One of the rites of passage before the Christmas holidays for all our BCIT students is writing exams.
This past week I had a couple of colleagues from my Marketing staff sneak into the gym and take some vid and stills.
Just as thinking about grief and Christmas on the surface don’t go together…the same could be said for exams and Christmas. But in fact they do and they are a necessary part of a student’s future.
Hmmm…I’m sensing a tie-in here.
In any event…and on the lighter side…I present ‘It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…exam sytle’!
After picking up a few Christmas gifts the other night we headed into the local Chapters for a little book browsing and coffee drinking.
It was with some irony that I found myself gravitating to the ‘grief’ section and scanning some books.
Ingrid found me there and we stood for probably 20 minutes, each reading our own book on grief. The irony? Christmas music was pumping from the speakers, shoppers were bustling around and people were in a festive mood. Of course. It’s Christmas and that’s a good thing. And there we were…standing quietly reading books on loss like a little grief island in the middle of Merry Christmas ocean.
I’m not looking for sympathy or pity. Far from it. It was just one of those moments that happens on this journey. Sort of weird, almost funny (but not ha ha funny!), and poignant at times.
Those ‘Chapters’ moments are random, but they happen and you must just go with the flow.
I didn’t know in advance, but AC (my sister) emailed me a couple of days ago to say that Brianna (my niece) and her pals from Heritage Park school in Mission were one of five finalists in the BCAA Dry Grad video contest.
I didn’t know Bri had a starring role, until I watched the vid.
What an amazing job by all five of these groups.
Having lost a child who should be graduating this coming June, we can think of no better cause than to have everyone (parents and kids alike) be alerted to the consequences of drinking and driving and the BENEFITS of a program like dry grad.
For Bri of course, the pain is very personal, having lost a cousin on her Dad’s side of the family after being struck by a drunk driver. She was also so very close to Chris and the intensity of feeling I think really comes out in this short movie.
Any of these entries are fantastic…but of course I want you to vote for the gang at Heritage Park!
It’s a Facebook thing so you have to go here first:
In the last few years, we’ve been getting a bit more into wine and learning about this art that has been around for thousands of years. There are few things better than a wine tour of the South Okanagan with friends and picnic baskets in hand looking out over vast vineyards, hills and lakes. Conversation, wine, gluten free crackers….perfect!
A Shiraz or Sirah is a red wine made quite popular by the good folks in Australia. I found a Petite Sirah called Shot in the Dark.
Interesting name. When I read the back label, it got more interesting.
I’ve often said you can learn things from anyone or anything. Why should a wine bottle be any different!
Here’s what it said.
Life has its ups and downs.
It can be both brutal and beautiful.
You can hole yourself away to avoid life’s pain, but then the beauty seldom finds it’s way in.
It’s only when you attempt to go where you cannot go, or do what you cannot do, that you can achieve what you are truly capable of doing.
Sure, you might tumble. You might fall. So what?
Take a chance. Go way out on the limb. Dare to try – even if it’s just a shot in the dark.
I love that line, You can hole yourself away to avoid life’s pain, but then the beauty seldom finds it’s way in.
Living through our pain and still participating in events…like getting a Christmas tree…is a good example of this.
Anyhow, given this insight from the wine bottle, I may have to plan other trip to the South Okanagan…or maybe Australia…for research and learning purposes of course.
Last year, almost to the day, Max, Chris, Ingrid and I went out to fetch our Christmas Tree.
We’ve tried a few different places over the years, but two sort of were favourites and Church’s Christmas Tree farm on 248th won out in December 2009.
I loved that morning. Max had to work so we hit the tree farm a little earlier in the day (like 11am…CRAZY for teenagers!!), Chris was half asleep. It was stupid fun with bad jokes and I’m sure some tree puns thrown in for good measure. Hey, let’s ‘leaf’ that one alone and ‘branch’ into this area. I’m really sorry ‘fir’ you that you had to read that. Anyways, you get the point.
I shot this vid last year that many of you saw at Chris’ funeral or early on in this blog experience. It really showed our family in action at that point in our lives.
That was then. This is now.
I wasn’t sure how we would approach the tree this year. I wasn’t sure I even wanted one. But that’s the beauty of not being on this journey by myself. We talked to Max and he wanted a tree without question. He also wanted to go chop one down like we always do. I actually didn’t need to hear anything else.
Of course. Not everything can change because Chris is gone. Somethings need to remain. So as long as Max wants to, we’ll be off to the woodlot!
Given crazy schedules and Max’s work as a lifeguard, we jumped at a late Friday afternoon timeframe and arrived at our ‘2nd family tradition’ tree farm just before dusk last night. Max’s girlfriend joined us, we grabbed some coffee and hot chocolate and shivered our way into the trees. After a few bad jokes and very normal arguments about which was the perfect tree, Max did the honours and sawed it down and we carried it to the vehicle.
For yours truly, of course I was thinking of Chris. I think everyone was to some degree, but the fact was it’s early December…this is the time we always get our tree and we’ve been chopping down these wonderful trees for years and they are a wonderful part of our Christmas experience as a family. Why should that stop now?
Chris, in red, takes on fellow BMSer in practice session.
Late yesterday afternoon we left BCIT and headed up the hill to Simon Fraser University.
We’ve done that drive many times. Most of those times were to drop Chris and his fellow Burnaby Mountain Selects lax dudes off for a practice. Then they would beat each other with sticks and run like crazy people and throw a hard rubber ball as intensely as they could at even crazier dudes who were the goalies! Chris loved it.
Look at these pics from Aug 2009. This was actually a practice down in New West, but these are all BMS players in a scrimmage. Chris is red #32. I love the picture where you can see him smiling through his mouth guard. He loved playing defense. I spoke to some of his teammates who said Chris would hurt you in practice and it was excellent, cause it made you better. You knew he was giving 100% all the time…practice, scrimmage or championship game.
I just LOVE that smile.
Anyways, yesterday wasn’t a practice.
We were heading up to SFU to deliver the cheque that will be presented to the first receipient of the Chris Friesen Memorial Award in January 2011. Wanda from the foundation at SFU met us and she has become a wonderful part of all the good that is happening and will continue to happen in Chris’ name. With the fund over $30,000 and the first gift in place, the fund is now fully operational and will provide the first official payout based on interest earned from the fund in January 2012. We cannot think about the fund or the legacy from the fund without thinking about everyone who contributed directly and indirectly to the fund and our family with love and care over the past 8 months.
That’s the cheque…the coat was today.
Our entrepreneurial marketing students at BCIT were having a fund raiser today with a silent auction and also having a coat drive. Ingrid had a used coat and we also had one from Chris. The thought of his coat keeping someone warm this winter makes us feel good, even though the very simple act of giving away his coat this afternoon was not the easiest thing that I’ve ever done.
Be The Best. 