I notice that WordPress has allowed more advertising to creep onto blogs. If you see ads on this blog from time to time…sorry about that! My understanding is that is a drawback of a ‘free’ blog site like this.
As we approach April 2012, we will have lived the past 2 years without Chris. It feels like a flash and it feels like a thousand lifetimes.
I miss that kid so much I simply cannot tell you what it feels like.
So…where do we go from here?
Stay tuned, as we are going to complete a refresh of christianfriesen.com and we are working on a free e-book which will include all the blog posts of the past 2 years. From time to time I see older posts being viewed (via stats) and I know there have been people who have experienced loss looking through a number of posts in chronological order. That is what we’re attempting to do with the e-book. Have everything in date order and easier to read.
So for now, we’ll tackle these next couple of months and prepare for the next chapter of Be The Best.
I know many of you have been writing your own, and I love it!
When Chris played for Team BC in the Box National tournament in Ontario as a 14 year-old, we witnessed some amazing lacrosse.
Of particular note was team Iroquois. They were small, but fast and they never ever gave up.
I’ve written about them before but was reminded of them again this week when a video link was sent my way.
Johnny Powless played at that tournment and was a lacrosse wonderkid. Sort of Gretzky-like.
Amazing with the ball, without the ball and knowing where the play was going at all times.
This video link shows Powless scoring a goal in the NLL a few weeks back. He’s just 18.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Chris is still watching this kid go.
At the tournment back a few years ago, BC won the Bronze in an epic battle with Alberta. We all stayed to watch Iroquois Nation go against Ontario. Truly David vs Goliath. I’m literally getting goose bumps as I type this remembering the game.
The Ontario team was HUGE. They have a massive population and they could have had 3 or 4 top teams and still been competitive. The Iroquois team was small. But they didn’t give up.
I know they made a big impact on the BC boys watching. In many ways it was the early days of Be The Best.
Yes, Iroquois did prevail to win the gold in one of the most fantastic lacrosse games I’ve ever seen.
Here’s Johnny doing his thing today. I’m wearing my purple Iroquois t-shirt with pride today and still have the hand- made wooden lacrosse sticks dangling from the rear view mirror of our car.
Now technically, my Dad is not 81 until Thursday…and ski lessons from an 80 year-old has a nice ring to it as well, but in honour of the upcoming day we’ll go with 81!
Both Mom and Dad were very ill and ended up in different parts of the hospital at the same time.
Their recovery was equally amazing and although my Dad had a few more surgeries than expected and now lives with an ileostomy and Mom continues her chemo fight…you’d probably have a hard time figuring that out.
Why?
Well, Mom is walking around town to her appointments, hiking and volunteering at a local thrift store and Dad is speaking to groups of seniors and others about his experiences and oh yah, going skiing!
I didn’t hear this week’s report, but last Friday night after a layoff of over a year, the boards were slapped on as this soon to be 81 years young Great Grandfather hit the slopes.
Now that’s a ski lesson for all of us, whether we ski or not.
Mom and Dad, we wish you a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
I’ve got one picture with six of them sleeping on the warm sand.
I’ve also got a picture of a turtle in the water. Completely different. They are fast, fluid and graceful.
Out of the water they are…well…slow.
They sleep a lot.
Observing them I couldn’t help but think again of the story in the Power of Focus book about a successful businessman, who when asked about the secret of his success stated, ‘I spend a day a week locked in my den and no one can disturb me.’
What?
Yah, I think being slow, sometimes, is the key to being fast.
Thinking, taking time, getting recharged, soaking the rays, prepares the mind and body for the swim ahead.
In the first year after losing Chris, I spent many evenings watching the sun set and to this day I can’t watch a sunset or look at a moon lit sky without thinking of him.
On a recent vacation I thought about where we were and where Max was separated by a huge ocean and hours of flying.
As I looked up at the night sky with stars as bright as I’ve ever seen, I thought of Chris being high enough to connect to Max and at the same time keep an eye on Ingrid and myself.
So, whatever you think of when you think of sunsets, here are a few images for you from Hawaii’s Big Island.
(and yes, that’s a lava rock formation in the water, and yes, you can download pictures or link to them!)
As we approach the end of January, statistically over 80% of New Year’s Resolutions made just 30 days ago have ended in failure.
However, I think it’s a great time to look forward to 2012 and confirm what our goals will be.
As a family we sat down a couple of weeks back and put our 2012 goals down on an electronic note system. Paper works well too!
I’ve been told again and again and again by students, business people, staff, colleagues and family how their lives have changed for the better by the act of writing down goals.
You’ve heard the saying, the journey starts with the first step. Writing goals is that first step. It creates momentum and energy. However, goals without further action is useless.
Breaking down goals into bite-sized junks is the way to go. Goal is to run a marathon? Don’t run one this week. Maybe enrol in a training program or begin with dry land training with the goal of the first 5 k run in 3 weeks. That’s where this all becomes real.
At a recent sushi dinner, our tea came in these mugs with 10 steps to greater health. They are all good and a little fun as well.
What I liked about the mug is that instead of just saying ‘eat less meat’, it actually had the first steps in making a goal a reality…ie ‘eat more vegetables’.
The only thing the mug didn’t do was go to the next stage of detail…ie, cut out one red meat dinner per week for example.
(btw, I think I’m writing to myself on that one and a few other points on this mug)
Anyhooo…to conclude, our server came by and asked if we wanted a macadamia nut covered coconut ice cream thing for desert. I asked which of the health rules on the mug that suggestion followed…
Chris hoists BMS teammate Jamie Spagnuolo at Florida tournie.
Tonight is the 2nd annual Christian Friesen Memorial Award presentation.
As a family we are so proud to be associated with the BMS (Burnaby Mountain Selects) program and SFU (Simon Fraser University).
If you’ve read this blog over time you’ve seen many references to both of these organizations.
It’s worth mentioning again the MEGA MAJOR (MM) impact that the BMS camp had on Chris as a young teen.
He saw these university athletes and how hard they worked and it shaped his entire focus on eating habits, studying habits and work-out habits.
In so many ways, the Be The Best thinking started right there…and it didn’t stop.
SFU and the SFU Foundation office have been simply wonderful (understatement) to Ingrid, Max and I.
We are proud to have Chris’ memorial fund help push the dreams of a lacrosse athlete attending SFU.
So if you’ve just joined us, what is BTB (Be The Best)?
Be The Best is a way to live our lives.
It’s using Chris’ passion to fuel us.
It’s making positive decisions about fitness, education and life.
It’s not settling for second best.
To this year’s award winner (still a secret at the time of writing), this award goes way beyond the financial implications. It’s about carrying the Be The Best banner. It’s about being associated with a kid who would pound out 200 push-ups a day at 16. It’s about setting goals, breaking them down into measurable tasks and then working hard. It’s all of that and more.
We were so proud when Luke Genereaux won the award last year. He had coached Chris and was one of these young college-age guys that had helped shape Chris’ world.
btw, this is not a commercial for the BMS program, but I guess it might as well be! If your kid places lacrosse in British Columbia, it’s an amazing program that help takes kids and form them into young men. To see a number of these players now enter university at SFU and beyond, is super cool. Jamie, (in picture above) is a great example as he’s in his first of McGill University in Montreal.
You see, at that point it becomes way more than just lacrosse. This is really about changing lives in a positive way and continuing to make the world a better place…but I think you sort of got that already.
I had a few hours on a plane recently and had this thought.
I typed it into my iPad.
If you fear the future you won’t live the present.
The next day I read ‘Screw it, just do it’ by Sir Richard Branson.
It’s a great read and I would highly recommend.
The book revolves around the idea of making decisions and taking on challenges without knowing all the details. What I found most interesting however was that although Branson takes risks, he doesn’t take chances. In other words rolling a dice or making a pure gamble doesn’t make sense but taking a calculated risk does.
Interesting difference.
When bad things happen, it’s easy to fear the future.
But fear is the biggest disabler out there.
By continuing to make decisions calculated on risk not chance, it is the future we must claim and then absorb the present on our journey.
Be The Best. 