Be The Best.One of Chris’ buddies, Marshall, is heading off on an overseas adventure for a couple of weeks.
He took a picture of his backpack and loaded on Facebook.
Check this out. Cool eh? Who needs a Canadian flag when you’ve got a Be The Best patch!
Marshall…great idea, I think I’m going to mark all my luggage this way too.
Cool.
The power of eyes are amazing.
Over Christmas I had a chance to visit an uncle who suffers from ALS. He’s eighty years old and can’t speak or move any part of his body…except his eyes. I watched as my cousin aligned a high tech i-pad looking thing in front of him, complete with a camera that focused on his pupils. Using just the gaze from his eyes at a keypad on the screen he was able to spell basic words that produced communication allowing him to ask for his glasses and say thanks for coming. I was exceptionally impressed. Not only with the technology, but the ability of the human spirit to keep pushing through. He only had his eyes and that was all that was needed to connect.
Look at these eyes. This is Chris’ friend Devon that had a tattoo put on his arm to remember Chris forever. Those are powerful eyes that say a lot. Respect for a friend and determination to move forward in a positive way.
I will always remember Chris’ eyes. They were beautiful, strong, powerful, a little mischievous sometimes but always full of love.
We luv ya kid.
As we come to 10 months without you here in your physical body, there is NOT A DAY OR HOUR we don’t think about you.
We know you are with us in spirit.
I had a very unique experience on Saturday.
AC (Auntie Cathy, aka Cathy AJ Hardy) was in the remote Mission studio of Philip Janz doing some vocal tracks for her upcoming release.
She invited me to drop by and Philip was gracious to let me take a few pics and shoot a little vid.
Philip is a very accomplished musician and producer in the gospel genre and beyond with awards he probably won’t tell you about, but you can read about them on the web!
I love music and the process of creating.
What makes Philip so unique is the ability to really understand music from a musical perspective and also be a technical master. Watching him work was very interesting. He was a blend of technician, music coach, manager and orchestra leader. He knew what small part he wanted recorded and/or changed and then had a vision of how that would affect the whole piece. You need a lot of vision and skill to do that as well as get the best from the musician or vocalist you are working with.
It was as if Philip was seeing everything through his ears if that makes any sense. The part I like most in the vid is seeing him twirl his pen as he listens to Cathy lay down a vocal track. He’s feeling every note and nuance making decisions on timing, pitch and understanding of how he’ll use that piece of the puzzle to help Cathy tell her story. Very cool.
Talk about Be The Best.
Oh yah…AC is coming out with a new album. That is VERY COOL too. There are some fun songs. There are some DEEP songs. There are some songs sung with Chris is mind.
I loved what I heard…and I can’t wait.
Here’s a very little sneak peek inside the work of a master producer and a pretty cool musician…(yah, that’s high praise coming from an older brother…)
The other thing to watch for in the vid is the emotion that comes through music. Is it possible to be happy and sad at the same time? Is it possible to be feeling the deepest emotions of loss yet feel the powerful strength of hope for the future? Yup.
You can catch all the updates on Cathy’s updated website and her blog.
The latest installment by Rev Jake (aka my Dad and Chris’ Grandpa).
Without further ado.
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The COMFORT word:
Harking back to December and Christmas themes, I was impressed with several applications of the COMFORT word.
In the carol, ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen’ the chorus keeps repeating, ‘Tidings of COMFORT and joy’
The opening statement of Handel’s Messiah is ‘COMFORT ye my people, says your God’
There is the Advent story of an old man Simeon (Luke 2) who it is said was ‘waiting for the CONSOLATION of Israel’
On this side of heaven, because of human transgression and its consequences, invariably there are elements of sadness and sorrow in all of our lives, for which we need comfort.
The fragility of life may show up in health concerns, issues of aging; or people can become victims of violence, abuse, and even wars.
We might experience the loss of relationships, and the loss of loved ones.
The little child is covered with a Comforter blanket, which may provide a measure of security.
God Himself is our eventual Comforter, providing the final answer to all of our physical and relational needs, and preparing a new body for His children when the present edition wears out. God the Comforter also provides the only reliable revelation about a meeting time for loved ones who have been separated down here.
I take comfort in the message of COMFORT from the divine Comforter; He knows how much we are in need of His ministrations!
Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.
Interesting.
I thought the curved wall going downstairs was a little bare. I mumbled something to Ingrid about wouldn’t it be cool to have a saying written in text on the wall for something different.
Within a few weeks she had researched, ordered and received this vinyl lettering and most importantly picked out this phrase which I hadn’t seen until it went up on the wall.
I love it. I think about it every time I head downstairs.
Are milestones important? Birthdays? Yes. Anniversaries? Yes. Other stuff? (you know what I’m talking about…) Yes.
But really, what’s most important? It truly is the moments.
As we look back at all of our very treasured memories with Chris and Max as they grew up, so many of the amazing times were simply moments that happened! Whether it was a three year old Chris climbing a ladder to see his Dad on the roof (true), or the moments of victory at a lacrosse game or the fun and silly times of picking out a Christmas tree, those moments are like gold.
The one thing you need to make moments happen is time.
I remember as young father thinking about how many Dads didn’t get to know their kids because they were so busy or work schedules that were hard to control etc etc.
I am a very busy Dude, but family was ALWAYS first. Therefore, we made sure we had THOUSANDS of moments.
Those moments are what continue to feed us and help us on our way.
As I was watching that Disneyland video last night I was getting choked up myself. Those moments were so pure, poignant and unanticipated. I think that is truly what makes them special.
Anyhoo…another smart decision by that good wife of mine!
Rock your weekend.
These three things have a lot in common, at least I hope they do because I’ve committed to that as the title of this blog post.
I caught some of the ‘new’ American Idol last night with new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez joining Randy Jackson.
As the contestants did their thing they were either ‘sent to Hollywood!’ or rejected.
What struck me was the excitement and pure joy from the families of the young singers who made it to the next level. You saw Moms and Dads hugging and jumping and crying. For a moment I thought about lost future memories.
During a commercial break I saw an ad campaign being used by Disney. They actually take real home footage from parents surprising their kids about going to Disneyland or at the resort itself. You can see it here. It’s all about making family memories.
That brings me to Port Moody. During the Christmas break I visited a dear friend and former colleague (now retired) from BCIT, Sandie. She was sort of like the ‘mom’ in our Registrar’s Office Department for many years. One of the things she had by her desk was a bulletin board full of pictures of staff and their families. Of course it grew over the years. It was an amazing place to see the passage of time.
We look a walk along the shores of the inlet at Port Moody. What a great place. The reason I’m telling you this now is I look literally 15 minutes last weekend to put the following faux movie trailer together using the images from that walk. It’s in the newest version of iMovie which comes on every Mac. This isn’t really a Mac ad, but sort of is.
The point is that memories are amazing. All of the great memories we’ve had together as a family are helping now in our darkest hours.
I’m simply blown away at the ability of today’s technology to take these memories and put them into a format that is useable, fun and easy to do. I decided to use the movie trailer template and have a little fun so you could imagine what you can do with your family memory video footage!
Have a great day.
Ever thought of having an interview with God?
I think we’ve all probably had a few questions we’d like answered from time to time.
Over the past months we’ve been supported by people of all faiths, backgrounds and cultures.
It’s been amazing.
Last week we were sent this link to this Interview with God.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but once I started the slide show thing-a-ma-jig I watched till the end.
Each question and answer is thought-provoking and could be pondered for hours or days.
I thought I would share here.
In honour of Chris’ b-day there was a lot of yogurt consumed and push-ups completed amoung other things like steak eating and ice cream cake devouring.
In this video evidence you can see my nephew Steve rockin out his push-up tribute from Charleston, South Carolina, USA!
Cool.
Although as parents we’re not advocating tattoos, we know that they are a very powerful form of remembrance.
When I saw Devon’s tattoo, I loved it. Devon is a friend of Chris’ from Brookswood Secondary and you saw him in the yogurt toast picture from yesterday’s blog.
Look closely. Not only does his tattoo say ‘forever young’, but it has Chris’ signature.
I asked Devon if it hurt.
He said yup…but I’m sure he didn’t care.
My eyes were wet when I looked closely and took in the full impact of the moment and thought about the future and how Chris will be with Devon forever.
That was an amazing show of friendship, respect and I’m hoping a driving force for Devon through life’s journey ahead!
Whether we wear our tattoos on our arms or on our hearts, we are RIGHT WITH YOU DEVON!
Chris Friesen has affected us forever. And I mean that in the most positive way.
His attention to fitness.
His attention to healthy eating.
His attention to following your dreams.
His attention to goals to attain those dreams.
His attention to Being The Best.
As the day ended on Friday, January 14, 2011 we felt a strong peace that Chris was happy…and so were we.
Rock your week and Be The Best.
All day long the texts, emails and comments kept rolling in.
We appreciate everything and all of those thoughts and prayers!
The Brookswood gang dropped by in the late afternoon and we had a very unique opportunity to toast Chris.
As I’ve mentioned before, Chris had the ability to eat yogurt without a spoon. He would sort of squish the bottom of the yogurt cup and slurp and drink the yogurt, usually in one ‘fluid’ motion.
We know there are young readers of this blog and as parents we’re not endorsing this form of yogurt consumption! We were just happy Chris and Max would pound back yogurt instead of cake.
In this picture you can see the toast just getting underway. Including yours truly taking the picture, that was an even dozen toasting Chris with a yogurt salute and down the hatch it went.
Ingrid was left wondering how it could be done as she ended up with yogurt in a few places on her face. I know Chris had a laugh at (or with) all of us!
What an amazing day it was.
I’ve got a few more stories to tell you so tune in tomorrow!
We ended the day knowing that Chris would be very, very happy…and we were too. As tough as the day was, it was really incredible.
Who knew yogurt was made for toasting?
So many people have told us or emailed us about how they thought of us over Christmas.
I know so many more think of us often and are thinking of us now as we mark what would have been Chris’ 18th birthday tomorrow even if they don’t or can’t tell us.
We are exactly the same way.
We’ve been following the story of the Berg family in Mission and Gillian Berg’s amazing strength and very real highs and lows as she takes care of her family and slowly moves forward with each day.
You can follow and support with your thoughts and prayers through: http://gillianb-journeying.blogspot.com/
The reason I say we are the same is that our hearts go out to Gillian and her family, but we don’t know them personally. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, but we haven’t verbalized that to them. For now we will support by reading, caring and praying. Just as we’ve done, she can see by the blog views how so many people are supporting them.
We know that’s what people do for us all the time.
As we approach Chris’ birthday tomorrow, we don’t have any big public events happening. A few of his school buds will drop by. As a family, we’ll head to our favourite steakhouse for a big steak dinner and piece of ice cream cake. Chris was a fitness and health food fanatic, but he would eat steak and ice cream cake…and we’ll have some in his honour tomorrow night.
So the question is always, what can I do? What should I do? I don’t know them very well, or even if I do, I’m not sure what to do.
Here’s the solution.
We’d ask everyone who reads this blog to do some little thing in honour of Chris tomorrow.
Here’s a few ideas.
1. push-ups – even doing one or two in his name would be cool
2. make a toast when you have dinner
3. hug your kids
4. hug your parents
5. eat some yogurt (he would eat probably 4-6 per day)
6. wish him a happy birthday verbally
7. cook some eggs (yep…he ate a LOT of eggs)
There’s a few ways.
I’m sure you can think of more.
Drop us a comment if you want to share.
If you don’t, we totally get it and we want to say thank you for the continued support.
Randy, Ingrid and Max.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!
Be The Best.