Brenda-Lee Sasaki, Leadership Coaching & Consultancy

10/22/2024

5 days in north west Hawaii.
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It feels beautiful and strange to go away while the world is falling apart. Yet here I am. Away. In a stunningly warm, glorious island of sand and sun and palm trees and the most delicious coffee, fruit and nuts. A volcanic island of contrast…harsh lava rock and black sand beaches, azure coastlines and lush hillside farms…
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The ocean is where I want to be. Everyday if I could. I feel its pull and mystery, the sacredness of its never ending reach, the life it supports, millions upon millions of sea creatures great and small across the globe.
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We swam and snorkelled, we floated over coral beds and brushed against tropical fish…we did a night snorkel with manta rays - a truly breathtaking experience. We waded along rocky beaches, hot white sand beaches and coarse black sand…salty waves knocked me about. Bring it on calypso!
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Roasting our own coffee, finding a macadamia nut farm along a random road, pina coladas and mai tais, poke, fish tacos…
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Walking the coastal ruins at Lapakahi from 1300 AD and feeling the energy from the ancestors as we walked and read their stories…we were the only people at this site. I was an honour to learn about them and sense their legacy.
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The Ironman is this Saturday in Kona. I have never seen so many fit people running, biking and swimming as I chow down on Maui onion chips and a cold beer.
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02/19/2024

I am 58. I don’t need your approval. I don’t want your opinion about my life, my body, my spirituality, my politics. I will keep showing up.

02/19/2024

Beautiful YVR foodies …. is a sumptuous glorious experience. We went for my birthday celebration and it was extraordinary. From our warm welcome to our leaving it was this attentive, delicate movement of food and wine coming and leaving our table with attentive precision. The food was rich and warm, complex flavours paired with wine and sake and cider that made us feel like we were the only two in the place (we were not).
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Take your time. Savour. Open your palate. Open your heart. Have lingering conversations over incredible food.
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02/16/2024

What a breath of fresh air to spend a couple of hours in the beautiful Chan Centre listening to and share their personal, individual and collective reflections on life and grief and collaboration and creativity and curiosity.
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I was moved deeply by their love and laughter, and I was reminded of the brevity and beauty of life and the adventure that waits for us beyond. While we are here now, our commitment to the flourishing of those around us and responsibility to show up in the world with more kindness and compassion was hopeful.
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“The work of freedom…freedom should never be taken for granted”
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01/01/2024

Hello humans...It's me, Brenda.

Here we are again at the edge of a new year. Some of you have made the leap into 2024. Some of us are inching our way there as I type. Some of us have gone to bed and others do not mark the turning of the calendar at all. Hello to you all.

I have no playlists to share with you from this past year although music filled my soul in some pretty profound ways...I saw Herbie Hancock in Seattle, Depeche Mode in Vancouver, U2 in Las Vegas. There is something that comes over me when I can sit alongside others is small and large spaces and sing and stand and sway to music that unites us even for a few short hours.

I have no epic book lists to share with you (but I loudly applaud those who do! Bravo!). I had a hard time carving space to read this year. So many times the books on my nightstand stayed untouched for months. They are still waiting for when I am ready.

I shared some truly beautiful meals with incredible people...my dear friends from work who have all moved onto new adventures, my adult kids whom I enjoy our adult conversations around tacos or Thai take-out...family, sisters, strangers. Cooking school in Italy and the gorgeous restaurants with long lingering dinners and dozens upon dozens of wines I partook of this year (hundreds dare I say?!). What joy.

Travel with my daughter this spring to the city that never sleeps, the concrete jungle where dreams of made of...what fun to experience it with her - museums, food, theatre...She is one of my favourites.

My house is in shambles...the deconstruction before the reconstruction. I am acutely aware of this privilege to re-imagine our space. And we work hard to have the opportunity to stay rooted in our home and in our community of 30 years and yet... we watch in real time the world at war and thousands upon thousands, millions of people uprooted from their homes, their families destroyed in unimaginable ways, and dreams and futures shattered. I am aware of this. every. day.

I changed three roles at my workplace within 10 months. I am tired. I am tired of holding space and managing transitions, of figuring things out only to have to figure things out again next week. My capacity and my patience are stretched like a rubber band, taut and tight, fraying ever so slightly, ready to snap.

I stopped writing this year.

I cancelled plans with people I dearly love.

And yet, the light of hope still flickers.

I hope for a ceasefire now and an end to war. To hold our leaders accountable. To stand up against injustice and to not look away. Not look away from the unhoused in my neighbourhood, from the struggling newcomers with no family to support them, from daily deaths in Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, Congo, Vancouver, Surrey.

I hope dear messy humans, that you will see with fresh eyes all the places and spaces you can make the world a little kinder, a little more safe, a little more peaceful, a little more bold.

I hope you have friends who love you deeply. Even just one. I hope you are that friend.

I hope you don't give up, but that you give yourself grace and the gift of going slow. And if you do give up, grab hold of someone's hand and hang on. I don't know if and when it will get better, but keep holding on.

I hope you get mad. I hope you laugh. I hope you take photos of your glorious, messy, unfiltered self and the glorious ordinary things and events all around you. I hope you can be real with yourself and love yourself every day.

Chasing hope,
B. xxoo

12/08/2023

When your friends are a life line…
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I’ve been going through some things the last 4 to 6 weeks and it’s been a tough slog. I’ve been disregulated and upturned in a lot of ways… Trying to manage a new role and packing up our house for our renovation… Family in need… trying to love and nurture relationships…starting a 5 course professional certification…holding my breath most days and trying to exhale while the world is at war and children are dying every minute.
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And a package from one of my most beloveds arrived today with poetry and chocolate and peppermint oil and handmade earrings. And I cried. And laughed. And ate some chocolate.
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I am because you are.
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I will sleep better tonite. Her friendship is invaluable and her timing impeccable. But that’s what friends do, right? We hold onto each and share our oxygen masks.
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Make sure you are cultivating friendships like this my lovely humans. There is no greater gift. Look around you this Christmas, this season of longing for hope and a little peace…who needs your oxygen mask? See who might be gasping for air.
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Chasing hope, B xxoo
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11/27/2023

Calling out to my spiritual wanderers, holy mischief makers, skeptics, weary folks…how are you doing?
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Me? I want to be hopeful as this dark season of winter descends. I want to muster some threads of faith that “God with us” is actually still with us.
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I was googling Advent services near me, and there was not a lot to be found. Oh, I’m sure many of the local churches are doing Christmas services, desert, theaters, Christmas pageants, but I am longing for the longing of Advent.
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I did not grow up with Advent practises in my home… But we brought them into our family when we started having kids I found there was something profoundly sacred with teaching them that something better is coming… and its worth waiting for. And while the magic and twinkle of gifts and snow can be lovely… There is something bigger going on than the trappings of uncontrollable consumerism attaching itself to the manger and exhausted busyness we let ourselves get sucked in to.
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Advent…arrival…anticipating…
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How are you entering December? What might you be waiting for? How can I hold space for you to let gentleness guide us in the days ahead?
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Chasing hope, looking for advent, B — xo
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10/19/2023

10/19/2023

Sasaki’s in Italy - Part 10 - Church in England/ Church of England(what? another church?!)
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England was our last stop on our European adventures this fall. I have a very dear friend I have known since 1986 and we met up in South London at Carshalton, a short train ride from Central London. She arranged for us to stay with her and her husband and son at their good friends place, The Fishers, who happen to be amazing humans who put us up for 4 nights.
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Father David Fisher happens to be the Rector of this church, All Saints Parish Church, which has been on this site since before the Norman Conquest. Over 1000 years! So we went to church again! High mass on Sunday…my first High Mass! It was lovely - lots of incense - and I love that in the program they tell you when to sit and when to stand - very helpful. The message was good, the people kind and they served Prosecco afterwards to celebrate a confirmation of a pastoral auxiliary candidate (a woman!). Come for communion, stay for Prosecco…my kind of church.
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David gave us a tour of the church afterwards and wow, talk about humbly serving the people of this diocese in a place with over a thousand years of people longing to connect to the divine…David is passionate about his call and the work of spiritual care. This church is a place and an idea…there is beauty and complexity in both. I would love you to read on their website about how this church began and grew over the centuries. Fascinating. Hopeful. And… there is a painting in the church that is connected to Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens so that story is pretty cool.
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I have been pondering the idea of church being built upon church upon church, bricks, plaster, stones, wood…the theme of church reinventing itself as context and times change…the church was always meant to evolve and change and adapt, with cracks and crevices and sinking floors to remind us that we are temporal and what we leave behind is the stepping stone for what next is being built.
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Still chasing hope, B Xo
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10/14/2023

Sasaki's in Italy -
Part 9 - Art.
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I have always been fascinated and eager to learn about art and history. Our world is an ever evolving place where context matters and curiousity can open us up to new understandings. Italy is central to one’s understanding of Western civilization and western spiritual and religious practices hence so much art, museums and ancient history to experience.
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We were able to experience amazing galleries and see hundreds of artists and view their many works from as early as 1000 years ago and of course Florence artists led the way during the Rennaisance. I cannot adequately describe the sense of beauty, skill, longing, reaching, complexity, subtle, provocative emotions I experienced the last few weeks in the presence of such art.
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So I will share with you such a small sample of some of the hundreds I took. But also the hundreds I did not take as simply gazing at them to stay present in the moment often took my breath away.
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Priceless memories etched into my heart.
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Let's open a bottle of wine together and talk about art and beauty and the divine, shall we?
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