Everything I Know About Women

Seeing as Valentine's Day has just passed by I thought I would write up a quick reference list of everything I know about women.

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- They like flowers.*


*I have no idea why

Blur

Dear Diary,

The last few weeks have gone by so quickly. It has been a blur.
Here's what happened in no particular order.

My vacation request for the C&C snowboard trip was declined by work. I was extremely unhappy about this. The trip last year was a big part of my growth as a person. It forced me to get out of my groove and go outside my comfortable zone of social interactions. It really was a large focus for me for several months of my life. I was hoping I would get to go again this year but work is too busy and too understaffed at the moment. I was definitely disappointed.

Immediately after I learned I wouldn't be going on the snowboard trip though, I found out there was a youth retreat over the weekend. I went. It was awesome. It really did put me in a positive mood after the whole vacation request denial thing. It allowed me to get to know some of the guys, and girls, a little better. If work was not an issue I would be much more involved with the youth. In some ways it makes me sad that I am so infrequently involved. There's a little disappointment in my heart every time I miss a youth event, but this weekend was good. I would have no problem devoting my life to the growth and development of teens. I only wish I could do more.

I was scheduled to help with worship on Thursday. I have said before that worship is important to me, and when I am involved in leading I make very certain that I am ready. Unfortunately work has interfered with C&C so often, especially when I am part of a worship team, I can't always commit. So, I took a vacation day. I had all day off to practice. By Thursday night I knew every song, forward and backwards, lead, rhythm, bass, and I'm pretty sure I could have sat in on drums if required. I have to say though, when we practiced that night I was disappointed. It seemed as though most people were just phoning it in. It seemed obvious to me some people had not even practiced the songs or listened to the audio that was emailed out before we gathered. I didn't like the lack of effort many of the talented and capable musicians put in for that night. And we sounded bad. I was a little discouraged because I took the day off just to be there and it felt like others were just taking for granted the awesome privilege of leading others in worship. I hope next time we put our hearts and minds into it.

On Friday the C&Cers played dodge ball against the senior high youth group. That was great. I am still a little sore. Officially the youth group won, but I still contend they had way more participants so I'm calling it a draw. After the games there was a dessert and discussion time but, I need to confess, I got a little freaked out with all the new people there and left before it began. The social interaction thing with new people was just a bit too much for me that night.

On Sunday our small group did a brunch and then went to Ebenezzer. That's not my normal church. I have been there a few times before. This time it amazed me how many people I knew or recognized. I didn't know I know so many people. It was good. I didn't feel as uncomfortable as I did on Friday. After the service I went out to Bonanza with TM, MH, and TJ. I discovered the art of timing the buffet to include both brunch and lunch meal items. Also, plates hold way more ice cream than bowls do. After the feeding frenzy we went and watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was good. They sure don't make movies like that anymore. And after that I went to a Superbowl party. I was a little nervous. Most of the people there were people I know a little bit, but not well. I went mostly to put myself in another social situation, and hopefully to get to know a few people a little bit better. It was more my size and I had a good time. And I did get to talk socially with a few people I don't always interact with and it was good.

And that was my life the last two weeks. That and work. Lots of work.

Reminder

The Weekend

I took a few punches this weekend. I also dished them out. A few rough and tumbles too. I have a new collection of bruises. My body is sore and my brain is tired. All in all, it was a good weekend.

I just got back from a youth retreat and it was awesome. Working with youth gives me so much energy. I know that doesn't quite make sense, especially to people who don't really enjoy hanging around with a bunch of teens and preteens, but that's how I work. And all that rough stuff I mentioned up top, that was all part of the fun and games. There's no reason to be concerned.

I've thought a lot about God's will in my life over the past year. What does God want me to do? I can't say I have a specific ten point list but I am reasonably sure of some things. One of those things is that I am supposed to work with youth. It is such a part of who I am, I wouldn't be me if I didn't. That's how I know (or maybe why I believe) that I am to work with youth. I trust that God has given me a desire. I trust that fulfilling that desire is God's will. It's that simple. I used to make it more complicated than that but sometimes the simple answer is the right answer.

And so, I am back home, tired and sore, but good.

I pray that somehow, despite my own insecurities and shortcomings, the youth I spent the weekend with are better off and closer to God because of the divine appointment this weekend. I pray that they know love and acceptance and that the friendships we all had before this weekend just got a little stronger, and a little deeper.

Amen.

My Best Friend's Wedding

Friendship, and all relationships for that matter, are a mystery to me. I have tried to sit down and analyze all their components, trying to understand how they work and how to create them. I have concluded they are magic. There doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to them. Why do some people hit it off despite their differences and others not connect despite their similarities? Why do some people choose to spend the rest of their life with someone else? Magic.

My best friend got married two weeks ago.

Our story is a strange story and I don't want to say too much because, like most things on this blog, to discuss any aspect of my life in detail is to discuss aspects from other people's lives as well, and I don't want to reveal something someone doesn't want revealed. Having said all that, there never were two people more opposite than AH and I. How we became friends is really weird and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else trying to make friends. We got into a huge argument. We were in our teens at the time. Now, I'm not the arguing type of guy so how all this happened is a mystery to me. However, our fight was big enough that our parents heard about it. They forced us to get together and apologize to each other. We met up at a Tim Horton's on our own and our quick three minute apology turned into a three hour conversation. It was the first time I had ever really shared with a person. I can't remember all that was said but I knew that there was something different about this conversation. I didn't just stick to the usual social niceties, small talk, a few facts and jokes and then go on my merry way. I actually shared a little piece of me, for the first time in my life. And I wasn't rejected (which was my biggest fear most of my life). And AH shared with me too. This was a milestone in my life. I can't describe how foundational and life altering this moment was for me. Like any INTJ, I went home and analyzed what just happened. I think I just made a friend. Up until this point I can't say that I had ever had any real friends. I know I called people friends but they were really just acquaintances. AH was my first friend. It was a strange experience for me because up until this point what I thought were friendships were very shallow interactions. My relationships had no real depth whatsoever. My life changed that day as I came to understand there was more to real relationships than what I had experienced my entire life. My paradigm shifted. I woke up in the matrix and realized that what I thought I knew wasn't reality after all. It is a little disheartening to realize that your entire life up until that point was a mere fraction of what it could have been. Anyway, I have a lot more to say about friendships in an upcoming post so I'll leave it there for now.

AH is now married. I'm trying to understand what this means for me. You see, AH is a female. I guess AH is now AW. Anyway, all the things that we used to do seem more like a husband kind of thing now. Maybe I should explain what I mean before your mind wanders. First, AH and I were never romantically involved, ever. I just need to clarify that. I know my parents read this occasionally and I'm sure they had their suspicions. AH and I would get together all the time just to talk. We would share our thoughts and feelings and ideas and hopes and fears and all that friendship kind of stuff. As we grew older we even went on vacation with each other, sharing hotel rooms and what not. But now that AH is AW I wonder what our friendship will look like. We can't really go on vacation alone together anymore. I don't know if we can just get together and talk like we used to either. I know if I was married I would be extremely jealous of this kind of relationship someone else was having with my wife. I'm pretty sure we won't be sleeping over at each other's anymore either. I think it feels like I have been partly replaced. I just realized that at this very moment. I don't have a lot a friends, at least not this level of friendship. Relationships are a precious and rare thing for me. They are not a dime a dozen. I'm feeling unsure at the moment. I want to continue to grow the relationships I have now, not to replace AW, but to add to my life what has been missing for so long. I think I'm concerned that I will never have another friendship as deep as the one I had/have with AW.

My Prayer

This has been my prayer lately.
Coincidentally, I'm going to go see Third Day later this month.

Resolutions

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions. However, last year I did make a New Year's Resolution to quit procrastinating. It didn't go so well. I suppose the fact I didn't make my resolution until May was an ominous sign of things to come.

Anyhoo, this year I do have a few minor goals I want to achieve. I don't want to call them resolutions because I think I'd just be setting myself up for a repeat of last year. They are:

-Stop Procrastinating (So nice I resolved to do it twice)
-Run 10km every day
-Reduce my time online
-Read my bible daily
-Sleep more
-Play guitar more
-Play video games less
-Get my scuba rating
-Get my motorbike licence

I'll get to work on that, next week. I know, I know...

2012

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. So is tomorrow. And the day after that. I guess there's nothing too significant about today's date but it does offer a chance for a symbolic clean slate.  Old things are passed away, all things have become new.

I'm in a really good mood at the moment. Maybe it's because of this mental reset the new year offers, maybe it's because the sun is out, the sky is blue, and the Saskatchewan Winter has yet to arrive. Whatever it is, I'm feeling optimistic about what the future has to offer. Just based on the last year and a half, my life has been getting better and better in all areas, and there's no reason to think this trend is going to change in 2012.

You know what this means? Happy rant.

First, the weather is amazing. I wouldn't mind a little more snow for snowboarding, but seeing as the slopes can make their own snow, I'm happy. I haven't had to brave any -30 degree days with an additional insane wind chill so I can't complain. And today is just so amazing. I'm going to go for a walk. I haven't taken a casual stroll in a while.

The days are getting longer. Winter Solstice is my favourite day (Dec 21st) because every day after that for the next 6 months has more day light than the one previous. How awesome is that? And I live in the place that has more hours of sunlight than anywhere else in Canada. No seasonal affective disorder for me.

I get one more week of vacation this year than last year. While I'm not a big fan of travelling, because I travel for work all the time, the idea of going to Australia and New Zealand in the fall is taking shape. I'm planning on getting my scuba rating and diving the Great Barrier Reef. One less thing on the 'ole bucket list.

I'm not going to make any specific New Year's resolutions but I do have some things I want to continue to work on. First, I want to continue to develop real relationships with people I know and people I may meet in the upcoming year. Second, I want to restart my training regimen and give the Iron Man Canada a shot in September. Third, I want to get my scuba rating and my motor bike licence. Fouth, I want to continue to allow God to permeate all areas of my life, more so. These seem like realistic goals.

I'm still not an upfront, in the spotlight, center of attention kind of guy, but I won't shun those situations either if they offer themselves to me. Last night at a New Year's party there was a chance for me to play guitar for worship, which I temporarily avoided, but realized afterward that it is not the end of the world to stand out briefly. This may open new doors for me in the upcoming year, now that I have decided not to run away from those situations.

And finally, work. Work is a mixed blessing. I have a job I really, really like. It pays well and I am in a position some people wait for their entire career and never achieve. However, work has also been my biggest frustration this last year. While I like what I do, I wish I didn't have to do it so much. Scheduling has interfered with my life outside of work so often I started wondering if there is some other career out there that would allow me to live a normal life. Last year it seemed as though I was free every Thursday for C&C. This year it feels like I can't even buy a Thursday night off. I feel like a stranger when I come to C&C because I'm only there once a month, maybe, while everyone else there is much more regularly and growing their relationships. As well, I barely get to be involved in youth group for the same reason. Even when I think I can plan on something after work, my schedule changes. This has happened at least twice in the last few months where something important to me was overruled by work. Frustrating. Hmmmm, I didn't mean to end my happy rant with a complaint, so I'll end by saying I think scheduling will be better this year than last.

Ok, time to go for a walk on this beautiful day.

Bring on the year of optimism.

Proverbs X

Of time and money, time is the one you can't increase.

Bears

Two and a half years ago I could have been eaten by a bear. Here's the story.

For the last six years, excluding 2011, I worked in Northern Canada as, what some might describe, a bush pilot. It was definitely an interesting time, and I have had experiences and seen things most people on this planet can only imagine.  I've seen northern lights so big and bright they fill the sky and light up the night.  I've seen the world's most northern active sand dunes.  I've seen clouds of black flies that block out the sun. I've seen lake trout and walleye bigger than a kindergardener. I've seen marmots, beavers, caribou, foxes, wolves, ptarmigans, greyling, and bears. I've discovered waterfalls and named previously unknown islands.

One spring day I had a charter to Charlotte River. Charlotte River is located just west of Uranium City on the northern shores of Lake Athabasca. It is a private runway used by a power generation company to have access to three hydro-electric dams they operate which power most of northern Saskatchewan. My co-pilot and I were to hold there for an hour while our passengers performed some maintenance and we would be on our way.

The terrain in this area is quite varied and presents a lot of opportunities for exploring and picture taking. On the south side of the lake are the Athabasca Sand Dunes. They are Canada's largest desert. To the north is the Canadian Shield, covered with waterfalls, rivers, lakes, cliffs and forests. This particular runway ran parallel to a river emptying into Lake Athabasca, in a valley nestled between some very steep hills. Next to the runway was a thick row of trees, and next to the trees was a single dirt road which ran upstream to the dams.  

Seeing as we had an hour to kill, my co-pilot and I decided to wander up the road and see what we could see. When our passengers where ready to leave they would have to drive back down that lone road and we could catch a ride with them back to the plane. As we started to walk around the bend in the road, hidden by the trees, my co-pilot remembered he had his camera on him and had never taken any pictures of the lake. Instead of walking down the road he wanted to go back to the shore and take some pictures. We turned around and went in the other direction. I took a picture of him in front of our plane with the bay in the background. Then we went down to the shore and poked around for a bit. A short time later our passengers returned. They asked us if we saw the bears on the road. We were a bit surprised at their question. Apparently just around the bend, behind the row of trees, was a mother bear and her two cubs. Now, I'm no Dwight Schrute, but I know enough to avoid a mother bear when she has cubs in tow. These bears were hanging around, just on the other side of the trees from us all morning, and we were blissfully unaware. As we taxied down the gravel runway, sure enough, the bears emerged from the trees and watched us from the edge of the tree line as we flew away.

If it hadn't been for my co-pilot's camera and his desire to take some pictures of the lake there's a very good chance we would have run into the bears on the road, and who knows what may have happened then. Here's the picture that just may have saved my life.