This may be the first and last non food-related post here, but I wanted to let you all know about a project that has been taking up a fair bit of my time lately, since it is only one week away now!
I am one of four women who decided to co-found a women’s conference in Victoria … After getting together to discuss various events we had been to, we decided there was no reason why Victoria shouldn’t be home to a kick-ass women’s conference … the kind of conference that brought in amazing speakers we wouldn’t otherwise be able to connect with here on our island, and combined their stories with some of the incredible stories of women working and living here! We quickly realized that if we were going to be able to attend to this kind of conference, we would have to put it on ourselves! and so, Breathe Now was conceived!
Between us, we wanted to provide an environment where women could connect with women outside of their usual social and business circles, and discover the common threads running through each of their stories. And more importantly, we hoped that this conference would provide women a chance to slow down, rediscover our inner awesomeness, recharge,… and breathe!
It has been my distinct honour to be connecting with the various speakers as we prepare for the weekend! Our keynote speakers Rona Maynard and Bif Naked are incredible storytellers in their own right. Each of them, on the surface very different, with quite different career paths and circumstances, BUT when they share their perspectives, and share the importance of storytelling in their lives, are very similar.
Some of our speakers from Vancouver and Victoria have also shared with me a little bit about the journey that preparing their talks has taken them on. There are some powerful and compelling stories to be told on April 14-15 and I am truly honoured and proud that they have all (without missing a beat!) given of their time and energy for Breathe Now!
As things have come together for Breathe Now, I’ve been reflecting on the journey Breathe Now has taken me on … the new friendships and connections I have made, and the re-connections with old friends, and the incredible outpouring of support from the community to make this event happen! One of the re-connections for me was a revisiting of Bridges for Women, the charity that Breathe Now is supporting! This incredible community organization had only been up and running on a very small scale when I first started in government, and in the many years I worked in the area of employment-training, was a program that was regularly held up as a “best practice” model of how to do employment programming right. No surprise, a program that works primarily with women, many of whom are moms, would find that there is no more powerful force on earth than women and moms!!!
There are just 6 days left to buy your ticket for Breathe Now!
I firmly believe that when a group of women get together in a room … powerful things can and will happen! I look forward to seeing you there as part of this incredible weekend!
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Looking forward to this gift you have given us. Opportunities to nourish one’s soul are so often missed or put aside due to life’s busy-ness. So, this is indeed a food related post, as it is as essential to feed one’s spirit as it is to create a healthy meal. See you this weekend. MariaKirley Noseynetworker