Save BC Film

Twas second hand information. Supposedly a fact.
Brad Pitt was coming to Vancouver to shoot a movie.
Not unknown for YVR. Celebrities making movies here. We’ve had a few.
Imagine the snowball economic affect a movie with a star of this caliber would have on our city!  
He wouldn’t travel alone. Nope. Brad Pitt would not travel alone. My logistic mind thinks he’d bring some of his family and/or friends. A few assistants. 
Fan groupies could likely follow. Maybe Paparazzi. Hollywood press types. Entertainment Tonight.
Wonder if he'd rent a house or an upscale full-on hotel suite. Order room service. Or bring his own chef. 
Likely there'd be a production office. Along with all the technical requirements involved – probably hire a few locals to help out. I bet there’d be flowers. Deliveries of a traveller’s home conveniences; such as dry-cleaning, electronics, entertainment – besides all the usual meals, coffee and tea necessities.
Am betting he would visit a restaurant while here. Maybe an art gallery. Possibly a gym. In Brad's interest, some furniture stores.
You have to wonder what kind of cha-ching they would spend on a night out don’t you? Am figuring that someone who makes millions on movies certainly wouldn’t live like a student when they’re working somewhere other then home. 
Oh, but Vancouver was passed over on that movie deal with Brad Pitt to shoot here. Something to do with their budget and our Tax Credits? 
Do you think if all the studios that we've built sit empty they'll get turned into furniture stores?
"Start the car! Start the car!" 
Then the recent hearsay, we get it back through our own homegrown indigenous manifestos.
Oh yeah. Here's hoping. 
Cha-ching!

Power Truths

I lied.

This came to me during meditation.

It’s true. I wasn’t honest with myself. How I really felt.

The memory that erupted the floodgate of realization shattered my physique. It was years ago but it came back to me like it was yesterday.

We were sitting in a funky breakfast eatery in Little Italy in Toronto. My soon-to-be husband and I. It was a hangover day. We were eating up the grease. Two very intriguing individuals walked in. They had an artist’s air about them. Proud, confidant and dressed in colour. I looked. I gawked. I admired.

My fiancé caught my glare and gashed my ego.

“You don’t like artists do you?” then he added in a snarly tone, “Bunch of wing nuts.”
Young at the time, flirting with love, ironically I really thought he was the one for me - my true love, I responded uncomfortably. It was neither in their defense, nor in my favour.

Was I lost?
The truth is I was. I wasn’t listening to my inner guides. To my intuition. To my heart. I wasn’t telling him how I really felt. I do admire artists.

In a power struggle with love and fitting in, I’d given up my soul. I thought I loved myself, but I didn’t really know. It turns out when I look back, I wasn’t being true to myself - in any of my past relationships.

I did marry that man. But it didn’t last.

My spiritual journey took time.

Earlier this month I had the fortune of attending two evening talks with the same two young and very spiritually savvy women. This may sound contradictory. I am sure they are both younger in age them myself; yet full of more wisdom and spiritual intuition then I ever had at their ages.

Gabrielle Bernstein from New York at one point waved a hand in the air announcing she was a P.S.A. (Public Service Announcement) for meditation.
Danielle LaPorte a Vancouver native swung on the jive on grooving to the way you want to feel. Not comparing yourself to others. Setting your own state of being.

I gulped it all up.

Even though, I had entered the room feeling at the time, “Cripey another couple of women talking about women’s stuff. Here we go again…”
Yet, as much as I have already seen, heard and read before – these two captivated my soul.

This was in Vancouver.

Gabrielle Bernstein signing her latest book "May Cause Miracles"
with Danielle LaPorte in Vancouver.
Photograph by Jane Victoria King

A few days later I was in Victoria and I saw them both again. Together on stage for the opening night of the Victoria Yoga Conference.

I had taken my mother and a close family friend.

They did it again.

Be true to yourself resonated once more. Even though I always thought I followed my heart, did what I felt was right, I came to a realization that sometimes what the mind says overpowers the way the heart feels.

The head shouldn’t rule the heart. We should listen to our heart.

In Vancouver I bought Gabby’s book the “Spirit Junkies.” It’s by my bed. I read it before I go to sleep.

A few days after I returned from Victoria I went to Indigo and bought Danielle’s book, “The Fire Starter Sessions,” which I read in the morning when I wake up.

I am almost finished the two of them. True enough, I’ve gleamed more entrepreneurial spirit from both.

The message is loud and clear.

Be true to yourself. Listen to your inner guides. Meditate.

In my practice I’ve released all of my regrets. Forgiven everyone I can think of. Crossed the highway to gain a daily morning spiritual practice that I look forward to. Honoured my fears, but not let them rule me. Woken up each day with gratitude and gained a spring in my step knowing I know how I want to feel.

Holy love, holy health, and holy wealth.

I don’t compare myself to anyone else.

This is me.

Victoria Yoga Conference Promo Video

My career goals are to create content that inspires and engages the world. I love to integrate sound with images and design with words.

Earlier this year I was asked to assist my friend, Carolyne Taylor of yoUnlimited and 24 Carrot Learning to produce a series of interviews with some of the yoga teachers she had participating in the inaugural Victoria Yoga Conference (February 1-3, 2013).

Happily I agreed and this is what I created (with my limited video production gear) and FCPx.

Was SO much fun to edit!

A Bully’s Work

Silence speaks.

Like the thunder in the rain.

Inside you weep.

Trauma holds on.

While the bully looks beyond.

Deep down you know.

There is no remorse.

We awake to the promise.

The memories to forget.

Yet lingering beyond.

The truth speaks.

It is true.

We will find hope.

We know not now.

What holds us back.

Pathways to Freedom

Do you explore what the Universe is telling you?

When all the stars are aligned, trust me you can feel it. Your soul will tell you.

If you listen.

The title of this blog post popped into my head as I was running up a steep hill. I was reflecting on a visit I’d had recently to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Each one of the floors. The following night I had attended the Presentation House Gallery Opening. At some point in the evening this realization jolted me:

“Art is the upholstery of freedom. Of life.” 

I carry a notebook and pen with me. I quickly took it out and wrote it down.

Not long ago I had read a short anecdote by a family friend, Peter Tongue who produces a spiritual podcast called Voice of America.
In it he’d talked about a walk in a field where he witnessed a Vulture swoop down. His initial thought was the obvious. 

“What is it going after?”

Then as perception would have it, he mulled this further and asked himself. 

“What is it showing me?”

I’ve been saying for years, whenever some kind of circumstance arises that may not necessarily be in my favour that “Everything happens for a reason, you won’t realize it now but you will later.”
We are guided in our path of life and I believe it is dictated by one of two things: The first being what your head tells you and the second is what your soul or your heart says.

Do we take enough time as human beings to explore this?
To listen to what the Universe is telling us by hearing our soul calling?

I believe this is our pathway to freedom. 

Our pathway to freedom, for life.