2020 – My father died one week after the first Covid-19 lockdown began in Saudi Arabia. I’d literally sat on the beach for all of the spring break prior and written 100 pages of poetry. Then came the shock my family did not expect.
2021 – Healing and virtually teaching drama and digital media while my mom and sister move get ready to sell my parents’ big acreage (my home when at home) in Canada. Writing. Meditating. Not meditating. Penning songs – and wrote 20 after my dad died. Still in Saudi.
Finally expect to get home in June 2021.
Got some new and wonderful things on the horizon for 2021-22 including a few ‘secret gigs and specials’ for my subscribing followers. Get in touch via the contact page or social media and I’ll point you to them.
Feb 2020:
After a three-month summer break in 2019, in the UK and Canada where I had the pleasure of doing a bit of performing, recording, and studying (dramatherapy), I came back to Saudi and resumed teaching drama and established a new one-semester course in Digital Arts, essentially focused on digital media. I directed and produced a murder mystery dinner theatre production, and am now working with my high school students on devised theatre and a short, short play fest.
I’ve been on two trainings (physical and verbatim theatre methods) in Dubai, Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher Training in Scotts Valley, California, and now I am co-leading a group of students back to the UAE on a Week Without Walls trip for a week, and a Compassionate Action leadership team of students to Manama, Bahrain in the spring for a summit.
Life in Saudi Arabia is further enriched by my current immersion in post-graduate psychology studies with a Canadian university.
I continue to train in Mindful Self Compassion, practice the methods, and implement the MSC practices/approaches in our school and at district level with my students and colleagues. This January 2020, I attended the MSC Teacher Training course for the 8-week intensive, and am now establishing my first course, to take place in the Middle East in 2020.
When I’m not studying psychotherapeutic/counselling theories, teaching drama/digital arts, directing a play, or leading in compassionate action initiatives in our school or the community, I am in the gym.
Or I’m in the desert or somewhere adventurous enjoying Saudi culture. This is where life feels the most peaceful of all.
2020 is the year I will be dedicating myself to helping people overcome the painful effects of weight loss. I am currently accepting coaching clients. And I’m writing new music.
