MORE THAN BOOK PUBLISHING

WOW That's the best I can come up with at 5AM. As my previous post mentioned, I spent the last 3 days at a seminar called Book Publishing 2.0 and my head is ready to explode. The sheer volume of freely shared information is mind blowing. If you ever see this program offered - take it! It doesn't matter if you are writing a book or not. If you have a business in today's world, the information and introduction to what is possible in terms of growing your company is worth 10X the cost of admission. I think they are planning another presentation in Utah in January. Beginning with the use of personality profiling to hyper focus your writing or marketing efforts and on to the incredible cyber world of today, this program is revolutionary. Revolutionary? Yes, the presenters spend no time selling their wares and all of their time (30+ hours) giving information, providing serious learning and practical application opportunities.

I must give a big "shout out" to the best personal coach in the land, Dawnie, for signing me up - thanks - the best weekend of info ever!

Who knew that geeks could be so much fun?

If you were at the event, post a comment.

MRS. B

The older I get, the more often I seem to be confronted with the passing of someone in my life, but this time is different. Both of my sisters knew it when they called me last Saturday to tell me of the passing of a woman from my home town. A woman who held more influence in my life than I, she or her family would ever have realized. Somehow, I suspect that my sisters sensed this when they called.


It started with the lady's daughter whom I met after changing high schools from an all boys one to the public system and we began to date - a situation that lasted almost 5 years. But what a 5 years it was for a kid from the wrong side of the tracks both literally and figuratively. I still remember the first date when a door opened to a world that I didn't know existed. I had no money - barely enough in my pockets to pay the entry fees to the dance - I certainly didn't have a car - high school kids didn't drive Beemers in those days and I didn't yet have an old beater like most of my friends. I took the City bus from my house to hers and in the process got drenched by the cold rain that was falling that night. We were meeting mutual friends (who had a car) and going to a typical kids' dance for those times, held in an indoor shopping mall after the stores closed. I even remember the name of the band, David Clayton Thomas and the Fabulous Shays, (DCT went on to become lead singer with Blood, Sweat and Tears), but I digress.


I arrived on her doorstep like a drowned rat; soaked jacket, shoes and slacks and rivulets of water running down my face but I suspect that my palms were wetter than my clothes as her father opened the door and welcomed me to a home full of warmth, humour and acceptance. After the de rigeur chat with her dad, who has remained a role model in my mind for 45 years, I then met her mother but I was so darned nervous that I barely recall the introduction and besides, I only had eyes for the young girl at her side. As the months and then years passed, this charming woman who was filled with grace, beauty, intelligence and a deep caring for the world slowly but surely came to represent, for the rest of my life, the portrait of the ideal woman, wife and mother. I have often suspected that she knew a lot more about me than I did myself. I think that she had a very keen and developed sense of intuition and many times over the years when I visited my home town, I wondered what it would be like to call and invite her for a chat. I now regret never having done that. I suppose that dovetails nicely with a bunch of other regrets emanating from that period of my life.



Most good homes, in my experience, revolve around the mother and theirs was no exception as she brought a sense of style along with life standards that demanded integrity, truth, hard work, achievement, open-mindedness, charity, intellectual pursuit, discussion and a willingness to listen (even to the bleatings of a raw edged teenager) that resulted in joy, laughter, good natured ribbing and a deep seated love of her family. I suspect that her legion of friends gravitated to this lady who was the unassuming centre of all of this. It is too bad that we often wait until someone's death to spend the time thinking about what sort of meaning they brought to life and specifically what they meant to us personally. Mrs. B became a source of inspiration to me when it came to choosing the life I wanted to create for myself and my own family. She demonstrated the value of caring for others, the gift of inclusion and the joy of giving without expectation. I suspect that most of us are exposed to great teachers in our lives and I also suspect that most of them go unrecognized. That is the case in this instance but I can't allow myself to go forward without acknowledgement to myself, if no one else. I'm not so sure that she was very thrilled about me dating her daughter (I wouldn't have been either) but this gracious person who defined the word "lady" allowed me to do so, welcomed me into her home, treated me with kindness and gave me a role model that lasted a lifetime.

I realize that there is no one in my circle of family and friends who can possibly understand the impact that Mrs. B had on my life but without question, she may be the singular reason that I eventually took a turn in the road. Thank you Mrs. B for showing me that road and the possibility and joy that exists in this world. By the way, she was one heck of a cook too - a sure way to influence a teenage boys life. Thank You

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

" it's always 5 o'clock somewhere."

There may have been a few libations involved but last Saturday night after a day of adventure, 4 of us were sitting on the deck basking in the glory of ourselves when someone suggested that my book, THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time would make a great movie. They waxed poetic about the thrills, spills, humour and inspiration and ever eager to receive compliments, I listened as they rambled on. One of the participants was my hiking buddy Gord, whose fame has spread after our exploits on the Trail. Since I am totally unknown to any Hollywood producers and for obvious reasons (check my picture) have no interest in testing out the "casting couch," the only thing we could turn to was speculation about the possibilities. At some point, the ladies asked who would play the two main characters in our Oscar winning spectacle and so Gord and I, ever mindful of presenting the right public image, began to offer suggestions. Clearly, the obvious choices we decided would be George Cluny to play Gord, since there was a similarity of hair-do's. The only leading man that could possibly maintain the integrity and vision and thus able to play me, was none other than.........Brad Pitt, due to the similarity in body-types.

The libations may have turned to drinks at some point........

100th BLOG and 60th BIRTHDAY

"too soon we get old and too late we get
smart"

I started this blog as a bit of a lark and it seems to have succeeded in allowing me to blow off a little steam, share some personal thoughts and insights and generally fulfill the idea of an online journal. September 13 is my 60th birthday and sometimes, as we reach age-related milestones, we begin to assume that we have a bit of wisdom to share and every once in a while someone asks for some of it. Not that that is necessarily the case at the moment, but in the event that anyone should ask, I think I'll list a few random things I've learned over the years.

So, in no particular order:

1.) the older I get, the more I know I don't know

2.) chaos is much better organized than I thought

3.) real power is never having to tell anyone you have power

3a.) the same for independence

4.) the difference between success and failure is not education, luck, birth, God, race, geography, politics, astrology, work ethic, environmental, intellectual, creativity or anything other than "thought." Simply put, we are who and what we think we are!

5.) the answer to any problem is always within ourselves - looking to some outside source for an answer is a cop out

6.) buy on rumour - sell on news

7.) other people will always rise, or fall to our level of expectation

8.) including ourselves

9.) common sense when reviewing marketing, political, pharmaceutical and religious claims is more important than celebrity endorsements

10.) avoid people who claim to never take vacations - there is something wrong with them

11.) don't hang out with people who proudly proclaim that they never read a book

12.) ignore "breaking news" items on TV after you have already seen it twice

13.) do something every year that will scare the crap out of yourself

14.) scientific fact is simply a theory based on current (and surprisingly out of date) information combined with opinion which has been spiced with all sorts of social bias

15.) if the opportunity to do something you have never experienced before presents itself, never say "I don't have time, I'll do it later."

16.) double the above if it is suggested by one of your children

17.) get a colonoscopy

18.) find some way to lower stress - focus on the cause as opposed to the result and it shouldn't be a drug

19.) never accept the responsibility for a project if you don't also have the authority to manage it

20.) out of great emotional upheaval comes the possibility of self discovery

21.) there are 8 senses - touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing, humour, intuition and the most important - COMMON

22.) the best teachers are our own mistakes

23.) trying to use only the last 100 years of recorded history to explain and understand planetary forces like evolution, plate tectonics and climate is not only myopic but stupid

24.) the " F " word may be the most flexible in the English language as it is used variably as a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb (sometimes in the same sentence) but there is an inverse relationship between its frequency of use and the knowledge level of its user

25.) contrary to what most of us have been led to believe, there is no such thing as a perfect relationship - it's always a work in progress

26.) what goes up also comes down including oil prices, house prices, stock prices, interest rates, egos, media hype, temperatures, water levels, airplanes, reproductive appendages, inflation, hot air and stress if you insist

27.) there are four highly secret additions to the Recommended Canada Food Guide - popcorn, wine, ice cream and chocolate - you know it's true

28.) laughter really is the best medicine

29.) gratitude = completion and leads directly to wholeness

30.) happiness is a natural state of being, not a goal

31.) being smart and being knowledgeable are not the same thing

32.) we need to tune all 8 senses into seeking out the inspiration that surrounds us

33.) getting older gives us permission to do more of what we want and less of what others want

OK, presumably I have learned more than this over the past 60 years but I have probably bored you to tears by now and I need to leave for my next adventure in a few moments. It has been an incredible 60 years and the last few weeks have been absolutely fabulous - 10 days in Myrtle Beach, SC with my family - playing golf with my son on some of North America's finest courses along with great nightly dinners, shopping and beaches for the four of us, we returned home to a backyard full of white tents, caterers and friends and family offering bottles of incredible wines and port and now, in a minute or two, we leave for the Invermere Valley in B.C. and a glider ride over the Rockies and valleys and lakes that I have been looking forward to since I was six years old. We return Sunday night and begin plotting the next adventure. Thank you to everyone who has crossed my path over the years - "may you live in interesting times."

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

" always, a sense of peace and calm overtakes me"

from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

"So, Mr. Smarty-Pants hiker boy, I read your comments about finding some quiet time and about silence and darkness and early mornings, but how do you keep from falling asleep?"

Excellent question my young apprentice. This is a practiced technique and falling asleep is a very real possibility but it is also part of the process and part of the discipline. First is to decide to keep the time brief - really only five minutes to start - and then gradually allow your mind to go into a neutral place where you will need to gently set aside thoughts as they come up. No berating yourself here, we have been programmed to fill the empty spaces in our minds with thoughts and the challenge is to resist it. It will happen anyway and you will catch yourself "thinking about not thinking" and then something else will arrive and you won't even realize it but you've gone off on a trip to your "to do" list or the grocery list or someplace. This is all part of the process and part of the learning but the constant vigilance against unwanted thoughts should keep you awake for five minutes and then stop the process. Keep at it every day until you have mastered your five minutes and you will find that your mind has calmed, you feel more peaceful and more in control of your life - I promise (money back guarantee printed on reverse side of this page.)

A couple of more comments on feelings, instinct and intuition: we all have experience with this gift and can point to various times when we just "had a feeling." We know of people who have expressed this verbally and have heard stories about how someone didn't get on a plane or drive a certain roadway, etc. only to learn later about an accident. I can tell you that there are numerous times when I have slowed down for no apparent reason only to discover a radar trap a little ways ahead. By the way, that "feeling" doesn't happen all the time unfortunately, but often enough to have gotten my attention. Now I know there are a few neanderthals out there who think that this particular gift is the specific purview of women (don't worry, they don't know what that word means) and still insist that it is "women's intuition" and simply dismiss its importance. Too bad, but each of us has this ability and each of us can tap into its power. This is a physical feeling but we need to be listening for it. It's just below the surface of our thoughts and you might just discover it in the early morning, if you can stay awake.

The truth is that this gift works full time, all the time, daytime and night time whether we want it to or not and whether we recognize it or not. Once we are aware of it, we can't put the genie back in the bottle. It may be the closest connection many of us find to truth, infinite intelligence, the universe, spirit or that other character that people insist on calling God.

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

"The magic pill...is in the moments of silence..."

from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

We left off yesterday with the idea that we need to carve out some quiet time from our hectic days. We noted that most of us are surrounded by distractions that keep interrupting our ability to get in touch with that part of our inner selves that needs to be heard. Driving with the car radio turned off doesn't do it and neither does the mute button on the channel changer although a few moments in the bathroom without a magazine article to read, holds promise. Personally, it works best for me to create a daily ritual, time and place in which I am virtually guaranteed no interruptions. About 5 AM, sitting in my reading chair, lights and all household appliances turned off and then I spend about 5 - 10 minutes trying to turn off my thinking appliance - my thought processor. This is a time of gentleness as thoughts continue to creep in but when we notice it, we make a conscious effort to let those same thoughts go. This is an excellent way to practice the process of getting in touch with ourselves and the truth that resides inside.

Now, to feelings. We have all noticed that when many thoughts come into our consciousness, they also bring an emotional response and each of us has felt that during our lives. For example, if you sit quietly and slowly cycle through the following list, perhaps you will notice, someplace in your body, a flutter or a lightness, or in some cases a heavier feeling or darkness. Go ahead and try this with the following list of words, one at a time and slowly let anything that pops up, come into your consciousness: first love, Santa Claus, theme from JAWS, smell of baby oil, sound of a siren, your mother's hug. There is a distinction here between the thought and the response and it takes most of us some time to identify this. In other words, we almost need to stop thinking immediately following the initial thought rather than continuing to let our mind create an appropriate response. It is not the desired response we are after but the automatic, in the gut, immediate feeling that we are trying to tune into. It is often nothing more than a feeling of lightness (kind of a butterfly in my stomach) response, or a heavier and darker moment and the key here is the physical reaction, NOT the one in our minds. This is the crux of using feelings as a signpost. Getting in touch with our intuitive or instinctual selves is a physical process. Keep in mind (interesting choice of words) that birds do not THINK about flying south, plants do not THINK about producing blossoms and bears do not THINK about eating more berries. They simply respond to a God given instinct that points them in the direction of their highest and best good. We have the same gift!

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

"...feelings seem to be a lifelong pursuit..."

from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a time

A real life conversation recently overheard in a coffee shop from a table of four men in their mid-twenties who were otherwise apparently intelligent and career oriented young professionals: "We were having this argument about something or other and in the middle of it, she asked me how I was feeling and I said, Fine. And then she got even madder. Maybe I should have said something different, like used a different word or something. Do you have any idea what I should have said?" His helpful and concerned colleague offers, "Well, I'm not sure, maybe you should have said, Good."

This is a true story, as related by a friend at a dinner party last night, whose counselling niche is teaching variously challenged young students social survival skills and was related in the context of how people communicate through text messaging and have lost the ability to interact verbally. The lesson here is our inability to actually express a feeling because we don't know what they are, let alone, how to access them. If you read my blog from yesterday (and if not, why not???) then we began a discussion of how to locate and recognize something called feelings and how they might be useful as we attempt to discern a course of action that is in our best interests. We are constantly being met with the need to make choices amid a sea of conflicting ideas, thoughts, desires and emotions and through a studied refusal to accept the existence of a power within each of us, we have evolved into self destructive beings who seek answers to inner turmoil from an outside world with a totally different agenda.

We have surrounded ourselves with noise, distractions, busyness and a visual cacophony of promises all competing for our time and attention and taking us away from looking inside ourselves and from hearing the inner voice of intuition, instinct and truth. Those are the difficulties we face in coming face to face with ourselves and where do we start, in order to access what is freely available to each of us? Where do we begin to know who we are, what we are and why we are here? What is the first step on the road to finding meaning and purpose?

Step 1: BE QUIET!

Without question, the first gift we need to give ourselves is the space to experience quiet. How in heaven's name can we hear the inner voice of wisdom amid radios, TV's, cars, kids, pets and the million and one distractions that we surround ourselves with? We can start by insisting on 5 minutes of silence every day, even if it means getting up before everyone else or going to bed later than everyone else, or finding a place in the midst of our day to pursue the pleasure and experience of solitary QUIET. In my world, this may be the single best use of those buildings we call churches and most especially if there is no one else there including a priest or minister. An oasis of quiet for us to spend a few minutes in contemplation - step 1 on the road to peace and joy. Go ahead, try it.

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

"All ideas create some kind of ... feeling inside us..."

from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

The bird, insect and animal kingdoms were given instinct, without the intellect to question it. Lucky them! We too were given instinct, sometimes called "intuition" and because He has a bit of a dark sense of humour, or perhaps we are an experiment gone awry, He added the power to think. Thinking is supposed to place us at the top of the food chain and it has, but we have "thought" ourselves way down the food chain in terms of our ability to do what is in our own best interests. Let's look at this on a very personal level and leave the environmental, technical, political, scientific, medical stuff to another day.

Somehow, in our lack of wisdom (intelligence does not equal wisdom), humanity stopped reacting to its feelings and began to suppress them to the point where we don't even know what they are and if we do, someone is there to tell us to stop. We have successfully ignored the truth that exists inside us for so long that this unwillingness to follow our own truth has literally evolved to the point of ignorance. I use the word "ignorance" here in the sense that we "ignore" what we already know is the truth and we refuse to give voice to the most important gift that God gave us. Instinct/intuition is the most powerful force on earth as it moves millions, probably billions, of animals and birds from drought to a banquet of everything they require to survive and multiply and more. It is constant, consistent and unfailing in its power to create and recreate not just the necessities of life, but so much more abundance than its adherents will ever require to find fulfillment and happiness.

Let me drastically oversimplify how we can tap back into this gift that offers the one true road map to joy, success and happiness (or do some of us have different goals?). When we have an idea or thought, we automatically generate a "feeling" deep down inside us (some would say that this is where God dwells but you don't need to agree for this to work) and this feeling is the sign that guides our action. We need to be a little discerning here because when we were given the power to think, we started adding layers of "thought" over top of these feelings and thus, finding the truth has become much more challenging. We need to probe deeper than the thought level and find the kernel of truth hidden in the feeling that always makes itself felt physically and usually around the pit of our stomach. It may take a lot of practice to find this guidepost but each of us experiences it, each of us has it and each of us knows where to go to find it. If it's been awhile since you felt it, try looking at the things that change your emotional response and trigger a need to react. Pictures of babies, kittens and puppies, starlit night skies, smells of baking apple pies and roses in a vase, music that moves your soul or the sound of waves crashing to shore, an unanticipated hug or a cool breeze on a hot day - capture the essence of your response to these and so many more triggers, go a little deeper than the surface to discover the response in your core and we can reconnect with the gift that shows us the truth, the route and the joy of heaven on earth.

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

"...running the 800 stairs everyday

...I hadn't felt that good in years."

from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

Years ago, I attended a course in which the facilitator talked about building new habits and how we do that. According to her, we need to do something every day for 21 days in order to lock something in as a habit. So here I am, day two of getting up at 4:45 AM and at my computer by 5 in order to start the day with a little creative writing. In order to make this a lifetime habit, I need to get up every morning ( I suppose that means weekends, too) and start the day like this. Only 19 to go. The course leader used this technique when she talked about breaking old habits as well. We need to go 21 straight days without a cigarette, or sugar, or TV, or whatever our addiction of choice is, in order to break the harmful, habitual effects of our "bad habit."

I wonder why creating good habits is so much more challenging than creating bad ones, or is that just me? Does it have something to do with attitude because on the one hand, we assume that changing or stopping an activity that we label as negative, has to be hard. Haven't we been told that all of our lives and haven't the forces of marketing supported that viewpoint. Just watch a commercial for any ot the weight loss programs and we are conditioned to assume that achieving our ideal weight is impossible on our own without the help of one of the fitness gurus or fading TV stars on display. Perhaps we set ourselves up for failure (which is in the best interests of those weight loss companies) by beginning with the idea that we can't do it. A little like going to Vegas with our anticipated losses already figured into the budget.

I'm kind of all over the place here this morning when the point I simply wanted to make is that our minds and bodies probably don't know the difference between good and bad habits but rather respond to the disciplined daily routine that we establish. So how does getting up at 4:45 AM become a "good" habit and stopping at the DQ around 2 this afternoon become a "bad" one? I don't know the answer to that, so let's tune in tomorrow for more revelations - I can't wait!

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

Writing = Creativity + Discipline

The easy part is coming up with the ideas, the tough part for me, is putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward a little every day, in the direction of my dreams. That's why I named my first book "The West Coast Trail:One Step at a Time" since the key as I see it, is taking one step at a time on a regular basis. Back when I was preparing to hike the WCT, I had to work everyday on conditioning and strength and even then, I barely made it. Writing book number one was the same; a little every day in order to support the creative process and keep the whole project going forward. Ditto for book number two, which is now in edit.

Discipline has always been my biggest challenge. In grade school I would prefer to gaze out the window at the passing clouds and dream of riding my bike or playing baseball - almost anything but the droning voice of a teacher explaining dangling participles. In high school my mind wandered to the two-legged variety of distraction complete with plaid skirts and knee high socks that belonged to the all girls school down the street. I could go on here, but I'm sure you get the point. Now I have a new book idea and in order to get back into the process of "One Step at a Time," I'm hoping that getting up earlier and spending an hour in front of the computer before leaving for work will be the elixir I need to start putting it together. Or, winning the lottery might work too.....

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

more about Choice Points

"OK, Mr. Smarty pants hiker-boy," (direct quote) "tell me more about Choice Points and what are they?" Choice Points are something that occur to each of us throughout our lives and begin at a very young age when we bear witness to something that causes us to stop and reevaluate our position and decide our course of action. The decision can be a conscious one or subconscious like the response to some tragic or threatening event in our childhood that we don't even remember anymore. The result is a change in the course or path of our lives. The point of change might result from something traumatic like abuse, violence, hunger, natural disaster, abandonment and not so commonly thought about are the results of witnessing acts of kindness, love and generosity.

Choice Points offer us the opportunity to take a different path from the one we are on now. As a child, these may have appeared to have been forced upon us but that simply isn't true. Two children can experience the same event and have two totally different reactions to it - something is at work here. As we get older, we often choose to ignore the Choice Points that are presented to us by refusing to look inside ourselves and find the spiritual guide that is trying to show us the way. The more we ignore the message, the higher the drama tends to get until we finally choose to deal with it, or not. The accidents become more serious, the illness or disease gets stronger, the financial stress keeps repeating, the careers keep ending, the dramatic episodes of our life start to spiral out of control - all in an effort to get our attention. On the West Coast Trail, I got stranded on a dangerous boulder field near Owen Point and found recurring issues about abandonement and independence rear their ugly heads in very dramatic fashion. Finally, I made the choice to trust in something beyond myself and stand on my own two feet (literally) and move in the only direction left to me - forward!

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"...throughout our lives, we are presented with Choice Points."

from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

We are all confronted with choices in our lives. While hiking the West Coast Trail, choices are presented constantly and some are obvious and simple like, going over, around or under a log. Some have larger consequences like whether to hike on the beach or in the woods and sometimes we make a choice between stopping for a rest or climbing the ladder to the next level. While some of these choice decisions do offer a risk to life and limb as noted in my book, most are simply decisions that don't necessarily have a right or wrong attached to them, but all have consequences.

In every day life we sometimes require Choice Points in a more dramatic fashion as we ignore the issues in our lives by filling our time with busy-ness instead of looking below the surface to explore the business of living rather than the living of business. You and I can site numerous examples of people receiving a "wake up call" in the form of a serious injury or health issue to themselves or a loved one. We can point to people who needed to lose everything in order to gain what was most precious. Perhaps we were the subject of something similar. Fortunately, we live in a time of "choice" if we choose to exercise our choices. We can CHOOSE joy, peace, abundance, health, happiness and fulfillment or we can choose illness, depression, loneliness and lack. The CHOICE is ours, the price is the same - our life.

Share your "Choice Point" with me, whether on a hiking trail or sitting in your backyard, I am interested in knowing what lessons have come your way. I will only reprint them if you give me permission to do so.

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

"When I was young...it was more important to get to the end of the trip than enjoy the journey."

inspired by a thought from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

I've often wondered what it really means to "enjoy the journey." So many things keep pulling us this way and that as we try to balance work, home, family, finances, fitness, spirituality and the million other things competing for our time and energy. In retrospect, we kept learning the same lesson over and over every day while we were hiking the West Coast Trail. We were constantly torn between our need to get to the next campsite and the incredible views and natural beauty that stood in front of us at every moment. In truth, we didn't stop nearly often enough to enjoy what was staring us in the face. Our focus was clearly on the next place to set our foot down without falling off a slippery log, caroming off a ladder or sinking into the mud, all the while trying to maintain some artificial timetable that we had established. The Trail, like life, offered us the opportunity to experience the beauty, smells, sounds, joy and peace if only we would take our eyes off the goal and turn them to what was right in front of us, in that moment. The funny thing is, those are the real goals that most of us express anyway, we just have to slow down and experience them.

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"...recommended for experienced backpackers only.*"

When we hiked the West Coast Trail a few years ago, this quote was on the front page of the map sent to us by Parks Canada. Fortunately, I didn't notice it until I was home safe and sound from the adventure of a lifetime. Many things come with warning labels such as, toys, clothes, televisions, toasters, paint, sporting goods, theatre tickets, food, prescription drugs, cigarettes and booze but the important stuff doesn't have one. Things like love, children, rainbows, bird calls, flower fragrance, smiles and night skies, you know, the important stuff is all available without a lawyer warning us of its dangers. One of the tricky things about warning labels is when to heed them and when to ignore them. Risk is the only thing that truly moves us forward whether on a back country trail or through life itself.
Knowing when to take the risk and step into the abyss is an inexact science but the truth can be felt through our own intuition located deep inside the dark recesses of our mind. Funny thing, but that's where spirituality, God and wisdom are located too. Some pretty interesting dance partners roaming around inside us, aren't there?

* from a thought expressed in THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

HOW TO SUCCEED

success is measured not by what you do but rather, how you do it

This comment is so self-evident after I read it a few times but for some reason it struck me as very insightful the first time. That would, of course, mean that it has some special significance and that I need to pay attention to it. We can point to millions of examples of this truism in action whether we are looking at various careers, professions or practices. Some people make a complete success of whatever they are involved in and some don't. The difference is the person not the task or action that is being undertaken. Regardless of how we might decide to define success using terms like money, popularity, power, promotion, marks, these are the results. The success was determined by how the person approached the task at hand. Interestingly, there are three ways to approach the task that will lead to success.

I thought you'd never ask.......

1. Acceptance: It may be something that you don't particularly want to do but know that you must do it anyway. You proceed by accepting the task, accepting the fact that you must do it and then letting go of the resistance.

2. Enjoy: Whatever task or action that is before you is something that you enjoy doing. It brings you a sense of joy and lightness and you are eager to jump in, thus ensuring its success.

3. Enthusiasm: You approach the process with a great and intense enthusiasm because you can't wait to get started. you can feel your enthusiasm in the pit of your stomach.

You don't need to feel all three to ensure success - they all take you there.

Good Luck

MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

"... it was just such a great way to experience something that seemed to demonstrate our own place and importance in the universe."

from The West Coast Trail: One Step at a Time

On our last night on the West Coast Trail, we realized that the bright light in the western sky was the planet Mars and that this was the closest it had come to Earth in 65,000 years. Aside from making the night noteable on a memory level and from reminding us of our stature in the universe itself, it served to give us some insight into the concept of time. We humans generally consider time in relation to our own lives as we relate to everything in our world on the basis of a human lifetime. This puts us at a distinct disadvantage when we are considering many things like environmental impacts, climate change, geological movement, evolution, the cosmos and our own place in history. The planet has been here for almost 15 billion years and so the proximity of Mars every 65,000 years is simply a drop in the bucket. When put in that light, it is remarkable how much impact humanity as a whole and individuals in particular, can have on our existence.