Meanderings with Trudy

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

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.

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.

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

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’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.”

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.

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 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.

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.

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!

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Bloom Integrative Health and Movement Centre

Grail Springs in Bancroft, ON

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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.

Chapman Coaching Inc.

Ralph Waldo Emmerson’s poem “Success” and on meaning of living a successful life

Comiccon Winnipeg

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 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!

Chapman 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.

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 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 [email protected]

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.