The Cedar Life
Living for the Long Run
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On my 40th birthday, which occurred a couple of months ago, a friend of mine took me out for lunch. As we waited for our order to arrive, he asked me if turning 40 felt like just another day or a marker to pause and reflect on a completed decade. After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, I answered: yes. As much as I love celebrating birthdays (and sharing a… Read More
Some Trips are Colder than Others This past Christmas, Santa gifted me a copy of Colin O’Brady’s The Impossible First. The book documents the author’s quest to become the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unsupported. Woven into the story is the journey it took to get there and the challenges he faced that fed his drive to do something that no human had ever done. The book is a compelling… Read More
After a few months away, I am back this week. My wife and I welcomed our fifth child in November, a healthy baby girl, and my life has been rather busy(er) since, but I am excited to be writing again and plan on publishing more regularly moving forward. There will be more long form content coming soon. For now, here are Three Things for this week. 1. Finding Adventure Colin O’Brady is… Read More
1. Painting with a New Palette – In August, someone sent me a YouTube video in which Bishop Robert Barron is interviewing actor Shia Labeouf regarding his conversion to Catholicism. This followed his preparation for playing St Padre Pio in a film on the great saint’s life. Admittedly, I hadn’t really been tracking with Shia’s life developments in recent years, but after learning a little bit, it’s safe to say he’s not… Read More
From a busy October, August seems like a year ago. Our summer holiday this year was a departure from our normal time away. Stemming from an unplanned ‘win’ at a school silent auction, we made the decision to take a road trip from our home in Metro Vancouver up to the Yukon, a journey that took two weeks and covered more than 6,200 kilometers. Some (many) might question the sanity of such… Read More
1. Back in the Saddle – After a two month break, the ‘long form’ of my blog will be back next week. It has been a good couple of months, but August and September stand in stark contrast to one another. In August, I had the opportunity to take a two week road trip with my family, covering more than 6,200 kilometers up to the Yukon and back. It was the first… Read More
Taking Stock Though summer is often a time when things slow down a bit, I have found the past month has been one of the busiest of the year so far. School being out for summer means more activities for the kids and in our house, we have had something scheduled almost every night. A few of my favourite podcasts have gone on hiatus for the summer and over the last two… Read More
Giving this another go this week. Some spare thoughts from the last two weeks of blog posts. Here are 3 Things for this week: Switching Costs – Cal Newport introduced me to the term “context switching” as a guest on a podcast I listened to a couple of years ago. The premise is that there is a cost to constantly switching back and forth between tasks and activities, which ultimately prevents us… Read More
Last week I wrote about my experience attending a retreat in 2018 and how that weekend has impacted my life since. When I had the opportunity to attend the same retreat in 2019, I did not hesitate to sign up again. On my journey of faith and personal growth, one important lesson I have learned is that the path is not a straight line. We do not evolve and grow as people… Read More
Origin Stories 2018 was the year that the trajectory of my life changed. It the year I discovered a path that I never anticipated taking, but one that I am so grateful to have found. There were a lot of things that happened in late 2017 and 2018 that I can look back at and point to as markers that led my life in a particular direction. But it was in the… Read More
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