What's on the Horizon

The whole world knows that for the last week Southern Alberta has been in a State of Emergency due to an unprecedented amount of rain in the mountains which caused the snow to melt overnight and go rushing through all our rivers, creeks and streams.  So many towns were hit that for the first couple of days we were all simply stunned silent in front of our television sets.  Just when we had given a sigh of relief that Alberta was going to be spared the disasters that had happened around the world, almost near the end of our “rainy season” we had not once heard “danger of flooding”.  Then suddenly there we were in the midst of the biggest flooding that we had ever seen. 

       I have lived through a number of floods to the point where I used to joke “just call me Noah”.  In 2005 I was particularly badly hit when I had more than a foot of water in my basement for over a month.  I got to the point where I just had to turn my mind off and not even go down in the basement because I simply could not cope.  There was no use in trying to suck the water out because the ground was so saturated that it just kept coming in through my septic tank.  It was a nightmare.  When I look at the pictures on television and then drove by High River (which is the town next to my own) and saw just how deep the waters were, all I can say is “there are no words”.  These are not the scenes associated with Canada, much less Alberta.  To see Calgary flooded throughout the downtown core, well, as I say, it is mind numbing.

       Just when we think that everything is going our way, Mother Nature, the Universe, God, the Fates, will somehow come along and slap one upside the head.  One can never be utterly complaisant nor can we be perfectly prepared for anything that may come along, because what comes along is always a surprise. The old age “prepare for the worst and hope for the best” may be wiser than we think when we are young and full of vim and vigour.  Watching the activity of the cleanup in Calgary and the anxious way people line up to help is heartwarming.  In times of crisis we see two contrasting types of behaviour, we see all that is good and noble come out of certain people, and then with others we see the scheming, criminal like mind peak into action with plots of looting or benefiting from the situation.

       People are interesting creatures, one can never typecast humans into one set of characteristics.  We are almost white, through almost black, with a lot of grey tones in between making up the good and bad in human nature.  In the end, what will triumph?  It is really hard to say, but I always lean toward believing in the good.  That’s the optimist in me.

       Albertans, I salute you.

Globe Trotting in One's Mind

One’s mind can be a dark and dreary place but more often it can be an exciting place to dwell in.  Even in this long age of maturity I find that I still have an extremely active imagination which can often lead me into some mind boggling theories.  Mankind has boundless potential for creating, inventing and envisioning the universe and just think, we all have our capacity for roaming around in one’s own mind.

       I thought it would be interesting to relive some of the self help books I have read over the years, jogging my memory with the enlightened thoughts who have gone before us.  It is rather disconcerting sometimes to have to go through the alphabet more than once to recall a book, an author, a saying, and finally the meaning behind the words.  Yesterday I was sitting in a meeting, waiting for others to arrive and I happened to think of Shakespeare’s Henry V “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers” but then I couldn’t remember the rest of the speech.  While I don’t pretend to be a true Shakespearean scholar I had studied up on that play a few years ago and yet my mind went blank.

       From that little agony I went through my mind on remembering what are The Four Agreements, Be Impeccable with Your Word, Don’t Take Things Personally, Don’t Make Assumptions and Always Do Your Best.  Here again I paused since I had stumbled on something that had me rather concerned, wondering if a friend had betrayed me.  Although I was upset for a while I let myself take time and decided to use the third agreement and not assume the worst.  This morning I refreshed myself with the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People where one of the habits is to look for a win/win rather than a me first attitude.

       It’s always easy to see, say and believe the worst and yet to do so causes untold pain and mental torment.  How much simpler to calm our primitive instinct down and search in our dark mind for the various little candles that have been lit by wonderful reading, discussion or other creative illustration.  As my old professor coached me “you don’t have to respond immediately, give yourself a minute or two to think . . . ”  I’ve used it many times but even so, sometimes I really have to focus on the holding pattern.

       As old as we get, we are constantly learning and evolving.  How encouraging.

Working on the Game

Practicing the A-game daily has put me on my mettle; it has taken me off the couch and out of doors despite rain, thunder and lightning.  It has brought me back to the computer and my writing despite some mental kicking and screaming.  Setting goals, making lists, ensuring that promises are kept, it is becoming a full time job.  Who knew?

       Seriously, studying the daily routine and figuring out what is wasteful and then filling in that time with something valuable takes imagination as well as dedication.  I have come to realize that the art of conversation is a valuable asset when the rain becomes too much to handle and the creative juices stall.  Television is a real inhibitor to conversation but it has been hard to turn that ridiculous machine off even when there is “nothing” on worth watching.  It is remarkable that such an invention can destroy conversation as well as family life.  Now that may seem like a very common place, unoriginal remark but what I have discovered is that as much as I have disparaged television I had never taken into account how much I actually watched it.  It is rather like consuming food, if you don’t write it down you tend to ignore the amount!

       So goodbye Victor and Nicki, goodbye SVU, goodbye NCIS and goodbye reruns.  It is time to turn my attention to my mother and my family and reintroduce myself.

Rose Coloured Glasses

In the tranquility of home, hearth and garden it is simple to wear rose coloured glasses because everything is quite marvelous, particularly during the summertime.  But as my father was wont to say “nature is cruel, but nature is true” and while we have enjoyed observing our robins nesting around the property we have now been through the ordeal of watching the last of the four nestlings suffer defeat.  We didn’t see the poor little thing fly out of the nest but there must have been a crash landing as it perched in the grass all day.  When approached it would awkwardly flat its wings and just as awkwardly hop a few tiny steps away.  We left it alone as we didn’t want to bring on a frantic heart attack.  Next day we took comfort that the nestling was building strength and being cared for by Mother Bird who squawked around us, trying to distract us away from Baby.  Baby had hopped under the deck which was quite a distance from the night before.  Two more days and we find Baby gone.  No feathers lying about seem to indicate that there was no struggle so we hope that the creature has somehow gained strength and taken flight.

       In the same way, when we become inundated with world news of a negative nature there comes a saturation point where we simply tune out and mentally say that we cannot do anything about it so we have to trust that somehow things will work out for the best.  That’s how wars happen, the ostrich effect, the rose coloured glasses.  One can be anxious about outcomes but we know there isn’t anything we can do to affect that outcome so we simply let it go and wait for the results.

       Finally, when we look at our personal life and things become overwhelming we are tempted to check out in the same way but here we must put the brakes on that type of retreat.  Our own life, believe it or not, is in our own control.  No matter what is happening, professionally or personally, we do have a right to control our part in the “play” since this truly affects our day-to-day life.  When we get into the personal, we have to take off those rose coloured glasses and fix whatever needs fixing.  We cannot ignore what is going on, as long as it is within our control, we need to control it.

       And that’s all I’m going to say about that!

Lists, Lists & Lists

The female of the species are particularly good at making lists, we are told.  The “honey do list”, the shopping list, the homework list, the to-do list, the goal making list, and so on.  Lists are written down, they are mentally noted, they are somewhere out in the nether regions of our minds, but they are lists nevertheless.  It can be exhausting.  Lists can also bring things into focus.  I was forced to write down goals in the latest retirement planning session and much to my amazement the exercise brought focus to certain aspects of my life.

       Recently I was told that some cultures use a milestone birthday to make the whole year a special event, breaking down the months with events for each month.  I have thought about that and come up with a list of my own called “Discover Canada in 12 Months” taking into account my financial resources.

·         June – Kananaskis Hike

·         July – Banff, Canmore

·         August – Drumheller

·         September – Lake Huron, Cottage Country

·         October – The Honey Farm in Chinook Country

·         November – Glenbow Museum, Calgary

·         December –Theatre Calgary

·         January – Cross country skiing in Kananaskis  

·         February – Snowshoeing

·         March – Birding in Kananaskis

·         April – Canmore Hike

·         May – Banff Photography

I thought it was important to be creative with locales since money can only take one so far.  Events can also be a destination, as can activities, so the Highlight Year can be achieved.  This is part of what makes Life’s A-Game so much fun to practice.  Having imagination in life’s living is quite wonderful.

The A-Game

As one becomes familiar with their job they know exactly what to do each day when they get to work.  If they are good at what they do they become proficient in all aspects of their job and before many years have passed they assume a professional aspect to their career.  Yes, the job becomes more than a job, it becomes a career and one becomes professional at it.  When we are at the top of our career we bring our A-game to the workplace on a daily basis because that is what professionals do.

      Now here we are 40 years in to the career and pondering retirement which looms ahead in the very near future.  What do you see?  Before you look to deep into that retirement world I am asking you to draw back and look at the trees.  Look at the years, months, weeks, and days before that big scenario Retirement.  What are you going to do in that time space prior to dipping into the wonderful world of Retirement?  Are you pausing?  For most of our lives we have lived with phrases such as “when I grow up”, “when I finish college”, “when I buy a house”, “when the mortgage is paid”, “when the kids are out of the house” and “when I retire”.

      It comes as a bit of a shock that in all these years our life has, perhaps, been passing us by.  Once in a while we are actually in the moment, enjoying the present highlight whether we are at a movie, play, party or family milestone but most of the time we feel our lives are somewhat humdrum and ordinary.  Some of us are more adventurous in our lives and will take on new things constantly but such folk are rare indeed.  While we are taking care of our every day needs it is very difficult to always appreciate special moments, indeed frequently we don’t even notice them. 

      While contemplating my 60^th year and my future I had a lightbulb moment and told myself that from now on I would be bringing my A-game to the rest of my life, not just to my professional life.  It’s not a new concept but it is a new approach.  Already rich in happiness, gratitude and appreciation what more can be brought into the A-game of every day life?  Time.  Making time for the new and valuable aspects of life rather than continuing in the humdrum.  Learning and pursing new things daily has become the new goal.  Not looking at the future, but looking at the day.

       That’s the A-game.

60, Sixty, Six Oh, 60!

The day has arrived and is a milestone unlike any other birthday.  There’s the Sweet 16, the Coming of Age 21, the Into Adulthood of 30, Middle Age at 40, the Dignity of 50 and now the Threshold to Old Age 60.  Or, we can look at this in a whole new way, 60 is the new 40.  Better yet we can simply ignore 60 as anything but a positive milestone that will take us into something interesting.

       As I get older I find myself less focused on numbers and more interested in experience but that is not to say that the number 60 doesn’t “sound” rather on the old side.  Even when I was younger I always thought 60 sounded older than 70 for no logical reason that I know of.  On this day of days I have to say that I do not feel one bit older than yesterday nor do I feel older than 5 years ago.  In my being I feel as young and spring like as when I graduated from high school even though my body is not in quite the same agreement! 

       If joy of living really is a factor in longevity I do not believe that I have much to worry about on that front.  I enjoy my life, I enjoy the world around me and I certainly anticipate the possibilities still before me.  Long live the Joyful!

The Strength of Humanity

Canada is going through another round of scandals with their politicians from our senators to our mayors.  We are not unique in having our leaders be less than honest or more greedy than the average human.  Humanity has always had leaders who are greedy, dishonest, violent and without conscience or care for the people they are supposed to lead.  This is apparently a given throughout history. 

       The question I ask today is “why is that”?  Are human beings psychologically built to be led in the same way as other animals?  If one really stops to consider how society evolved one is led to believe that indeed this is so.  Humans are not solitary beings by nature.  They survive in groups which have become “society” or “civilization”.  But one has to wonder why it invariable becomes the greedy and least kind person that ends up becoming the leader of the pack?  After 6,000 or 10,000 years of “civilization” have humans failed to evolve any further than a cow?  All evidence seems to point to the fact that we are no better than a cow.

       It’s rather humiliating to be a member of an un-evolved civilization.  Let’s not split hairs by pointing out that some countries appear to be more balanced than others; the fact remains that human beings are more inclined to follow a leader however poor that leader may be than to break away or protest the leader and insist on something better.  Are we still so financially or emotionally suppressed that we cannot bring ourselves to make an effort for change – and keep the feet on the flames permanently?  Think about the high school books “Animal Farm” or “Lord of the Flies” . . . is this really the way it is, forever?

       I hope not.

What's Important

I picked up “Lean In” a couple of days ago which is written by the COO of Facebook and is about women in the workforce.  Even while I hesitated buying it and as I started to read the book I wondered if the subject was relevant to me at this stage of my life.  I decided that I needed to pause from the reading to consider the question in my own mind.  Just because I am at the last stretch of my working career doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be informed about a subject that has always been dear to my heart.  If the discussion and advice from the book can help me that is great but the knowledge is just as powerful standing on its own merits.  So I continued to read.

       Reading on any subject helps give one perspective because there is always something new to be added to the knowledge already in one’s head.  Often we get caught up in an opinion and it doesn’t ever evolve past the original opinion even though the subject evolves.  Woman’s role in the world, at all levels, has changed many times over the past hundred years and as the role has changed so has the consequences.  We see results as generations age and then we wonder, was this the right path to take?  For instance, working mothers must wonder if they are doing the right thing by putting their children in daycare.  But what else can they do with the economy geared to two incomes, not to mention what women have invested in education in order to earn their own living.  Society today is different but no less harsh on women than it was 100 years ago.  If a woman cannot support herself she is in a very bad way economically much sooner than a man.  Unless she is built like a stevedore an uneducated woman does not have a lot of choices by way of well paying work.  She’s not likely to get a job with the city or province to do road work; instead she will be forced into waitressing or clerking at a store for minimum wage and less hours.

       If a woman chooses to stay home with the family she still has a 50% chance of ending up having to provide for herself and her family because that happens to be the statistics with respect to divorce.  Therefore a woman is always better off taking an education that will assist her in gaining employment with a higher salary.  The world grows more complex and I acknowledge that men now also have choices to make; they are rare of course but sometimes men choose to be the stay-at-home parent while the wife earns the main income for the family.  Parents of sons have told me they find the education system geared more towards girls while the boys are left far behind.  Statistics do show that more females are enrolling and completing university than males but I am not certain that is because education is geared that way. 

       In the final analysis however this is still a male dominated world from politics to business and even in education.  On a side note, I have always thought it odd that a man heads the anti-abortion movement.  Why?