Meanderings with Trudy

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected].

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 [email protected]. 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.