Tag: New Normal

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Be The Best.

Clouds

I’ve had several conversations about clouds in the past months.

Some with others, some with myself.

I can’t look at the sky without thinking about Chris and I can’t look at clouds without thinking of silver linings on the most darkest of skies.

We all have our journeys…and many times life does not go in a straight line.

For those experiencing loss of any kind, my encouragement is to look up at the sky.  It may seem dark, but if you look closely, you may also see a silver lining.

Plus, I needed to work these pictures into a blog post of a near sunset sky earlier this year in BC’s amazing Interior…!

Have a great day.

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Be The Best.

I love losing.

Now that is a complete lie.

Except for today…just a little bit.

Max (our oldest son) is studying at BCIT.  This gives us the unique opportunity to see him multiple times during any given week.

Today he had an hour between classes and joined our weekly staff basketball game down at the gym.

He was my check and I’d like to say I schooled him, but the video evidence (thankfully there wasn’t any) would prove differently.

He played very well and his team beat our team.

I hate losing and I hated it today, but I did have the conscious thought that I maybe hated it just a little bit less because I had the amazing privilege to play basketball with my kid.

Pretty cool, I thought, as I kicked the ball in frustration after losing by a lousy 2 points.

Anyone have time for another game?

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Be The Best.

Flying high.

As we approach Thanksgiving, there is much to be thankful for.

That being said, we will forever miss those not around our tables.

I just love this picture.

Ethan enjoying his early September ice cream cone and sincerely missing his cousin and just saying hi to him.

I know Chris catches those balloons…or at least reads them.

Maybe he just bodychecks them into the clouds as a lacrosse salute!

Nuff said.

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Be The Best.

Lions, Eskimos and Fathers…V2

I wrote a post in June 2010 after Max took me to the opening of Empire Field for a BC Lions football game vs the Edmonton Eskimos.  Here’s a link to that story.

Fast forward 16 months and we did it again.

Not Empire, but we went to the opening of the new BC Place on Friday with 50,000 of our closest friends and saw those same BC Lions beat the Eskimos in a great match at a fantastic new facility.

New building aside, the best aspect of the evening was another experience shared and added to the memory banks for life.

Those are gold and worth every cent of admission…and then some.  (just don’t tell the Lions that…I don’t want them to raise their ticket prices)

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Be The Best.

Maxing out a Sprint Triathlon

My personal lexicon was increased by a new phrase just a few weeks ago.

Sprint Triathlon.

I think that’s basically an oxymoron to start with.

Ok young readers.  This is probably the highest number of big words used in the opening of this blog ever…but in celebration of back to school just 4 weeks away, we’ll continue.

A sprint triathlon is a swim, bike and running race…except the distances are shorter than a full length event.

These are perfect events for those wanting a triathlon experience and are trying something new or simply want a shorter distance.

Don’t be fooled.  This is still an extreme sport!  750m in the pool.  That is a lot of lengths.  18k on the bike.  I get tired driving that far and usually would require 2 Starbucks stops.  5k running after all that? Yah right.

So…my son Max had a goal.  He was going to do this thing.  The Walnut Grove Triathlon.

Cool.  Except he didn’t really have a bike, didn’t have any specific training and didn’t know a soul who was going in this event.

I’m super proud of the kid.  He approached this like he was trying something new and what he didn’t know wasn’t going to stop him from trying. For example, he knew he didn’t have all the specialized gear but that didn’t get in his way.  He finished in 90 minutes exactly and was right in the middle of the pack.  That is an incredible result for trying an event for the first time without coaching or training with a team or the superior clothing and equipment of most racers.

It’s really Be The Best principle personified.

What I mean by that is Be The Best is about so much more than winning.  It’s about competing.  It’s about trying something new.  It’s about not letting the fear of the unknown get in your way.

IT’S ABOUT NOT KNOWING EXACTLY HOW YOU’RE GOING TO REACH A GOAL, BUT SETTING THE GOAL AND THEN STARTING FORWARD ANYWAYS!

Nice job Max.  We are very proud of ya!!

Here’s a little video proof.  Note: (Time clock on picture is not official for each racer because of a graduated start in the pool for the swim portion of the race. Max’s official time was 1:30:00 on the nose)

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Christian Friesen

From Be The Worst, to Be The Best!

Chris’ buds were battling it out on the lacrosse floor this weekend.

Of course they were!  The first weekend of real summer weather and all the lacrosse guys are inside in a sweaty arena.  As soon as the rain starts to fall, they’ll be back outside for field lacrosse.  And that’s how it goes!

Langley has battled to become a member of the lacrosse elite and this weekend having their Intermediate A (ages 17-18) team challenging for a provincial medal was a very good thing.

Fast forward.  After an excellent tournament, the Thunder are in the Bronze medal game.  They lose, they get nothing.  Near the beginning of the game the Richmond team calls for an equipment check on one of Langley’s top players, James Rahe.  They toss him out of the game for illegal equipment.  Guess what was illegal?  He was wearing one of Chris’ memorial wristbands!!

I simply couldn’t write this blog yesterday.

The words would have been much sharper.

At this point I’m not going to spend too much time on the decision, who made it and what their motivation was.   That call took a star player off the floor and ruined his chance to play in this Provincial bronze medal final.

That’s a Be The Worst moment.

Now…this story has a Be The Best moment too.

Langley was down by a goal with 30 seconds to go in the game.

A certain Mr. Danny Spady, a defensive specialist and one year younger than Chris, had the ball.  Chris loved playing with Danny.  He is a tenacious, aggressive, hard-working, never-quit kid….and he doesn’t score that much!  As was relayed to me he drove down the floor with the passion and aggression that only comes from playing for a cause.

Yes…the decision by the opposing coaching staff and the officials gave the boys just the extra cause they needed yesterday.

You take a guy off the floor for wearing Chris’ wristband…look out…the motivation just got cranked.

Danny’s goal pushed the game into overtime and Brett Dobray displayed his amazing hands and touch with I believe both goals which pushed Langley into the overtime lead (2-1) and sealed the deal for the Bronze Medal.

What a story.

Now…for the boys on Richmond, it was obviously not their call.  That responsibility lies directly with their coach and the officials and for the love of the game, I hope that kind of decision making is reviewed by the league.  For the boys themselves, Richmond had a great season and I wish them all the best with their next steps in lacrosse and life.

In life we know we can’t change what happened.  But what do we know? WE ARE IN CHARGE OF OUR NEXT DECISION!!  We can be in charge of our next shift.  Our next shot.  Our next thought process.

As I texted one of Langley’s players when I heard this news, I’m sure Chris had a few things to say about the incident yesterday from his ‘season ticket cloud seats’ and I know that he is with you all….always!!

Great job Langley.

Way to turn a negative into an amazing BE THE BEST moment.

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Be The Best.

Ice Cream Cake

Ice cream cake.  Chris loved it.

It was his one food indulgence, but only then it was reserved for birthdays.

I heard the term the other day and it stopped me in my tracks with the clicker frozen on the TV news.

Surrey parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kaulius, were helping out the RCMP on a road check campaign specifically targeting drinking and driving.

Their own daughter was killed in May of 2011 by a drunk driver (suspected and in the courts).

That is a sad enough story and one that should cause us all pause in this summer season.

The fact that these parents were out there trying to raise awareness just months into their journey was amazing enough.

I felt the pain however when the Dad mentioned that they still had their daughter Kassandra’s ice cream birthday cake in the freezer, these months later.  His voice broke as he told how they just couldn’t part with it yet.  They had planned to celebrate but instead had a funeral.

It is something that you must know to know if that makes any sense.

I felt the pain instantly for this family as they are just at the beginning of the journey.  I salute all they are doing in memory of their daughter and the impact of her legacy.

As I reflect on our journey it is now been almost 16 months.

This past June has been one of the toughest so far.

The knowledge of a high-school graduation that didn’t happen.

The knowledge of a college education and lacrosse scholarships that we were not able to see finalized.

All of that was extremely painful.

However…I love the article written in the Langley times about Kassandra Kaulius and her family.  Turning Grief into Action.  THAT is what it’s all about.  Action for your loved one of course.  But I believe, action for yourself as well.  Where are you going to go?  What are you going to do?  How are you going to keep on living a life that will positively affect others?

Giving is a part of Grieving.  Remember that one?

There have been many days where I’ve add to sip some of my own medicine from blogs of the past year and more.

That’s a good tonic.

Have a great week!

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Be The Best.

Father’s Day – the lighter side

Watch as I totally dominate Max in both cycling and then basketball.

(and if you believe that…)

Finally pieced a few bits of vid together from a great afternoon with the kid.

Of course we reminisced and laughed about the times Chris would join us on the bball court at home.  Chris played basketball like he was playing lacrosse, complete with full-on body checks and intense (if not mostly illegal) defence.

After that I showed Max a thing or two about shooting and took him to the hoop a few more times before we biked home.  (cough)

Although not on the vid, I had the chance to play ping pong with my Dad just a few days after Father’s Day itself.

We had a great time.  I’m trying to remember the score, but I just can’t right now….

(When you’re 80 year old Dad beats you in ping pong after recovering from a 2 month hospital stay and 4 surgeries…you’d try to forget the score too…!)

Hey, this sports blog post ain’t going too well for me today.

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Be The Best.

Power of Focus

I have a book in my collection that I’ve lent out and replaced probably 5 times and referred to hundreds of people since I first read it years back.

The core message is that with some concentration on the small things, the big things will take shape.  In other words, small habits make a big difference in long term performance.

From the Amazon book review: At the outset, the book identifies the three most important fundamentals for consistent success: developing unusual clarity; understanding that habits determine your future; and using a “no exceptions policy” approach to focus on what you want.

That book rests beside one of Chris’ provincial lacrosse medals.

The kid was relentless in his positive habits in pursuit of his goal.  Eating right. Push-ups. Cardio. Shooting practice.

It was all part of Being the Best.

I asked him once why at the age of 14 he stopped eating all junk food.  He said that he simply thought about the consequences of eating the food and decided that the payback wasn’t worth it.

That developed into long term positive eating habits that shaped his physique and mental attitude going into competition.

Power of Focus.  If you haven’t read it, put it on your summer reading list!

Have a great week.

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Be The Best.

The bar is set high!

The first Christian Friesen Memorial award went to an outstanding young man, Luke Genereux, just a few months ago in January.  You can see that post here.

Luke has now made the President’s Honour Roll at Simon Fraser University which is an outstanding achievement.

He’s set that bar pretty high!  A huge congratuations are in order for this amazing accomplishment.  You can read the details from the SFU press release below.

SFU Senior Captain Luke Genereux named to President’s Honour Roll

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

By William Howard,

 

SFU Lacrosse Media Relations

 

Simon Fraser University Men’s Lacrosse

BURNABY, BC (June 17, 2011) – Andrew Petter, President and Vice Chancellor of Simon

Fraser University has awarded men’s lacrosse graduating senior Luke Genereux (Port

Coquitlam, BC / Terry Fox Secondary) standing on the President’s Honour Roll. This award

is for students who have completed at least 30 units at SFU, and have achieved a term

GPA of 4.0 or above while taking at least 12 units of classes. The prestigious award for

outstanding academic achievement is permanently noted on a student’s transcript.

Genereux, who is expected to be named a MCLA Scholar Athlete later this summer, was

named an MCLA All-American for the second straight year in 2011 after receiving

honorable mention status last season. A senior captain for the Clan, he was also named a

PNCLL First Team All-Conference selection for the third and final time in his collegiate

career, after earning the same honor in both his freshman and junior year.

Genereux played four seasons for Simon Fraser from 2007-2011 at close defense and

LSM, helping to lead the Clan to a PNCLL Conference Championship and an appearance

in the MCLA National Championship Quarterfinals in 2009 and a run to the MCLA National

Championship Semi-Finals in 2010. SFU also finished as PNCLL Conference runners-up in

2007, 2010 and 2011.

Simon Fraser University is an academics first institution and Genereux’s award reflects a strong emphasis placed on

academics by SFU Co-Head Coaches Jeff Cathrea and Brent Hoskins. In seven seasons under Cathrea and Hoskins’

leadership, their players have excelled in the classroom producing the programs first eleven (11) MCLA Scholar Athletes

(Academic All-Americans) and maintaining the programs best academic record.

ABOUT SIMON FRASER MEN’S LACROSSE

Simon Fraser University men’s lacrosse will compete in its seventeenth season in 2012 and competes in the Men’s

Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA). The Clan have captured a record eight PNCLL Conference Titles (1997, 1998,

1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2008 and 2009) and rank sixth all-time with ten MCLA National Championship tournament

appearances, placing 2nd in 1999 and playing in the 2010 MCLA Semi-Finals after reaching the Quarterfinals in 2008 and

2009. The Clan proudly wear equipment and apparel by Harrow Sports and Cascade helmets.

For further information on Simon Fraser men’s lacrosse please visit sfulacrosse.com or follow the Clan on Twitter at

twitter.com/fraserlacrosse.