Thank Google It's Friday!

Ages ago, I posted a Friday "Best Of" ... a collection of inspiring and amusing things I had dug up, stumbled across and received over the past several days. At the time I think I envisioned it as a weekly thing. Turned out it wasn't. Oh well. But here are some gems (in my eyes) anyway. Not a bad collection for one week!!


People often ask me why I am always happy. Those who know me well know that my circumstances are not always the source of my happiness, as I have certainly had my share of challenging times. THIS is how. Truly. By keeping myself always - ALWAYS - surrounded by ideas and images like these. It works. Honestly :) 


Watch whatever ones grab your interest and skip the rest (or try them on anyway - you never know!!)



1. Benjamin Zander's TED Talk "On Music and Passion"... (Thank You Charlie Regan!) 20 minutes
"Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections."


(My Note: Even if you do not enjoy classical music - especially if you do not enjoy classical music - please do this. This guy is so much fun and wonderfully inspiring. You will be left with an awesome sense of beauty and wonder and possibility and gratitude (not bad for just twenty minutes!!)






2. Pretty Lights (electronic music phenom) DJ'ing a spectacular mix of 7 Led Zeppelin songs. 6 minutes.
Pretty Lights live in his home state, Colorado// 
PL played sets at The Fillmore in Denver, CO on 8-12-11 and at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO on 8-13-11. 
RadioEditAV filmed the shows and edited this video to the track, produced by Pretty Lights. The song is a PL version of a Led Zeppelin remix. The track samples pieces of 7 Led Zeppelin tracks collaged together and then reflected thru a prism of Hip-Hop, Classic Rock, Downtempo, and Dubstep.
For more info on Pretty Lights shows and to download the track for free go tohttp://www.facebook.com/prettylights
and all PL albums are available for free at http://www.prettylightsmusic.com




3. Damien Walters - Parkour/Gymnast extraordinaire!! (Thank You Elise Maguire!) 3 minutes




4. Seth Godin on "Curiosity" at Nick Askew's Soul Biographies ... 3 minutes
http://www.nicaskew.com/2011/10/curious/

5. A magnificent Dilbert ...




6. Thank You Karen Lorah Johnston Waite :)


7. "Validation" - an amazing 20 minute movie about the power of being kind to people and sharing good energy! (Thank You Heather Ann Bolestridge!)




8. "The Butterfly Circus" - a 20 minute movie about seeing the strength, beauty and value in everyone - even when they do not see it in themselves. (It has disappeared from my Facebook and I have gone blank on who sent it to me ... will correct this asap!) 





9. A simplified guide to being happy ...





10. A beautiful essay that resonates so clearly with my worldview ... (from www.markmorford.com)
Click here to die young and happy

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

MARK MORFORD

• Real homophobes don't Google11.09.11
• Seven billion ways to swallow God 11.02.11
• Magical seashells of fun and horror 10.26.11

More Mark Morford »

You do not have to run a marathon while you're 39 weeks pregnant and then make national headlines when you give birth a few hours later. Aren't you relieved?You do not have to swim to Alcatraz or run the stadium stairs 100 times at 5:00 am every morning like some sort of fitness maniac, bitching and groaning and oh my God my calves. You do not have to join some sort of exercise boot camp, sweat your ass off in yoga five times a week, hit the gym and pound the weights and crunch those abs into submission.

Hell, you don't even have to eat better, get more sleep, smile more or quit whining about the state of the world all the damn time, though that would probably help.

You do not have to do much of anything at all, oh flaccid and notoriously sedentary American, but maybe perhaps think about once in awhile getting off the couch and walking around maybe 15 minutes a day -- 15 minutes! -- to add actual years to your life, lower your risk of cancer and heart disease, improve all sorts of deleterious health situations that plague the typical American citizen like ditzball insanity plagues a Republican presidential candidate.

Did you know? Have you heard? It is, after all, the latest advice, the most recent health study that says if you'd just please get off your ass and amble about for just a few minutes and hey gosh maybe take a single flight of stairs once in awhile, well, you'd be adding years to your life. Years! You! Imagine!

Is it not good news? Many Americans love infantile, vaguely insulting medical information like this. Minimal work, maximum benefit? I barely have to do anything at all and I can say to hell with real exercise and caring much for my body in any real and thoughtful way, and my doctor will still praise me like a parent praises a child who drank a big glass of grape juice without spilling any on the rug? Awesome. Someone put this in pill form, and we've reached nirvana.

Oh how far we have fallen, no? To arrive at this surreal point where health experts are actually reduced to begging all of western humanity to just, well, be vertical, to merely be mildly ambulatory for a handful of seconds every day, with the promise of some extra pudding and all the crossword puzzles you can handle when you finally hit the retirement home. USA!

But let us not be overly unenthusiastic. We are, after all, always desperate for an iota of good health news, something to allay the fact that we're getting fatter, more narcotized and less healthy far faster than anyone can fully measure. No wonder doctors are trying everything short of offering cash and some free porn if we'd just make the slightest effort not to die enormous and violently ill by 50.

And hey, at least we're not as bad as the Brits, right? Didn't they just win the award for fattest and least healthy first-worlders on the planet? You bet they did. What, you thought America had a chokehold on that prize? You took one ugly swim through, say, peopleofwalmart.com and said enough "Oh my Gods" to satisfy a year of feeling depressed about the state of the nation? How cute you are.

Me, I've never understood the idea of longevity, the strange utopian need to figure out all sorts of little 15-minute tricks to help you stave off illness and live to 100, to extend life and push the boundaries of human physiological endurance to the ultimate degree except to say wow, 100, that's a lot of years, look how amazing, look how brutally we can mess with nature, just before keeling over in a heap of dusty bones and sepia-toned sighs.

Nevertheless, every day comes a new study, a fresh hunk of painfully obvious data that says if you inhale ten pounds of potato chips or smoke a pack a day or seethe in rage at stoplights to the point of excess flab and rotten perspectives and madhouse stress, you are shaving valuable years off your life. Years! You!

I am nonplussed. I do not understand this angle of approach, the half-hearted promise of being slightly less miserable if you'd just cut out a things that are obviously horrible for you and add a few things that are so easy a stoned puppy could do them. I am stupefied and saddened to the core that the information is not more delightfully literal, more electrically enlightened, more of a divine roundhouse kick to the head of the collective consciousness.

"Look, forget reducing your chance of heart disease," the doctors should be screaming aloud, slapping us awake, whispering to your wary and overburdened soul. "Never mind the thing about how walking will help prevent cancer, improve your basic blood flow, maybe shave off a few pounds. What are you, a child? Isn't this obvious? Get over it.

"And while you're at it, and to hell with the hateful Puritanism that underlies it all, the vile voice that says the body is ugly and the flesh is sinful and it's all a pathetic, shameful thing to be ignored, or heavily medicated, or glutted beyond recognition and finally rejected like so much animal meat. This way misery and conservatism lies.

"Instead, let us hereby amplify the idea that we get a terrifically short ride on this pale blue dot, and hitch it to the deeply mystical notion that your body is actually a wildly sacred container to be cherished and celebrated like a goddamn roller coaster bumper car funhouse temple of wow.

"Can you do that? Recreate yourself anew every single day and feed your core with all manner of joy and bliss, wine and movement, sex and moan, sweat and heartbeat and taking the stairs two at a time because the stairs actually prefer it that way?"

Or perhaps we should put it the other way around: Despite what you hear, despite endless tips and tricks, there is simply no way life is merely about the avoidance of disease and pain, about minimizing your odds of heart failure and not destroying your liver by 40. It is not about doing the absolute minimum to stay afloat in the human fleshboat just long enough to decay into a puddle of anger and resentment and WTF happened to my spine.

Look. Of course you don't have to run a marathon, burn a million calories, leap up the stairs. Of course it's not about just getting off your butt for a few minutes a day to add years to your life. This much is a given. This much is only the top layer. This much is for amateurs.

The larger advice is simple enough: Relish so tremendously, so irresistibly the fact you exist, the fact that you can feel your heart beat through your clothes, the fact you get to actually be in a body for a short, hot run... be so goddamn electrified by this astonishing fact, that you can't help but really, really want to do all those things, often all at once. Simple, no?

Wealthiest Man in Toronto

I had a great experience tonight...

Background: I have been coaching a weekly leadership course in Toronto the past few months, and usually spend my meal breaks with the program leader and another coach, two very successful businessman. Both really terrific guys, from whom I learn a lot, and I enjoy our meals together. Naturally, their conversations occasionally turn to their respective companies and investments. At times like these, I often feel somewhat out of my element. While I got clear a few years ago that high finance is not in my baileywick, I have to admit that I sometimes get mesmerized by the figures they are throwing back and forth. 

Tonight: Walking back from dinner, we took the long route to pick up some coffees on the way. I was trailing a few feet behind, as they were engaged in a business conversation. We passed a homeless woman who asked me for change. I smiled at the irony of her not making her request of these two much better "heeled" gentlemen, but reached into my pocket and gave her $5.00

When we got to the coffee shop I said it was my treat (only fair, as one of the other guys had picked up the dinner tab). As I went to pay I noticed an old, poorly dressed woman digging in her shabby purse for change, so I offered to pay for hers as well, of which she was very appreciative.


Halfway between the coffee shop and our destination, there was a busker - playing his guitar and singing. 

He was only moderately talented but had good energy. I would have stopped to enjoy for a minute, but my companions had hurried by. So, I tossed in my last loonie and hustled to catch up. I began reflecting on how different our daily lives are, realizing that they live in downtown Toronto and probably do not even notice these urban characters anymore.

It was just then that I looked up and had my breath taken away by the most gorgeous sight. An enormous harvest moon was just beginning its climb into the cool night sky, and completely filled the space between two skyscrapers ahead of us. Knowing that this was not an everyday sight for them, I pointed it out immediately. We all admired the moon together for a few seconds before they returned to their conversation.

This left me free to walk the last three blocks silently, basking in this lunar magnificence, savouring my coffee, and feeling warm and fuzzy about my little acts of kindness. All told I was out less than $15 (including dinner, so I may have even been ahead!!), and felt that the whole experience was a wonderful bargain.

That is how, with pockets literally empty, I found myself the wealthiest man in Toronto.

(Author's note: In responding to a comment on Facebook I realized that I should clarify that I have nothing but admiration for my two dinner companions. They are actually extraordinary people who really do "get it". I know them both to be generous and appreciative of life, and see them as a contribution in the world.  I don't begrudge them the perfectly valid conversation they were having, and also acknowledge that they can't give money to every homeless person they encounter living in Toronto. My intended expression was simply that instead of feeling like I had less than they do I was able to realize that I actually have more than I need, and that the very best part of the evening (in my opinion) was absolutely free to anyone who chose to experience the beauty of a full, harvest moon. We can all miss beautiful moments from time to time. I am just grateful that I was "present" to something different than they were in this case :)

Do you really know your parents?

‎"I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered, established-within-the-photo lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives..."

~~ Jack Kerouac

This post was inspired by a simple question a friend asked me the other night ... "Can you tell me a story about your parents?"

We are always telling stories about ourselves and about our kids, but our parents are often just sort of "there" - taken for granted in the background. Of course, there are the "Argh, my parents!" stories that people often tell, detailing where their moms and/or dads are driving them crazy. But, when is the last time you told someone a story about how cool and amazing your parents are?

Maybe part of the reason such stories are rare is that you have, by definition, only known your parents since they became parents.

As far as you have experienced, they have "always" been the ones trying to keep you safe. Working long hours at "boring" jobs to keep you clothed and fed. Giving you so much that is underappreciated, and then being remembered for the things they had to tell you you couldn't have. Of course, you are much more fascinating and awesome than they've ever been, right?

Not so fast. Have you ever actually dug into that? Ever actually looked behind their "parent persona" to find out who else they are, or have been? Most importantly, who were they before you came along (probably changing everything for them)? What dreams did they have that they gave up to be the best parent they knew how to be instead. Did they want to travel the world? Did they plan to be a rock star. Did they settle for less than they could have had or been, to give you everything that you have now?

Why don't we ask to hear those stories? Could it be that we want our parents to be boring and straightforward and simple, so we can feel more daring and interesting and complex in comparison?

There are stories we don't tell our children while they are young, because they are perhaps best to not know. But now that you are "all grown up", wouldn't it be cool to get to know your parents as "real people"? If you are having trouble wrapping your head around what I mean, ask yourself this instead, "Wouldn't it be great if my kids could someday know me as the multi-dimensional person who I really am, instead of just as the role that I play in their lives?"

If you really want to give your mother or father an important, memorable, loving gift on Mother's Day or Father's Day, how about asking them to spend several hours with you, telling you who they are, what they want their life to mean, what dreams they had and what dreams they still have? And then really listen. REALLY LISTEN. Not through any filters that you already have, but as though you are meeting them for the first time (because, in a sense, you almost certainly are).

I have been blessed with amazing parents, and do not take for granted how fortunate I am in that sense. Still, my knowing of them is almost entirely in relation to me and my siblings. I know them as parents, much more than as people. Yet, he snippets I do know are actually pretty cool...

I know that my Dad skipped a couple of grades and went to the University of Western Ontario at 16 years old. I know that he broke his leg when he was twelve sliding into home plate in the Ontario Baseball Championships. I know that he is one of the funniest people I have ever met, even though most people have never seen that side of him. I know that he has been friends with some super famous people and yet never makes a big deal about it.

I know that my Mom went to the University of New Brunswick where she sang with Ann Murray. I know that Mom went through a rebellious phase in her teens and caused my grandparents some sleepless nights. And I am no longer even a bit surprised when someone tells me of yet another of her extraordinary acts of generosity for which she wants no credit or repayment.

Some day my parents will be gone - yours may already be. I can picture myself at their funerals, with strangers and friends alike telling me wonderful stories that I never knew. My discovering myriad aspects of my parents that I never celebrated with them while they were alive. This is a scenario that I still have the ability to rewrite.  I want to be able to laugh and cry along with familiar stories about these beautiful people who I TRULY knew, at least as well as anyone else in the world!

I am writing this on Thanksgiving Day (in Canada), and am giving enormous thanks for my parents - and also for my friend who asked a simple question that has opened up a whole new world of love and appreciation and celebration for me.

_______________________________________________________________

Three quick, relevant links ...

1. "Big Fish" - an amazing movie about discovering that your parents ARE much more interesting than you ever believed. I had the good fortune of being stranded in Vaughan in a blizzard, while driving with my sister to my grandfather's funeral. We took refuge in a theatre and watched this film. Incredibly fitting, as he was so much like the father in this movie that it was hard to believe this was just a coincidence.

2. Harry Chapin's classic song, "Cat's In The Cradle". Every young parent listens to this song as a cautionary tale reminding us to spend time with our children. But listen today to the second half, and hear your parents who tried so hard to do right by you, for all the challenges and shortcomings that life affords. And consider that you don't have to be that son/daughter who doesn't have time for them. No matter how much you do for them, it will rarely ever compare to the love that they gave you.

3. "I Love You Forever" ... a reading of Robert Munsch's beautiful book about a mother's unconditional love for her son and that son's love for his mother :)

You are already good enough ...

As I sit down to start writing, I already know this could go in countless directions. What I am intending to say is something like this. "We are all trying so hard to be good enough, for ourselves or for others, and are constantly bombarded with messages about how to be better and more. But right now, you are all you ever need to be and are already perfect. This sounds like an empty platitude but it is infinitely true."

I jotted a note to myself a few days ago that said "I am pretty good at so many things, but have not figured out what I want to be truly great at ...". At the time, I think it was meant as a call to arms to get cracking on figuring out what that latter thing is. In a recent business bestseller, Jim Collins stated, "Good is the enemy of great". His assertion is that when we settle for good, we won't demand great. And I often find myself sympathetic to this viewpoint. Voltaire had already asserted the corollary 235 years earlier, "The better is the enemy of the good". It is commonly understood that he was advising us to not overlook the good, always in search of the better.

As much as I am a happy guy, I have also spent a lot of time taking much for granted, and even beating myself up. My wonderful erstwhile-wife often pointed this out to me - that I should enjoy my successes a bit more, instead of deciding that if I had already accomplished something it couldn't be that great and press on in search of more, more, more. Granted, that is likely my hard-wiring, and in many ways I would never want to change it. But, I had a moment of satori in a mindfulness meditation program I was taking a few years ago when we were asked to identify a word that limited us in our lives. Most people came up with words like "stupid", "lazy", "weak". The one that leaped to my mind was "exceptional" - and I knew immediately what I meant ... that nothing was good enough that wasn't exceptional. Even being exceptional at ordinary things didn't cut it, nor pretty good at exceptional things. Only being truly exceptional at truly exceptional things would "make me satisfied". Note the previously mentioned trap - if I could do it, that automatically ruled out its exceptionality to me.

And don't even get me started on "other people"! I preach acceptance and love, but have always struggled with impulsive judgement and dismissal. It actually drives me a bit crazy about myself. I know it is not just me doing this, but it is my voice in my head that I have to listen to. "Look at that idiot." "That poor unenlightened soul." "How can he/she possibly be happy living like that?" At least now I catch myself as soon as the thoughts come up, and don't give them any power, but they are still there.

I often tell the story of a conversation I had at a music festival a few years ago. I saw people lined up to pay $30+ for temporary tattoos and, for some reason took umbrage with that. "I don't get why the fuck any adult would get a temporary tattoo for a music festival", I opined to my friend. His reply was not intended to be particularly philosophical, but it led to a weekend long reflection for me: "I don't see why there is anything for you to get." Of course! Why was it up to me to judge anyone? How would the world be better if everyone were the same, much less the same as me? Why was I lowering my energy about what others were doing, and then sending that shitty energy out into the world? Their choices are every bit as valid as mine, and I'm sure there are lots of things for which others feel justified in critiquing me.

Where does all of this condemnation and "better than" and negativity come from? Well, our basic societal institutions are drenched in these themes. The predominant Western religion makes it clear that we are "born of sin" and must live a careful life conforming to someone else's rules until we die, at which point we will face "judgement" determining whether we are allowed into paradise or cast into a fiery eternity of suffering. Our entire "growth based economy" is a pyramid scheme that can only work if people buy more and more and more. To ensure this, everyone must be dissatisfied, unhappy, even afraid - and respond by spending money they don't have on things they don't need. Marilyn Manson expressed this well in this clip from his interview with Michael Moore in "Bowling For Columbine". And our "winner take all" party-politics system has become the ultimate zero-sum game with winners and losers and vicious tactics intended to convince voters that "we are right and they are wrong" (I am particularly familiar with this dynamic, as my short time as a "candidate" brought some of my basest tendencies to the surface and actually upset me significantly).

I was raised in a wonderful family and given every conceivable advantage. My parents worked hard to instill "good", solid values in their children - which were, naturally, couched in lots of good vs bad and right vs wrong. I attended "good" schools where we were taught the "right" way to think and to do things, so that we could someday have "good" jobs and have a "good" life.

Life has, in many ways, become an unending competition. We must compete, as individuals and as countries, for jobs. According to the 60" propaganda machine on your wall, "reality" means outwitting and outplaying your opponent. Every face needs making over and every ride needs pimping. Nothing can ever be good enough. Think you are doing ok? Well, then you'd better tune in and see these cribs! More more more.

Where is this getting us? I honestly believe that it is causing us to miss most of the beauty in life. "We" have more than ever, and are less happy. Most of us have so much more than we truly need, but so much less than we have learned to want - and it is the latter that we notice.

Yes we have problems. We are polluting and harming our planet. Governments are going broke. People are getting depressed and frustrated. But, despite what the talking heads try to convince us of, the solution is not to work harder and spend more to keep the system working. Logically, this can only make things "worse".

Instead, slow down, breathe deeply and look around at the beauty that is already everywhere. Consume less. Smile more. Help someone. Whenever you are feeling lack, try giving something away. Let go of the need to have all of the answers and understand that we don't even know what the questions are :)

Whether you subscribe to science's Big Bang Theory or The Bible's Book of Genesis or any other faith system,  the entire Universe was created at the beginning of time. Before that, there was nothing to speak of. Then, rather suddenly, everything was here. Whichever story you choose to believe, that core fact remains: there was nothing, and then from that nothing there is now everything. And it is either all God or it is all matter, or it is all energy : and in any of these cases we are all A PART of that, not APART from it. We are not all just IN this together. We ARE this together.

Bringing that back to the practical, what does it mean? To me it takes the pressure off! None of the "noise" that makes up what we have come to see life being about actually matters. I can choose to make it matter, as most of us so often do, but the world was here before I was born and will be long after I die - and I am not responsible for that. There is nothing that the world, or God, or The Universe needs from me. I get to decide what I want my life to be and, whatever that ends up being is absolutely fine. Because, no matter what, I am PART of the whole thing. And a part that no one or nothing else can possibly be. And you are just as integral a part. And so is everyone and everything else.

So, in light of all of that, I am going to let go of the universal steering wheel and know that nothing needs to happen for me to be good enough, and that everything that happens to/with/for/from/by me has value. I am still free to strive for anything that I want, and to create games called "important" and "improvement" and "success"- and can do so boldly and bravely knowing that everything is perfect no matter what.

And, most "importantly", I am going to look upon everything and everyone else as perfect as well, and as beautiful, and as intrinsically related.

I love life. I love myself. I love you.

:)

Just dropping in to say "hi" ... :)

Wow. Another big hiatus. Funny how this blog goes in fits and starts. If you've figured that I just didn't have anything good to write about of late, I can assure you that it's very much the opposite ... I have just been too busy doing awesome stuff to sit down and recount it! :)

This has truly been as good a summer as I've ever had - and I have enjoyed some spectacular ones (windsurfing in Europe, working at a summer resort, planting trees in Northern Ontario, living in Whistler, BC, etc). 

I have shared several huge adventures with Jack - he crewed for me at The Death Race, joined me at Camp Bisco in Albany, NY, and paddled the Missinaibi River with me (a pending blog post about a 7 day trip that turned into a 9 day odyssey, with 3 for 3 destroyed canoes and some impromptu rockclimbing our way out of Hell's Gate Canyon after a missed portage and some out-of-our-league whitewater followed by waterfalls). Along the way, he also caught five of the biggest pickerel I have ever seen - all in one afternoon! Back home, Jack fell completely in love with waterskiing/wakeboarding/kneeboarding and any other excuse to be towed behind Papa's boat. :)

Katy represented Canada at the Pan-American Wrestling Championships in Mexico, and let me be her personal chef/trainer/assistant for the whole week prior helping her prepare. Then she was home just three days before heading to Poland and Germany for 3 weeks of training camps. Earlier in the summer, she medaled at her first international meet, and then I spent five days in Timmins with her at the Northern Bear Wrestling Camp. When we've had her home, there have been lots of trips to Canada's Wonderland with her awesome friends and some chill time on Lake Couchiching in the boat.

In the midst of all of that I have managed to put together a fairly productive summer as well - selling some terrific homes, coaching several great clients, shooting a weekly arts-scene program for our regional cable station, and booking a busy speaking schedule for the fall. I also earned my Open Water Diver certification from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) and did some diving in Lake Simcoe

What is coming up? Well, this is a holiday weekend and we will be doing lots of sailing, wakeboarding and hanging by the bonfire. Friends have booked a cruise ship and a band for Sunday night for an annual summer ending shindig. Straight from the boat, I am planning to drive overnight to Pittsfield, VT for a few days to help clean up from the terrible flooding caused by Hurricane Irene. Almost as soon as I get back I am off to Haliburton for my first ever 100 mile ultramarathon. I had originally planned to do the 50 miler, until a friend said - "Why don't you just do the Hundred?" Strangely that is all it took. Along the same line of thinking, a Death Race compatriot encouraged me thusly, "Johnny, you'll have no trouble with it. Just think, at 5 miles per hour you'll finish in 20 hours or so, which is way less than the Death Race." Sounds downright easy - haha!!

September also brings Dragon Boat racing, a Girl Talk concert in London, and a chalk-drawing event for POGO,... while October has the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon, Explosions in The Sky and Skrillex, as well as an RV trip to U of Michigan for the homecoming football game.

I am looking forward to a busy Autumn professionally as well; continuing my real estate momentum, building my Versapay client base, and expanding my coaching company in an exciting new direction (stay tuned). I am also coaching a 15 week Self Expression and Leadership Program for Landmark Education at the Toronto Campus, and launching a monthly film series in conjunction with an awesome local yoga studio - the premiere is tentatively scheduled for October 18th, screening "May I Be Frank?" Stay tuned :)

Alright, off to bed. It has been a wonderful day! A few hours catching up in the office this morning, then Wonderland with Katy and Jack and Lucas and Emily and Aly and Lauryn, with a stop at the Drive-In on the way home to watch "Thirty Minutes Or Less". Kids are all sleeping, and I'm loving life!

Next up - a proper recounting of our epic adventure on the Missinaibi!! In one of the quieter moments of that journey, I snapped this picture. Truly as beautiful a place as there is ...

The dangling possibilities...

Am I a failure? Am I a success? I have been thinking about that a lot the past few days. Not in a verklempt, hand-wringing sense. Just as a topic of reflection.

My most recent claim for "success" would be completing The Death Race a few weeks ago in Vermont. Billed as one of the hardest races in the world, it lived up to its reputation. After 45 hours of horrendous conditions and mind-bogglingly difficult work, I was one of the few finishers out of nearly 200 who started and 300 who had registered. In declaring this venture a success, it boils down to "I set a goal. I worked hard towards it. I never gave up. I completed it."

Seems simple, and it is tempting to revel in that "successfulness", but therein lies a bit of a trap. If I hold that same standard to my life as a whole I quickly find that I am in a bit of trouble.

There are a whole bunch of things that I have started but bailed out on long before completion. In fact, I would wager that they far outweigh the "saw it through" successes in my life. Further, in looking at that, I cannot think of even one that was because I was actually unable to do it ... more often than not it has been more of an attention span issue. It is a long, long list of projects that I have started then abandoned when something else suddenly seemed more interesting.

Of course I am oversimplfying somewhat, and not every circumstance fits neatly into these categories. Often, other factors come to bear that affect my decisions. A good example is my run at federal politics. I started that endeavour in good faith and, after almost a full year of "going to the polls anytime" campaigning, had to make a tough decision with no election on the horizon and virtually no control over the situation.

Still, I have done more than my share of zigging and zagging. In my adult life, I have worked as a; windsurfing instructor, waiter, bartender, international youth exchange program co-ordinator, tree-planter, bookstore clerk, timeshare salesperson, barista, marketing manager, deliveryman, environmental consultant, car salesman, climbing rope salesman, realtor, property manager, landlord, candidate for federal office, display advertising sales, divorce mediator, funeral home driver ... and finally, payment processing sales, personal coach, hypnotherapist, personal trainer, motivational speaker.

Interestingly, I don't really have any regrets. Every one of those roles has taught me something about myself and served me well at the time, and I was always content moving on when the time came to do so. While it would be hard to demonstrate a strategic straight-line evolution, I do feel that my life has been an ongoing process of growth and discovery.

There are also a few things that are in neither the completed nor abandoned columns ... but are in the "not yet" category. These include, among others, living on a sailboat and the adventure travel component of Alter Ego Life Adventure Co. Both were ideas that I committed to and announced, but eventually had to defer while focusing on more pressing priorities. So, while the timelines have shifted, the goals remain the same. Fortunately I am 43 going on 25, so I feel that I have lots of opportunity yet to achieve both of these intentions and lots more.

My Death Race experience served to demonstrate that I truly CAN complete anything. That doesn't mean that I always WILL though. I am quite happy to start lots, finish what proves important to me, and learn from and let go of the rest.

So, am I a success or a failure? I am both, and neither, and much more. I am a life adventurer who is willingly deep in the current and loving the ride.

One of my all-time VERY favourite songs is "Barbecue" by ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra). It is about taking stock of your life every so often, letting go of the past and looking to the future - understanding that goals and dreams are there to serve you, not to punish you. Listen and reflect and enjoy!

The road is long and winding like a good mystery unfolding
It twists and turns in colorful subplots and sunburns and fake out endings
And sometimes my patience in the whole process starts bending

As I attempt to unravel the web by traversing and rehearsing and perversing along the doubt-laden extension chord thread of my life

And in this life we're free to dream whatever we want to
But that doesn't mean that your dreams are gonna come true
Instead as a way of getting us to move
Life dangles your dreams in front of you
And unable to resist the temptation, we continue

And it's clear to me that this life is gonna be
All about the dangling possibilities that keep turning in and turning out
Yes it's clear to me that this life is gonna be
All about the dangling possibilities

The road is long and winding
Full of twists and turns
But before you can rise from the ashes
You've got to burn baby burn

Welcome to your barbeque
Where we roast all the dreams
That never came true
Welcome to your barbeque
Pig out and dream anew.

Life's Rich Pageant ...

I absolutely love that phrase, and have been repeating it a lot lately. What "life's rich pageant" refers to is that you must take the good with the bad... that you cannot separate the bad experiences as they are all part of the tapestry of a full life.

And a very full life I definitely have! So full, often, that I find myself scrambling to keep up, catch up. These past few weeks are a great example of that. Over 3 weekends I ...

completed The Spartan Death Race, 

coached my daughter in her first international wrestling tournament,

 and took my son to an electronic music festival 700 miles away. 

Each of these events was its own incredible life experience. I am MASSIVELY fortunate to be able to do things like these!

The flip-side is that I am feeling WAY behind on some important stuff today. I have a whole bunch of thank you notes I want to send to people who generously supported POGO as my Death Race charity. I have made dozens of calls on real estate business (all of which was kept alive remotely through the miracle that is Google - I love my Android!!). A handful of coaching/hypnosis clients have been patiently waiting to book appointments this week. This crunch is all exacerbated by the fact that I have taken on hosting a cable TV program covering the local arts scene - and we are doing full day shoots this Wednesday and Thursday (and then I am being interviewed for TV Friday afternoon regarding The Death Race).

There is even some "big stuff" that has slipped through the cracks ... like filing my taxes on time. What should have been a spring project and HAD TO BE a June project has now become a July project, along with a hefty penalty from Revenue Canada.

But, it is said that The Universe does not ever give you a challenge without also giving you the tools to handle it. It even seems to help out in strange ways ... like this one. Before The Death Race, I was warned that I had likely developed stress fractures in both feet (at the base of the 5th metatarsals). I opted to not have x-rays done as I was racing anyway. My feet managed to hold up through the race, and I thought I may have dodged a bullet. Especially since I actually felt surprisingly fine when I got back home. Sure my feet were completely numb and my ankles were very swollen, but I was getting around ok. That is until the feeling started coming back - wow wow OW! The numbness is caused by "tarsal tunnel syndrome" - an internal swelling that pinches off key nerves. Once I could feel my feet I was in trouble. My plantar faciitis is back in full force. I lost a toenail completely. My ankles are very weak and sprained. And I am going for x-rays tomorrow morning for the stress fractures. Now, remember, this paragraph started out declaring that this is somehow a blessing - and it is. I simply CANNOT run, or go to the gym, for the next month. (Technically, I have been told to not even walk - though dancing all weekend at Camp Bisco was never expressly forbidden!) So, this means lots of time suddenly available for all of this other important stuff!!!

I also "owe" two fairly significant blog posts ... my full recounting of The Death Race and the extraordinary insights it afforded me, and an essay on taking a twelve year old to a 3-day electronic music festival (a truly unique life experience) ... both coming soon!

Promises, promises ;)