The Cedar Life
Living for the Long Run
Archives
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
Ending the Day on Fumes A few weeks ago, my soccer team played our final game of the season. It was on a Sunday afternoon, and there was a trophy at stake. Even though my league is for ‘older’ players, most of us still have a bit of competitive drive and we wanted to win the game. For what it was, the game was hard-fought, and the good guys won. At this… Read More
Goals and Permanent Records I recently watched the Amazon Prime documentary, Rooney, which recounts much of the life and career of retired professional footballer, Wayne Rooney. Today, Rooney is only 36 years old, but he has been in the public eye since bursting into the English Premier League as a 16-year-old goal scorer and has experienced a lot of life over the last 20 years. As a Manchester United fan, I have… Read More
Masculinity is Bestowed Until a few years ago, Masculine Initiation was not a category that I had spent much time thinking about. I used to see things in terms of transactions. I have skills and abilities. I can see that some men are skilled and comfortable in parts of life that I am not. I am compensated for my productivity and output, and I compensate others to do things for me that… Read More
Morning Glory A few weeks ago, I experienced a ‘moment’ with my son. His response to a challenge he was experiencing created some tension in our family that was affecting everyone and I just needed it to end. This went on for a few days and was incredibly frustrating for me. I was struggling with how to handle it. After a couple of frustrating mornings, I knew I had to change my… Read More
Rainy Days On a recent Saturday, I was standing in the rain watching my third consecutive hour of youth soccer. My six-year-old daughter’s team was playing. She has wild curly hair that only gets curlier in the rain. This is a good thing, because her field was two fields away from the fence where I was watching from. The bouncing curls make it much easier to spot her from a distance. She… Read More
First Principles It is hard to believe a year has passed since I first pressed publish on The Cedar Life. When considering my ‘Why’ for starting the blog, I posed a theory. Over the last few years, I have discovered that there is more to life than what I had experienced before that point. The theory I put forward was that there are many of us looking for more. My hope was… Read More
Artistic License Working in a public accounting firm, the opportunities to be expressive are somewhat limited. Dress codes have loosened in recent years. When I started out, most men wore a business suit, tie-optional, with some variation of a blue check shirt. Work processes were standardized throughout the organization. We all used the same computers and software. The one place my coworkers and I had some freedom to express ourselves was the… Read More
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