FINDING THE WAY HOME

New year, new website, new BLOG! Happy 2024, everyone! If you’ve found your way here from rowanrene.wordpress.com, thanks for your support and patience as I’ve made this transition. I took a few years to settle down, have babies, and prioritize my relationship with Andrew. It has been a wild ride.

But now, I find myself tying the old and new lives together here at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. For the first time, I’ve brought my family to a combat and intimacy workshop—and not just any workshop! The Paddy Crean International Workshop with my beloved International Order of the Sword and the Pen. My son, Aidan, asked me after his bath one evening, “When do I get to fight like you?” I figured I’d start him off extravagantly.

I’m ready to get back to it with lots of humility and compassion for myself and others. I am not in the shape I was at my last Paddy Crean in 2012! And that’s okay. I’m emotionally safe with the mentors who have carried me through my career for decades, and physically safe with these incredible professionals, all of us here to learn and grow beyond our respective silos. Now it’s time to hold myself accountable for getting the most out of this experience--working hard, sharing my own knowledge, sharpening rusty skills and learning new ones.

There are four tracks here: Stage Combat, Film Stunts, Martial Arts, and Intimacy. I can’t wait to share all of it with you here.