A salute to the forests

We are at war with the trees, and fortunately for us, we have been losing.  Eventually however, through attrition, we will be victorious. With our hands held high, we will scream our victory with our final breath as we know it.

The ability of the forest ecosystem to respond to our complete neglect is astounding, but there is a tipping point.  For every road that is built, for every parking lot paved, the land base that supports our life is eroded.  Up until recently the sheer volume of vegetated land on the planet has ensured our wonderfully wasteful standard of living.

This weekend we give a salute to the trees in the festival of trees.  It is a small and very tiny step in the right direction for giving credit to something as wonderful as the forests of this planet.

November 20, 2016

Sling shots and wasp nests.  Mousetraps and kittens. Boys, cow pies and gulf clubs. These could be called recipes for disaster.  Most anything successful however, follows a recipe for success.  In most cases it isn’t a matter of reinventing the light bulb, success really should be as simple as following what others have proven to work already.

That being said, I have found that self-made recipes; or those that were concocted by our own trials and failures seem to be the easiest to follow.  Maybe it’s because they are crafted to our tastes and in our language, or maybe it’s just because we are more apt to follow something that we fought hard to figure out.  In any case, lately I have found that going back to those hard earned lessons are important to getting back on track.

The easiest example, and one I shared at the meeting, was the process of blogging.  My recipe requires a note book carried in my vehicle (most frequent place of work) to jot items that come to mind through the week. I require an alarm to go off during blogging morning as a reminder of required preparation and reminder that evening. I need to set time aside to read my teammates blogs.  That serves to both keep up with my teams success, and stimulate blog juices.

Every challenge of the I Ho chuan has a recipe for success. Coming up with a cookbook seems to be a combined process of taking ingredients from the team, but never leaving out that which you have worked hard to figure out on your own.

 

A Case of Misdirected Success

The path to success in developing mastery has always been routed in positive life changes that are sustainable. 2016 was a difficult year for our family on many fronts.  From job loss, to family health issues, challenges with learning needs of our kids, 2016 has had diversity.  In the aftermath of grading and promotion in Kung Fu, it is easy to look back and think that timing could not have been worse.  But that just wouldn’t be true.

There is a possibility that I approached things wrong in 2016, but I often felt that I was in a period of catch up.  There has been a growing list of items over the last several years that had been starved of my attention.  Those items really didn’t present themselves until I stood back from things and had a look at the bigger picture.  Achieving my goals was often at the expense of others, and that is not sustainability. 

2016 may have seen missed opportunities on some fronts, but wild successes on others.  Here is what I mean: 

My wife tackled the near death (leg 1 and 2) of the Canadian death race.  This is a marathon distance but through mud, up mountains, roots, rocks, forest. Her perseverance in the run blew me away even after 13 years of marriage. I couldn’t have been more proud.

The outdoor education center at camp Teepee pole was a smashing success.  (A big shout out to Brandon Regier and Stephanie for their help on this one).  The camp utilized the facility to teach campers of fish preservation in an outstanding presentation by Trout Unlimited. Good things are going to come from this in the future.

I spent more quality time with my dad than I have ever this past year.  That is time and memories that can never be taken away.

My son moved to a school that addressed his dyslexia (that would be irony if I spelled that wrong wouldn’t it?)  Leaving his friends, comfort and familiarity on his own will because he wanted to read.  His teacher has said his motivation and drive is extremely rare.

Our plight toward mastery in the I Ho Chuan is designed to show positive effects in our lives and the ones around us. If those fruits are not recognized, it may be wise to question whether they are sustainable.

This leads to the question, if our quest for mastery can’t be shared with the world, why on earth are we doing it at all?

November 11

November 11^th.  Our family crammed into West Edmonton Mall for the November 11^th ceremony today.  People of all ages, all ethnicities, there to remember. 

Remembrance of my great grandfathers and uncles that wrote from the front of WWII.  Letters written in anxiousness, loneliness and fear that no matter how many times I read, bring tingles and shivers to my spine.

Remembrance to my wife’s family who were forced to flee Chile and who lost brothers, husbands, and uncles in the Coup of 1973 when standing up for democracy in the presence of dictatorship corruption and power. 

Remembrance of Cpl. Andrew Eyklenboom who died in Afghanistan on August 11, 2006.  The first Canadian medic to lose his life since the Korean war.  To our friends, Gordon and Steven, our family will not forget what your brother sacrificed for our freedom.

The debt of gratitude that all Canadians have to our veterans can’t adequately be expressed.  To those men and women that serve today, and to those that have served in times past….we thank you.

May 9, 2016

May 9^th.  For the past seven years this has been a day of special remembrance for our family. There is no greater way to honour great beauty than to place ourselves together in the mountains, streams and flowers of God’s magnificent wilderness.

Very subtle Kung Fu photo bomb 

Earth Day

Today is earth day, and I feel fast.  You should too.  We are both flying at 107,182 km/hr as passengers of earth around the sun. It’s a dangerous place to live also.  Half a million detectable earthquakes each year, average of 100 lightning ground strikes a second.  With only .003% of its available water available for humans, and one third of its land mass deserts, it can be a pretty inhospitable place.

But it is also magnificent. 3.04 Trillion trees, give rise to a precise gas mixture that keeps my skin from melting off, and which makes the smell of a fresh rain wonderful.

A precise distance from a star, with an orbit and rotation of mathematical genius.  Allowing for the only place in the universe to support water in its three states, liquid, gas and solid.  I ponder this while breathing the moist air and drinking a glass of ice water…..mmmm good.

With an estimated 10,000 stars in the universe for every grain of sand on every beach on earth; you would think finding a substitute would be easy peesy.  According to scientists much smarter than I…it’s not.  So let’s take today to contemplate the gift of life in such a miraculous setting and use every other day to love it, enjoy it and protect it.

Rice flour, my new best friend

I was lost in a particular thought last week while savoring a most tender and delicious glazed donut from the Italian Bakery.  Over the past couple years I have followed the journals of I Ho Chuan members and received enlightenment when it came to challenges of the dietary order. Huge changes from giving up meat entirely, to increasing water consumption, to removing gluten.

Realistically though, how hard could a gluten free diet be? Seeing how well my 10 year old adapted to a dietary restricted way of life, made the whole process look fairly easy.  Over the past couple years, we have had our challenges, with a few minor arguments, and a bit of frustration.  All in all he is an amazing little guy that has adapted and taken on the responsibility like a champ.

I, as a father that is supposed to show empathy, especially in the early stages of the adaptation of my child to a gluten free diet, was a complete failure.  Recognizing that failure over a most wonderful and glutenous snack, I decided a dose of empathy was in order.  Perhaps a little rash, I decided this was the week that I would strike out on the same dietary restrictions as my son for the next seven days.

It isn’t just the constant reminder of the things you can’t have, like the smell of fresh bread in the morning bakery department, the oodles of garnishes and spices that are on the restricted list, the craving of rich thick homemade pasta.  That is the mind over matter part, which is acerbated by the warped and twisted physical response of my body.  A constant hunger, or at least the feeling of an empty tummy, an apparent loss of energy, change in sleep patterns and mood, a ravenous search to find a suitable substitute to fill the carbohydrate demand you left behind.

 

There are substitutes, and in a lot of cases more healthy ones.  It has meant more fruit and vegetables, more water consumption, alternatives to wheat flour carbs (most I would argue are an acquired taste).  I am not sure if this gets easier, or weather a week is even close to long enough to find out.  At the end of all this though, if nothing else, I will have a greater appreciation for what my son has accomplished, and is continually challenged with.