A day for women
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Dozens of women gathered together at the Strathmore Legion on May 2 for the bi-annual Women’s Conference. The conference began with drumming with keynote speaker Judy Atkinson.
Atkinson’s ‘Make a Joyful Noise’ presentation involved getting everyone in the room to drum together, and to share a laugh.
The actual sessions began with ‘In the Heat of the Night’ a discussion about menopause, and ‘Saying No’ which was about the five agreements. There were four sessions for the day, two running concurrently in the morning, and another two in the afternoon.
Jennifer Ash is a spiritual life coach who also teaches energy healing at the University of Calgary, along with counselling and Angel therapy.
She spoke of the five agreements, which are the principles for being.
“Everybody wants more love, and more enjoyment and more vitality in their life, less conflict, less pain, less suffering, less judgment. These five agreements are a way of creating that for yourself,” said Ash.
“It is about us taking responsibility for our thoughts and the feeling that we have.”
The five agreements are to be impeccable with your word; do not assume anything; do not take anything personally; always do your best and lastly to be skeptical but learn to listen.
“What (the last one) really means is be mindful that everybody’s truth is a little bit different. Somebody else’s truth, you can accept it, but you don’t have to accept it as your own,” said Ash.
“It’s about being mindful and true to yourself, and honouring yourself and knowing that if you honour yourself in a loving and generous way you will naturally be honouring other people.”
Lynn Walker with Wheatland FCSS helped organize the event. She said it was a wonderful day, and the feedback from everyone who attended was positive.
Walker attended some of both afternoon sessions, ‘Portion size does matter’ and ‘Container gardening.’
“I sat through half of the container gardening and I was getting really into that and I thought I better go upstairs as well. I went upstairs and they had the one on the balanced plate was all about watching what you should be eating, and then they had the chef there giving out samples,” said Walker.
“It was really, really a good time.”
Joyce Bazant with Wheatland Further Education Society also helped organize the event, and attended it.
“I thought the conference went great, everyone seemed to be really happy with it,” said Bazant.
“I attended the Jennifer Ash the five agreements and I was very impressed with that. I find her very knowledgeable and I really enjoyed that class.”
Bazant also participated in the container gardening session put on by Eagle Lake and again found it to be a fun, and informative session. Bazant said if anyone has any suggestions for the next women’s conference in 2016 they are welcome to give any of the three organizing groups a call. She said they are always open to suggestions about different ideas people would like to see happen.
The Women’s Conference is held every other year, alternating with the senior’s conference. Wheatland FCSS, Wheatland Further Education Society and the Growing Families Society spearheaded the event.