Unsung Heroes
Unsung heroes are all around us right now. We each have people who touch our lives in ways we never expect. Colleen Cannon is one of those people in my life. She’s the warm, spirited leader of Women's Quest who taught me to be courageous – and she’s doing it again today. Her impact on my life began 25 years ago, with a strenuous hike up a steep elevation to Angels Landing in Zion National Park. Colleen inspired (and pushed) me to be brave and daring and to keep trying new things. I loved the experience so much that I joined the ‘Questers’ for 3 trips, learning to mountain bike, climb trees and explore my heart.
Today, Colleen is championing my spirits again and building strength among women virtually across the US, from Alaska to Maine. During March and April, Colleen and her extraordinary team of athletes are leading us through a ‘spring tune up.’ Daily yoga, Qigong, readings and kindness are all good things to bring into our daily practice – even if we aren't in a pandemic. Each morning holds a new surprise, and at the end we meet everyone participating in our new community.
Colleen and I enjoyed a lively interview that I’d like to share with you, our Enrich audience:
Q: I’ve been really been impressed by your Spring Tune Up Program during this world crisis. You’ve devoted so much time and energy to run this program – for anyone who wants to be part of it. Why? What inspired you?
I think the inspiration came almost 30 years ago. As you know, I was a professional triathlete way back in the day. I was out for a run and the Hopi Indians were gathering at a church and I stopped in to hear them.
The whole gathering was focused on what was going to happen in the year 2000. I sat there and at the end of the meeting I was just dumb founded. At that time, we didn’t know about global warming, it was way before the internet, it was before anything. At the very end, I could barely move and the Hopi Indians came up to me and said:
“Women will save the planet.” They said that to me 3 times. “Women - will save - the - planet.”
By the third time, I said “Oh my gosh. Well, what can I do? I’m a triathlete, I have to go worry about my massage, my granola, my bike and my next race.” I went home, told my husband about it and continued to go racing, but that day really affected me.
When the National Championship took place 6 weeks later in Las Vegas, I just pulled out of the race. The cameras were on me because I was in first place and as they followed me, I went into a Dairy Queen right next to the host hotel and thought, I have to do something, I have to save the planet… I have to save the women… I have to do something.
I started Women’s Quest 6 weeks after that. It was all just to bring women together, to develop a community, camaraderie, and positivity.
All these years later, when COVID happened, we cancelled a few of our retreats. I was feeling the same kind of urgency to help, to give back and to do anything that I could do. I was like, oh, wait a minute it’s coming, it’s happening.
I knew I needed to do something special during this time at WQ. We travel all around the world, leading 15-20 retreats each year. I wanted to bring what we had done to a larger audience, maybe have some kind of virtual retreat. But I’m not very tech savvy.
So, I just jumped into this. Let’s start a zoom call. Let’s start with 30 minutes, let’s get people moving, let’s get people gathering. Because we knew that:
There are some people who are isolated, they’re at home alone;
Other people are home with their family and their kids and they’re going crazy;
And there are people that are sick, some people with cancer, some with COVID, and they don’t have a community, because they can’t talk with anybody.
From the very beginning, it’s been the Women’s Quest vision and dream to JUST HELP. So, I just started offering these classes and they’ve been so much fun, they’ve been a blast.
I think it stems from, what I wanted to create with these retreats, and what I learned as an athlete: how to be healthy as well as fit, and that anybody can do it. It’s for all ages, for all abilities, plus bringing in meditation, yoga, nutrition and all these other practices that we have in Women’s Quest.
But bringing it in now virtually, it’s actually been way more fun to connect with people this way.
Q: What has the response been?
Oh my gosh, it’s so fun! I haven’t seen you in ages, it seems like. I think you came to Red Mountain in Utah those 25 years ago.
Many of the past Questers, it seems like we’re all best friends. We met along this Women’s Quest journey, this little tribe of like-minded people. These same people have been showing back up because they also want to share, to give back and they want to be part of the community. While they might not be able to come to a retreat, they can come to an hour of yoga, or to a meditation or to a happy hour. We had a dance class, where we just danced during happy hour one time, it was fun, too.
It’s been overwhelmingly amazing that everyone has chipped in and helped me create this community online.
Q: Your tribe of teachers are amazing. Please tell us about them. I’m excited because they are some of the same teachers I loved 25 years ago.
Yes, Jaqueline Stanford, she’s amazing, she was on the Canadian national basketball team and national kayak team. She’s a cyclist, and was in the first women's Tour de France. I met her as a professional triathlete – she had won the world’s toughest triathalon and different kinds of ironmans, so she’s super turbo. She brings her amazing energy and spirit to it, teaching yoga, we call it – percolating – morning coffee sessions where people can just talk and share, I think that’s been very needed.
Gretchen Spiro has been teaching yoga, seriously, for 38 years! She brings a wealth of knowledge, not only yoga, but in all of her dance and Somatic yoga. She has so much experience, and she’s been with us for so long. I always want people to take Gretchen’s yoga class, she’s the best!
Then we have Christina Russell, who has also been with us for almost 30 years. She started out as a mountain and ski instructor and over this time she became certified in yoga. She teaches Gyrokinesis, kickboxing, dance, Plyometrics and now bar exercises. She has 20 classes she can teach, so that’s really fun.
Vicki Hunter is doing the foundation training. By turning on the back body, you can just do a few poses and it really helps for the whole day. As you turn on your hamstrings, it helps you destress and relax a little bit more.
What’s really cool, is that we have other teachers, from Costa Rica like Nancy Goodfellow. She’s amazing and a great yoga teacher – another one of my favorite teachers.
You might remember Lorraine Moller, she’s a 4-time Olympian in the marathon, and she’ll be leading more of the discussions and things we’ll be doing on the new WQ platform for the body, mind, spirit. We're calling it the Quest!
We have Nathalia Castella, who has never actually used Zoom before, but is holding us together online. We don’t have the technical side fully worked out, but we have lots of our athletes in the past that are still working with us now. I think it’s really fun that we can bring them all together in a virtual retreat. You don’t have to go to Costa Rica to do Nancy’s yoga or you don’t have to go to Peru to be with Gabriela.
Bringing these people together helps to spread this energy. It’s so timely, the world needs it. People can’t travel all over, and so this little pause or reset button has been set for everybody – so that maybe they have to sit and be quiet to absorb this energy.
We’re doing everything we can to help support that, this new shift in the world right now.
Q: Your focus has been so positive in every one of our classes, including the poems you share – I’d like to include a poem from you in this article.
My favorite poem is Go to the Limits of Your Longing by Rilke.
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make great big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. Because no feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
If you’re inspired by Colleen’s words, I invite you to visit the WQ website and sign up for the newsletter, or follow the blog for events.
