Revisiting the spirit of Fiji

It's coming up to one year since my trip to Fiji. I've been working on my Fiji movie and it's shaping up nicely. Or, to restate that using the language of ownership - I am well pleased with where I've been taking it.

Why am I making this video now, almost a year later? I had previously made a short video last year that I had posted to my Facebook account, and a couple of slideshows using iPhoto, but none of those projects encapsulated the full scope of the video that I envisioned making while I was there. I've just really really really wanted to do it, and I've been having a slow period with regard to client projects, so I just started doing it.

While I was in Fiji I did the pole-climb. I also took over 400 photographs and recorded several hours of video. I had it in my mind that I would make a movie out of all that and I started thinking about what my soundtrack would be. One song I kept hearing was Faith of the Heart. That's the theme song from the series Star Trek: Enterprise, performed by Russell Watson.

I was really hearing that song, I was really hearing the words, and they seemed totally, completely, appropriate for the experience I was having in Fiji.

It's been a long road
Getting from there to here...

It certainly was a long road getting from Toronto to Fiji. I took something like five planes, crossed the International Date Line, crossed the equator, and crossed so many time zones that I'm not even sure how long it took me to get there. I think it was about twenty four hours.

Physically, it was a long road getting from here to there, but also metaphorically - my life journey has been a long road.

Some of the other lines I was hearing...

I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe
I can do anything
I've got strength of the soul
And no one's gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star...

Those words - I could just hear those words and they completely went with the images I had, climbing the pole. It's what the pole climb is about - I can do anything, I can reach any star.

It's now, almost a year later, I'm going back to that video and man, I need that inspiration now. For a couple of weeks now I've been feeling down and discouraged about my fund raising efforts for the trek in Machu Picchu for Joints In Motion. As I'm watching the pictures of me climbing that pole and hearing that music and listening to those words, I feel a reconnection with inspiration.

I've had some kick-ass wins recently so it seems irrational that I should be feeling down and discouraged. I should just focus on my wins and feel positive, right?

Maybe, but I don't believe in so-called Positive Thinking. I equate that with putting on a mask. I think I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge my negative feelings to myself and pretended I didn't have them. I think that sweeping them under the rug allows them to gain power over me. I've learned that I become stronger in the end when I acknowledge and respect my negative feelings and know that I won't stay in them for too long.

They're not gonna hold me down no more, no, they're not gonna hold me down.

I will see my dream come alive at last. I will touch the sky.

Aerial Tramway Adventure

6:57am "Wake up at dawn, it's a brand new day, so many places to visit, things to do".

Today's mission: take a ride on the aerial tramway. But breakfast first.

8:07am I had the complementary breakfast at the hotel here.

What next? I inquired at the front desk about how to get to the Aerial Tramway. The lady at the counter started giving me a data dump of driving directions. I told her that I don't have a car and asked if I could get there by transit or taxi. She gave me a business card for a cab company. I suppose my next step will be to call the cab company from my room.

The Aerial Tramway - it is described as the "world's most spectacular aerial ride" according to the literature I've found in my hotel room. The Mountain Station is located at an elevation of 8,516 feet and has 54 miles of hiking trails.

I've called the Aerial Tramways information line and learned that the round trip fare for the tramway is $23.25. It is a 10 minute ride up to the top of the mountain and trams depart every half hour. There are two restaurants at the Mountain Station. There is also an area where they show movies about the tramway. All of this sounds reasonable to me. The catch is that the taxi fare is $55 one way only. It could cost me over $100 just to get there and back! Perhaps I'll look into a car rental instead.



2:42pm It's almost three o'clock before I get to the park where the tramway is located. I've rented a car for the purpose of making this side trip, having that decided that the cost would be about the same or less than what it would cost to take a taxi, plus it would give me a bit more flexibility. It will give me a bit more logistics to work out as well since I will eventually have to drop off the car and still get to my hotel from the drop off point.

Joe, the guy from the car rental agency, gave me a map so I had no trouble finding the park even without GPS. As I drove in on the long road that led to the parking lot for the tram car signs warned that this was private property that was monitored by TV, that the climb was steep and to turn off air conditioning. The climb may have been steep but it was deceptively so. I drove past a sign that claimed an altitude of 1,000 feet. Several minutes later I drove past another sign that claimed 2,000 feet. The intervening road felt mostly flat to drive on and the only physical sensation that I had of any ascent was the feeling of pressurization in my ears, like being on a plane.
















3:01pm I'm at the top now at Mountain Station, elevation 8,516 feet. It is cool up here and there is snow on the ground. The trip up the mountain on the aerial tramway took eleven minutes and it seemed like a short ride. We climbed from about 2,000 feet to over 8,000. We are not quite at the top though; the peak of the mountain is actually over 10,000 feet high.

4:29pm I step out on the deck and take a few more pictures from the other of the station. The cold temperature discourages me from undertaking even a short hike. I thought I was overdressed for the Palm Springs weather but I am actually under-dressed for the mountain top weather.

The battery in my iPhone is down to 50% so I question the wisdom of relying on it as my primary camera on future travels.

9:34pm I'm back from my Aerial Tramway Adventure. I had a late lunch while I was at the Mountain Station. After I finished lunch I stopped in at the theater room and watched the two documentaries about the park and about the building of the tramway. By the time I finished watching the movies it was dark already and I decided to head back down. The descent - in the dark - was a whole different way to experience the ride.



Would I recommend this adventure to travelers to Palm Springs? I would. I would recommend making a day trip rather than a half-day trip as I did, and take some time to explore the hiking trails. I also recommend dressing for the weather at the top of the mountain; it can be much cooler up there than it is down in the valley.

A Fiji reunion

I have been feeling under the weather this week and I left Toronto hoping that 30,000 feet of altitude would be enough to get me above the weather.

My first flight was Toronto to Dallas. I had a one hour stopover on Dallas which was really no time at all. Enough to find the departure gate, buy some water and snacks, try to access a wi-fi network, and then the boarding call comes.

I'm about to get on the plane when I hear someone call my name. Now what is the chance that I would bump into someone I know here? Surprisingly high, since I can't be the only one traveling to Palm Springs for Date With Destiny. The more I network and get around the higher the chances of bumping into someone I know as I travel around the world.

Christine L., whom I met in Fiji, is on the same plane. I also meet a few other people on the plane who are bound for Date With Destiny.

And who did I see when I arrived at the airport in Palm Springs but Annette F., my buddy from Fiji who helped me put together the class roster! Annette has rented a car here and she was kind enough to give me a ride from the airport to my hotel. I also learned that Glenda and Wilfredo are here also, and noticed on Facebook (which I can access on my iPhone thanks to free wi-fi access at my hotel) that Tracey L. is coming too. This is going to be like a little Fiji reunion!

I'm looking forward to seeing them all again, and I'm not feeling so under the weather anymore.

Joints In Motion

I once made a list of one hundred things I wanted to do, be, or have, if I had a billion dollars. The purpose of this exercise was to create (or discover) my life vision by identifying the things that I would do if money were no object.

One of the things I came up with for my list was to find a cure for arthritis.

It was quite a number of years ago that I came up with this list. I don't have a billion dollars in my account and I don't even have my first million yet.

I recently started asking myself what could I do to advance this part of my vision with the resources that I do have.

One of the results of asking myself this question was finding out about the Joints In Motion program. It's a fund raising program where participants get to wall, hike, or trek in various parts of the world. I found a tour that appealed to partly because the timing was right: a hike in Machu Pichu in August 2011.

I've sent in my registration form already. This is going to be a big challenge for me, both the physical part of the hike and the fundraising effort.

It also makes quite the bucket list item.

Between my upcoming Date With Destiny event in Palm Springs, Leadership Tune Up Weekend in Calgary in May, and Machu Pichu next August, I'd say I've got quite a year of adventures lined up.

It's going to be a year of living large!

My next dream trip

I had a phone conversation last week with Lori, from Extraordinary Learning. They're the company that offers the Twenty First Century Leadership program that I attended in 2007 and again in 2008, in Seattle.

After thinking over my conversation with Lori I've decided on my next dream trip - go to Calgary in May 2011 by train and attend the Twenty First Century Leadership Tune-Up weekend while I'm there.

I am putting this out there much in the same way that I put it out in July that I would move to a place of my own. That it, as a leap of faith. I'll let the Law of Attraction work for me to help me get there.

What an adventure it will be.

Who needs a recipe?

When I was in Fiji at the beginning of the summer, I was the joyful recipient of many awesome smoothies prepared for us by the volunteer team. And they were all oh-so-gooood.

One of the take-aways I got from the program was a booklet with recipes for each of the smoothies that we had been treated to. I've tried to make one or two of them since returning home, with mediocre results.

Last night I noticed that I had various ingredients in stock and decided who needs a recipe?

So I got a container and dumped in a pint of blackberries and blueberries and several spoonfuls of yogurt, some almond milk, a handful or so of baby spinach, a scoop of vegan protein powder and an ounce or so of Udo's oil. Mixed it all together with a hand blender and it was double-dee-liscious. As good as any I had in Fiji. M-m-good!

Who needs a recipe when one has a bunch of ingredients and a blender?

The net has appeared

In July I put it out there that I would move to a place of my own by September 1. (See A leap of faith). I was taking a leap of faith approach. Leap and the net will appear.

It is now September 9. What happened?

In short, the net did appear. I had a divine inspiration, backed by a few prophetic dreams, and I ended up moving in to the vacant unit of a rental property that I had been trying to sell since April.

This building is in St. Catharines.

I was quite busy during the first three weeks in August, finishing up a documentary that I was producing for a community in Saskatchewan. I finished the documentary and travelled to Saskatchewan to attend the event where my documentary was being presented. I watched it together with some 300 people, and I saw two people moved to tears while watching the technical preview.

Upon my return from Saskatchewan I had a little over a week to complete my move. I spent the last six days of August going back and forth between Toronto and St. Catharines moving contents. This was all during some very hot weather. By the sixth day my body was reaching its limit. I decided that "I've been doing this for six days. Tomorrow is day seven - I'm going to rest."

So I begin yet another new chapter in my life.

Breathe. What's next?

Tether me up!

I got up early this morning to go to my BNI breakfast meeting. Before I headed out the door I decided to check my email, and noticed a message from Else, from the Toastmasters chapter that I belong too. One of the planned speakers had unexpectedly become unavailable, could I give a speech tonight, and since I've recently returned from Fiji then surely I have many interesting stories to tell.

Give a speech tonight? On the day of? Without enough time to prepare? Are you kidding?

Wait a minute. I just got back from Fiji. I graduated from Tony Robbins' Life Mastery and Wealth Mastery programs. I climbed The Poll. I’ve done the Firewalk. Am I really going to crawl back into my comfort zone, crawl back and live inside that box? Is that what I want my life-after-Fiji to look like? Duh. Climbing The Poll won’t mean anything, will be nothing more than a pleasant memory, if I start living like that again. LOOK UP.

I made up my mind that I would give that speech tonight after all. This would be my Speech #6.

I came up with the speech opening while in my car on my way to BNI. I recalled a phrase that I had written in an email I sent to my buddy Dallas the previous day. It was a phrase I had written in a moment in which I was feeling inspired to face a challenge that I had previously been avoiding. “Tether me up, I’m going to climb that pole!” I decided that this phrase was my new mantra and that it would also be the title of my speech.

After my BNI meeting ended I had a meeting with a business associate. I wouldn’t have access to my email until the afternoon so I wouldn’t have a chance to reply to Else, and by then she might find someone else. I didn’t want to let that happen. I decided I’d call her as soon as I arrived at my meeting location. STEP UP.

Ring ring. Else answers. Suddenly I realize that it’s only nine a.m. What if I’m calling her too early?

Only nine a.m.? I’m at my second business meeting of the day and it’s only nine a.m.? Life is not the same, life is changing - that’s for sure. I don’t have jet lag - I’m just living in my own private timezone.

I got a lot of positive and encouraging feedback after I gave my speech tonight. BREATHE. WHAT’S NEXT?

At the end of the meeting Else asked for volunteers to fill the roles for next week’s meeting.

“Is there a speaker slot still available?” I asked. There was. “Tether me up - I’m giving Speech #7 next week.”

The Pole

Last year I walked on fire. This year I faced The Pole - a 50-60 foot pole that I and my fellow Life Mastery participants were invited to climb and leap off on the first day of the program.

The purpose of this exercise was to get us to confront our fears and bust through them; it served as a metaphor for life, for doing what it takes to reach our goals, to climb to the top and to leap and grab hold of our dreams.

I remember last year after I completed my fire walk I could tell by people's faces who had done it and who had not. The ones who had done it were glowing, pumped, exuding excitement. The ones who had not looked tired, worn down from having spent a long day at the seminar.

I had apprehensions about climbing The Pole but in the end I remembered the distinction in how people looked who had done the fire walk versus the ones who had not. I decided that I wanted to be one of the people who had done it.

Date with the Date Line

7:28am Today I’ve got a date with the International Date Line. I’m going to the other side of the planet, so far from home that I’ll be crossing into tomorrow before I get there.

I should be excited - and I am. I also have butterflies in my stomach.

Last year I walked on fire. This year - we’ll see.

It hasn’t become completely real to me yet. Maybe that’s because I still have much to do. Charge my camera batteries. Go to the bank. Get all the information to my accountant that he needs to complete my tax return while I’m away. Pack. Call my parents. Visit them.

Visit them? I won’t even have time for that today.

8:16am Correction - I won’t be traveling into tomorrow, I’ll be traveling into yesterday. My first stop over is Los Angeles which is three hours behind. When I cross the date line I’ll be going back a day. Either way I’ll be traveling through time.

8:52am I have some twenty hours of flying ahead of me. That should allow me to get a good start on the next installment of That Warrior Spirit.

9:14am Accounting! The numbers swim before my eyes. There are so many of them. Each number tells part of a story. But which part of the story is the one that my accountant needs? Giving him the wrong one could mean the difference of hundreds or thousands of dollars on my tax return.

I only hope that the story those numbers tell turn out to be a heroic epic rather than a tragedy - or rather than the comedy they speak of today.

11:03am Most of the numbers are in now. Not fully crunched yet, but partially chewed and somewhat compressed. It turns out that I won't owe on my tax return and that buys my accountant time to file my return.

11:30am That's all the attention I'm giving to my accounting today. The numbers are packed, now it's time to pack my suitcase.

Perspective of a year

What a difference in perspective a year and a half can make. A year and a half ago I broke off my four year relationship with J. I felt frustrated and disappointed, and after I left I felt grief and a sense of loss.

Only half a year before the break up we had travelled together to Vancouver and Seattle to attend the Twenty First Century Leadership workshop. We had both taken lots of pictures and shot lots of video and done lots of journaling during that trip, and I had a vision of bringing all that content together to make a travel videologue. I hadn't got a good start at that project when I broke up with her, and a year and a half ago if I looked at any of the images from that trip I felt depressed. They reminded me of failure.

Today I look at those videos and I remember with pleasure and fondness that trip. I am looking at those videos now because I have decided I will make that documentary after all, as a portfolio project for my business if nothing else.

J and I have become friends again. One of the tenets of leadership that 21CL teaches is that as a leader I tell myself the truth. I frequently ask myself, "What am I pretending not to know?" I know what were our relational dynamics that often led to the fights we had. I know that she behaves in certain ways and I know that I have a choice in how I respond. I know that if I respond in the way I would naturally respond, then that leads to the same kind of friction that neither one of us enjoyed in the past. For me to continue to respond in the same way that I used to is to pretend that I don't know what I really do know, about her and about how we relate.

Walking on fire

I had an intense and incredible experience at the Tony Robbins program this weekend, Unleash the Power Within. The program went from Thursday to Sunday. The highlight of Thursday was the firewalk. It seems counterintuitive that the firewalk would be on the first night - after all, where do you go after you've done the impossible?

I was impressed by Tony Robbins, I expected that he would put in an appearance for an hour or two and that other speakers would fill the remainder of the program. Surely the promoters were just using his name to sell the program, yes? Well, no. Robbins started around two o'clock on Thursday and he kept on going and going and going. He took no breaks (and gave none either!), and kept going for a good eight hours or so. He has an incredible amount of energy and presence.

The bulk of the program on Thursday was used in preparing the 3,000 participants for the firewalk. The top three tools that he used to reinforce the learning were repetition, repetition, and repetition. For most of the afternoon I did not know whether I would do the firewalk or not. I had various reasons for not doing it, but I also could see clearly what was on the other side for me if I did - I saw the rest if my life on the other side.

I thought about the saying, if you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat. I stood by and watched other people do the walk. I stood by for quite a while then noticed that I was letting lots of people walk past me and do the walk while I just watched. I finally mustered up my courage and moved into line. Soon I was at the front of the line and it was my turn.

It took about five quick steps and it was over. Woo hoo! I did it! I didn't feel any heat at all during my walk. The sensation I felt was like walking on cool ashes. I felt something peel off the bottoms of my feet after I came out of it. Did I sear the skin on my feet? Were the bottoms of my feet all burned and blackened with layers of skin peeling off?

No. It was just leaves and grass that had stuck to my feet before I did the walk, and were now peeling off. My feet were fine, still white. In fact, the day after they felt like I had just had a great foot massage.

I celebrated my triumph with some of the other participants and I texted a few people to brag about what I'd just done and then I headed back to the convention hall to get my shoes and socks. When I got back to the hall, it seemed that I could tell by the look on people's faces who had done the walk and who had not. I was really glad that I was one of the people who did do it.

A string of wins

I've had a string of recent wins in the past few weeks and I've been so busy and working intensely that I haven't had time to celebrate them until this week.

My successful presentation and completion of Phase III; the completion and delivery of my "Final" business plan; a successful completion of Legacy Discovery weekend as Training Team Manager; the sale of one of my rental properties. These are all some big wins that I've had lately.

Last week was an intense week for me. My business plan was due on Monday and I knew I was going to not have time on the weekend to work on it, so I was scrambling to finish as much of it as possible last week. I handed it in yesterday and went to Booster Juice to treat myself to a smoothie as a celebration.

Today I was in decompression mode. I felt the need to feed my creative side. I spent some time doing the layout for a photobook in Scribus, and in the evening went to High Park with my digital camera to shoot some more pictures. I only took a few before the battery in my camera ran down.

Batteries running down seems to be a theme this week. The battery in my Palm Pilot won't hold a charge for very long anymore, so I may need to look for a replacement soon.

I need to charge up my Palm Pilot, I need to charge up the batteries for my digital camera, and I need to recharge me.

Runaway Jury

Tonight was a stay at home night with Jan and Fede. Since we each have independent and busy schedules throughout the week it is nice when we occasionally all hang around together. Tonight we had pizza and watched a video, Runaway Jury, with Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman.

After the movie finished we watched some of the DVD extras, some of the making-of documentaries. I was interested to learn that even well established actors such as Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman messed up their lines and were intimated by each other.

Watching the making-of documentaries stirred up memories of my community theatres days. Jan has also had theatre experience and we both had an animated discussion, sharing our memories of those times.

Maybe one of my goals for 2009 will be getting back into theatre and getting involved in another production. It must be about ten years since I've been in a play.

How dating is like football

So without going down to the level of crudity, here is how I see the Dating Game as being like football.

The Dating Game is like football except I have an unlimited number of downs to make touchdown - I am not limited to three or four downs before I lose possession of the ball.

There is no opposing team to tackle me. I may fall or fumble the ball. If I fall it is not because someone has tackled me, it is simply because I fell. Maybe my shoelaces were untied and I tripped over them - I get up, retie my shoelaces and try again. Maybe the most I can run is six yards at a time so I advance the ball as far as I can before I stumble, then get up and move the ball the next six yards. I challenge and stretch myself so that I reach the point where I advance seven yards at a time.

I never lose possession of the ball. When I stumble I might drop the ball and lose track of where the ball is. I find the ball then continue my next play from there.

When the pond is dry I cast my line in another pond. I haven't figured out a football analogy for this one yet so I am murphing my mixaphors.

Gala squared

I just got back from an evening out at the Gala of Hope - a fund raiser sponsored by Children of Hope and HELPS International. There was dinner and a silent auction. I had fun during the auction. I bid on a sailing cruise; had some competition that kept me on my toes but won it in the end.

This is my month for Galas. Galae? Last week I attended the BBBST Big Night Out Gala. I wrote about that event in my post titled The Big Brother waiting game. After trying for several weeks to connect with the volunteer coordinator for that event, Wayne, I finally got an email from him the day before the event with the volunteer schedule.

At the event I started to understand why I'd been having difficulty getting in touch with the volunteer coordinator. The event was huge and there was a ton of stuff to coordinate. They were expecting some 700 people. They had an auction too. One of the prizes was a guitar autographed by the Rolling Stones. The starting bid was $3,500 and it went for $5,000. (I didn't bid on it - are you kidding?) My volunteer job was parking lot attendant, during the beginning of the evening. After that I got to go inside, have dinner, and be one of the silent auction monitors. I got to talk to Wayne about volunteer possibilities with the Men's Division, as well as the grant my employer is offering. At the end of the evening I felt wiped from being on my feet for so long in the parking lot, but I had a nice time.

I had a nice time at tonight's Gala as well. It wasn't as big in terms of numbers, but I had fun bidding on the boat. I also picked up a pair of folding Muskoka chairs - I figure they'll be my Father's Day present for my dad tomorrow.

Secret subway station

Last week when I took my dad for his driver's licence test, I saw something unusual at Bay subway station. We had just gotten off the subway and were walking along the platform to reach the bus area. I noticed two workers coming out through a door on the platform, out through one of those mysterious grey doors. Being that I am curious about these kinds of things, I turned to look, before the door closed, at what was in the room they had just come out of. I expected to see a small storage room, or janitorial closet. What I actually saw was a long staircase leading down. I'm not talking about 3 or 4 steps, I'm talking about a big, long, full size staircase. It was leading down, underneath the subway platform. Something mysterious was down there.

Since boyhood I've been fascinated by the subway tunnels, curious about what secrets and mysteries they might hold. I'm no longer a boy; I'm now an adult, one who lives in the Internet age. So I did some googling, using a couple of permutations of the words "secret", "subway", "tunnel", and "ttc". My research quickly paid off and I discovered that there is in fact an abandoned station known as "Lower Bay"; it's underneath the Bay platform much like St. George station on the Bloor-Danforth line is underneath St. George on the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Now I knew where that staircase I saw last week led to!

I learned that the Lower Bay station had been used for six months in 1966 (I was only two then; my sister wasn't even born yet). The tracks that run through Lower Bay station connect the Bloor-Danforth line to the Yonge-University-Spadina line. During those six months in 1966, the TTC operated the trains in a mode known as interlining - a route that connects the two lines. This route caused confusion to riders, plus a single disabled train would block the entire system. The TTC abandoned Lower Bay and segregated the two lines.

Lower Bay station is briefly visible to riders travelling westbound from Yonge Station. Stand in the front car and watch the tracks carefully. Shortly after pulling out of the station you will see a track branch off to the left. Follow it closely with your eye. Just before your line of sight disappears you will see the Lower Bay platform - the TTC keeps the platform lit up. I'm sure I've seen that platform before and assumed that I was seeing Bay station - but something about the angle just didn't make sense to me. Now I know why.

Despite all my fascination and curiosity with the subway tunnels I've never had the desire to actually cross through the Do Not Enter gate to explore them for myself. However, I managed to enjoy the experience vicariously by reading the article Exploring the Toronto Subway Stations and Tunnels by Ninjalicious. This author has also written a book titled Access All Areas: A User's Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration. I haven't checked it out yet but I feel my curiosity further stimulated.