Author: Randy Friesen

Randy Friesen is a business strategist, manager and educator based in Vancouver, BC. He is also a husband and father. He loves the creative process and is active in creating art and music.

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Be The Best.

Taize, singing bowls and AC at the Abbey.

You remember AC right? Ya, that’s Auntie Cathy to some and just ‘sis’ to me!

Those songs from Chris’ funeral were amazing and I love listening to Love Shines.  If you didn’t hear it, you can now, with all the cards we received as a backdrop. (video below)

Anyhoo…Cathy plays about once per year at the Westminster Abbey in Mission.  If you’ve never been to the Abbey, it’s worth a visit.  This ‘service’ is different than anything you’ve ever experienced.  The acoustics are unbelievable and the setting is amazing.  For full details on the what, where, when, how, check out her blog post. Brent, Cathy’s husband, recently returned from India on business and brought Cath a 100 year old ‘singing bowl’.  She’ll be using it that night.

For me personally, that service is very intense with the silence and music, but Ingrid and I have snuck in for a song or two along with a walk on the beautiful grounds.  If you want to do something completely different from the usual, the Abbey is the place to be this coming Saturday, May 29th from 8-9pm.

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Be The Best.

Parking ticket please.

Man, I could really go for a parking ticket right about now.

Perhaps I should explain.  On a Saturday in early March of this year, a newly licensed Chris took a friend (that was a girl, but not a girlfriend!) to White Rock for ice cream, a walk, whatever.  He came home with a parking ticket.  When asked about it, he mumbled stuff about stupid parking meters, coins, and something about it wasn’t working.  Ok, sure.  My ‘Dad sense’ was thinking more that he hadn’t used the pay meters before, he’s there with a girl and he was definitely not going to take the time to figure it out at that moment.  Chris Friesen don’t pay…was a favourite expression of his!!  In fact we learned that he usually ‘borrowed’ a sandwich at School ‘er day’ (that means ‘every day’) from his pal Cooper.  Sorry Cooper… if you’d ever like us to make you a sandwich, just come on over!!  In any event, the parking ticket was simply another one of those funny teenage moments that you learn from.  Not a big deal.  The next day, Ingrid wrote a note to the City of White Rock asking for reconsideration of this young driver’s folly…along with the payment in case they didn’t buy the argument!  We’re still waiting for a reply White Rock…

So you see where I’m going?  I’d love to see a parking ticket today, but only if I’m not the driver.  Have a safe week!

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Be The Best.

Surfing the sunset.

The blog earlier this week about silver linings on the clouds made me take a closer look at other cloud pictures I had.  You’ll see a bunch of pics from the intense sky this week as well as a bunch of sunset pics from one of our favourite places…Hawaii.  In one or two of the images you’ll see a very small lone figure surfing at sunset.  I was thinking about surfers riding the edge of the wave and then Chris riding the edge of the clouds along that silver lining.  Hey, they say you are allowed to stare at the clouds and see things, right?  Hope you enjoy.  (you can watch in HD)

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Be The Best.

Facebook saved our lives?

This was a quick update note that we sent earlier today to everyone who had joined Chris’ memorial page on Facebook.  I wanted to share it with you here as well.

Ingrid, Max and I wanted to thank you all so much for the support over the past 2 months.  It has been incredible.

If you want to continue to be with us as we journey forward towards the ‘new normal’, you can follow the blog link at: christianfriesen.com (I’ve added an email subscription thing at the bottom right of the page to make it easier for you to know when the new posts go up)

The other HUGE news is that through the generosity of Harrow Sports and the Burnaby Mountain Selects program, a Chris Friesen memorial lacrosse shaft will be produced and orders are going to be received through next Sunday, May 30.  When I first saw the artwork, and even now, I get goose bumps as this is very cool!

Here’s the great part.  All net proceeds (beyond the manufacturing cost) are going to the Christian Friesen Memorial Award at SFU!  We’ve had people ask if you have to play lacrosse to own one.  Answer? Nope!  They are real pieces of art complete with Chris’ signature, ‘Be The Best’ and the lacrosse ‘silhouette’ on the end cap of the stick. To see the sticks and for order info check out: christianfriesen.com and click on the ‘stick order’ tab at the top of page.

We can’t believe it is almost 2 months since Chris’ passing.  Month two in many ways has been harder than month one as the continued reality of Chris not being with us physically sets in.  That being said, the spirit of Chris is here in a growingly significant way.  I see it through people’s (young and older) desire to Be The Best and through people working together on positive change…including push-ups!

We will continue to keep the Facebook group open for the months ahead and want it to be a place you are free to drop a note to us or to Chris as well…and yes, that’s a completely ‘legit’ thing to do.  One of my first blog posts was about how ‘Facebook saved our lives’.  Those notes of support meant more than you can ever imagine.  We sincerely thank you all for your support during these weeks, not only of us, but your support of each other.

Randy

(for Randy, Ingrid and Max)

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Be The Best.

Vacuums and grief…why not?

A couple of weeks before Chris passed away, he told me about his buddy Tanner and how he was going into the vacuum business.  Would I help him out?  Could I talk to him? Could I give him some business advice?  My initial answer was sure, but I had questions too.  Wasn’t Tanner in school? Why vacuums? Really….a 17 year old kid opening a retail operation?  Really?

You know Tanner.  He spoke at Chris’ funeral and was a great friend.  Sometimes school doesn’t fit for everyone at the exact time we think it’s going to.  For Tanner, right now the timing is wrong.  Now before we go any further I’ll tell you something (and Tanner listen up…this is in WRITING now with witnesses!!)  Several weeks ago, Tanner and gang were over and I made Tanner promise he would complete his GED at some point.  He agreed.  Tanner we have a deal!

That being said, we currently have a business to run.  You see, Tanner’s family runs the Big Gary vacuum stores and that’s how Tanner has learned the business.  And yes it’s true, at age 17, this young man is opening his own retail operation in Port Moody called Newport Vacuums!  His website is a simple marker with contact info for the time being. So…if you are somewhere in the Port Moody area and need a new vacuum or have a broken system that needs some fixing, Tanner is your guy.  He is having is GRAND OPENING on Saturday, May 22 at 202 Newport Drive, Port Moody, BC.

Tanner…I wish you every success in your new business.  I know Chris would have loved to have you in school with him and the gang, but he also understood school was a tough choice right now and he REALLY wanted you to do well and that’s why he was asking me if I could help you.  You and I have had some great business conversations in the past several weeks and I wish you all the success in the world!  Remember your customers first and most everything will fall into place for you….and in the long run, don’t forget…we have a deal about that GED, ok?

PS Great voicemail on your business line.  Customer oriented, energetic and approachable.  Good work.

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Be The Best.

Silver linings

The weather this week has matched our experiences quite well.  It’s been a very extreme weather week.  Get where I’m going?  I took this picture on Tues evening from the deck of our home.  It sort of says it all.  The dark clouds are very present, but still a hope persists.  As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining.  Thinking about the sun behind a cloud actually is a good symbolic view of where we’re at right now. We can sense that more sun is going to come.  We can sense there are brighter days ahead and for pockets of time, just like the weather this week, you feel the sun’s warmth and then in an instant it’s raining and cold again.  I think the hope is that we believe…no actually we know the sun exists.  We know it will be sunny again and even though the clouds and rain persist, the sun will have it’s moment and hours in the days ahead.  For now we’ll pack a good umbrella and a hot cup of coffee as we continue on our journey.

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Be The Best.

Da boyz were back in town…

An unexpected treat awaited us when we arrived home tonight.  Max and good bud Spencer were ‘chillin’ (I feel so hip) doing a little P90X (an oxymoron I know) and in the ping pong, teen-age hangout room, we actually had ‘da boyz’ playing some ping pong and beating each other up.  It was great.  A few more games of ping pong were played, some additional fighting occurred and of course various feats of strength to see who could match Chris’ forearm power portrayed in the rowing pic from last night’s blog.

Boyz…it was great to see you all.

We’re proud of all of you.  Keep working hard!  (that goes for all of our teenage contacts out there!)

Play Hard, Be Safe and Have Fun. Remember, the only person I ever said that to?  As of tonight, that’s for all of you, starting with ‘da boyz’.

Here’s some pics.

Ingrid, Jesse, Marshall, Dylan, Cam, Alan, Tanner, Me.
Jesse, Tanner, Marshal, Dylan, Cam, Alan
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Be The Best.

Row, row, row your boat.

Chris and his Brookswood buddies Jesse, Dylan, Marshall took to the water for the inaugural season of the Brookswood Rowing Club last year.  They really wanted to be in the same boat (so to speak!), but that was not to be.  The teams were mixed and they made some new friends. Even though they didn’t get to race together, they stuck with it through the season and these are some pics from their regatta in Bedford Channel at Ft. Langley.

Being The Best is not about winning everything or having everything turn out the way you thought it would.  Not even close.  It’s about trying new things.  Wanna hear a secret?  My good friend Mark Wardell once had a private meeting with Jimmy Pattison…yes, THE Jimmy Pattison, a BC icon and billionaire many times over.  Mark asked him what THE secret of success was.  You know the answer?  Be prepared to lose and lose big.  Interesting.  The secret of success is calculated risk and trying new things where the outcome is uncertain.  ie, Trying out for the rowing team and not winning every race, trying out for the basketball team and being cut, trying something new at work and risking failure but pushing boundaries.

Being The Best is about trying new things whether you ‘win’ or not.  This is as much a challenge to me as anyone else.  Be The Best.  I want to try at least one new thing in 2010.  I’m not sure what yet, but I promise to blog about it..!

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Be The Best.

Water and life.

Guichon Creek on the BCIT campus. May 17, 2010.

At lunch today I decided to take a short walk only minutes from my Burnaby office.  Just behind the hum and drone of Willingdon Ave, there is a magical little path that takes you along Guichon Creek which flows through the BCIT property.  That creek has been amazingly restored by Mark Angelo, BCIT colleagues and students.  Mark is the Chair of the Rivers Institute at BCIT and Founder of World Rivers Day.  In any event, hearing that water today and being transported into that natural setting just steps from the urban sprawl was energy needed at the right time.

Chris turns 16. Jan 14, 2009.

I was going to do something different tonight for the blog, but I came across this picture of Chris when he turned 16 on January 14, 2009.  I couldn’t stop looking at it.  I miss him so much.   Here’s the most bizarre thing.  It hadn’t rained here all night and just as I was staring at the picture, a rain shower pounded down for a couple of minutes and then was gone.  Now I realize it rains all the time here in the Vancouver area!  I get it.  But that burst of rain tonight brought the same feeling that the sound of the stream brought today at lunchtime.  Water is so integral to our lives and for whatever reason we’ve always loved the sound of water from the waves of Hawaii to the surf of Oregon and California or the gentle tides of White Rock.

Water brings life.  When I hear it, I think of Chris and the amazing life he lived.  Love ya kid.

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Be The Best.

Langley wins in OT…must have been PA announcer!

Ok, maybe a slight stretch…but aside from life-guarding, swim instructing and helping his old man around the house this weekend, Max did the PA announcing at this afternoon’s Intermediate A Langley Thunder game.  You can see him in the red circle.  In the green circle you can see the team celebrating the overtime victory on a goal by a certain William VH.  Nice job to all!  In the blue circle, Max chows down on 6 post game tacos (first helping).

Great to see the families from Nanaimo at the game as well as so many of the Island folks are helping to support Chris’ fund and sporting the wrist bands!  The fund, for those keeping score at home, is closing in on $14,000! As soon as the fund hits $20,000 it will be locked in for life.  In other words, the award given out each year will be generated by interest earned and the fund continues to make money for the next year.  The first award will be given out in January 2011.  (As indicated in previous posts, Ingrid and I will make an additional gift to SFU to allow the first award to be presented then as the fund will not have generated a full year of interest at that time.)

The release of the Chris Friesen lacrosse stick from Harrow gives me shivers whenever I look at the design.  Check yesterday’s post to see it for yourself.  I know many non-lacrosse players (like me!) are going to be picking one up just because it’s the coolest thing ever ….ok, I may be biased…!  A link to the pdf order form will be up tomorrow at ChristianFriesen.com If you are worried about a cheque getting to Joyce before the deadline or any other issue regarding payment, but you still want to order…just contact her by email.  More than anything, we simply have to provide Harrow with a number of these special edition sticks.

I am excited about this stick for two reasons.  One, what an awesome way to remember Chris.  Nuff said.  Two, through the amazing generosity of Harrow and Burnaby Mountain Selects ALL of the net proceeds will go to the Christian Friesen Memorial Award fund.  I love that because players (AND PARENTS!!!) are buying equipment all the time.  If you need a stick for this year or next, what a cool way to spend the regular amount, but know that you are helping to change the world by challenging one SFU student and lacrosse player to Be The Best.

For all my teenage readers out there, look out for each other this week, and as I would say to Chris before every single lacrosse game, Play Hard, Be Safe, Have Fun.