of them and I’m grateful to her for sharing her heart and her festive traditions with me on this wee meander.

While I’ve met Jackie as a writer, she also ran a very successful company for 25 years, an occupation which kept her away from home and occupied more space in her life than she might have liked. Now that she’s into the next phase of her life, she’s tending to her family in a much different way than she had time for while she was working. She writes – memoir and poetry – and cooks, and paints… We talk about that and a whole lot more on this episode.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Please, share these episodes widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I read everything that arrives in my in-box.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Jackie’s company was The Garlic Box and you can learn more about it here. It’s now been sold, so the tradition lives on!

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

We meander around beginning again, around little monsters that join us when we engage in a meditation or a “sit,” around what Advent offers to us as we prepare for the coming holidays… It’s a nice complement to my solo meander from last week, and I hope you’ll listen to these both in that understanding.

December, at least in the northern hemisphere where we live, gets increasingly dark, the days, shorter, until the longest day of the year, Dec 21, and the Winter Solstice. In December, hope, peace, joy and love are centered week by week as Christmas approaches… which is an invitation for Christians and non alike to name what is in the dark, and turn towards something life giving… hope, peace, joy and love... and begin again.

And yet, life includes a lot of fear these days… mostly of the unknown. So, in the face of this fear, naming that, pausing, and turning towards… hope peace, joy and love…. Forgiveness, and trust too. This and more we cover in this meander.

I hope you enjoy this free-wheeling exploration.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Angie’s Substack channel, “The Bigger Picture”

Thomas Keating

Blue Rodeo, “Try”

The Tragically Hip documentary, “No Dress Rehearsal”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

I start with how I build and tape my podcast… the technical components and the space I work in. We also talk about other inside activities, like how we can prepare our hearts for the coming holidays with families, for family dinners that spark both joy and, sometimes, dread... Certainly sparking old habits of behaviour that no longer serve our relationships or reflect who we are, now.

I hope this lands well for you. Share your thoughts with me too, I’d love to hear from you, please write me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I hope you’ve subscribed where ever you get your podcasts. And please share this widely to spread these conversations about joy in the every day.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Reading page 115 from Richard Wagamese, “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Deceptively simple, it is a story of courage and friendship. A reminder that it is love for each other that makes life feel rich and full. This book reflects themes that I explore often in conversation – love, community, courage, risk – and how they enrich our lives.

If you’re of a mind, share your thoughts with me about these book reviews at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. If there is a book you recommend, let me know and I’ll give it a look, no promises though. And… if you tried sitting with nothing and it became something, tell me about that too, I’d love to hear about your experience.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Good Reads review

The movie it became has been world renown. You can see the trailer here.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Nancy was first on the podcast in January of 2022 and we just talked about what brings her joy. Today, she shares with us her love of playing in the mud, shaping it, painting, and firing it into things of beauty…. Functional, useful, sentimental and beautiful. We talk about the meaning that she derives out of the potting; you'll see what I mean when it comes up.

Nancy is an effervescent spirit, and it is such a joy to meander again with her on this episode.

If you’re of a mind, shoot me a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com and let me know how this episode landed for you. Please like and subscribe where ever you get your podcasts... and share widely, to spread the joy that comes from these conversations that matter.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

The soundscape at Lac Nominique

Nancy’s previous meander with me

Capital Pottery, Nancy's one stop Ottawa shop for pottery supplies

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

It’s funny how our lives spiral around certain themes, and while Angie is a storyteller at heart, bred in her bones also is teaching, mentoring, and supporting others, or as she calls it, being a "human-evoker.” She talks with us about the invitation she’s had to move into a different role in her organization, as well as the things she’s learned through all this change she’s experienced this last year. As this is a meander, we also flit around ideas like grace, and hope, ritual and joy. And love. And as Angie is back in the US, the thrust and parry of being a US citizen right now, and how in the end, we are all human beings worthy of respect.

As always, this being human is best supported by presence. Being present to our selves, and each other. To love and be loved. Simple. And not, too.

I hope you enjoy this update as we reconnect, again, with Angie.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Donor Network of Arizona, where Angie now works

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

This week, I’m all about fall and its bounty. Not the vegetable harvest as much as the opportunity to start again… that kind of bounty. Fall is a natural time to consider where I’ve been, and where I am going, and that’s some of what I’ll meander around today.

I hope this lands well for you. Share your thoughts with me too about how the fall bounty shows up for you. I’d love to hear from you, please write me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I hope you’ve subscribed where ever you get your podcasts. And please share this widely to spread these conversations about joy in the every day.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

Today, we are exploring "Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations" by Richard Wagamese.

Wagamese died in 2017, leaving behind 16 books. The bulk of his writing was fiction, telling stories about his people, informed by his experience. These are hard reads sometimes for they are full of heartbreak and challenge. His first book, "Keeper'n Me" tells the story of Garnet Raven, a story that parallels Wagamese's own life experience. It's worth your time too.

Two of his books are autobiographies, and several others explore Indigenous spirituality and wisdom. "Embers" is of that latter type, offering us hard-won wisdom about how to live a fulfilling life. I like to pick this book up and just open it up to see what is alive for me in that moment. I've never been let down. Also, it is beautifully laid out, a feast for your eyes!

I've read from "Embers" countless times on this podcast, particularly on the PauseCast in conversation with Angie Arendt, so it seemed like the right place to start.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Richard Wagamese biography

"Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations"

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

This week, I speak with weaver Jane Perry about her love of nature, and how she finds joy in working with natural fibers as she pulls wool threads into beautiful tapestries. A retired forester, she’s been able to spend her days creating and playing on her loom in her studio in a gorgeous log cabin in the forest, west of Williams Lake, BC.

I'm a little rusty and forgot to remind you to please subscribe if you haven't already, and share my work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Jane’s company is Cariboo Handwoven

Petra Fisher Movement and Yoga with Adriene

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

You can't make this stuff up, the gunshots that landed just as we started to meditate are one of the happenstance occurances of life in "live to tape" podcasting. I left them in there because they made me laugh, and they reflect life at it's crazy best.

I hope you liked this all the same. Please, like it on your favourite social media and share it around, and subscribe where ever you get your podcasts. All feedback welcome at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

On this episode, Angie fills us in on what she’s been doing now that she’s moved to Arizona and her new work helping people after facing a catastrophic loss. We also explore what we’d like to do for the coming fall season.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Donor Network of Arizona, where Angie now works

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy

The poem Angie read was “Good Bones,” by Maggie Smith

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

As always, this podcast is sponsored by the guests who give of their time, and by my company, Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is gratefully received and is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Live life joyfully, and always let kindness guide you.

In this episode, I'm all alone... explaining to you what you can expect from this fall and winter season. How I plan to give you a little more of me with the first episode of each month me alone, sharing whatever comes to mind. Week two, we're back to the "PauseCast with Angie Arendt." We'll explore more of the elements of joy in the every day. Week three each month goes back to the roots of this podcast - talking with regular people about joy in the every day. And week four is new... I'll be doing a book review of books that hold meaning for me. For any extra week in the month, like we have in October, I'll give you something special, maybe a soundscape, or another interview with a regular Jane or Joe, we shall see!

I hope you'll find this a worthwhile way to spend some time together. I sure do enjoy meandering with you, and playing with sound.

Comments are always welcome; please send them to me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com I read everything. And please subscribe and share this episode widely so we can all be reminded to look for how joy shows up for us, in our everyday worlds. Thank you for listening, I know there are many options out there. Thank you for spending this time with me.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dead Dog Cafe

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Good morning from Horsefly Lake, BC! It’s our usual summer visit to northern BC, to this glorious spot at Horsefly. Horsefly is a small town with a big heart and we enjoy our trips here every year to visit family and explore what the Cariboo region has to offer.

Enjoy!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Horsefly, BC

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Summer is turning to fall here in Canada, and hubby and I are making a pre-winter trip to BC to check in on my father-in-law, Bruce's dad. The flight from Ottawa takes about five hours, and then we stop off at Bruce's sister's place for a day before hitting the road for the day long trip north to their father's place. This gives me a day to resume my meditation routine, this time in Kathleen's hot tub in her yard in Vancouver, BC. There's a salmon run in her back yard, a yard full of tall cedar trees, just at the edge of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in my humble opinion.

Please enjoy this soundscape with me, of her hot tub, with the salmon stream and a few floatplanes and helicopters in the mix.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

The Pacific Great Blue Heron is featured in this bonus episode of Meanderings with Trudy. Turns out, Stanley Park in Vancouver BC is home to one of the largest colonies of these majestic birds, worldwide. The babies had hatched, and the sound was unlike anything I’d heard! We were there in late May of 2024.

Stanley Park is an urban park, and so there is a lot of texture in this soundscape. There were lots of people walking with us, jogging around us, the usual car traffic, as well as buses carrying tourists around. Lot's here to hear! Enjoy!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Pacific Great Blue Heron Colony at Stanley Park, Vancouver BC

You can see all the action in the nests via the Heron Cam

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Into every life, some rain must fall… I don’t know who said that, but has it ever been true of the summer of 2024! We’ve had some glorious weather, and we’ve had some incredible rainstorms!

Today, this is what is on offer… one of our summer rainstorms with sound collected from my backyard. I hope you enjoy this reprieve from the summer heat, as we move from August to September, and the fall begins to be more present in cooler nights and back to school sales in the stores.

Enjoy!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

One of the great things about our short Canadian summers is spending time at a cottage. I’m lucky in that I have a good friend who rents hers out a few weeks a year. Hubby and I spent a week there this summer during one of the hottest weeks we've had so far. We swam in the lake, or lac as they say in Quebec, lite campfires and roasted marshmallows, cooked burgers and hot dogs on the BBQ, spent time with family and just generally soaked up the sights and sounds of nature. It was a blessed time.

Grand Lac Nominique is a small lake, as they go here in Canada. The lake is 8 km long and 3 km wide and it can be found in the Laurentians, which are a mountain range in eastern Canada, in the province of Quebec. The lake is bounded by big rocks, and the water laps against them in a very pleasing way… a snippet of which is what I’m offering you today.

Like the Canadian summer, this is a short and sweet taste of the glories of the Grand Lac Nominique. True bliss!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Grand Lac Nominique

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

The genesis of this episode lies with an article I read as I was making my morning coffee about the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna this summer. Threatened by a terrorist plot, authorities closed down the phenom, breaking the hearts of some 200,000 fans who’d hope to attend. On its own, this story is simply a sign of our times. The mayhem on our streets playing itself out in myriad ways from day to day, heaping sadness and disappointment on many… but hey, it’s only a concert, right?

As I try to find and showcase the good in life, this piece about how the fans responded to the cancellation gives me hope that ultimately, things will be ok. In the face of challenge, human beings are amazing, and these fans, no less: finding meaning in their shared loved, sharing connection, exhibiting resilience through song, sharing rituals and yes, joy… the fans showed it all. All in the face of the cancellatoin of "just a concert."

All this and more is what we meander around every week as we shine the spotlight on joy. I believe that joy, and hope, are antidotes to fear and sadness about the state of the world.

I hope you don’t mind this impromptu meander from my kitchen, as I made coffee, and tea, and shared my thoughts with you. And please, give the article a read let me know if it gives you a little more hope in this broken, but beautiful, world of ours. The link is below.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

“A Terrorist Plot Canceled the Show. But We Swifties Found Each Other on Cornelia Street” By Agnes Callard published in “The Free Press” August 17, 2024

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In our final meander together with Dina, we explore the final chapter in “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to wholehearted.” This Postlude explores the work that Dina is confidently and humbling stepping into, the work of a Grief Doula, which she defines as companioning people in their grief journey. This is such big work, and such important work, as life is full of grief and loss, not just death but losses of all kinds. And learning how to manage grief as a normal, healthy and involuntary activity has been the focus of this book, and all in service of helping us experience joy in our lives.

My take-aways from the book, very high level, are:

Loss is simply what happens to us in life. It’s part of living fully. It is natural. Meaning is what we make of it.
We all move through grief, and recovery, at our own pace.
STUGs – sudden temporary upsurges of grief – happen because grieving is not linear; we ebb and flow in our experience for the rest of our lives.
Listening to someone in their grief is our superpower as humans.
Grieving takes effort, awareness, self-compassion, time, and community. We all have a part to play.
Grief is love.

My final invitation to you is to consider these take-aways and see how they land for you now. And what, if anything else, did you notice that is meaningful for you?

Feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Richard Wagamese’s book “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In chapter five of Dina’s book, we’re looking at the gifts that come out of embodying our grief, of healing the wounds in a healthy way. I found this chapter a wonderful way of pulling together all the threads of learning in this book. In fact, the invited homework from the previous chapter on continuing bonds helped me with this too.

The notion of post traumatic growth is a centrepiece of this chapter, and it is a much-overlooked reality of our effectively growing through our grief from a loss. This idea spotlights all the ways in which we as people grow stronger, learn more about ourselves, develop resilience and insight by experiencing grief and big life losses. All this helps us as we become our future selves. Or as Dina puts it “… post traumatic growth… describes the positive psychological change that is experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life occurrences.” The gifts of grief are many, sometimes simple, others profound. But always nurturing to us as we move forward into tomorrow.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore one of the seven growth opportunities coming out of grief that Dina outlined for us from the literature. How have you experienced flourishing coming out of a loss experience you have had? And how has this affected your life?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

She read us the poem “Hands of a Woman,” the wonderful BC poet Caroline Miskenack

An article from Karl Abrecht on the five basic human fears

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In chapter four of Dina’s book, we’re looking at this idea of continuing bonds, of continuing our relationship with people who have died, by way of better owning, embodying, and coping with, our feelings of loss. The thing about death is that we often can’t accept the reality of our loss. Continuing bonds normalizes our desire to maintain a relationship with those who have died, and for this to be seen as a healthy way of coping. Continuing bonds can look like different things for different people – I like to invite my mom’s spirit to come and meditate with me, for example. And for some, this idea of continuing bonds is not for them at all, and that’s ok too.

Another big part of this meander explores fear. It seems to us that understanding fear a bit better will help us cope through periods of grief, so Dina shares a bit about the five basic human fears, and how these manifest in us, in our lives.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore two things: first, how does fear hold you in unhealthy ways of coping with loss? And second, if the idea of continuing bonds makes sense to you, what could that look like in your life? And if you try, how does this shift your experience of your grief?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Dina’s song, cowritten with Leslie Rohonczy

An article from Karl Abrecht on the five basic human fears

The Enneagram Institute on Enneagram types

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In chapter three of Dina’s book, we’re looking at the ways that we attend to our broken hearts. In this meander we show the shifts that Dina is still making in her own grief journey. How, after 22 years, she is finally making space for herself in this journey. It is such a beautiful way of appreciating how we embody grief and it nourishes our own experience in the world. And irrevocably changes us in the process.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore how you cope with loss. What tools do you use? Are you an intuitive griever or an instrumental one? Do you take action and do things as you grieve, or do you emote? What happens when you do this?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Dina’s song, cowritten with Leslie Rohonczy

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In chapter two of Dina’s book, we’re looking at reconciling loss. We start with last month’s exercise to look at our loss maps, and my extrapolation out, looking at belonging. It’s a great example of how to do the exercise and apply the learning to our own lives. Dina tells us that reconciling loss is about reasserting harmony in our experience, and with the insight from my loss map, I find more harmony inside myself when issues of belonging come up. Belonging, and so much more, is part of this episode.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to move out of your loss map and see how you’ve reconciled those losses you found. Start with one loss you've noticed, and move on from there. With a kind and non-judgemental mind, what do you see?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In this second episode in our book review, we look at chapter one, which is all about grappling with grief. The starting point is understanding that we all grapple in different ways. And that is absolutely as it should be. But most of us don’t know how we grapple, and don’t realize that others ways can be different. So that is where we start, and we meander from there. I hope you find this both helpful and informative.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore your “loss line;” here's how: divide your age by four, and create four boxes on a piece of paper, breaking your years of life into four spans. For each span, write down the memories of loss that come up for you. Take a few passes at this, maybe over a few sittings, and write until you feel complete. Then, sit with what you've explored and consider: what do you see? Any trends, or threads that you see? What does this tell you about your approach to loss and grieving... how do you grapple? Dina explains more, so make sure you listen if you're interested in trying this out.

Feel free to share your expereince with this exercise, or anything that you hear, with us. Feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Canada Day is a delight here in the Great White North… the first heat of summer hits us, hard, and we settle into the dog days of summer, which are often too few but usually well appreciated.

On this Canada Day, I went for a kayak with my brother Steve on a tributary of the Ottawa River. Green’s Creek it’s called, and while in the city, it’s like going back into prehistoric time. We saw several heron, a large beaver and many turtles of many sizes. It was great.

I hope you enjoy this wee paddle.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In this first episode in our book review, we’re exploring the information in the Prelude of Dina’s book, “Grief Unleased: Moving from the hole in our hearts to wholehearted.” The Prelude sets the table for the book, sharing her “why” in writing…. which is to dispel the myths around grief, to demystify it in service of living a more full life, so we can better embody our experience and grow as a result of it. At the core, Dina knows that grief is an internal response to a severed attachment. The process of grieving effectively provides nutrients that builds our capacity to handle change.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we will offer a few invitations for practice for our listeners. This session has two:

Coming out of David Whyte’s poem, “The Journey,” what is the one line already inside of you that if you looked, you’d find?
Poetry is a window into our heart, an aid to help us mull over what matters to us. Find some that speaks to you. Explore. How does your grief show up here?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Wind Phone, contact Dina if you want to make a donation to the one planned for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Feasting… author Martha Beck tells us that feasting has three essential elements: celebration, nourishment and gratitude. That’s what we talk about today in this final episode of the book, and of this 2024 spring season.

I will be on break until October, but offering a “Meander Again” set of episodes, recasting my six conversations with Dina Bell-Laroche and her book, which takes us to mid-August. After that, I will go silent until October, a real break during which my creative juices will marinate.

Thank you for your good company! See you in the fall!

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work has gone, and how you are onboarding, or playing with, these ten daily practices.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

“What Comes From Spirit,” by Richard Wagamese

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

Connection! This is the chapter where I really feel like the rubber hits the road. We see how the practices support us in our relationship with ourselves, and then we can apply these skills to our relationships in the bigger world. That’s what we cover in this next to final chapter in the book.

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work is going as we meander through these daily practices.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Brené Brown on shame and vulnerability

The anatomy of a conversation

The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

Laughter! That’s the focus of today’s meander, as we explore the third last chapter in Martha Beck’s book, “The Joy Diet: 10 daily practices for a happier life.” We visit a laughter yoga class from 2023 on Australia’s sunshine coast and hear from two laughter yoga teachers about the benefits of such a thing. There’s good science behind it too, that Beck explores in the book. I hope you’ll have a read of that, and explore her invitation to increase your quotient of laughs per day.

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work is going as we meander through these daily practices.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Laughter Yoga, edited, care of ABC Australia, Laughter Yoga International

Baby laughter, child laughter, royalty free, with thanks

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

In our final meander together with Dina, we explore the final chapter in “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to wholehearted.” This Postlude explores the work that Dina is confidently and humbling stepping into, the work of a Grief Doula, which she defines as companioning people in their grief journey. This is such big work, and such important work, as life is full of grief and loss, not just death but losses of all kinds. And learning how to manage grief as a normal, healthy and involuntary activity has been the focus of this book, and all in service of helping us experience joy in our lives.

My take-aways from the book, very high level, are:

Loss is simply what happens to us in life. It’s part of living fully. It is natural. Meaning is what we make of it.
We all move through grief, and recovery, at our own pace.
STUGs – sudden temporary upsurges of grief – happen because grieving is not linear; we ebb and flow in our experience for the rest of our lives.
Listening to someone in their grief is our superpower as humans.
Grieving takes effort, awareness, self-compassion, time, and community. We all have a part to play.
Grief is love.

My final invitation to you is to consider these take-aways and see how they land for you now. And what, if anything else, did you notice that is meaningful for you?

Feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Richard Wagamese’s book “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In this chapter on play, I feel like I have really “shown my work.” I liked this chapter, and the invitation to make all that you do in your life feel like play. The exercises are great, and I walk through my answer to what my real career actually is and if I am living into that in my every day. Sneak peek: I am!

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. I’d love to hear how your work is going as we meander through these daily practices.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

Treats! Everyone loves treats... and they can be a crucial tool in supporting you in the joy diet. They can help offset the inner challenge of taking a risk, and they can reinforce good habits.

I hope you enjoy this meander as I share some of the things that I think of as "treats." It's more than chocolate and pizza, I can assure you! I hope you'll take some time to consider what a treat means to you. Beck calls treats things that make you smile, so what's your list? Feel free to share your thoughts with me at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

The iconic song, "My Favourite Things" from the epic movie "The Sound of Music" is used here with great thanks to Julie Andrews and Fox Family Entertainment.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Risk is the pathway through something that you fear, which paradoxically, helps you grow. Risk is a skill you can practice, and this chapter helps you find your way through.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Comfortable Hiking Holidays

Zion National Park, Angel’s Landing

Zion National Park, The Narrows on the Virgin River

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

In chapter five of Dina’s book, we’re looking at the gifts that come out of embodying our grief, of healing the wounds in a healthy way. I found this chapter a wonderful way of pulling together all the threads of learning in this book. In fact, the invited homework from the previous chapter on continuing bonds helped me with this too.

The notion of post traumatic growth is a centrepiece of this chapter, and it is a much-overlooked reality of our effectively growing through our grief from a loss. This idea spotlights all the ways in which we as people grow stronger, learn more about ourselves, develop resilience and insight by experiencing grief and big life losses. All this helps us as we become our future selves. Or as Dina puts it “… post traumatic growth… describes the positive psychological change that is experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life occurrences.” The gifts of grief are many, sometimes simple, others profound. But always nurturing to us as we move forward into tomorrow.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore one of the seven growth opportunities coming out of grief that Dina outlined for us from the literature. How have you experienced flourishing coming out of a loss experience you have had? And how has this affected your life?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

She read us the poem “Hands of a Woman,” the wonderful BC poet Caroline Miskenack

An article from Karl Abrecht on the five basic human fears

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Creativity is this week’s focus in chapter 4 of “The Joy Diet.” I found this chapter really helpful and I encourage you to grab a pen and a piece of paper so you too can work through the exercises she offers. She doesn’t as much talk about creativity as much as invite you into a few practices that help you explore yours, in relation to the desire you may have articulated in the previous chapter. In today's episode, I show my work and talk about what I learned about taking steps to make my desire a reality.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As winter turns to spring, we're going to move chapter by chapter through a book by longtime life coach, Martha Beck. We're always told to live our best lives, but what does that really mean? In this book, coach Beck introduces us to the 10 daily practices that she believes will help us live more joy-filled lives. We're on chapter three, which dives into finding your heart's desire.

Today, I meander with you from the hot tub, the site of my daily meditation practice. Truth be told, I've been struggling with this week's practice on Desire. I had a whole script written, but instead, by instinct, I set it aside and just spoke from my heart. You'll hear the hiss from the hot tub's filtre for a while, then the sound of the wind brushing the mic and the birds tweeting in the background. It's all real, I promise you! After that, I share with you what I have learned about stillness and how it has applied in my life. I keep coming back to this first practice as it is just that pivotal. Then we turn to the book and the topic of desire and how I have worked with that practice. I'm hoping you are reading along and so will learn also from Martha Beck herself as I stray a bit away from her work in this meander, and into my experience with it.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Let me know how this practice lands for you.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As Angie is taking a pause from the PauseCast, due to her move to Phoenix and her new job, I am taking a little time to do a book review with everyone. We're going to move chapter by chapter through a book by longtime life coach, Martha Beck. We're always told to live our best lives, but what does that really mean? In this book, coach Beck introduces us to the 10 daily practices that she believes will help us live more joy-filled lives.

Today, we’re looking at chapter 2, called “Truth.” The practice in this case is all about getting quiet enough in our body and mind to hear what is true for us in this very moment. Beck walks us through just how we can do that. I also weave in a bit of my favourite Indigenous author, Richard Wagamese with a few excepts from his book “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations.”

If you are interested in reading along, you can buy her book from your local independent bookstore and join me each week to explore her offering.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to: meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Tell me how exploring your truth has worked for you!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood. Same thing with “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations” by Richard Wagamese.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lily. I use it with permission.

As Angie is taking a pause from the PauseCast, due to her move to Phoenix and her new job, I am taking a little time to do a book review with everyone. We're going to move chapter by chapter through a book by longtime life coach, Martha Beck.

We're always told to live our best lives, but what does that really mean? In this book, coach Beck introduces us to the 10 daily practices that she believes will help us live more joy full lives.

We are starting this week with habit #1: do nothing. In this episode, I explore this practice a bit with you, talk about how doing nothing has helped me live a more balanced life, and invite you into the practice using Martha Beck's directions.

If you are interested in reading along, you can buy her book from your local independent bookstore and join me each week to explore her offering.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share my work widely, and give the podcast a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Tell me how doing nothing has worked for you!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can find "The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life" by Martha Beck at Indigo in Canada, and at local bookstores near you, like Books on Beechwood.

Learn more about Martha Beck.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

My friend Richard Godin shot this beautiful picture of the water lilly. I use it with permission.

I was able to view the 2024 solar eclipse totality and captured the sound. It’s a little windy later in the tape, so pardon that part. You’ll note that the geese and the birds do not go silent as the moon obscures the sun. And the crowd, as was the case all over, the crowd are jubilant!

As I listen to this, I am transported back to the experience, and feel the excitement and the wonder all over again. I hope you enjoy this bonus piece from my experience of this amazing event.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Video of solar eclipse totality from Kingston Ontario, just two hours down the road from where I was. Thanks to CBC News for the video link.

I wrote a blog piece about it on my website, if you'd like to have a read.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In chapter four of Dina’s book, we’re looking at this idea of continuing bonds, of continuing our relationship with people who have died, by way of better owning, embodying, and coping with, our feelings of loss. The thing about death is that we often can’t accept the reality of our loss. Continuing bonds normalizes our desire to maintain a relationship with those who have died, and for this to be seen as a healthy way of coping. Continuing bonds can look like different things for different people – I like to invite my mom’s spirit to come and meditate with me, for example. And for some, this idea of continuing bonds is not for them at all, and that’s ok too.

Another big part of this meander explores fear. It seems to us that understanding fear a bit better will help us cope through periods of grief, so Dina shares a bit about the five basic human fears, and how these manifest in us, in our lives.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore two things: first, how does fear hold you in unhealthy ways of coping with loss? And second, if the idea of continuing bonds makes sense to you, what could that look like in your life? And if you try, how does this shift your experience of your grief?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Dina’s song, cowritten with Leslie Rohonczy

An article from Karl Abrecht on the five basic human fears

The Enneagram Institute on Enneagram types

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Change is in the air… this is a special PauseCast with Angie as she prepares to move to Phoenix, Arizona from Almonte, Ont… from Canada to the US. And I am visiting family in Vancouver, BC. So, we sound a little different today, which is fine, and good, and as it should be.

Angie and I explore joy in the concept of change, which probably resonates for each of you, as change is one thing we can count on in life. Change can bring grief and anxiety, doubt, and also, joy. And the thing about making a choice that sparks change is that such a process can bring clarity to what we value and want for ourselves, right here, right now.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode, it’s a real special one. Please, share our work widely, give us a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Hold On Loosely, by 38 Special

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

I always love visiting nature, and here in Vancouver, nature is truly just outside the guest bedroom door at my sister-in-law's place. Here, the sounds of a salmon stream that runs through the property are ever-present, and sooth my soul. So, I thought I would share with you some of that beauty on this holiday week, in March.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Today, we pick up some of the threads we left before our break. We start with an exploration of what it means to return – to family, to relationships, to places we used to know – all in the context of stitching reverence and resilience into a cloth that fits us now. Yes, there’s a lot of “R”s in today’s episode – returning, reverence, resilience, ritual, repenting, re-membering, reminding… so many Rs.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode; it’s so rich, and pulls together the threads of meanders past, in service of rekindling joy. Yes, more Rs! Please, share our work widely, give us a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Indra’s Net

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In chapter three of Dina’s book, we’re looking at the ways that we attend to our broken hearts. In this meander we show the shifts that Dina is still making in her own grief journey. How, after 22 years, she is finally making space for herself in this journey. It is such a beautiful way of appreciating how we embody grief and it nourishes our own experience in the world. And irrevocably changes us in the process.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore how you cope with loss. What tools do you use? Are you an intuitive griever or an instrumental one? Do you take action and do things as you grieve, or do you emote? What happens when you do this?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Dina’s song, cowritten with Leslie Rohonczy

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

I hope you've enjoyed re-exploring joy as seen through the lens of the Enneagram. We covered a lot of ground from wholeheartedness, rebirth, community, ritual, storytelling and a whole lot more. And on this meander, I shared with you a bit about what I've learned about myself as I revisit my "two-ness" this time around.

As I look ahead to the end of winter and coming spring episodes, I can tell you that we'll continue to meander through Dina's book, "Grief Unleashed: from the whole in our hearts to wholehearted." Angie and I will continue to explore joy twice a month on The PauseCast following in the footsteps of the poet Khalil Gibran. We left off in December "On Wonder" and we'll probably pick back up there with that theme. We do plan to explore big topics like On Support, and On Stress, On Nature and On Silence, among other things... or wherever whimsy takes us. I'll continue to meander with regular people about how they experience their joy, and we'll cover a little more about relationships, including grandparenting, in those meanders.

All that said, every meander is a surprise, and I hope you'll stick with us as we cover the landscape. The unifying theme across each of the meanders is JOY in the every day, showing how we can live more fulfilling lives. Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

PS... Zoomba is a dog who makes an appearance in this episode.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

If you want to learn more about the Enneagram, visit The Enneagram Institute

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Today we do a little recapping, and also reflect the Enneagram into our lives moving forward. How we can play with the characteristics of our type, and begin to learn how to choose how to respond to situations as opposed to simply react in our age-old way. This can create some unease in our relationships because we are acting outside of how others expect us to be… in our personal lives, and in our work lives too.

In short, the Enneagram is both information (what’s my type, what are the gifts and challenges of my type), and a practice of pausing and paying attention to who I am and how that plays into my relationship with myself and others. How do I show up with my gifts? And how can that affect the world? We talk about how the Enneagram can save the world… yeah, that big and that small too.

There’s this and more in this episode, I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Angie and I will be back in the fall with some fresh meanders, but I will repost past episodes over the summer so stay tuned for “Meandering Again” episodes.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Soulfulness…what is it? How does it differ from spirituality? Why does it matter? And how does the Enneagram support it?

In this meander, we explore how the Enneagram is both a tool and a practice… a tool of information about my type and the other personality types, and then the invitation into awareness, so that when I slow down, I can know myself, and see where my gifts lie, and also how I trip myself up… and a practice, an ongoing intention, to pay attention to how I show up and catch myself in my own habit loop of behaviour. And from that place, choose how I want to respond to life in this moment. And this “Enneagram as a practice” supports both soulful moments in my day-to-day, and occasionally, moments of awe-inspiring spirituality. You get the gist.

There’s this and a lot more in this episode; I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

We kibbitz around a bit to begin with around unexpected connections in the supermarket, and that old game from the 1990s, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon… which was really about just how connected we all are in this great big world. We wrestle with expectations, the ones we have when coming new to the Enneagram, how the first level of exploration is seeking information, that’s all. The next level is about understanding those types, and those types in us….each of those types, not just our own homebase. And with time, and in community with others, we can drop in further and ask: What’s Next?

In this fast-paced world, the Enneagram is an invitation to pause and look at our stories so we can find ourselves. We explore this through story telling, and finding grace, and grief, and gratitude in the process. We dive into all of that today.

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

What is hope? And what is flow? Back in 2022, Angie and I explored these things… we said that hope is our background program that helps us get up in the morning. It’s actionable and intentional; it empowers us to do what we are here to be. And flow… flow happens when we let go of aspiration and just be who we are at our essence, in this very moment. And when we apply the lens of the Enneagram we ask: how does this framework help us explore our spirit, our very souls, and find our way into the flow of life that is, effortless? We find that we do this in nine different ways…

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

We again referenced Richard Wagamese’s book “Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations” in this meander

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Ritual and storytelling… intertwined these are. And when conducted using the framework of the Enneagram, I have learned a great deal about myself that has supported my personal development and enriched my relationships. In short, this is what this kind of work is all about.

As we’ve said before on these PauseCasts, the Enneagram gives us permission to pause, and in that pause, to look at who we be, in service of the Greater Good… or Life… or God, whatever your preferred language is for this that is bigger than us alone. In today’s meander, Angie and I explore how ritual and storytelling get us closer to our “…real, essential self” in the words of Richard Wagamese from his book “What Comes from Spirit.”

In short, rituals slow us down enough so that we can see how our stories inform our world view

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Here’s a book review of Richard Wagamese’s book “What Comes from Spirit” that Trudy referenced in the beginning of our meander

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

We start our meander with a reading from Richard Wagamese (Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) novelist, journalist, and mentor), a passage from his book "Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations" which I think is really about hope. How it’s not enough to be resilient if being so means bouncing back to the same place… what he wants for himself, and offers to us, is to reach Beyond resilience, to a new place of growth, each day. Angie and I wrestle with “resilience” and from this place I ask a few basic questions: do we need resilience to be capable of rebirth? And how does the Enneagram support rebirth? And finally, if personal development is an inside job, how does community fit in?

The funny thing about the Enneagram, and personal development in general, is that the work is both an inside and an outside job. Inside as we look at ourselves and our habits of behaving, believing, and so on so we can see how they serve us. Outside as we need support, and to be held to account, as we do the inner work. And in community, in contact and communion with each other, we create something more than ourselves.

Just as the Enneagram gives us a mirror to see ourselves, there is often a lot there about ourselves that we see that we just don’t like. And here’s where community comes in – as its best, community is a supportive place where people who care about us help us see who we are, and help us sit with those things about ourselves that we don’t like. In community, we get the strength to look at who we are, without judgement but with great kindness, enabling us to see how that serves us, or not. And then change, if we wish. Rebirthing ourselves... as we shift.

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. We believe these meanderings matter, and we hope you do too. So please share.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

milk and honey, by rupi kaur

"Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations", by Richard Wagamese

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

In episode 2 on the enneagram, we tackle wholeheartedness, relationship and heart using the lens of the Enneagram. Angie and I also “show our work” here as we wrestle with the concepts, and how to keep things accessible to listeners at all levels of familiarity with the framework…. Not an easy task.

In short, the Enneagram helps us see ourselves. It really is a practice of paying attention: to our habits and long held beliefs, those we have inherited and those we have nurtured ourselves through life, all so we can see how we are showing up, or not showing up, in our relationships. Relationships first with our selves, and then, with others. Using awareness and presence, we can learn to see how we unknowingly protect ourselves from heartbreak in nine different ways. Reminder: the Enneagram model has nine main personality types… hence the “nine different ways” we protect our hearts from harm.

As mentioned in the last episode, we are exploring the Enneagram as a practice of presence. Today, we wrestle with the question: what if the secret to life isn’t about becoming a better person (ie. self-improvement) but is simply about being more human (ie. more real, more compassionate)? Can the Enneagram to help us do that? We believe it can. Listen in and let us know… do you agree?

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

The Riso Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI) assessment at The Enneagram Institute, look under “Testing Center” tab at the top of the landing page

About Thomas Merton’s life and writings

Brené Brown on wholeheartedness

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Episode one: The Enneagram. I laid the table at the end of January 2023 with my genesis story of the Enneagram and today, Angie shares hers… and a whole lot more. So what is this thing, the Enneagram? Is it a tool or a model to make me “better?” Is it a map, or an app? Is this an alone thing or do I need community? If it supports spiritual development, does that mean it is religious?

We meander all over the topic of what the Enneagram is, how it outlines types of personalities but so much more. When push comes to shove, Angie tells us, it really is a practice of presence. That is the ultimate purpose, and invitation: to be present to who we really are, in service of shining our own light into this world.

Understanding the Enneagram in this way, from a place of presence, makes it possible to feel with and for eachother. But, and here’s the rub: that’s uncomfortable; it may demand that we change who we think we are so we have room for others… and so, we don’t take up the invitation to ask the big questions about who we be, we allow ourselves to be defined by the behaviours of our type, excusing our challenging behaviour with an “that’s just what I was built to do”, and move on.

Yet the gift of insight and personal development offered by this model is astounding, if you tough it through the work, if you’d let your soul truly shine. There are few places in this world where we spend time asking the big questions of life anymore, but that’s what we’re trying to do here with this series of episodes about the Enneagram.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Comedian Rob Delaney’s interview on CBS, showing the power of human connection, of being seen

The quote Angie was trying to share was from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

“Old Turtle and the Broken Truth” by Douglas Wood

“Start Close In” by David Whyte

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Today, we meander On Wonder, and wrap up the fall season in anticipation of our winter break. Like our previous topic, On Reverence, On Wonder came to us as a bit of a surprise. It felt like a natural follow on from On Reverence, and is deeply connected to joy, so… here we are. Wonder, like reverence, and grace, is hard to define. This is a particular problem in English as wonder means many things: one type of wonder links directly to awe, and another links to control, expectation, and fear, among other things. So, Angie and I delve into this and so much more as we briefly revisit the other topics covered so far this year.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. We’ll be back with another PauseCast in March, 2024. If you have comments or questions, or topics you’d like us to cover, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Please subscribe, share our work widely, and give us a review to tease the algorithms.

Happy New Year everyone!

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

M.A.S.H.

“This is Water” by David Foster Wallace

FaceBook post on Advent by Laura Barnes, provided by Angie

‘It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” sung by Rosanne Cash, the poem Angie read in our meander, and on the origins of the poem

“The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy – book, and movie (trailer)

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

One of the things I love about talking with Melissa is that she IS a podcaster herself. Meandering with her is kind of like playing badminton…she so easily slips into interview mode, batts me the birdie giving me space to wonder about my past as a parent, for example, and then I batt it back to her and she gets to talk about Beyoncé! Such is the gift of talking with people in this big world of ours.

Melissa is from New York City and loves the hustle of the big city. She talks about wonder as it comes up in her life, living now on Staten Island, with her parents in the home where she grew up. And how she still can see the stars at night, and they remind her of wonder in the world. I hope you enjoy this meander with her as we go far and wide on topics that matter to us.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Melissa’s podcast is called “Making Way,” a podcast about finding your path in life. She interviews a wide range of people, and gives them each space to tell their story, sharing their wisdom. Give it a listen!

Beyoncé

“Hawaii”, by James Mitchner, published in 1959 when Hawaii joined the US as the 50th state

Fort Frances, Ontario

“The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy – book, and movie (trailer)

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Today, we meander On Reverence. We landed in this space unexpectedly in our previous PauseCast, when we explored On Worry, and Angie talked about how worry is a human response that takes us away from reverence. And reverence, well, last week Angie told us that “…reverence is a recognition of awe and wonder for all of life…” This week, she built on that saying that “…reverence is to see life as a gift… It is a mindset.” At its most basic, I think its a way of being open to the rawness of the world – beauty and hardship – and it is supported/made possible by all kinds of things… grace, pause, light, hope, peace, joy and love, among others... which is what Angie and I talk about today.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share our work widely, give us a review to tease the algorithms. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Richard Wagamese, “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations”

The link Angie promised us today can be found here: American Symphony

And finally, as a wee present for reading this far, a jazzy rendition of This Little Light of Mine.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In chapter two of Dina’s book, we’re looking at reconciling loss. We start with last month’s exercise to look at our loss maps, and my extrapolation out, looking at belonging. It’s a great example of how to do the exercise and apply the learning to our own lives. Dina tells us that reconciling loss is about reasserting harmony in our experience, and with the insight from my loss map, I find more harmony inside myself when issues of belonging come up. Belonging, and so much more, is part of this episode.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to move out of your loss map and see how you’ve reconciled those losses you found. Start with one loss you've noticed, and move on from there. With a kind and non-judgemental mind, what do you see?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Today we meander around Worry… what it looks like, feels like, and how it connects to joy. To be honest, there seems like a lot to worry about these days, maybe it has always been this way, I can’t say. But today, today’s days feel heavy.

In a nutshell, worry is about control of how we want things to be but are concerned that they won’t be. It’s about “should be” things… so, how do we find our way through this? How do I keep my heart open, no matter what is happening? It won’t surprise you to hear us say that awareness and presence are key to working with this. Of course, I pull in some wisdom from author Richard Wagamese about this work being an inside job, and the role of stillness in finding our balance. And Angie shares her wisdom with us about worry and joy, and how community and stillness help. As always, I love this conversation… I do love them all.

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode. Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Richard Wagamese, “Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Resilience... that's what lies at the heart of today's meander.

Michelle is a career coach and what I noticed is how she used her recovery experience in her blog where she writes to people facing career transitions. “Find joy in the journey” is a guiding principle that helps her in both her life and her work.

A big insight also came to her while she was in recovery – that people really did want to help her, all she had to do was make her needs known. In a very real way, asking for help, and accepting it, was a gift she could offer to others.

The big invitation to listeners coming out of this episode is to practice the “pause.” When you listen to this meander with Michelle, you’ll hear this practice explained. Give it a try, and if you’re of a mind, shoot me a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com and let me know how it went, and how it helped you in your life.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Michelle Schafer Coaching. You can also find her on LinkedIn.

An article from the BBC on the Persian poet, Hafiz.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Today’s PauseCast continues our dive into the bigger topic of Change. Last session we looked at abundance and scarcity, and we often see these two as opposites. But… the opposite of abundance isn’t scarcity, it’s actually Enough. At least we think so.

This is a real wrestle folks… as we meandered around, we realized just how difficult a topic this is to get our arms around. How do we approach the concept of enough? How much enough is actually enough? And yes, Angie brought the movie “Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” into the mix… a movie she loves but I’ve never seen. Too. Much. Fun.

As this podcast is about joy in the every day, Angie links us back to community and sacred moments when we share what we have as individuals with one another, creating a sense of enough. Community and sharing creates a sense of “enough,” at least for Angie. What’s your view? Let us know what you think!

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory”

Brené Brown on Enough

Anne Lamott (American author) on enough, and turning 68

Royalty free music is called

Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In this second episode in our book review, we look at chapter one, which is all about grappling with grief. The starting point is understanding that we all grapple in different ways. And that is absolutely as it should be. But most of us don’t know how we grapple, and don’t realize that others ways can be different. So that is where we start, and we meander from there. I hope you find this both helpful and informative.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we are offering people ways to increase their grief literacy. This month, we’re offering an invitation to you to explore your “loss line;” here's how: divide your age by four, and create four boxes on a piece of paper, breaking your years of life into four spans. For each span, write down the memories of loss that come up for you. Take a few passes at this, maybe over a few sittings, and write until you feel complete. Then, sit with what you've explored and consider: what do you see? Any trends, or threads that you see? What does this tell you about your approach to loss and grieving... how do you grapple? Dina explains more, so make sure you listen if you're interested in trying this out.

Feel free to share your expereince with this exercise, or anything that you hear, with us. Feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Parc national du Mont-Tremblant

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Today’s topic is held in a bigger topic: On Change. Our more precise focus today is on abundance and scarcity and how it shows up in our lives.

Abundance can be both joyful and a burden. It can mean safety and plenty of food, good health and social connection, many other things, but pushed too far, it becomes too much… a need for ever-more of whatever it is that makes us feel safe. Grasping. Taking more than our share. So, what if we redefine abundance? What if abundance, disconnected from fear of scarcity, is more a practice of presence? Being open to what is here, right now… What does abundance look like from that place? Or, what if abundance is about sharing, not stockpiling?

We meander around this, and so much more.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

The Big Apple

Mary Oliver, American poet

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Leslie’s website, and her book: Coaching Life: Navigating Life's Most Common Coaching Topics

Leslie’s YouTube Channel and her Song Stories Playlist. Played with permission in this episode, is her song Joy. Make sure you take some time and watch her uplifting video as well.

She references “Bag of Stones Song Story” today and she tells the story of Jill Bolte Taylor’s TedTalk, a renown researcher on the brain, who she speaks about being aware of what was happening to her while she was having a stroke. Fascinating!

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

In this episode, this launch into season four, we return to a grade school practice of sharing about our summer vacations, and then lay the table for where we plan to meander this year. And we dip our toes in the topic of perspective… from the point of view of an old apple tree that lives on Angie’s property at Big Stone House. Perspective, and wisdom, from a 100+ year old apple tree. I hope you enjoy this heart-swelling meander.

Please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Richard Wagamese, Embers

Listen Notes and our metrics… a snapshot in time

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In this first episode in our book review, we’re exploring the information in the Prelude of Dina’s book, “Grief Unleased: Moving from the hole in our hearts to wholehearted.” The Prelude sets the table for the book, sharing her “why” in writing…. which is to dispel the myths around grief, to demystify it in service of living a more full life, so we can better embody our experience and grow as a result of it. At the core, Dina knows that grief is an internal response to a severed attachment. The process of grieving effectively provides nutrients that builds our capacity to handle change.

Invitations:

Out of each episode this season, we will offer a few invitations for practice for our listeners. This session has two:

Coming out of David Whyte’s poem, “The Journey,” what is the one line already inside of you that if you looked, you’d find?
Poetry is a window into our heart, an aid to help us mull over what matters to us. Find some that speaks to you. Explore. How does your grief show up here?

In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher or at Singing Pebble Bookstore in Ottawa

Wind Phone, contact Dina if you want to make a donation to the one planned for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Parc national du Mont-Tremblant

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

We had a slow start to summer 2023 but we've made up for it with a very active August. Trips to Lac McGlashan, Toronto and a few other spots, with soundscapes for you here, fresh off the recorder!

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

I hope you enjoy this soundscape. I’ll be back to you with fresh interviews in the first week of October. In the meanwhile, happy September… a new time of rebirth in the cadence of our lives.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Therese's FaceBook

Instagram

Her website

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Visit Margaret Anne on Instagram

And to see where she is teaching felting, visit the Saint John Arts Centre for her workshops

David Whyte poetry and Three Sundays workshops and leadership coaching

Canadian poet rupi kaur

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Thoughts and comments, send to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Siobhan mentioned two mentors: visual artist Michael Goodson and Ottawa School of Art printmaking teacher Robert Hinchley (visual artist), as well as a few of the artists who have inspired her approaches to art making: Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Michel Basquiat, Jane Ash Poitras (art: National Gallery of Canada, interview), and Delita Martin.

Her exhibit of linocuts and installation art being held at the Lee Matasi Gallery, Ottawa School of Art. While the exhibit ends on February 23, 2022, you may obtain a behind the scenes look at its artworks and installation in Siobhan’s blog ‘Bed-Lam.’

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

As always, you can find more from me, including blog posts, at Chapman Coaching Inc.

Diane would love you to join her on Facebook and Instagram! You can also see her beautiful creations on her website.

Diane mentioned the work of Shiloh Sophia as pivotal to her artistic journey. Shiloh created a program called "Intentional Creativity" that helps people find their way into the soul of their art, and of themselves.

And the creative writing class she mentioned is "Firefly Creative Writing" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Her company is called The Biz Studio.

Her free FaceBook group is called Building Your Next Level Biz

And her not-for-profit is called Kids in the Capital

Chapman Coaching Inc.

mchen wears

You can see more of her illustrations on her FaceBook page.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Funston Guitars

Guitar clip from Bernie’s site of Ottawa musician Al Brown testing one of Bernie’s creations

Allen Sapp, Indigenous artist from North Battleford Saskatchewan is the artist that inspired 13 year old Bernie to paint

Bernie mentioned listening to music as a child on legendary radio station 89 WLS in Chicago IL from his home in the North West Territories using “ionospheric bounce”

Bernie apprenticed with renowned luthier Sergei de Jonge, in Chelsea, Quebec – see video for interview

To learn about Louis Riel…

Alex Cuba and Canada C3 song “River of Nations”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

We’ve covered a lot of ground what with my meanders with friends around joy in their lives, a deep dive into the Enneagram and another deep dive into the myths around grief. Whew, what a season it has been!

I hope you’ve enjoyed it all; we’ve tried a few new things while still “colouring within the lines.” If there is something you liked or didn’t like, or would like me to explore next season, feel free to shoot me a note and I’ll consider it. Please share this podcast with your friends, drop us a review, and generally help me to raise the profile of these conversations. I do think they matter.

I’ll be on break for the summer, but will repost past episodes so you can revisit if you like. I’ll be back with fresh material in the fall.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

If you want to learn more about the Enneagram, visit The Enneagram Institute

All things Dina: Her book at Burnstown Publishing, her website, and her blog post listing the myths

Stephenville Festival in Newfoundland, where my son Callum will be performing – Canadian small town musical theatre is alive and well!

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Melissa works in IT by day but has what she calls a “side hustle” helping people organize their homes… a thing she’s loved to do since she was a child. Organizing her family home brought her a sense of security and safety when she was a wee girl, and now she likes to help people create space for living, clearing away clutter and making space for life. Kind of a lovely thing, really.

She also talks about her life growing up on Staten Island, yes, near to the Statue of Liberty that most people think of when they hear of the island. Her life growing up was a little fraught with a father who was unwell and immigrant parents who struggled to make their way in America. We meander around some of her childhood memories, not all of them happy, but that too is part of life and is also what builds our capacity for joy.

We also talk about the role of wonder in life, in ourselves and in the world around us. It’s kind of a lovely thing, this sense of wonder that Melissa and I share together. Its one of the many things that I really liked about meandering with her in this penultimate meander around joy as I break next week until the fall.

Next week I’ll have a final wrap up meander, just me, for you. I hope you’ll stay tuned.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Melissa’s podcast is called “Making Way,” a podcast about finding your path in life. She interviews a wide range of people, and gives them each space to tell their story, sharing their wisdom. Give it a listen!

And finally here is Melissa's organizing "side hustle": a company called "Messy Space"

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Today we do a little recapping, and also reflect the Enneagram into our lives moving forward. How we can play with the characteristics of our type, and begin to learn how to choose how to respond to situations as opposed to simply react in our age-old way. This can create some unease in our relationships because we are acting outside of how others expect us to be… in our personal lives, and in our work lives too.

In short, the Enneagram is both information (what’s my type, what are the gifts and challenges of my type), and a practice of pausing and paying attention to who I am and how that plays into my relationship with myself and others. How do I show up with my gifts? And how can that affect the world? We talk about how the Enneagram can save the world… yeah, that big and that small too.

There’s this and more in this episode, I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. Angie and I will be back in the fall with some fresh meanders, but I will repost past episodes over the summer so stay tuned for “Meandering Again” episodes.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

This is our fifth episode in this “Grief Busting” series with special guest and expert on grief and bereavement, Dina Bell-Laroche. You’ll remember Dina from her chat with me back in November, 2022.

Today we meander all round myths relating who and what can help grieving people. We start by talking about Dina’s newly released book on grief and loss called “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted.” Dina has written this book into being over the last decade, and over the twenty-two years since the death of Tracy, her sister. She talks about how witnessing her mother’s journals from those days, as she unpacked her daughter’s cancer and unfolding of this to her death, enriched, and in some ways even drove, the writing. “This book has written me…” says Dina, and that is often how it is with us as we move through our grief and bereavement. This is one of the many ways Dina found solace, and healing, after Tracy’s death.

Living means we will experience loss of all kinds, big and small. And when we can grapple with that in a healthy way, we develop resiliency to be with life as it is in this very moment. We also spend some time today talking about grief and bereavement in high-performing athletes – a very real thing for athletes as they compete (win/lose), come back from injury, or decide to retire. A different view of grief, but also very relatable, and informative, for us all.

I hope you enjoy this final episode in our deep dive into the myths around grief and how dealing with our grief can deepen our joy.

Dina and I will break for the summer, and will have something new for you in the fall. In the meanwhile, feedback is welcome, so please drop us a note at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s blog post outlining her 25 myths about grief, that we are exploring in these meanders and the book, “Grief Unleashed: Moving from the hole in our hearts to whole-hearted” can be purchased through her publisher

Joan Erikson, and Dana Faulds poem “Allow”

Royalty free music is called

Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

In this meander, we talk about how stillness and curiosity, and withholding self-judgement, are key to seeing oneself with clarity. How we live lives of “busy-ness” so we can avoid hearing ourselves, our true selves, speak from our hearts… how boredom is a gift, and is often avoided in our highly technical, connected, world.

"The hardest work is to look at your life and love it exactly as it is right now," says Anjali in this meander... what a great invitation to look inside ourselves and find joy, right here, right now.

I hope you enjoy this glorious exploration!

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Anjali on FaceBook, “You, Me, and the Dress”, LinkedIn, and on Instagram

Poems we referenced: "Don't Hesitate" by Mary Oliver, and "The Uses of Sorrow"; "The Guesthouse" by Rumi; "Love After Love" by Derek Walcott; and song by Ray LaMontagne "Be Here Now"

Dan Harris and his book "Ten Percent Happier"

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Soulfulness…what is it? How does it differ from spirituality? Why does it matter? And how does the Enneagram support it?

In this meander, we explore how the Enneagram is both a tool and a practice… a tool of information about my type and the other personality types, and then the invitation into awareness, so that when I slow down, I can know myself, and see where my gifts lie, and also how I trip myself up… and a practice, an ongoing intention, to pay attention to how I show up and catch myself in my own habit loop of behaviour. And from that place, choose how I want to respond to life in this moment. And this “Enneagram as a practice” supports both soulful moments in my day-to-day, and occasionally, moments of awe-inspiring spirituality. You get the gist.

There’s this and a lot more in this episode; I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Some background about Lac McGlashan, Quebec

We kibbitz around a bit to begin with around unexpected connections in the supermarket, and that old game from the 1990s, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon… which was really about just how connected we all are in this great big world. We wrestle with expectations, the ones we have when coming new to the Enneagram, how the first level of exploration is seeking information, that’s all. The next level is about understanding those types, and those types in us….each of those types, not just our own homebase. And with time, and in community with others, we can drop in further and ask: What’s Next?

In this fast-paced world, the Enneagram is an invitation to pause and look at our stories so we can find ourselves. We explore this through story telling, and finding grace, and grief, and gratitude in the process. We dive into all of that today.

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

This is our fourth episode in this “Grief Busting” series with special guest and expert on grief and bereavement, Dina Bell-Laroche. You’ll remember Dina from her chat with me back in November, 2022.

Today we meander all around myths relating what is grieve-able. We start with a very tender topic of miscarriage and still-birth of children and how we grieve these losses. Dina makes a critical distinction for us: that grief is an internal reorientation of our inner world after a severed attachment; mourning is when we make the grief public. When a child is conceived but lost, we don’t always know how to grieve this loss, or to mourn it. And yet, like so many tender griefs we experience through life, we need to give the loss it’s due so that we can work with it and embody the experience in a healthy way. This leads us to the rituals that helps us experience such life-altering losses, rituals like funerals, and continuing bonds. The work of grieving is all about reconciling the loss into the meaning we make of our lives.

Grief experiences ripple out and land in the hearts of others, creating opportunities for grief in that person. In this way, grief is deeply intrenched in our relationships.

In our meander, we go on to explore other kinds of things that we commonly grieve, and in this way, I hope, show that anything that causes a sense of loss is grieve-able. That really is our main message here – if it hurts your heart, it’s a loss that needs to be tended to. Losses are big and small, but all are worthy of attention and reconciliation, whatever that may look like for you. And also, there is no hierarchy to grief and our feelings of loss… a loss is a loss, and we all feel them deeply.

I hope you enjoy this episode, the fourth of five episodes in our deep dive into grief, exploring how dealing with our grief can deepen our joy.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s blog post outlining her 25 myths about grief, that we are exploring in these meanders

Francis Weller and the Five Gates of Grief

Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Braiding Sweetgrass”

John Roedel, “Upon Departure”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Michelle Schafer is my guest today. We taped this in mid-March, while she was recuperating on the couch with a broken thigh bone. Michelle is a career coach with an effervescent approach to life, which you’ll hear in this meander.

Michelle sees joy, with intention, in so many parts of life. Outings with her kids, sunsets on the Ottawa River, hikes in the National Capital Region, and travel. So many of these adventures are share with her friends on her social media; when I'm down, I know I can go to her space for a wee "pick-me-up." But these days, she's having to work hard to find new ways of coping now that she can't head out into nature for rejuvenation. Always a busy person, she's learning the gift of slowing down... insight she'll likely carry into life moving forward.

We spend a lot of time exploring her lessons from hiking Manchu Pichu in Peru earlier this year. The power of companionship in an adventure like this… how we get into dark places in our head when the going gets tough, and how an offer of companionship can be a total game changer. Lessons like this can carry forward into our daily lives too.

If you have comments for us, please shoot us a note!

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Michelle Schafer Coaching

Manchu Pichu, Peru

Some articles written by Michelle or in which she is quoted: in Brainz Magazine on how she coaches; about finding joy; about job search lessons from Machu Picchu; and in Canadian Business Magazine, about the trend of rage applying .

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

I’ve known my guest Philip Cole for almost a decade. This meander is such a treat for me as he and I share an understanding about joy and heart and soul coming out of studying together for all this time. We’re both students of the Enneagram, and of the soul, led through our studies by Angie Arendt and Peter McGaugh at Big Stone House. You all know Angie, she's my regular guest on the PauseCast, and Peter meandered with us back in May, 2021.

Phil has a warm and thoughtful way about him, which will come into focus as we meander. He’s taught me a few things about his creative process, about family, and about fear, how it is a future based thing – without time or thinking, fear is not possible. I never thought of it that way! We talk in depth about flow and how it shows up for him in his life, making joy more plentiful and real. And we play with words a bit: “should I…” versus “I should…” turns out, these are very different things. One is a criticism, the other, an invitation. I love that. I'm always learning!

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Phil’s branding company is creatingnow and he mentioned the authors Robin Sharma and Rupert Spira, and the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós.

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

What is hope? And what is flow? Back in 2022, Angie and I explored these things… we said that hope is our background program that helps us get up in the morning. It’s actionable and intentional; it empowers us to do what we are here to be. And flow… flow happens when we let go of aspiration and just be who we are at our essence, in this very moment. And when we apply the lens of the Enneagram we ask: how does this framework help us explore our spirit, our very souls, and find our way into the flow of life that is, effortless? We find that we do this in nine different ways…

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

We again referenced Richard Wagamese’s book “Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations” in this meander

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

This is our third episode in this “Grief Busting” series with special guest and expert on grief and bereavement, Dina Bell-Laroche. You’ll remember Dina from her chat with me back in November, 2022.

Today we meander all round myths relating to behaviour… how we behave when we are grieving, and when we are supporting someone who is grieving. We walk through our common ways of coping with grief. For example, tears are cathartic and curiosity is helpful; grief, like emotions, have an arc they follow and it’s important to respect the arc in order to support the effective processing of grief; we all have our own ways we care for ourselves, and our own ways of grieving… and it’s important to know yourself in these regards… We also talk about the cues that we have that suggest we may need a little more help in our grief. And finally, we explore how taking care of ourselves is an “ethical imperative.”

There are so many other insights packed into this episode, I hope you’ll give it a listen!

I hope you enjoy this episode, the third of five episodes in our deep dive into grief and how dealing with our grief can deepen our joy.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Dina’s blog post outlining her 25 myths about grief, that we are exploring in these meanders

Rumi’s “The Guesthouse”

Dina mentioned Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor and her book “The Grieving Brain”

Kenneth Doka, “Grieving Beyond Gender”

What’s Your Grief

David Whyte, himself reciting “The Well of Grief”; and here is the poem itself for you to ponder yourself

Article from “Simply Psychology” about Attachment Theory as coined by psychoanalyst John Bowlby

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Grieving Beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Women Mourn, Revised Edition (Series in Death, Dying, and Bereavement)

Ritual and storytelling… intertwined these are. And when conducted using the framework of the Enneagram, I have learned a great deal about myself that has supported my personal development and enriched my relationships. In short, this is what this kind of work is all about.

As we’ve said before on these PauseCasts, the Enneagram gives us permission to pause, and in that pause, to look at who we be, in service of the Greater Good… or Life… or God, whatever your preferred language is for this that is bigger than us alone. In today’s meander, Angie and I explore how ritual and storytelling get us closer to our “…real, essential self” in the words of Richard Wagamese from his book “What Comes from Spirit.”

In short, rituals slow us down enough so that we can see how our stories inform our world view

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Here’s a book review of Richard Wagamese’s book “What Comes from Spirit” that Trudy referenced in the beginning of our meander

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

My friend Ari is a lovely person and her heart shines through in our meander. Coming out of an eclectic background in science and art into intellectual property law, she’s followed her whimsey and curiosity and created a pretty unique offering to her clients. While she offers …”customized intellectual property (IP) legal services for small to medium enterprises…”, she does so with a keen awareness of the creative souls that are her clients. Working in a philosophy of “co-creation” she supports entrepreneurs and creatives in fully expressing what they are all about, showing “creative empowerment” in action!

While fully immersed in law, she also earned a Master of Arts in Canadian Indigenous Studies. This brought into her mix an appreciation and awareness of the Indigenous Medicine Wheel, among other Indigenous perspectives, which when applied to business opened up a whole new way of looking at solutions for her clients.

We wax philosophic, as we do here in these meanders, and Ari asks a beautiful question: how does my intuitive sense interact with my logical side? In asking, she’s able to explore various dichotomies: arts and science, light and dark, and many other dualities. And in this, we talk about how she weaves together the right solution for a client within the law, but not starting there. For in the end, every agreement is about relationships, so by tending to relationships first then looking to the law, she finds she often lands in a better solution for all involved. This can take less time, and be more reflective of everyone’s interests. It’s amazing what we can do when we focus on people, and include a little whimsy, in our problem-solving.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Ari’s law practice is Kyma Professional Corporation, Intellectual Property Legal Services

Two-Eyed Seeing (Etuaptmumk in Mi'kmaw), a foundational concept envisioned and built by Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall at the Institute for Integrative Science and Health

The book Ari mentioned was “Breath, Sensation, Words” by Lisa J. Weiss

The Conscious Contracts approach

Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

We start our meander with a reading from Richard Wagamese (Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) novelist, journalist, and mentor), a passage from his book "Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations" which I think is really about hope. How it’s not enough to be resilient if being so means bouncing back to the same place… what he wants for himself, and offers to us, is to reach Beyond resilience, to a new place of growth, each day. Angie and I wrestle with “resilience” and from this place I ask a few basic questions: do we need resilience to be capable of rebirth? And how does the Enneagram support rebirth? And finally, if personal development is an inside job, how does community fit in?

The funny thing about the Enneagram, and personal development in general, is that the work is both an inside and an outside job. Inside as we look at ourselves and our habits of behaving, believing, and so on so we can see how they serve us. Outside as we need support, and to be held to account, as we do the inner work. And in community, in contact and communion with each other, we create something more than ourselves.

Just as the Enneagram gives us a mirror to see ourselves, there is often a lot there about ourselves that we see that we just don’t like. And here’s where community comes in – as its best, community is a supportive place where people who care about us help us see who we are, and help us sit with those things about ourselves that we don’t like. In community, we get the strength to look at who we are, without judgement but with great kindness, enabling us to see how that serves us, or not. And then change, if we wish. Rebirthing ourselves... as we shift.

I hope you’ll stick with us as we explore. And please, share our work widely, give us a review or a drop us a few stars. If you have comments or questions, please send them to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com. We believe these meanderings matter, and we hope you do too. So please share.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

milk and honey, by rupi kaur

"Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations", by Richard Wagamese

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

This is our second episode in this “Grief Busting” series with special guest and expert on grief and bereavement, Dina Bell-Laroche. You’ll remember Dina from her chat with me back in November, 2022.

Today we meander all round myths relating to emotion. English doesn’t serve us well here – in English, grief is both an emotion and an experience. Viewing grief only as an emotion limits us in unhelpful ways, but seeing it as a verb – grieving – makes it an experience, one we can work with more readily…. It becomes a gateway to living with grief, moving with grief, and makes it something active that we can navigate with through time.

I hope you enjoy this episode, the second of five episodes in our deep dive into grief and how dealing with our grief can deepen our joy.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

She read us the poem “Space for Storms,” the wonderful BC poet Caroline Miskenack

STUG (sudden temporary upsurge of grief), a concept coined by Dr. Therese Rando, see this summary for more

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross and the stages of grief

David Whyte, “What to Remember When Waking” excerpt: “…To become human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others….”

Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, Dying with Dignity, the Platinum Rule

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

In today’s meander, we tackle wholeheartedness, relationship and heart using the lens of the Enneagram. Angie and I also “show our work” here as we wrestle with the concepts, and how to keep things accessible to listeners at all levels of familiarity with the framework…. Not an easy task.

In short, the Enneagram helps us see ourselves. It really is a practice of paying attention: to our habits and long held beliefs, those we have inherited and those we have nurtured ourselves through life, all so we can see how we are showing up, or not showing up, in our relationships. Relationships first with our selves, and then, with others. Using awareness and presence, we can learn to see how we unknowingly protect ourselves from heartbreak in nine different ways. Reminder: the Enneagram model has nine main personality types… hence the “nine different ways” we protect our hearts from harm.

As mentioned in the last episode, we are exploring the Enneagram as a practice of presence. Today, we wrestle with the question: what if the secret to life isn’t about becoming a better person (ie. self-improvement) but is simply about being more human (ie. more real, more compassionate)? Can the Enneagram to help us do that? We believe it can. Listen in and let us know… do you agree?

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

The Riso Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI) assessment at The Enneagram Institute, look under “Testing Center” tab at the top of the landing page

About Thomas Merton’s life and writings

Brené Brown on wholeheartedness

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

In this meander, we talk about Dodzi's writing process, which he calls “…a sacred process.” Writing gives him a sense of purpose. He writes long form, by hand, and bookends his day job with writing time at his desk. We talk about the magic and spirit that is present in his writing, in how his writing touches people’s hearts, and how that brings a texture to life that is otherwise missing. We also talk about language – he initially wrote his book in French, then had it translated to English. This brings a nuance to the work, and a partnership with the translator to ensure that the sense, the final language, was just what he initially meant. No mean feat, I would think.

In addition to his book, Dodzi writes poetry. And he shares one with us. Poetry, says Dodzi, reminds us to pause, to appreciate the importance of the ideas expressed, mulling them over in our minds and hearts, maybe over coffee. Nice.

This is a gorgeous, gentle interview with a truly thoughtful author. It has been my pleasure to meander with him!

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Craig Senior, episode 9, August 2020

“Surfing the Unknown” on Amazon.ca

The Guesthouse, a poem by Rumi

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Episode one: The Enneagram. I laid the table at the end of January 2023 with my genesis story of the enneagram and today, Angie shares hers… and a whole lot more. So what is this thing, the enneagram? Is it a tool or a model to make me “better?” Is it a map, or an app? Is this an alone thing or do I need community? If it supports spiritual development, does that mean it is religious?

We meander all over the topic of what the enneagram is, how it outlines types of personalities but so much more. When push comes to shove, Angie tells us, it really is a practice of presence. That is the ultimate purpose, and invitation: to be present to who we really are, in service of shining our own light into this world.

Understanding the enneagram in this way, from a place of presence, makes it possible to feel with and for eachother. But, and here’s the rub: that’s uncomfortable; it may demand that we change who we think we are so we have room for others… and so, we don’t take up the invitation to ask the big questions about who we be, we allow ourselves to be defined by the behaviours of our type, excusing our challenging behaviour with an “that’s just what I was built to do”, and move on.

Yet the gift of insight and personal development offered by this model is astounding, if you tough it through the work, if you’d let your soul truly shine. There are few places in this world where we spend time asking the big questions of life anymore, but that’s what we’re trying to do here with this series of episodes about the enneagram.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Comedian Rob Delaney’s interview on CBS, showing the power of human connection, of being seen

The quote Angie was trying to share was from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

“Old Turtle and the Broken Truth” by Douglas Wood

“Start Close In” by David Whyte

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

This is our first episode in this “Grief Busting” series with special guest and expert on grief and bereavement, Dina Bell-Laroche. You’ll remember Dina from her chat with me back in November, 2022. For her, the death of her sister Tracy was life-changing and we heard about that in our first meander together. In this new series, we tackle some of the common myths around grief, in service of accessing our joy.

Today we are setting the table for our subsequent meanders in this series, talking about why effectively moving through our grief matters. I share a few stories about my own experiences with grief and loss, and Dina helps unpack those a bit with me. We’re also looking at the myth of time – myths like how time heals all wounds, and that grieving has a distinct end point. As Dina and I are both integral coaches and both know the Enneagram, we explore that too, which dovetails nicely with what is to come with Angie Arendt on "MwT: The PauseCast" next week.

I hope you enjoy this episode, the first of five episodes in our deep dive into grief and how dealing with our grief can deepen our joy.

Episode Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

She read us the poem “Space for Storms,” the wonderful BC poet Caroline Miskenack

Grieving styles, blog post by BFO – Toronto

Brené Brown TedTalk on shame, vulnerability and wholehearted living

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

The Enneagram. It's having a moment in personal development circles. Angie and I will explore this personality framework in the winter coming episodes, dropping every second and fourth week. The Enneagram is a framework for looking at people. It can help and guide people as they look at themselves, providing insight and structure to the exploration. In this way, it's got personal development baked right in it. Angie and I think used right, it can save the world! Big promise, I know, but pull up a chair and hear us out, then make your own choice.

In this episode, I'm sharing with you My story of discovering the Enneagram and what it has meant to me in my own life. This powerful lens can offer us all similar insights, and help us in all our relationships - that is the gift of the Enneagram. A wee caution here... it can also be painful to look at yourself with honesty because you can see how you did harm to yourself and others, and maybe that is too much to look at right now. And that's ok too. Just a word of caution going forward.

What I am laying down in this episode, in addition to my genesis story, are some of the basics of the model so you can roll along with Angie and I as we get moving. Please visit with links below for more information, as you wish.

I'm excited about this journey we'll be on between now and the end of June. Please share your thoughts with me via email. And help spread the word about these chats by sharing broadly, or dropping a review wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for your good company!

EPISODE LINKS:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

The Enneagram Institute

There are always such gifts for me coming out of these meanders, and this one doesn’t disappoint. I have a date to go see the City of Ottawa blow up a part of the Rideau River this spring… something I plan to enjoy this year with my friend Nancy. She’s always up for adventure, and this is one I’ve had on my books for years.

Nancy and I are roughly the same age although her kids are a few years younger than mine. We’ve also both lived in the Middle East, and so we have some shared understandings from that as well. In a word, we’re kindred spirits, and it was wonderful to talk parenting, and aging, and adventuring, together. While she’s had a good long career, and has a few years to go yet, we talked about the side of ourselves that we leave behind during our career, and how we might get back to nurturing that in retirement. Something to look forward to, for both of us.

EPISODE LINKSChapman Coaching Inc.

Ice blasting on the Rideau River

Bob Ross painting

Comedy troupe “Kids In The Hall” and the song “These are the Daves I know…” Good Canadian humour

Today’s episode, with my friend Peter McGaugh, is about community, place, and home. There is a silent partner in this conversation too – his big stone house.

Peter, and Angie Arendt, our regular guest from the "PauseCast", live in this gorgeous stone house in Almonte, Ontario. In this meander with Peter, we spoke about how they found this place, and what it means to him to finally put down roots and find “home.”

Peter and I are both military kids and so the search for home, and what that means to each of us individually, has been part of our shared experience. It was great to hear from him about home, about Big Stone House, stone walls, and the giving and receiving that has come from settling down into this community.

This is part one of our conversation though… part two is a happen-stance meander that came about because I don’t plan much about these chats… it’s what makes them a meander. Have a look for part 2 and an exploration of “thin spaces.”

EPISODE LINKSChapman Coaching Inc.

Peter would be happy to connect with you via his profile on LinkedIn or his FaceBook page. He'd also welcome you to visit Big Stone House and his shared work with his life partner and wife, Angie Arendt.

“It all goes back to framing – we can go through something wonderful and see everything as bad, or we can go through something horrible and see the goodness in it.” For Chaviva Lifson, as she says, how we experience things, and how we hold them afterwards, is all about perspective, as she tells us in the story of making the Purim cookie, Hamantaschen. “There is a whole lot that we can reframe from things not working.”

All this feeling stuff takes place in our heart. And we talk about that, and more, in this episode.

We also explore other ways of the heart… the need that we all have to find that thing that lights us up from within… be it baking, or playing guitar, sewing or whatever. I share a bit of what lights me up – these conversations on my podcast, but talking to people generally and connecting over things that matter to us in that moment. Oh, and baking bread, and sourdough… we end with sourdough. Too. Much. Fun! This was such a good conversation. I hope you enjoy this meander about heart and how it shows up for us in daily life.

Such a gem of a meander with physiotherapist and co-owner of Bloom Integrative Fitness and Movement Centre... Lisa Flanders. This is one of those awesome conversations that really light me up!

Lisa had been go-go-go since her days in university. This way of being led her ultimately into burnout just as the pandemic hit in March 2020. Her new clinic had just opened, and she welcomed the quiet that fell. We talk about how to come back from burnout and how to find, and keep, your balance. Key to that recovery has been her community of friends, a good therapist, going on a meditation retreat (Grail Springs in Bancroft, ON), enriching sleep and re-evaluating her values. So many of us set our values, but do they actually align with how you spend your time? Great question!

EPISODE NOTESChapman Coaching Inc.

Bloom Integrative Health and Movement Centre

Grail Springs in Bancroft, ON

“I never tire of it,” said today's guest, Roberta Gal, her mischievous eyes all a-twinkle. Born into a creative family, Roberta worked as a graphic designer for 25 years (work she also loved) before pulling her first love out of her back pocket – photography – and landing a job as photographer for Public Works Canada. While she took a pay cut for this job, it included shooting the renovation of the historic houses of Parliament in downtown Ottawa... she saw this as an incredible opportunity to be part of history. The chance thrilled her, and she took it! We talk about this, and photography she does outside of work too, in this meander. It was a pleasure and a joy for me to talk with her, learn about her past, and see the world through her eyes.

EPISODE LINKSRoberta recommends following the Instagram account for Public Works Canada, where videos and some of her photos, are featured. If you scroll down, you'll see an incredible video of when the stain glass in the Peace Tower was removed for preservation work.

As we enter the season of light, I thought it might fun to dive into the deeper meaning of joy. We often conflate it with "happy!", but as this week's guest tells us, "...joy is that still small space inside each of us." It's a rich and nuanced place, informed by our lived experience, the highs and lows of life. My good friend Angie Arendt joins me for this deep meander. With her background in theology and 25+ years tending the souls of people, formerly as a Minister in the United Church of Christ, and now as a teacher, coach (at both Big Stone House and as a Partner and Senior Consultant with Deep Life) and mentor to many, she shares some of her stories of both joy, and heartache.

EPISODE NOTESChapman Coaching Inc.

Angie would love to connect with you at Big Stone House, where she leads people in courageous living; and she invites you to read her blog too!

There are people in my life who drop in and out occasionally through time. Stephanie is one of them for me. Each time we meet up, it’s a gem of a conversation, and such is the case with this meander. I’ve known Steph for 20 odd years and while we don’t live nearby each other, nor do we talk often, I always appreciate when we do.

Steph lives with MS. Diagnosed at 26, she’s lived with the arbitrary unfairness of this disease almost all of her adult life. It shortened her nursing career before she hit her stride, and has occasionally limited her physical independence. And yet she has never let it slow her down or stop her from asking “what’s my part? How can I help?” and then digging in. She’s been a foster parent of wee babies and young children, and now fosters puppies, snatched from the hands of uncaring owners. She continues to provide a soft landing for innocents, and a warm understanding of the human condition.

She’s got a great sense of fun, and an infectious laugh. She loves Comiccon and goes in costume every year! I hope you enjoy this meander with my friend Steph, who is really just a wonderful human being.

EPISODE LINKSChapman Coaching Inc.

Ralph Waldo Emmerson’s poem “Success” and on meaning of living a successful life

Comiccon Winnipeg

As I'm on break, I'm replaying some of my past Meanderings... this is one that I found particularly uplifting and it seems fitting for the first week of December: my meander with Jennifer Hollington. Not only is Jen an effervescent soul, she's my model for positivity in the face of adversity.

Now retired after 33 years from her post as Assistant Deputy Minister for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, Jen has launched a highly successful blog where she talks about her life with ovarian cancer, and shares with us readers her full and satisfying life in retirement.

While her cancer treatment has gone very well, the odds she faces are not good: 7 in 10 Canadian women die within five years of diagnosis. Now entering her third year after diagnosis, Jen continues to share widely about her experience, doing good every day with her attitude and interactions with people all around her. She is warm, generous, and kind. In our meander, we explore what it was like for her to be a leader, how she is facing life with ovarian cancer, and how helping people has been core to who she is. This was a wonderful meander, I hope you'll enjoy it too!

EPISODE LINKSChapman Coaching Inc.

Jennifer's blog, and from here, you'll find all her other social media

For information on ovarian cancer and related research in Canada, visit OVCARE

I'm so grateful for this royalty free music, which is called Sunday Stroll - Huma-Huma.

My friend Bernie is eclectic – now retired constitutional law expert born in Canada’s far north whose hobby is handmade guitars. He’s still got his first guitar, bought at the age of 13 with money made from selling his own paintings - landscapes from his childhood in the far north.

Guitars have been in his heart for his whole life. About twenty years ago, he was able take up the hobby of building them, made possible by the suggestion of his three kids, then under the age of ten, and the support of his lovely wife, and fellow lawyer, Laura. Bernie says he’s made guitars for dictators and democrats, and he’s not kidding. I’ll leave that story to him.

His work is wonderful, and guitars are made specific to the customer, reflecting their personalities, not just their specifications. He makes guitars with spirit, from wood specially chosen for the purpose, creating a musical instrument that sighs and sings as the artist wends their way into magic-making. That’s a special skill, that is. I hope you enjoy this episode of Meanderings with Trudy.

Remember too, this is my last episode for the fall season. In the meantime, please revisit past episodes, and rejoin me for new meanders, and our exploration of joy in regular life, on the first Tuesday, in February, 2023.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Funston Guitars

Guitar clip from Bernie’s site of Ottawa musician Al Brown testing one of Bernie’s creations

Allen Sapp, Indigenous artist from North Battleford Saskatchewan is the artist that inspired 13 year old Bernie to paint

Bernie mentioned listening to music as a child on legendary radio station 89 WLS in Chicago IL from his home in the North West Territories using “ionospheric bounce”

Bernie apprenticed with renowned luthier Sergei de Jonge, in Chelsea, Quebec – see video for interview

To learn about Louis Riel…

Alex Cuba and Canada C3 song “River of Nations”

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Community and belonging… this is a story about heartbreak, and heart healing. Angie’s first US Thanksgiving here in Canada was not a smooth one and she missed home BIG. To meet her ache, she invited neighbours over and the tradition of pie-palouza came to be. It is a ritual she follows with her Big Stone House community to this day. This story is our way of wrapping up this fall season, weaving together the threads of our meanders to date.

It takes courage to reach out to others, and to respond to a hand outstretched… what does that look like for you? That’s the invitation out of this pause to you – how do you connect to others, and how do you risk showing up? And how do we know when to shift to include something, or someone, new? As we close, we tip our hand to what’s coming after our break.

Yes, we're taking a break for December and January, to relaunch in February, 2023. We hope you’ll enjoy your holiday season, and rejoin us for more in the New Year. As always, please subscribe, give us a review, share, and if you have comments, drop us a line at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

It’s not often that any of us get to see the inside of science and policy work but today’s episode with Robert Day is just such an opportunity. Robert has recently retired from his management responsibilities in the Government of Canada where he spent more than 20 years in fisheries and oceans management, which included a lot of environmental and climate change discussions, many with international dimensions. Now that he’s retired, he’s continued to keep his hand in international fisheries discussions and also moved the needle on other activities dear to his heart – activities that also make a positive difference in our world, such as organizing his community's Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I hope you enjoy this episode, it's helped me to see the wide range of possibilities for me as I also consider moving into semi-retirement.

Links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

International Pacific Halibut Commission

North Pacific Fisheries Commission

Basin-scale Events to Coastal Impact project (in the North Pacific Ocean) of the UN Decade for Ocean Science

Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO)—is an international body made up of countries that share a practical and/or financial interest in managing and conserving fish stocks in a particular region.

Mayors for Peace

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Angie is all about storytelling, she always has been. On today’s PauseCast, we’re diverting from what we’d planned (funerals and permission) into storytelling and why that matters. This is a theme we keep coming back to because it’s in stories that we see ourselves, others, and other possibilities for us to be. As usual, we share of ourselves, so that you can see yourself more clearly. It’s in seeing clearly that we can find our way into joy, which is, of course, why these meanders matter so much to us. I hope you enjoy this episode, please share, review, and even subscribe.

Episode links:

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Ernie sings the Rubber Duckie song on Sesame Street

Richard Wagamese on Storytelling

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Dina’s company is Grief Unleashed

Attachment Theory

Theory of Loss

Megan Devine and Refuge in Grief

What's Your Grief a website about grief and loss

5 Love Languages

She mentioned the wonderful BC poet Caroline Miskenack

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

John Grogan's blog, author of the book Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

Dog movies Angie mentioned: Benji, Old Yeller; Marley and Me

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Please send thoughts and comments to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Natalie Bedard’s company is Lift OneSelf, you can find her podcast on this site

Focusing Resources

Gabor Maté on Compassionate Inquiry and healing trauma

Deb Dana and regulated breathing

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Thoughts and comments, send to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Here are some of the things we referenced in our meander today:

On Parker Palmer and the foot rub story

Pharell Williams, Happy

National Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada

Music is called Sunday Stroll - Huma-Huma

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Peggy’s blog features recent and past blogs, feel free to look around

Camino Association of Canada

The Bruce Tour

Agawa Canyon Train, Sault Ste. Marie, ON Canada

Comfortable Hiking Holidays, Tour du Mont Blanc

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Thoughts and comments, send to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Please support your local bookstore where you will find Brene Brown and "The Gifts of Imperfection"

All comments to us at meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll by Huma-Huma

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Visit Margaret Anne on Instagram

And to see where she is teaching felting, visit the Saint John Arts Centre for her workshops

David Whyte poetry and Three Sundays workshops and leadership coaching

Canadian poet rupi kaur

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Thoughts and comments, send to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching

Big Stone House

Robert Fulghum and lessons from kindergarten

Royalty free music we use here is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Chapman Coaching

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Visit my website for more about me at Chapman Coaching

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Thoughts and comments, send to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Brené Brown’s TedTalk on shame and vulnerability

The Enneagram Institute, this is the lineage that Angie and I follow. If you’re interested in the enneagram, we invite you to start here.

Purple spoa

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Big Stone House

Royalty free music is called Sunday Stroll – by Huma-Huma

Thoughts and comments, send to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Jennifer's blog, and from here, you'll find all her other social media

I'm so grateful for this royalty free music, which is called Sunday Stroll - Huma-Huma.

Here are some of the things we referenced in our meander today:

“Embers” by Richard Wagamese

Holy Now by Peter Mayer

“Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg

If you’re going to buy the books, please consider buying local to support your neighbourhood booksellers.

Music is called Sunday Stroll - Huma-Huma

You can learn more about Angie and her workshops at Big Stone House

And you can learn more about Trudy, and read her blog, at Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chapman Coaching Inc

Squad Care

Sikh beliefs on God, karma, death and rebirth (BBC)

SikhNet

Khalsa Aid

Jas wanted to mention Valerie Kaur ; best-selling author of SEE NO STRANGER. She is a Sikh woman and her work is an inspiration to many.

Jas' poem on my website

Here are some of the things we referenced in our meander today:

John Wayne and rugged individualism

Trailor for movie about community: “As It Is In Heaven”

Song: “All Critters Got a Place in the Choir”

Parker Palmer

In our chat, Chaviva mentioned a few things: the Friendship Circle Montreal, the Story of Esther, and Hamantaschen – the cookie, and the role they play in Purim

Les Paul guitars

Siobhan mentioned two mentors: visual artist Michael Goodson and Ottawa School of Art printmaking teacher Robert Hinchley (visual artist), as well as a few of the artists who have inspired her approaches to art making: Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Michel Basquiat, Jane Ash Poitras (art: National Gallery of Canada, interview), and Delita Martin.

Her exhibit of linocuts and installation art being held at the Lee Matasi Gallery, Ottawa School of Art. While the exhibit ends on February 23, 2022, you may obtain a behind the scenes look at its artworks and installation in Siobhan’s blog ‘Bed-Lam.’

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Danez Smith “I’m going back to Minnesota where sadness makes sense”; their website

Thoughts and comments, send to meanderingswithtrudy@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Ralph Waldo Emmerson’s poem “Success” and on meaning of living a successful life

Comiccon Winnipeg

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Ice blasting on the Rideau River

Bob Ross painting

Comedy troupe “Kids In The Hall” and the song “These are the Daves I know…” Good Canadian humour

Chapman Coaching Inc.

I've promised to write a bit about some of these episodes, here's one of those blog posts.

Big Stone House is Angie’s company

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chaviva speaks to her blog in this episode, which you can find at Putting Mom First.

She's also a serial entrepreneur and of late has been baking treats for Jewish holidays.

Roberta recommends following the Instagram account for Public Works Canada, where videos and some of her photos, are featured. If you scroll down, you'll see an incredible video of when the stain glass in the Peace Tower was removed for preservation work.

Therese's FaceBook

Instagram

Her website

I'm finally launching Season Two of Meanderings... here's a wee explanation of what I've been thinking about and where we'll be meandering to next... together. Thanks for joining me on this next journey!

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Denise would love for you to learn about the London Parrot Head Club, and to read her writing.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Bhangra dancing with Gurdeep Pandher.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Peter would be happy to connect with you via his profile on LinkedIn or his FaceBook page. He'd also welcome you to visit Big Stone House and his shared work with his life partner and wife, Angie Arendt.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Peter would be happy to connect with you via his profile on LinkedIn or his FaceBook page. He'd also welcome you to visit Big Stone House and his shared work with his life partner and wife, Angie Arendt.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

AcuPro Academy

Chapman Coaching Inc.

For pictures from today, see Chapman Coaching on FaceBook

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Bloom Integrative Health and Movement Centre

Grail Springs in Bancroft, ON

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

As always, you can find more from me, including blog posts, at Chapman Coaching Inc.

Diane would love you to join her on Facebook and Instagram! You can also see her beautiful creations on her website.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Join me for pictures of this walk on my FaceBook Page.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Angie would love to connect with you at Big Stone House, where she leads people in courageous living; and she invites you to read her blog too!

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can reach Maddalena on her social media on FaceBook and Instagram. And you can see some of the shots from the Amalfi trip I went on here.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

You can reach Alison on FaceBook at either the Orleans or Nepean SupperWorks pages. Her additional social media links include: Instagram and Twitter

Quesnel Maple can be found on FB or email quesnelmaple@gmail.com

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Louise's writing can be found at www.louisegleeson.com

She'd also be glad to connect on twitter and instagram @louisegleeson

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Her company is called The Biz Studio.

Her free FaceBook group is called Building Your Next Level Biz

And her not-for-profit is called Kids in the Capital

Chapman Coaching Inc.

My facebook page for pictures of Poh and me in the forest.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Charlotte's Creations

Charlotte's Instagram

Chapman Coaching

Chapman Coaching on FaceBook

Trudy Chapman Coaching

Jas Kalra Consulting

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Chapman Coaching FaceBook page for pictures!

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Lola Design

Women's Business Network

Chapman Coaching Inc.

mchen wears

You can see more of her illustrations on her FaceBook page.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

If you're interested in supporting the group Craig mentioned, you can read about it at: Fondation SOLution Haiti Foundation (FSH)

Craig is member of Toastmasters District 61.

Pop Up Podcasting

Dandelions are often considered weeds, but not to this lovely lady. To her, dandelions, as well as many other plants, are medicine and food, and a beauty to behold. Rachelle calls herself a harvester of medicinal plants, and she makes good use of what she finds all around her. Dandelion roots make delicious tea, and the leaves a cleansing salad. She'll be back with more to offer later this year. Enjoy!

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Fit + Healthy 365

Chapman Coaching

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Lac McGlashan

Jennifer Walker, Small Business Consultant and Social Media Coach

Genuine Social (TM) Tribe for Entrepreneurs

Chapman Coaching

Chapman Coaching Inc.

I am a local Ottawa coach with my company Chapman Coaching.

This podcast is a dream of mine, a coming full-circle back to my storytelling roots in journalism with CBC Radio. With this podcast I want to tell stories about lives well lived. About people who are living with joy, doing what they're meant to do, maybe not all day, but at least some of the time. And how this has a positive effect on the world.

Join me every second Tuesday for a walk in the forest, and a chat with people I know who will share their joy with us, and in this way, show you how you too can live wholeheartedly.