So we did it! We made it through the dark cold days of winter.

So we did it! We made it through the dark cold days of winter.

We have consciously or unconsciously looked at things that needed to be looked at or our bodies have started to speak louder trying to get our attention, as the body never lies.

This winter I learned a lot and through that growth I have changed. As the light gets brighter it helps me see it’s time to update my boundaries and be sure to lovingly share them with those I share time with. 

I’m not going to lie, this was a rough one for me. Over the season I went through, what I hope are, the final stages of menopause. This journey has changed and decreased my sleep, had me hot flashing and night sweating, and on a hormonal roller coaster. I’ve been conscious of it, but I was still like a reckless driver tearing down that road.

Getting back out in the world has also been shockingly challenging. I used to drive hours and hours a day all over the region between contracts. Now I really find it’s a waste of time. I’m working on changing my ego’s perceptions as they arise and return them to love. In that spirit I will say I have really enjoyed the extra time I gained by not having a commute. The time working from home also gave my nervous system a chance to rebalance and regulate and that is invaluable to me. Home time has also demanded that I learn how to use technology for work. I have learned so much about how to use all my tools on my website and on social media. I’ve had great help from Natasha Totino at TL;DR to get to where I am. It has been humbling and has expanded my options and reach for my clients. For this I am very grateful and continue to learn.

Now is the time to recalibrate. I’m finding my new rhythm between online and out in the world and between my art, social activism and spiritual work. This winter I got to merge all three.

I did work at Carleton University in the social work department and at the OCD school board with teachers on PD day, on Theatre of the Oppressed. Once again I was blessed to do two weeks of Blues in the Schools for Ottawa Bluesfest and am about to start the Be in the Band program this coming week. At the start of the season I hosted ceremonies on our property and led a Croning Ceremony for the head of Witch School Canada. I’m just about to add on to the program for the spring with new teachings on the recent history of Witch Culture around the world. I’m really enjoying delving into related practices of South America and Africa in particular.

This winter a peer recommended me to work at a women’s shelter with the children doing therapeutic creative arts and I just found out I’ll be continuing through the spring and summer. I feel honoured to continue.

My mom and I published our anthology and had a very successful live launch performance with many of the writers at The Gladstone Theatre, where I now get the gift of being part of the board. The book is for sale in the store on my website.

I always say that with young people you have arts, sports or trouble so I took my own medicine and put myself out there as the student instead of the teacher. I joined a French community choir, took an encaustic sculpting class with a friend, kept going to my yoga tune up class, went swimming, skating, and hiking. It worked. All of these activities, for the most part, kept me out of trouble. Lol.

I’ve put my face out in the world in creative ways too. I was a test subject for spiritual face painting. I was part of a video for women who are 50, and I let The Gladstone use me for their promotional videos. Seeing myself so often on a screen in the past few years of the pandemic has been educational. I’ve learned to see myself more kindly and with acceptance of where I’m at. There were days where my ego, I call him the Tasmanian Devil lovingly, came out to express all kinds of insecurities and judgements about myself, but we have learned how to communicate better. He is all my residual, unresolved pain. He reminds me that there are things to be tended to. The louder he screamed the longer I likely avoided him. So this winter we had many tea parties looking at some of those old wounds and stories. We peeled off some more layers and although some of it was tough, we grew stronger and lighter as a whole.

Now I am preparing for wedding season, goat yoga in Luskville and planning my exciting destination retreat for the fall. I’m also getting ready for the next cohort of Unedited Woman to start, gathering new material and preparing the archives from the last group so we have an extensive resource library for all. A project that I have just started designing is called Betterment. It’s a program for men to learn emotional intelligence and new ways of being in this world with women that feels right to them. I imagine it will be as much an exploration as it will be a teaching.

Well there is so much more and I’m grateful for it all, the dark and the light, for it is in the contrast that we can truly see. I hope you had a good winter and are awakening happily into spring.

I’m here if you need or want me. Don’t hesitate to reach out even if you’re not quite sure why yet. I am here to serve. I am a messenger of love with a feisty, playful ego. Come walk with me for awhile.

Love Osa