Andrea
“We are not alone and we are the ones we’ve been dreaming of.”
**Content Warning: This piece contains sensitive content surrounding sexual violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Andrea is passionate about helping others follow their dreams and realise their full potential. However, despite being deeply compassionate for others, she hasn’t always held compassion for herself. She’s endured abuse and been taken advantage of; as a result she’s been victim to insecurity and self doubt. But Andrea has survived, and she’s undergone a spiritual journey that has led her self love and acceptance. Not only is she now aware of her own power of dreams, but she is deeply in tune with our natural world - which she is dedicated to protecting. Meet Andrea. This is her story.
Andrea, breathing in nature (her happy place)
P: Please introduce yourself!
My name is Andrea Lynn Sadler and I was born on February 7, 1962 in Toronto, Ontario. I have been living in Cold Spring, NY since 2006 when I married my husband, Jonathan Kruk, a Master Storyteller. My husband and I live with our white Pomeranian dog, Wesley, in a 1935 cottage set in a lake community surrounded by forest, a mountain and a lake, in the Hudson Valley. I have a beautiful, talented stepdaughter who lives in Paris. My father John Sadler was an artist in Ottawa, my mother is a healthy 88 year old with a vibrant life in Ontario and my sister, Dr. Margot Sadler lives in Nova Scotia.
Dragonfly is my spirit name and like the medicine of the Dragonfly, I am mostly interested in transformation, seeing beyond the illusion, finding a balance between spirit and matter and living in reciprocity with water, earth, and all living beings. My vision is that through individual self-realization and living from a heart and soul, earth-centered alignment, balance can be restored on this planet.
P: Describe or define yourself in your own words.
A: It’s challenging for me to describe and define myself because I feel quite expansive and have never liked being put in a limited box but I will try to answer the question as best I can.
I would consider myself to be a multi-dimensional free spirited soul who is here on earth to basically live my dreams and make the world a better place as best I can. I have always craved adventure and self expression through creativity and I’ve always been on a spiritual path seeking truth and wisdom. I am most passionate about that which cannot be seen but only felt, such as love, spirit, consciousness, transformation, creativity and energy. I am a traveler, mystic, dreamer, yogini, earth mama, artist, who has yearned to expand my consciousness and live in balance on this earth with all living beings since my childhood. I’ve been most passionate about transformation from the head to the heart and how to maintain sustainable balance on earth as a spiritual human being.
Through past life regression sessions, I have learned that I lived many lives before and I incarnated in 1962 to bring love, light, compassion, joy, spirituality and respect for Mother Earth and all beings. I’m a Stellium Aquarian which means I have 6 planets in Aquarius. This makes me quintessentially Aquarian. We are at the beginning of the Age of Aquarius and the era we are all in now is about humanitarianism, the collective, balancing divine feminine and divine masculine energies and consciousness. Aquarian energy is also about science, ideas and technology balanced with heart and compassion.
My career path has been a meandering journey with many side roads, dead ends and unexpected adventures. From age 15 -19, I worked in retail stores part time. At age nineteen, I worked as a nanny in Paris and at age twenty one, I studied Journalism for one year at Carleton University. Finding it very dry, I switched to film production at Concordia University to be more creative at age twenty two. Filmmaking suited me well as my first passion was acting and I preferred to learn how to make my own films than wait around for someone to cast me. Film Production was the perfect combination of all my passions; music, writing, photography, art, dance, philosophy, psychology, social justice, history, world travel, knowledge and visual storytelling.
My professional experience includes years of working as a fashion model and in the film industry in various roles such as Props Master and Set Decorator. For over 30 years I've been a professional actress and filmmaker. I am the founder of my companies, Dragonfly Films, Asa Nisi Masa Productions, Fox and Crow Productions and Fox and Crow Publishing. Along with helping my husband with his storytelling films, CDs and teaching Shakespeare through drama workshops in schools, I’ve produced and directed several films including, "The Red Shoes”, “Mythologies”, “The Sacred Run, the lotus and the feather” and “The Dramatic Retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", retold by my husband Jonathan Kruk. I’ve acted in many films and commercials and in the last couple of years I acted in a one woman show and had a few lead roles on stage including Dracula and the Mousetrap. Along with making storytelling films, my husband and I are in production of his first of many children’s books. We have an illustrator working on it now so hopefully, The Magical Wonderful Bul Bul Bird, will be finished this summer. I am also involved in directing a musical theater production that my friend and I hope to produce this summer as it's about weeds and flowers saving the the last garden in Megapolis.
Always seeking adventure, I traveled extensively through India, Nepal, Thailand, Europe, and Korea by myself. I lived in Japan for three years where I taught English, studied Taiko drumming, pottery and performed my original songs in music festivals with my guitar. Throughout my life I’ve done a wide variety of odd jobs that provided enough money to pay my bills while I traveled and pursued my creative projects. I lived in Montreal and Vancouver and moved to the Hudson Valley, NY in 2006 to marry my husband, Jonathan Kruk. I miss Canada a great deal but also love the community and the land in this area.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been passionate about spiritual and personal growth. I completed two 10 Day Vipassana Retreats, studied for two years with Landmark Education and completed the Enlightened Spiritual Warrior Course where I walked on fire and on a tightrope much to my disbelief. I have done deep personal growth work through sweat lodges, a Vision Quest, years of therapy, training at The Institute for Shamanic Studies, study with Mary Morrisey, the Thirteen Grandmothers and James Van Praagh. I’ve been a meditator for 30 years and besides being Clairvoyant, Clairaudient and Clairsentient, I’ve also discovered that I am able to channel spirits who have crossed over, which was a surprise to me. I’m beginning to come out of the spiritual closet as a "Wise Woman" as for years I experienced and feared persecution with my passion for mystical and esoteric knowledge.
Having co-facilitated sacred circles at my documentary film presentations with First Nation elders for years, I began facilitating monthly Sister Circles and Retreats since June 21, 2019 and launched Dragonfly Circles and Retreats. By holding sacred space, sharing deeply, loving and honouring each other and ourselves in a circle, be it in person or virtually, we feel heard, seen and valued. Through individual healing, we truly can then have the confidence to create a way of living in balance on this earth and manifest the world we are dreaming of.
This pandemic year is forcing my husband and I to move our work online and learn marketing and business. I am building my new coaching business, Purple Dragonfly Coaching which will include 9wk and 12wk online programs. I am also excited to announce that I'm writing my memoir, “I Am Dragonfly, A Transformational Adventure of Courage, Miracles, Compassion and Flight”. I’ve always had a passion for writing so I'm using the time of the pandemic as an opportunity to write my memoir since we are all hunkered down at home.
Even though I want to continue to make films and act, this new direction of coaching and facilitating circles and retreats, fulfills my desire to help people heal and self realize. I hope to empower women who have suffered sexual abuse and low self esteem through this work.
I wish to share what I have learned over my fifty-nine years of being alive and I love to inspire people to let go of fears and follow their true purpose paths and align with Divine Source Energy.
My philosophy is that when one lives a heart and earth-centered life there is divine guidance that guides our soul to live our true purpose. It has always been my intention to develop my intuition and connection with spirit. After passing through the dark night of the soul more than once on my journey, I have come to a place where I feel a certain level of bliss and deep compassion for myself and all life. My dream is that my life and work will inspire others and light up their hearts desires to fulfil their true soul purpose. We are not alone and we are the ones we’ve been dreaming of.
P: What is your favourite thing about yourself?
A: That is a difficult question for me to answer because I’ve struggled with low self esteem most of my life. It’s been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs but the few years I’ve done a great deal of personal growth work and the biggest thing that shifted for me was to practice self compassion. I had oodles of compassion for others but I used to be hard on myself and constantly felt like I was never as good as the person next to me or that I just didn’t have what it took to succeed. I had so many dreams and struggled to make them a reality due to my lack of confidence but finally at age 59, I feel more Self Love and Self Compassion than ever and I have faith that I will succeed in life.
It’s never too late to expand and realize our potential. I'm a late bloomer I suppose. Besides being someone who truly loves this earth and all my human brothers and sisters, I am proud of my strength and perseverance even when times get difficult. I would say that tenacity and how I deeply love people and all life are my favorite qualities about myself. I’m friendly, adventurous, creative, open hearted, intuitive and fun so I seem to make total strangers comfortable enough to tell me their feelings, and most of all I love it when they share their dreams with me as I love to encourage people to follow their dreams.
P: Tell us a story. Have you had experience that has defined you or made you stronger?
A: The biggest experience that made me stronger was the journey of making my documentary film, The Sacred Run, the lotus and the feather. I was very concerned about the state of the earth and how humans treat each other since I was 21 years old. I feared we were on a path of self destruction and I wanted to do something to make a difference. While living in Japan, I was guided to make my documentary in an effort to raise consciousness and inspire people to take positive action in creating a better world. When I started making it in 1994, it was very challenging to get funding for the film as peace, spirituality and environmental awareness were not the topics of that time and I had no producing experience to get the funding. During that journey I lost confidence in myself and in my vision and it just about broke me. Luckily my tenacity and something larger than myself guided me on my healing journey during the 9 year process of making the film. I almost gave up but fortunately I kept at it and went through what I call my Deconstruction/Reconstruction period. It will all be in my memoir, I Am Dragonfly as it’s a classic Heroine’s Journey that I hope will inspire others to follow their soul purpose. Besides self love and acceptance, I also learned not to listen to the negativity and judgement of others and to never give up.
P: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?
A: The biggest piece of advice that I’d give to my younger self is to never give up, to stand in your truth and to not let other people define you. I spent too many years worried about what other people thought, too many years, thinking I wasn’t good enough and too many years thinking something was wrong with me because I was so sensitive and idealistic. I wish I could have had more confidence in myself while growing up. I would also say to my younger self, don’t get distracted by toxic dysfunctional relationships. Not everyone will like you or agree with your and that’s ok. You are a beloved child of God and trust that you will be guided.
P: What does being a woman mean to you?
A: I love being a woman. I know I have lived many lives as a man as well so I feel quite balanced in my masculine and feminine qualities but it wasn’t always so. As a young child I was sexually abused by more than one person and echoes of that abuse shaped and haunted me through my adult life. I thought that to be loved, one had to be sexy and sexual and I spent years thinking that is how I would meet someone and secure love.
In the field of modelling and acting I encountered men who took advantage of me and I didn’t always have the confidence or self worth to protect myself. When I was doing creative projects I would meet men who offered to finance my projects or help me in other ways if I gave them what they wanted sexually. I don’t know if men have to deal with that but it was very difficult to deal with.
In my mid 30’s I finally began the long process of healing the sexual abuse I suffered and now at age 59, I feel so much stronger and more clear about my boundaries and self worth. I finally feel like I’m stepping up as a leader in the divine feminine movement that is arising. In the 1970’s and 1980’s females were taught to be strong and hard core like men. Rock and roll and Punk music dominated our cultural world and women were taught to be tough like men in are and business. Through my healing journey, I’ve learned that vulnerability is strength and the feminine qualities of compassion, love and following one’s intuition, honoring the cycles of the moon and connecting to Mother Earth can give us inner and external power as women. I’m much more tuned into being a female now.
P: Who is the one woman that inspires you? What would you say to her if she were here now?
A: It’s difficult to choose one woman as I’m inspired by so many women but with my passions in film, acting, writing, inspirational speaking and changing the world, I would have to say that Oprah Winfrey inspires me constantly. Even though she is superstar she remains connected to her heart. She has done so much good in the world.
If she were here now in front of me, I’d say, “thank you Oprah for all who you are and all that you do to bring about positive change in the world”. I would also ask her advice about how I could do what she does.