A close friend of mine advised me not to make any big life decisions when you have experienced a major upheaval… but this is a decision I’ve been working on for years.

Here’s a little background.

As a child – teenager, I always wanted to be a veterinarian, so much so that i determinedly applied repeatedly to a local animal hospital until they hired me on as an assistant at minimum wage, from the time I was 16 until I was 19. I can’t believe it was only 3 years, because it seems like such a huge and formative part of my life.

Thing is, gaining entrance to doctor of veterinary medicine programs is extremely competitive, and while I was a smart kid, I wasn’t the smartest kid. I was on the honour role until I became seriously depressed (for a laundry list of reasons) and my grades dropped enough to disqualify me from the bachelor of science program at Guelph University. I was accepted to the agriculture program, but by the time I received that news, I just didn’t have the willpower to go. I promised myself then that I would go to university later in life, when I knew what I wanted to do.

I was so young then, that I didn’t know that depression can make you think you don’t want the things you used to want, and I have wondered in the years since, what would have happened if I had just gone and taken the agriculture program? How would my life been different?

I don’t dwell on that, I just reminisce on that particular fork in the road.

What I did instead was go to college and take nursing. This was a program that would get me into the work force quickly, (the RN program was just two years back in 1998), but I found my depression followed me into nursing, and that I am not really cut out for primary care. I felt like I couldn’t continue in that, and so I just decided to enter the workforce.

From there, I moved to Toronto, quickly attained a management position in one non-profit, then after two years switched to finance in the healthcare field. I took night school courses and got promotions.

But I wasn’t happy. I didn’t like living in Toronto, and was thinking about leaving for a smaller tourist town when I met Sweetie. Well, I decided to give that a shot, and I’m so glad I did.

Together, Sweetie and I moved across the country to Ucluelet / Tofino, where we would spend the next ten years, where I ended up in a hospital job I loved, and where I started my psychic business. We lived a challenging and charmed life for years, yet it always had a sense of impermanence.

For two years before we were evicted by the new property owners of our rental so they could “move in family” and of course rent it out for more than double what we had paid, I had been ruminating on the question of what I should do – and this is when I seriously began to consider my options for a university degree.

Student debt was always something I have wanted to avoid, so attending a full-time program is not an option. I am also mindful of how burnt out I felt attending school full time, and I would really prefer to take courses as I can fit them into my schedule and build to a degree.

So that limits my options substantially, but there are a few great programs that meet these parameters. Quite a lot, actually. All of which were expensive, and I couldn’t justify putting money into school when the housing situation on the West Coast seemed so precarious (and it was!)

All that brings me to now – we are settled into our little Victoria condo, in a diverse neighbourhood (that we LOVE) and after all the stress and uncertainty, I am so so SO grateful to live here. At this point, I would not move back to Tofino if we had the option, as much as I miss it, it feels so good to be here.

Almost involuntarily, I found myself focussing on the university question. Time to make a decision! But how?

I was pointed down a rabbit hole when someone suggested massage therapists are in high demand in Victoria, and can earn 100k / year. “That doesn’t sound right,” I thought… but I had to investigate. I know six massage therapists, off the top of my head, and none of them are living like they earn that kind of money. Most are just trying to pay the bills, a few like to travel, and all have other jobs supplementing their income. Not what I had in mind.

Yet the colleges offering these programs would loudly say massage therapists can make this kind of money…. and maybe it’s my finance background, or my aries tenacity, but I just needed to see the proof.

This search led me to a great little corner of the statistics canada website! I’d been all over statistics canada before, looking for ideas on what career path to pursue, but had not landed on this particular page… a page listing the top 100 growing fields in BC. You could click on each job title and see the median, low and high end reported incomes for each job title, along with projected job posting numbers, and educational requirements.

Sure enough, massage therapist was among the top 100 – and I clicked on it! Ha ha, I was right! Massage therapists in canada, on average, make nowhere near what the programs want you to think, in fact, they make significantly less than I do in my current job. So that’s a no. I couldn’t really see myself working in a spa, anyway.

What I then did was click on every job title that intrigued me, even the ones I knew were impractical to pursue, and wrote down the key information in my little purse notebook (a handheld palm-size notebook with a picture of a beaver and the words “dam it”). I made a little chart of educational requirements, (2 year, 4 yr degree, Masters or doctorate) the projected job growth statistics, and the median salary.

I then made notes on the lifestyle and hours of the job. Did it require on call hours or shift work? If so, I eliminated them. Did they offer Monday – Friday, 9-5 hours with holidays off? If so I highlighted them.

Finally, I circled the job titles with educational requirements I could achieve through part-time study. This narrowed my list down to to three titles: healthcare management, which I have already been considering for years but I know is a thankless and stressful job, healthcare policy which is provincial government employment, and I just don’t have much information on what that job is actually like day to day, and… human resources. Huh!

I stopped at human resources. Here is a career path I have never considered. I thought about it. It actually makes a lot of sense for me.

The best part is a degree in human resources would still keep the other two career paths of provincial government employment and healthcare management open to me, but it would also open MANY more doors, as a degree in HR is widely applicable.

My favourite part of this plan is that there are programs that offer a 1 year certificate, a 2 year diploma, and a 4 year degree. I have found job listings that require only the certificate or the diploma, which do pay me more than my current position, so I could start reaping the rewards of continuing education along the way.

It’s not all about the money, of course, it’s about the stability and the choices making a higher income will allow; and I want to be sure that if I invest money into an education that I will make that money back in a reasonable time frame. I have about 25 years of working life ahead of me, and it will take a chunk of that time to earn a degree on a part-time basis, so it helps to be in a field where I can see some benefits earlier on. I also need to make sure that sinking money into an education will work out financially in the years I would have in the field.

The problem nagging me in Tofino was the math that just didn’t work for us long term. We were managing to get through, year by year, but it always felt like we were surviving, and our survival was a bit uncertain and precarious. I want a more solid plan for our life, and I want to make good on that promise I made to myself at 19 when I decided after completing my first year in nursing that I would not return for the second year – that I would pursue a degree when I knew what it was that I WANTED to do.

And I finally do! I’m so happy to have finally made a decision – and I know I’ll do well in that field.

My next step is to engage in a prior learning assessment, which will transfer my relevant college credits (from nursing and night school) and assess the skills I have acquired in the job market, through my early management experience, my finance job, and my hospital supply chain job. I am hoping to start with a year’s worth of credits, but we’ll see.

For now, I have to deal with a pipe that burst behind our shower and flooded the communal bathroom below… this is my first major issue as a new homeowner and it’s quite a stressful experience. We are going to have to rip out our whole shower to dry the wet wall behind it. This is just one of life’s hiccups and we will figure it out. Once we do, I’ll get the ball rolling on education.

This is the stuff of life my friends. Sometimes spirituality is set aside, temporarily, so we can engage fully in the practical matters of our home and community. Nothing wrong with that.

I can’t help but wonder if this burst pipe is a gift?

Did I tell you that I found out the previous owner of our condo has the same kind of brain tumour my mother had? There is a connection there I am tempted to make, as I’m sure my mother and grandparents were as involved as they could be from heaven in helping us find an affordable condo in the high-demand Victoria market. The one thing I wasn’t so keen on is this condo has a shower, not a bath. If it all has to get ripped out anyway, maybe I can have a bath tub installed while they’re at it. I would not be putting money into renovating the bathroom if this hadn’t happened, but since it has, maybe it’s just a tweak to fully feather our new nest.

We will have to see how things work out. Wish me luck!

I believe there is a cyclical element to our crossing over into spirit. I don’t know exactly what it is or why it happens, but I have noticed over the years of my practice that there seems to be a season for special animals leaving their bodies.

Nothing is set firmly, of course.

This year, in January & February, I have seen a small group of my animal friends, and my friends’ animals, leave their bodies.

It reminds me of my big dog Mocha, and my cat Leo, who left their bodies in January & February.

Maybe “the veil” is a bit thinner this time of year. Maybe after the darkest days of the year, circadian rhythm plays a role.

If you have lost a friend in fur, or a human loved one, this winter, know that you’re not alone. A lot of the good ones seem to choose this time of year to go.

One thing I often meed to remind pet people of is, animals almost *never* hold judgement for the last days of their life. They are mot angry if you had to help them leave their bodies – even if they MIGHT have had a bit more time in their bodies.

They do not blame you for what they experienced if they were ill before they passed. They just don’t think like that.

This is a gentle reminder, to anyone who needs it, that grief is a powerful shapeshifter. We feel so sad, and our grief wants to create a “logical” reason for us feeling bad. Don’t fall for it if your grief tries to guilt trip you. Do your best to ride that roller coaster, and take all the time you need to feel your feelings.

I have personally found reiki to be amazingly helpful during times of grief – even distance reiki. There are often free reiki sharing circles. Reach out and give it a try if you are open to it.

I also, obviously, find writing to be therapeutic. Writing helps me feel my feelings, process them, and helps me move into peace, eventually. You can try that too.

Sometimes my writing may take the form if a letter to the animal, or person, I miss. Sometimes I write to myself, sometimes I write to god.

Sometimes, I just light a candle, and bake myself something that smells good.

If you’ve said goodbye to a loved one, with fur, feathers, scales, or skin, you’re not alone. We are a tribe of survivors, with enough love in our hearts to generate powerful joy. We just need to remember to recharge.

In loving memory of my animal friends…❤️

Hi all!

New Year Report Cards are back!

Due to all my life changes, they are somewhat fashionably late, but that doesn’t feel weird – because every year these sessions sell out and I’m often doing Report Card sessions into May.

If you are new here, and wondering “What on earth are New Year Report Cards?” I’ll tell you:

New Year Report Cards are a 45-minute phone session, where we consult with your guides, spirit friends, and family, to review overall themes in 2019 and then look ahead to what themes 2020 has in store!

Most of my New Year Report Card sessions are with people who have had report cards in previous years, and especially enjoy seeing how the messages from their session unfold each year!

New people also book every year, so the result is every year I offer a few more spots, and spend more time doing New Year Report Card sessions than in previous years – which is just fine by me because I absolutely love doing them!

You can book yours now!

If Sundays don’t work for you, please book the next available spot and then email me tofinopsychic@gmail.com and we can reschedule you another time that works for both of us ❤️.

Don’t delay booking because New Year Report Cards *sell out* every single year!

Looking forward to talking to you!

(Me about 1 year ago on Long Beach, Tofino, BC)

I am so looking forward to moving day! Jan 8!

Only in the past few weeks, since the purchase of our new home went through, have I started to feel settled in Victoria. Remember when I wrote about looking before you leap, leap and learn how to land? Well until we had our housing situation locked down, Victoria wasn’t a permanent home. It is scary to see rent skyrocketing, even in just the six months we have been here. There is a unit listed in our building – smaller than our 500 sq foot one bedroom – for $1800/month.

It’s crazy. Renters are more vulnerable than ever before.

We are so, so lucky to have been able to buy a home, and bring our cost of living back down and stabilize it at a reasonable level. With that sigh of relief, I finally lifted my head up and looked around at this place we have landed. Victoria. We live here now!

My friends, this is a really amazing city! I am a country mouse, I will always fondly remember and miss the ocean, the expansive unaltered beaches, the rainforest, the prolific, wild, powerful omnipresence of wildlife.

Ukee became a part of me. So did the hospital. It was tough to say goodbye, in no small part because I was leaving a part of my identity behind. My life on the coast defined me as a person, through my choices, sacrifices, and values.

But let’s be real here: I knew two years ago that we would probably need to move on. As much as I loved my hospital job, it was part time and the math on a part time pension does not work out in our favour. Not only that, but there wasn’t much opportunity to develop professionally, only a distance-learning university, which made little sense to invest in at the time, knowing that eventually, our housing would de-stabilize, and our entire future really depended upon getting out of the ballooning rental market and into a mortgage. THEN I could think about school.

And now we’re here! I suddenly have access to a couple of colleges snd an excellent university. Which brings me to the next delicious, heart-fluttering question: WHAT DO I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?

I have been given an opportunity to reinvent myself. Ukee Kate is a part of my story, and Psychic Kate will always be me, don’t worry. I’ll be doing sessions even after I retire from the general workforce. Sessions on Sundays is my church.

Now, what about the other six days?

I still work for the health authority, and my job is OK. It has a lot in common with the job I left in Toronto, ten years ago. It’s an office, the work is necessary and important. I am truly grateful for it. Not only did the transfer increase my income, but my schedule is potentially a lot more flexible, as this job needs staff from 5am – midnight.

The main thing I have in common with my new colleagues is that many of us came to work there while in a transition in life. New graduates or current students, quite a few people going through breakups, more than a few veterans of the west coast, people who lived and worked in Tofino for a year or two.

This is a really small island, folks. Not geographically, it takes 8 hours to drive from tip to tip, and four hours to drive side to side. But the community is pretty much continuous, which is comforting.

So, what do I DO?

I think that’s my big question for the next year. I mean, technically, I could probably stay in my current job the rest of my working career, but I think doing do would be doing myself a disservice. One of my Tofino Hospital friends said that staying where I am long term wouldn’t be working to my full potential.

I agree.

So what DO I DOOOOOO?

This is a luxurious question!

Maybe you can help me out – if you have any thoughts or advice, please feel free to share them here in the comments, or email me if you prefer.

One of the potential directions I am thinking of is social work. I don’t think front-line social work would be the best fit for me, just like primary care nursing was not a good fit, but you can do a lot with a degree in social work. Even more with a masters.

I may start out with taking a single course and seeing how that goes. I have no interest in taking out student loans, so any continuing education would be part-time. I was originally looking at healthcare administration, but social work would also prepare me for an administration position, and open up job opportunities not just in hospitals but in government, in care homes, in corrections, and in outreach programs. A close friend of mine is becoming a parole officer! I don’t think that’s for me, but it does go to show you that there is satisfyingly work to be done all over the place.

I feel like I want to better arm myself to not just make a better living, but to have more of a positive impact over my lifetime.

I also found a counsellor who has multiple BAs and IS actually a social worker, so I’m hoping consulting with him will help me with my next steps.

Who knows where life is taking me next? Victoria will become a part of me too. I wonder who I will become?

Have a wonderful holiday, my friends!

Well folks, I’m ready for 2020, how about you?

This past decade has been one of incredible transformative change for myself and my wife, but 2019 really topped this decade off with a bang.  In the past two weeks alone, we have experienced such intense contrast of simultaneous joy, stress, sadness, grief, and gratitude, which seems to bring all of our life experience from 2009 to 2019 into sharp focus. 

This past weekend, my Sweetie lost her brother.  It was such a shock as he was a young and healthy man.  We thought we’d be travelling to Ontario, but as he passed in a foreign country where he lived for years, there will not be a service in his home town in Ontario in the immediate future.

This happened right on the tail of us buying our first home – finally achieving housing stability after a decade of being tossed around in the volatile rental market.  (We have rented for over 20 years, but the past 10 years have been completely off the chain in terms of expense and unpredictability.)

When my brother in law died, we were pretty sure we’d be travelling to Ontario, but we hadn’t finished closing on our condo – so I asked the realtor and lawyer if there was anything they could do to help us sew things up, so that Sweetie and I could travel if we needed to.  

This pushed the final signing of all of the paperwork to yesterday, December 12, which is my mother’s birthday. 

That alone was nice, to be starting a brand new, more secure future on a date we have traditionally celebrated in our family.

Before my mother died, she said “I’ll send you schnauzers,” as a way of saying hello from the other side.  I said, “That’s great, but can you please also send birds too?  Because there aren’t a lot of schnauzers around.” 

There aren’t a lot of schnauzers around in general, but Mom has found ways to put schnauzers in my path over the years since she died – and she found one to send my way on Dec 11^th, right after booking the final appointment with a lawyer.  It was an unusual white schnauzer too, who had deep brown eyes that reminded me of my childhood dog, Heidi.  I figured that was Mom saying hello.

Well darn it, I got to work and one of my coworkers had brought in black forest cake for no reason.  She said it just “jumped out at me!”  So she bought it on impulse and brought it in. 

I love black forest cake, mainly because it’s the official birthday cake of our family.  Every time anyone in our family had a birthday, the request for black forest cake was happily met, and even years after my sister and I left home, we would continue to make black forest cakes on our birthdays and send each other photos to share our celebration across the distance. 

It wasn’t until I had actually eaten a piece of the cake, which reminded me of all of these childhood memories and how many birthdays and other big life celebrations had been marked with this cake, that I realized what had just happened.

I was eating black forest cake ON MY MOTHER’S BIRTHDAY in celebration of our first home. 

WOW!

And then I started crying at work!  It was a special moment. 

10 years ago, Sweetie and I moved from Toronto to Ucluelet, to start a brand new adventure together.  Adventure it was!  Filled with growth and uncertainty, surrounded by the savage wild beauty of beaches, ocean, apex predators and rare migratory birds.  It was a spectacular place to live for a decade, where I developed my identity as a community member, a hospital worker, and a professional psychic.  I feel like Ucluelet and Tofino gave me the space and community to grow into who I became, who I am now.

Here we are now, just arrived in Victoria, able to make a permanent home here.  We are so lucky!  The city is growing on me, and while I still keenly miss the wild west coast that felt like home from the first days I discovered it, I know that it is time for us to return to city dwelling, and grow anew here.  There are a lot of things I enjoy about Victoria which I missed living in a remote area.  I missed movies, art galleries, museums, comedy clubs, and I missed shopping options.  There is a lot to enjoy about city life.

And Victoria is such a beautiful city, surrounded by ocean, harbour front, bike paths, and gorgeous architecture.  There are centuries of city-history visible here, and thousands of years of First Nations history to discover.  I still see eagles, blue herons, and deer – not every day, but often enough that I can still feel connected with the nature I adore.  Annually, I do plan to get on a boat and go out to visit the whales too.  They’re still here as well! 

It is a comfort too, to know that we can take a direct flight from the Victoria airport, to Toronto or Ottawa to connect with our family back there, if needed.  Travel to Ontario will no longer be a two-day venture, but a completely manageable 12 – 16 hour journey.  

I think, six months in, I am settling into Victoria.  I love our neighbourhood where we bought our condo, and I won’t have to deal with the busy highway on a daily basis to get to work anymore.  I’ll be able to bike to work when I feel like it too, which is great because I need the exercise.  

We will be moving in to our new permanent home on January the 8^th.  Sweetie and I send you all warm holiday wishes, and we would really appreciate your thoughts and prayers for her brother, and our family as we grieve his loss and remember his life and love.

I hope you all have a beautiful December, and remember that winter solstice is just around the corner, so the daylight will be coming back soon! 

 

 

 

 

It is with great joy and gratitude that I can share Sweetie & I are buying a little home!

This move into home ownership means so much to both of us. We’ve been experiencing housing insecurity for nearly 10 years, culminating in our eviction from our home in Ucluelet, because our landlord sold the property. This event caused us to make the decision to move to Victoria, as there were better employment possibilities for both of us, and whereas the housing and rental markets had doubled in our ten years on the wild west coast, the potential numbers looked a lot better for us in Victoria.

Since the move, I have focused fiercely on getting us a permanent place. I’ve been taking all the overtime I could get at my new job, because I needed to show potential mortgage lenders that I can make mortgage payments. There is a conservative “stress test” you need to pass, and the higher your employment income, the better your chances of being approved.

Well, now we have a home. YAY!

We can paint the walls and hang our wedding pictures. We can invest in some furniture solutions, like a litter box cover, a desk, a dresser.

We can save for the future, and enjoy the stability of affordable, long term housing, in a lovely “up and coming” neighbourhood.

I am so full of joy and gratitude right now!

Typically, I would be running a promotion for my annual “New Year Report Cards” right now, but seeing as we will be MOVING in January, I am going to hold off on running a promotion that typically fills my schedule up for months.

I WILL run a special for New Year Report Cards after we have moved and actually settled into our new HOME!

New year, brand new future!

Lots of people have been asking me, “How are you settling into Victoria?”

Well, the truth is, I’m not quite settled, and likely will not be for some time. We are working hard to open up some more options for the future, and when these things start coming to fruition, I will absolutely update you all. Meanwhile though, I’m working a lot of overtime at my full-time job, which is a big change from my part-time job at Tofino Hospital these past 8 years.

So if you’re popping in here to see how I’m doing, that’s what we’re doing! Nose to the grindstone, knuckling down, focused on manifesting our future here in this beautiful city.

Today, Sweetie and I went on a walking “Ghost Tour” of Victoria, which was a lot of fun. A crazy coincidence was, we ended up in the SAME HAIR SALON that my friend Carly spoke about in her guest episodes of the Joyful Telepathy Podcast!

Here is the link to the first episode.

Here is part 2.

I can’t recall which episode she told the hair salon story; all her stories are fantastic so I think you should listen to both episodes.

When I heard that the room we were visiting used to be a hair salon, I briefly paraphrased Carly’s story of the terrifying, six-foot dark shadowed figure she saw in the hallway. It turns out, the story of that very site was of a large, dark figure who is believed to be the “enforcer” of the brothel that used to be in that building. If any of the women tried to run away, he would follow them, and either bring them back, or kill them.

No wonder his presence is so menacing to those who witnessed it!

That’s my quick update for now. Happy Halloween, and give Carly’s episodes of the Joyful Telepathy Podcast a listen!

EDIT / PS: I am happy to share how much better I’m doing physically, nearly *two years* after my surgery I’m back up to a full day of walking! Walking is one of the primary ways I enjoy life, and until recently, I was only able to walk an hour or two max, due to some muscle and alignment issues secondary to the chronic pelvic pain I experienced before surgery.. I hit a wall with physiotherapy a year after my surgery and was getting discouraged. It turns out, massage was what I needed. I’m very fortunate my benefits covered the care I needed, and my body is finally functioning in a way I can just join in with activities like walking ghost tours! I walked six hours today! Yay!

(The tour was only 1.5 hrs, but I walked pretty much the whole day!)

Oh my goodness. Change is still afoot, and I’m afraid it leaves me with little to no time to do the cool stuff I’ve enjoyed doing here on the blog with you since 2012.

This is a temporary situation.

Having gratefully landed in a new city I’m getting to know, both Sweetie and I are looking for further opportunities to improve our circumstances – and we are finding them. A lot of them. The only limitations are really the time and energy available to invest in the process of creating change.

To give you an idea, I started aggressively job hunting in February, and received my first job offer in mid-April. I probably invested 15-20 hours a week, so a minimum of 160 hours invested to get that change to happen.

And its a great change. But we are not done.

Thing is, we are now both employed full time, so investing a further 20 hours a week in the change isn’t easy or always possible. Which is okay. We are doing what we can when we can.

That brings me back to this blog, and the podcast.

In this time crunch, I can’t do everything I did before, not for the time being.

I am still doing sessions on Sundays. That’s not going to change. As always, you can book a session here: https://www.tofinopsychic.com/book-a-session.html

In particular, I want to be sure I’m taking care of existing clients. I will no longer do sessions on Mondays or Thursdays, so my calendar is starting to fill up a bit further in advance again. I am no longer advertising for new clients, but I am taking referrals – my existing clients friends or family.

I do intend to come back to writing here, and producing the podcast, and I will do what I can, as I can, and as it feels good.

Meanwhile, go watch Yesterday. It’s a movie in theatres now. John popped in while Sweetie and I were watching it, and I’m positive he approves of it… and it’s just fun to watch! Take a friend.

Have a fabulous day everyone! Keep your eyes out for my quickie posts.

I am so behind on emails. I am so sorry if you have sent an email and I haven’t responded. I am doing my best juggling all the balls of our city life, and there may yet be new developments to write about soon-ish? Maybe? We have some irons in the fire.

Anyway, I do sincerely apologize if you are waiting on a response to me. I’m actually getting anxious because we, the office goddess and I, are so behind on our maintenance tasks.

Sometimes life keeps you busy, and you just can’t do all the things.

Thank you so much for your patience.