Lessons Learned from...Falling and scaping my knee

I sense the lesson you expect: learning to take your time, everything happens for a reason, pain is beauty, prevention is the best cure. Nope. Not one of these lessons did I learn. You see, I ripped my pants. The humiliation of falling, the pain of a bloody knee, the fact that I almost missed the bus, all was erased by the fact that, momentarily, I thought I had ripped and ruined my pantaloons. Indeed, there is a large tear below the right knee. But then I considered my options. Ripped jeans are in style now: why not ripped dress pants? I could cut them off above the knee and make shorts. Au courant, n'est pas? Or...I could patch them and strut my stuff. I chose to strut my stuff.

However, when I went to the fabric store (and Wal-mart, and the seamstress), it was near impossible to track down a decent patch. I had pictured something funky - a cute paisley, perhaps a Scottish plaid, maybe a vintage floral? The only thing I could find besides boring taupes and beiges was an iron-on camouflage print. Not even a hot pink. So be it.

It made me think: nobody mends things anymore. The word is barely part of our modern lexicon. Just yesterday I bought a new CD player (yes, a CD player. I still haven't figured out how to work a MP3 player, or a blackberry, or Facebook...come to think of it, it's a wonder I'm even blogging...). My old boom box (another one to preserve in the lexicon) died. So did I take it to the stereo repair shop? Nope - I wouldn't even know where to take it or if professional tradespeople even fix it anymore. Any why would I bother? It's cheaper to buy a new one.

So my lesson learned? Another one my Papa has been trying to teach for years - 'wear out the oldest first'.

Lessons Learned from...Being Busy

It's been a crazy winter thus far - trips to Toronto, planning for Canada Games, executing Canada Games plans, trying to Detox, fighting off the winter blahs, giving into the winter blahs. But amidst all my success and unsuccesses (not failures!) this winter, I've put together some macro lessons learned, what I like to call "The 10 Commitments: MB's mantras to Live. Right. Now."

1. True priorities dictate actions. Actions reveal true priorities.
Simply verbalizing a priority does not make it one, it has to be proven in the way we live.
2. It doesn’t have to make sense, but it has to feel right.
Note: Feeling "good" in the moment is not the same as feeling "right" long term.
3. Stress is only useful if it catalyzes change.
Don't get wound-up for naught. Stress out with purpose.
4. Make everything made with love.
Potential for love is almost everywhere. If there is no potential for love, never mind.
5. You are your own and only foundation.
Gotta be true to yourself, baby.
6. Consumption has opportunity, cost and opportunity cost.
So make it count.
7. Balance flexibility with firmness and rigidity with regularity.
An example of commitment #2.
8. Savor the flavor – don’t waver.
Commit to the moment.
9. Don’t compromise on essentials, but don’t essentialise unnecessarily.
Know what's important.
10. Play. Laugh. Grow.
Fisher Price is onto something.

Sure, I don't always follow them, but then again they're not commandments; they're commitments. I renew my commitment to these mantras everyday.

Lessons Learned from...Detox (Part 1: What I eat)

This past Monday my husband and I began a detox cleanse. We are supposed to avoid meat, wheat, sugar, salt, alcohol, bovine dairy, caffeine and all processed foods until the end of February. We have distinct motivation: he to gain energy and me to reboot my digestive track. It’s actually gone well this week, apart from a few minor lapses (he absentmindedly had a Werther’s Original and I indulged in tea with milk).

It’s amazing the substitutions you come up with. Honey tastes even better than white sugar and lentils are remarkable versatile. Sure, it’s a lot more work to make your own hummus and tomato sauce, but the results are incredibly yummy. I had no idea how much salt was added to everyday foods until I took time to read the label, but I’m glad I know now.

However … after gobbling down 4 wheat free biscuits loaded with natural peanut butter and a bowl full of rolled oats mixed with coconut and maple syrup, I realized that detox has to be about more than what I eat. If I want to cultivate a truly healthy attitude towards food, I need to consider not only what I eat, but also when, where, who with, why, how and how much.

So each week in turn I will cumulatively add a new aspect of eating to my consideration:

- What I eat (week of January 17)
- How much I eat (week of January 24)
- Who I eat with (week of January 31)
- How I eat (week of February 7)
- When I eat (week of February 14)
- Where I eat (week of February 21)
- Why I eat (week of February 28)

I often scarf down food at my desk, with minimal appreciation of the nutriments I should be enjoying. Sometimes I’m half done my dinner before my husband even sits at the table. I eat for pleasure, for pain, and I’m pretty sure I even eat when I’m not hungry. I don’t chew my food and I still think that BLTs (Bites, Licks & Tastes) have no calories.

Something tells me that treating yourself to a laugh and a piece of decadent cheesecake with a friend can be much healthier than inhaling a bag of natural almonds by yourself on the couch. I can’t wait to this hypothesis!

Lessons Learned from...Public Debt

I was recently asked to research estimated government debt figures for Canada. The size of our collective debt is astounding. For those of us who take pride in keeping personal debt under control, it's disheartening to realize that, even with our efforts, we're still in the red.

It's sobering to understand that we spend (waste?) money when we do things like ignore recycling bylaws, go to the doctor when we're not sick, take more "free" government services than we need and send things to the landfill that can be reused. Everything has a cost, even if it doesn't hit our personal bottom line directly.

So here's one more new year's resolution: in 2011, let's all think about the true cost of our actions. This may help us know when we've had enough.

Federal government: $517.5
Source: http://www.budget.gc.ca/2010/pdf/budget-planbudgetaire-eng.pdf

BC: $41,885 million
Source: http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/OCG/pa/09_10/PA_2010_ProvDebt.pdf

Alberta: $1.092 billion
Source: http://www.finance.alberta.ca/publications/annual_repts/govt/ganrep10/confinst.pdf

Saskatchewan: $4,145.3 million
Source: http://www.finance.gov.sk.ca/default.aspx?DN=1ef17811-55c7-4f06-87e7-67fb4cccb95b

Manitoba: $13,995 million
Source: http://gov.mb.ca/finance/budget10/papers/budget.pdf

Ontario: $212.4 billion
Source: http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/ontariobudgets/2010/ch4.html#c4_debtComposition

Quebec: $129 billion
Source: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/topics/economics/budgets/quebec_2010_budget_EN.aspx

Nova Scotia: $13.01 billion
Source: http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/en/home/investorrelations/outstandingdebt/default.aspx

New Brunswick: $8.3 billion
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/new-brunswicks-debt-casts-tall-shadow-over-heated-provincial-contest/article1686832/

PEI: 1.7 billion
Source: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Politics/20101226/public-debt-in-maritimes-101226/

Newfoundland: $ 8,457 million
Source: http://www.td.com/economics/budgets/nl10.pdf

Vancouver: $410,630,000
Source: http://vancouver.ca/fs/budgetServices/pdf/09AnuualReport.pdf

Calgary: $2,901.3 million
Source: http://www.calgary.ca/docgallery/bu/finance/budget/2009_2011/pdf/08b_capital_analysis.pdf

Toronto: $ 3,829,795,000
Source: http://www.toronto.ca/finance/pdf/2009fr.pdf page 50

Montreal: $4,217 million
Source: http://www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/page/service_fin_en/media/documents/budget-2010-10-global-dette-sit-fin-a.pdf

Halifax: $279 million
Source : http://www.halifax.ca/budget/documents/2010-11OPERATINGBOOKFINAL.pdf

Lessons Learned from...New Year's Resolutions

In Eat, Pray, Love, Liz Gilbert claims that each of us has one word that effectively sums up our personality and existence. I think mine is "resolve". I love to solve and re-solve plans, constantly changing my path. I am also a very resolved person and no other time of year can this manifest itself more obviously than New Year's.

In preparation for my resolutions, I have joined the site 43things.com, where you can post both what you want to accomplish in your life (long term) and things you hope to do in the upcoming year (short term). I've made about a dozen entries in both categories and hope to chart my progress both in mind and online.

This year, I'm trying to stay away from drastic measures. I know we're supposed to write SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely), but this year I think of my resolutions more as intentions. For me, drastic measures send the signal that what I am doing right now is decidedly wrong. I resolve and change my path so often, but I hope my path is not drastically wrong. I trust that I'm primarily headed in the right direction. That doesn't mean that I don't need to remind myself of my intentions, because I do. And that's just I'm setting out to to in 2011.

Lessons Learned from...Blogging

I just wrote a very witty (at least I thought so) and philosophical post about working from home. Blogger malfunctioned and deleted it. I can't be arsed to write it again, which probably means the world can't be arsed to read it.

Why do we blog anyway? My boss recently started a blog which is essentially a venue to promote her cats and extrapolate on the many loads of laundry she manages to do on a Sunday morning. Surely that's not the point. So what is?

C.S. Lewis said "we read to know we are not alone". Is that why we write too? Tomorrow I'm attending a symposium (I love that word) at the local journalism school. The topic is "Truth: Fact and Fiction". Perhaps that will provide me some insight into our compulsive need to share the minutiae of our lives with the world.

Lessons Learned from...Athletes

I've never been a huge sports fan.

I enjoy staying active, but can't tell left from right and have limited hand-eye coordination. However, after recently hearing two Olympians speak about their journey and love affair with sport, I'm almost converted. Within the span of a week, I was inspired by both Shelley-Ann Brown and Catriona Le May Doan.

Now I understand that sport is more than external competition. It's about being the best that YOU can be, believing in yourself and your teammates and picking yourself up when you fall. Sport allows you to hear "it's never been done" or "it can't be done" and say "why the hell not?" Brown and Le May Doan have different, yet remarkably similar, stories.

Consider Shelley-Ann's mantra: "There is no coincidence. There is only preparation and opportunity meeting together with passion." When pressured to be the best in the world, she decided instead to press herself to be the best Shelley-Ann Brown. When tempted to ignore her training regimen, she decided instead to adhere to her own internal standard of excellence, not anyone else's. Then, when the moment arrived to finally start her Olympic race, she knew she had done all she could to be the best she could be. And nothing else seemed to matter much. (Although she did end up winning a silver medal!)

Catriona Le May Doan explained how hard it was for her to get back up again after her famous fall in the 1994 Lillehammer Games. But despite her anger, Catriona got back up to win (and then defend) Olympic Gold.

So maybe I'm not an Oymypic athlete; maybe I still don't really like sports. But I like what it stands for: pushing yourself as far as you know you need to go and not giving up when you know you can do it.