My little niece Emily (3) had a pet gerbil, or hamster or something like that.
I should really have more details on these things.
All I know is that it was fluffy and sat around in the cage a lot.
As things go, her little pet passed away.
Was she sad?
No, she said, ‘Fluffy’ (not his or her real name, not to protect the hamster/gerbil, but because I just forget what the name was) would be with Chris.
Now that’s beautiful, cute and sort of funny too.
I can image Chris and Dylan up there working hard and then chatting up some young angels when this gerbil thing just sort of appears. ‘What the whip?’, Chris would say.
And then the head Pet Angel would inform Chris that Emily had made the request.
Chris and his new pet hamster thing.
Love it.
Do you really have to still clean the cages up in heaven? Are there cages?
Anyhoo Chris, be good to Emily’s pet…I know you will!
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!)
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.
In any event, I stumbled across a file that had some drawings from Max and Chris.
I just had to share this one. Dan Cloutier and Be The Best maybe don’t sound like they fit anymore, but he had his very best years as a Canuck goalie and the kids loved him.
Max and Chris spent hours drawing these guys. I think Chris was 9 or 10 when he drew this one.
Notice Pronger taking a slapshot and Cloutier flashing the leather for a great save…(even if it looks like the puck is going wide…)
But then I saw the title, ‘The Best in The Business’. This wasn’t something we talked about.
He was already relating the success of Cloutier as an NHL goalie to being the Best in the Business.
Not quite, Be The Best…but some early signs of what was to come as he strove to realize his own goals.
Notice the artist’s signature in the lower right corner.
Every Christmas I look forward to a few days of non work time that I can use to work.
Let me explain.
With a very busy schedule there are many times when I don’t get the chance to just think or explore or let an idea lead to another idea or just experiment. One thing that I’ve found helpful for me is to use technology to push my own boundaries and that learning can lead to further creativity, new ideas and…wait for it…additional perspective.
So, this year’s Christmas ‘project’ was iPad exploration. I’m in love with this thing.
However, technology can come with a cost. There’s a learning curve and so when I got an iTunes gift card I dutifully loaded it into my laptop account and the next day proceeded to download some other apps and music on my iPad and realized a credit card had been billed although a credit should have remained from the iTunes card.
Old school thinking: I probably loaded the card up wrong, so I better find the card now in the kitchen garbage from 2 days ago mixing nicely with the other garbage outside. Yah, that was fun, but after a little CSI rubber glove investigation, I found it. When I reloaded the card info, I was told the card had already been used.
What?
Newer school thinking: Actually think through the scenario and begin to dig deeper. Could there be a technology problem and solution? As it turned out, I had created a second Apple ID and although the devices were syncing together, they were accessing iTunes with different ID’s one of which had the gift card credit still on it and one that had a credit card number on it.
After 30 minutes of invoking the humbling ‘wife can you help me clause’ in our marriage agreement and some interesting searching through online tech chat sites (not), we discovered and fixed the issue.
Why am I telling you this?
Years ago, before iPads and iPods, I told myself that if I could learn ONE new technology item every year and really try to master it, I could continue to learn and grow and push both my efficiency AND effectiveness levels upwards.
For example, one year spending a couple of hours trying to figure out my OLD cell phone and actually program in speed dial numbers was an incredible help.
Today it’s the iPad and the investment of a few hours of initial frustration (some of it self-created!) is part of the learning process that I look forward to every Christmas…just a couple of days where you can relax a little, dig through some garbage and learn some new tricks!
I wish all of you a very meaningful, productive, and inspiring 2012 with many BE THE BEST moments!
Be The Best. 