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.
I wrote about Christmas Day and my trips to the cemetery.
At 9am, a gentle fog floated on the open field.
With so many places closed on Christmas (and rightfully so), I was so thankful for the Township staff and contracted staff who faithfully open the gates and keep the grounds so immaculate for families of loved ones.
In the afternoon a giant ray of sun pushed past a blanket of cloud and lit the late day winter sky with the brush strokes of a master painter.
At just over 21 months, I still can’t say I understand the picture. I’m not sure if I’m holding the painting upside down or if I’m looking at a portrait or a landscape.
I’m gaining some understanding however that this painting we call life is a combination of brush strokes, paint colour and the elements all combining to form an image we see here and I believe one that will only be fully understood when we see it from the Painter’s perspective.
I’ve written many times about perspective and still am learning. Remember the TV show featuring painter extraordinaire, Bob Ross. Love that guy. Here’s a video of him doing a painting with time-lapse. Whenever I would watch Bob paint, I would get squeamish at about the 75% complete mark when he would plop down a big blob of paint on the canvas. No….!! This will never work. Moments letter, the ‘blob’ becomes a beautiful tree or something providing depth to the entire scene.
I had never watched Bob Ross in time-lapse before tonight, but that was very interesting.
You saw the potential ‘issues’, but they vanished in seconds as the master painter directed the creation.
Then more quickly than humanly possible, you saw the transformation of a bit of paint on canvas turn into a masterpiece.
I can’t say I understand the painting we’re a part of.
But…I do think I’m gaining some perspective that we’re actually in one and a Master Painter must be continuing the work.
If you haven’t picked up on it, I’m trying to use the word prime or prime rib in every Holiday post this year…
So….you may have seen the video of the prime rib from Christmas Eve and my little niece Emily munching away.
She taught me a few more things. Just before we sat down you can hear her saying, ‘I want to see, I want to see’, as her Mom was filming on the iPad with the big visible screen. You can see as the height of the camera drops, revealing a different perspective…a different viewpoint.
Emily’s Mom Selena, told me a very cool story about just that; perspective and the ‘view’ of a child.
The name Chris (not our Chris) had come up in a conversation and Emily had piped up quite matter-of-factly stating, ‘My Chris is in heaven’.
Yes he is Emily…yes he is.
And then she went on playing.
I love the eyes of a child both literally and how they ‘see’ what many of us miss.
Prime rib at the Keg was a right of passage. We always loved it.
Tonight for the Medema Christmas I smoked a prime rib.
It cooked for 7 hours and every time I went outside to check on it I thought of Chris.
As the prime rib readied itself for the first slice I thought of Chris.
He would have absolutely loved this meal and I thought of him the whole night.
I know he was right here with us, but I’m guessing the Prime Rib is even just a little better at the Keg in the Clouds…although he really would have liked this tonight!
Here’s a little vid of the action. For all you techies, shot totally on the iPad2 with iMovie.
No, we are not adopting a child or adding a pet…that I’m aware of.
We (meaning my Better Half) put out the four stockings at home but this is the first Christmas we have a memorial location for Chris at The Wall or Chris’ Wall as we call it, nestled below the massive cedars that protect the group of memorial walls.
There’s a little stocking on our tree that we’ve had for years. It’s a decoration. Chris would have surely helped with putting this on the tree with his Mom as he and Max did each year.
That little stocking now adorns Chris’ marker at his Wall.
That might sound sad and it is sad but not ‘just sad’ as we know Chris is always with us. It is amazing to see a place like the cemetery so colourful on these grey late fall days. People are remembering their loved ones with flowers, Christmas ornaments and angel figurines.
And on one special marker (yes, read mantel), there’s a little red cloth stocking.
We luv ya kid, every minute of every day.
That’s what your stocking is full of on Christmas and every day of the year.
One of the things I love about Saturday mornings is watching a little Premier League Soccer as the schedule permits. With games as early as 5 and 7am, the timing works well with the newspaper and a good cup of coffee.
I love the skill, the speed, the set-up and I love those British announcers use of the English language. Their phrasing and commentary adds a poetic quality to the experience.
Image via Wikipedia
We’ve played a lot of noon hour soccer with my work gang over the years.
It’s not quite at Premier League level…but you wouldn’t know it from the locker room stories told just after the match.
When you play sports and you are in the heat of the moment field-of-play one thing you’ll hear is players shouting to other players. Usually instructions come in bursts of 2 or 3 repeats. Move the ball, move the ball, MOVE THE BALL…all increasing in urgency.
Ok, that last one is what gets yelled at me a lot, so maybe I’m just sensitive. Joking aside, I’ve wondered about this form of communication and liken it to military instruction in the heat of the battle. You want to be clear about your communication and there’s no time to waste with niceties.
One of the most interesting lines I’ve heard a million times on the soccer pitch is, ‘the way you face’.
When you are playing soccer the objective is pretty clear. You need to score on the opponent’s goal. In order to do this you should be moving the ball forward toward the enemy’s net.
However, many times you don’t receive the ball in a position where going forward makes the most sense.
In other words, if you receive the ball and you happen to be turned towards your own goal, your natural instinct may be to make an immediate turn and try to push the ball forward.
That could be the worst move.
When you hear, ‘the way you face’, ‘the way you face’, ‘the way you face’, it’s a reminder from your teammate to gain control of the ball and move the ball in the direction you are facing at the time which may appear counterproductive but ultimately allows your team to go forward.
I’ve thought about that phrase a lot in the game of life.
Sometimes turning too quickly and trying to push forward to the opponent’s goal is not the right move.
Playing the way you face, ie passing the ball ‘backwards’ before your team moves the play forward again protects possession and ultimately provides a greater opportunity to score.
Too heavy on the soccer analogies?
I think I may get another Americano and watch game 2 of the Premier League.
Be The Best. 