Welcome to my new podcast, This is Jennie Alexis, where I will be covering various topics all stitched into who I am and what I do. Some episodes will talk about business, others will be about the health and wellness industry, and some may even include personal writing excerpts. 

In this episode, I describe my origin and how the landscape around me as a child influenced my adult perspective. There’s a certain magic to watching a storm unfold in the distance as the sun still has something to say about where your feet stand. Just like the lessons I learned in winter, my goal here is to bring people into this podcast and foster a community out of likeness and connectivity. I’m glad you’re here.

Topics Covered:

• What to expect for future episodes: business, interviews, wellness, and personal writing
• My origin as a child of immigrants from Ireland and Ukraine
• Relationship with the horizon as the sky is more vast than the land
• Inviting people to be a part of something, fostering a community 

Follow Me:

• Website
• Instagram
• About Me 
• Email: hello@thisisjenniealexis.com

Hey, it's your host Jennie with an I E. And you are listening to this is Jennie Alexis, a podcast about getting curious and doing things differently. Every episode I share personal musings conversations and stories that I hope will invite you to explore ways to live outside the systems were taught, and often believe we need to fit into. For more information about today's episode, including show notes, be sure to visit this is Jennie alexis.com/podcast. I am so glad you're here. Now on to today's show. Hello, and welcome to the first episode of my new podcast. This is Jennie Alexis. I am Jennie Alexis, and this podcast has been a long time coming. It's something I've been thinking about for a couple of years. And over the last year really started to consider what kind of conversations I wanted to be having, what the podcast was asking of me. And really the purpose behind talking to you in this format. I am someone who, as a teacher, and coach of mine says, words are my sequence. I love to talk, I love to be in conversation and discussion with folks. It is a form of knowledge tending and information gathering. It helps me sustain and feed my curiosity, which is a really important aspect and value that I hold. So for those reasons, it felt like now was the right time a good time to launch a podcast. So what can you expect? Well, there will certainly be episodes in which I just talk musings things that I'm thinking about with regards to my business, perhaps things that are unfolding in my community or the collective, and certainly wanting to hold conversations with people I really admire with folks who are taking a different approach to their business, who are doing really important work as it relates to activism work, folks who are working in the spirituality and wellness industry, which is now a full on industry. And in particular those individuals in that industry, the ones who are I think of really taking an approach that is really true to themselves. There's a lot of congruency there with how they are in the world and what they teach. And there will occasionally be episodes where I think I might share some of my personal writing. Over the last year, I've started to do a little bit of creative writing. It's a process I'm really enjoying. And I'm finding writing those stories are such a great way for me to explore particular topics that I'm navigating, and gain a better understanding of how I relate to them in my own life. So I think you can expect some of those to be certain. So today, what I want to share with you is a little bit more about who I am and what informs my way of being in the world. And I know that I could do that by sharing with you a CV of what I've done and what I've accomplished, and all of that information. And I think there's value to that to be certain. But what I'm most curious about when I meet people who are new and I'm developing a friendship and a relationship with them, is I'm really curious about the places the spaces, the things that perhaps are intangible that have really informed who they are, have informed their values, how they function in the world, the choices they've made with regards to the work they do, the businesses that they run, and how all of that informs where they are now whether it is in the season of their life or where they are actually living. So I grew up in Rocky Mountain Cree territory, which is is known by colonizers as northern Alberta. My parents lived in this fairly small community at the time, it's where they met. They both moved there in the early 70s. My mom's people are from Ireland, her mother is from the west of Ireland. And her father is from Cork. So more inland, although you know, Ireland is an island to some extent. So a strong relationship with the ocean, my mom loves being near the ocean, she spent a lot of her summers in Ireland, with her grandmother, and aunts. And so she has a real affinity for the water. But she came to this very land locked community, as a physician, seeking some Adventure seeking to, I don't want to say escape, but for a new perspective on the work that she been doing already, in the United Kingdom, my dad's people hail from the Ukraine, part of Ukraine, that is now known as Poland. But his people identified as Ukrainian. And as I've been doing some research around this, I've learned that the adoption of the identity Ukrainian was more so one of survival. So in all likelihood, my great grandfather on my grandmother's side, her father was Hutsul. And on my grandfather's side, more likely those folks were loosen. But the hustles are a part of what is referred to as the car patho. Loosen people. And they are in some ways referred to as an indigenous people to that part of the Slavic world, primarily because they have been there for so many generations for hundreds and hundreds of years. And but there is quite a complex, as there are in many parts of Europe's emigration migrate migration that took place to the Slavic countries. But the adoption of Ukrainian I suspect was out of survival, because the loosen people the hood, so people were not welcomed by Russians. And at the time that my great great grandparents on both sides would have been living in the Ukraine. It was under Austro Hungarian and Russian rule, complex histories in that part of the world to be certain. So they identify as Ukrainian. They came here in the early part of the 20th century. My grandmother was born in a small area just outside of what is now known as Edmonton. And that's where my father grew up. And he moved to the small community in northern Alberta in the early 70s. Anyway, that's a lot of information. But important because I really want to situate that my people are colonizers, I am the child of an immigrant on both sides. And that has really informed that understanding of being a white person on turtle island that is informed in big part, my business and how I try to be in the world is tracking and noticing the ways that I am upholding those colonizer mindsets, the colonizer ways of being and trying with, you know, slow intent to decolonize to the best of my abilities through learning and listening. But one of the things that is so fascinating to me, as I've done more research particular about the place where my Slavic ancestors are from is how similar the topography and geography is to the place where my dad grew up, and where I grew up. So these fast fields where grain was primarily produced, and the Carpathian Mountains, quite a significant mountain range in that part of Europe. And where I grew up, the land was very flat. So it's the northern part of the province very, very flat. So flat that in fact, you can see the Rocky Mountains about 200 kilometers away the way the crow flies. And I think that that experience of expanse, informed a few different things for me. One, it gave me a sense of possibility. So I always understood that there were things outside of what I could see that were completely different from my own experience. And in addition This ability to how to build up this opportunity to see mountains that were if you were to get in a car, you know, about two hours away, it really helped me to understand how that difference, right? So when we're looking out past the horizon, and all we see is wheat fields and sky in one direction, and we look in the other direction, we see these fast wheat fields, but then there's mountains. I think it creates this understanding that not everything in front of us is what it seems there are other things beyond. So the other thing with regards to the place where I grew up, that I feel really informed me was the sky and my relationship with the sky. So I was talking about, and, you know, I think folks who have grown up in Prairie settings have a different understanding of this than those who have not. And that's at the horizon almost starts below the horizon, which I noticed didn't really make sense. But the sky is so vast in comparison to the land, that I always felt this sense that there was something unseen, something intangible that was out there that had created this extraordinary experience, this extraordinary relationship between the sky and the land. And to that, you know, one of the things that happens in the prairies is, you can see a storm rolling in. So you know, someone could be 30 minute drive away from you. And you could be experiencing a beautiful sunny day, and they would be experiencing thunderstorms and rain, we could literally watch the weather rolling in across the sky, across the land. And that's a very humbling experience to witness that. And the storms that particularly the the summer storms, on the prairies are really intense. There powerful electrical storms, there's a lot of rain, often a lot of thunder, a lot of lightning. And you can go from the sort of feeling that the sky is infinite, to feeling almost like this oppressive force upon you, and that oppositional almost binary experience. I think it's something that helped me to sort of gain this understanding about how things can are not always as they seem, as I sort of referred to before, with this experience of opposition, and how things can quickly change how we can go from enjoying a sunny day to having, you know, torrential rain. So those are just a few of the things about the landscape, the geography that really impacted me growing up, and I see in many ways how those relationships with the land and my understanding of the land continue impacted me today. But the other thing about growing up in a small northern community is that winter starts very early or it certainly did when I was a child. I mean, most of my Halloween costumes, I had one for school, which you know, would be a variety of things polar bear, rock star, I can't remember all the things that went up, I think I went as Robin Hood one year princess and Little Bo Peep, I went a Little Bo Peep one here, and how then in the evenings it was often too cold to wear that costume. So we would tuck into something different often involving a snow suit. And you know, one of my dad's sheepskin jackets, and, you know, my mum, perhaps drawing a mustache on her face or having a different costume for the evening because of a cold and snow and so winter starting perhaps mid to end October, I'm really having snow on the ground until at least the middle of March, sometimes longer. And it's dark, right? It's dark up north, I mean, really just a handful of hours. When you come to the winter solstice, towards the end of December, like literally a handful of hours of light. Waking up going to school. It was just the sun was just coming up being in school during daylight hours, leaving school and the sun was already setting. And as my dad used to say to people who moved up north was Do you sing, dance, play a musical instrument or pray? And when we think about all of those things, there's a strong sense of community and all those whether it's part of a spiritual practice being involved in the arts and theater is there's a strong community base in all of those activities and that was really integral for people having community Knowing who you could rely upon. And I think that really arising this instinctual thing that we have about surviving in the winter. And so very difficult to do that, on your own without community. And community is a value of mine that is extremely important. It's something that I tend to regularly, whether it's nurturing community, extending my community, how I'm in relationship, noticing that, and, in part, because I do, I am fueled by that to be certain. But also because I know how valuable it is. And I know there are so many of us who can struggle to create community. And oftentimes, the most effective way to build community is to invite people into that sometimes these things happen organically to be certain. But inviting people to be a part of something, it helps give purpose, it helps gives a sense of connection. It helps create security, and safety, all of those things that we really need throughout the year to be certain, but particularly during the seasons of the year, when it can be cold, and it can be dark. And it can be very easy to slip into a sense of wanting to be alone, and not necessarily having people tracking how we're doing. So and that definitely comes from my parents, for sure. And I would argue that they're tending to community was out of necessity, in moving to the north, and really realizing that they had to engage, if they wanted to air quotes here survive the winter. So as part of that connection is a value that's really important to me in the different ways that we connect with people. And that is a big part of this podcast. And was really the impetus in going ahead and doing this is because I want to connect with people, not just in conversations here, you know, I hope to bring on individuals that I admire, as I've mentioned, but also with you, with those who are listening, you know how frequently perhaps we feel disconnected, we aren't hearing the kinds of conversations we want to hear, we are wanting to extend and expand how we connect. And so to that point, I really hope that you will hop on over to my website, this is Jennie alexis.com/podcast. And, you know, send me a message. And it could be something about an episode that you heard, I would love, love, love to know, wow, I would love to know the so much how you feel the places in which you grew up. And it could be one place, it could be a number of places, have really informed who you are today and your values, I would love to know that. I find that really fascinating. So that's a little bit about me, and how I'm arriving into this podcast space. And I invite you to be curious and patient with me as I begin to listen to what this show wants, what it's asking of me what wants to be said, what doesn't want to be said, Who wants to be invited on the show, and I have so many ideas of folks that I'd love to have conversations with. So I'm so glad you're here. I just want to end by saying that I'm really glad you're here. And I look forward to hearing from you learning about who you are, where you're listening from. And thank you. Thank you for listening today. Be well. Thanks for listening to this is Jennie Alexis, I hope you enjoyed what you heard on today's show. As always, it means the world to me when you share this content. So if there was something that got you thinking or made you curious, I'd love to know. Send me a note ats this isJenniealexis.com or over on Instagram @at this isJennieAlexis. If you enjoyed today's episode another way you can show your appreciation is by leaving a review on iTunes. And if there's a person in your life who could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode. Bam thank you so much for being here I can't wait to do it all again soon