Travelling the world.
During early years at university, I worked a variety of jobs to follow my dream of travelling the world. Fortunately, I was able to broaden my horizons by visiting many exotic countries. Eventually, I found employment in the airline industry where I worked onboard steel butterflies (airplanes). As an inflight service attendant, I travelled the world for many years, crossing oceans and continents, transporting modern day travellers to their destinations. One day, my flights of fancy halted. A chronic illness (CFIDS) clipped my wings and left me grounded. I was unable to continue with life in the way I had known it.

A lifelong quest.
This began a lifelong quest, a transformative journey of healing and creative exploration into fine arts, holistic healing modalities, philosophy, mythology, archeology, literature, archetypal psychology, deep ecology and world wisdom traditions. I completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at NSCAD University in Halifax, Canada, became a certified holistic health practitioner and educator, and completed Creativity Coaching Training with Eric Maisel. In addition, my explorations into various fields of study -- expressive arts, dance, contemplative and meditation practices, polyvagal theory perspectives, vocal sound healing, energy healing, ancient history, literature, the poetry of Zen, human gut microbiome, Indigenous African healing technologies and other areas of interest -- continue to interweave and shape my personal journey and work in the world.

A life-changing event.
Some years later, for complicated reasons, I left this path. This was not a wise decision, as I eventually realized. Eventually, a second life-altering event involving my digestive health, changed the course of my life. It was a terrifying passage where many nights I awoke having to face my darkest fears. During this period, I sunk into isolation while my body wasted away, relationships dissolved, a job ended, financial stability declined and everything I previously held important, no longer seemed so. It was as if the rug had been pulled out from under me and I found myself flat on my back. In order to flourish, I had to release everything about myself that wasn't authentic and trust "aliveness" at the heart of existence.

Lost and found.
Although I continued to see conventional medical practitioners during this illness, I began exploring the magic of imagination. During my illness, images would appear spontaneously in my mind's eye. These living, animate expressions revealed themselves as metaphors of deep knowledge, creativity and change, shifting left-brain perspectives into more expansive ones of healing and wholeness. I began a daily practice of paying attention to the language of images -- those within and those around me in the concrete world of appearances. I was beginning a new conversation, one that seemed to offer inspiration, wisdom and new ways of seeing in the world. This created a sense of hope, encouraging me to reclaim my true path, aligned with a more generous, life-affirming future.

 

Restoring the imaginal in everyday life.
When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived on the world stage, I felt compelled to share what I learned during my lengthy health episode. It seemed relevant to the global events unfolding all around me. I decided to devote myself to the task of restoring an imaginal (more poetic) way of seeing and being in the world. Unlike fantasies (images conjured up by the rational mind), the aliveness within and around us speaks in the language of deep imagination and can offer inspiration, wisdom and renewal in almost every aspect of our daily lives. When we neglect this imaginal intelligence at the heart of existence, we remain stuck in obsolete ways of seeing, which eventually can undermine our human lives and the greater community of life. To break free from outworn perspectives, we must risk stepping into unknown terrain and begin a deeper conversation with ourselves and this fertile, ground of imaginal aliveness.