Micropolitan or Small Town?

While prepping for a meeting with our downtown revitalization folks this morning, I found a terrific blog and a fabulous manifesto. It's a beautiful commentary on why you, anyone, ALL of us should start a business in a small town. I love it. Thanks to Katie of Urbanescapee.com for posting https://bitly.com/zcZf9T

One slide of many from Micropolitan Manifesto

Crazy Cold

"Brain freeze" takes on a whole new meaning with temperatures waivering between -21 to -32 degrees CELCIUS. For you Americans who like your cold in Fahrenheit, -5 to -25. Long undies under the ski pants just to walk to work. I have a flat tire I'm not changing until Monday when forecasts call for +3.
Needless to say, I've suspended my morning walks for a bit. I do the 2 blocks required to get to work. That's it. Can you blame me?

Feature Spew

I've taught many a pitching workshop and have warned entrepreneurs, innovators, and creators that they can become so enamored with their own "technology" or "idea" that they mistakenly spew about its features to their listeners. They do this without their audience having a REASON TO CARE, and no frame of reference to understand. The guy/girl pitching then becomes like one of those spitter dinosaurs that keck up a vision-obscuring-mucus onto their prey to immobilize them, and the listener is like the freaked out Nedry. Only that's NOT A GOOD THING when you are asking for money, buy-in, or support.

Thanks to Ron Wild, former resident at the Canadian Film Centre's Media Lab, for this hilarious and perfect example of feature spew:

Hand Made Prayers

We all need a little bit o'this.

They don't have to be embroidered. The first few were left blank for friends to write their own prayers on them in permanent markers. Subsequent flags got the embroidered treatment, mostly because I had the time (was sick in bed or good movie to watch) and the inspiration.

Symbol for Prosperity

Little Passions vs. Life Purpose

Recently I met with a group of women who were keen to find their "Life Purpose". That's a big thing to find. And I'm not entirely convinced that each of us has one, or wants to know what it actually IS. But  that's for another blog entry.

What these women had in common was a list of things that they wanted to DO. Like one always wanted to be an Opera Singer. She also liked to design costumes and thought that maybe she could have been a Costume Designer were it not for the fact that she's now 63. Party Planner was something that she'd always wanted to do but hadn't. She was despondent that she could never be that person who is Opera Singer, Costume Designer or Party Planner. Really? Never?


"What if you had an Opera themed party, invited your friends to perform their favourite aria, or whatever, and you had to come in costume? You could help friends who needed help in designing their costume, you could plan a wonderful party, and as host your could give yourself a couple of songs to perform."

She looked at me with stunned silence. It had not occurred to her that she could BE the very person she could "never" be. She just needed to scale back on the expectation. Often, it's that image of Over-the-Top PERFECTION that stops us from just enjoying the thing we want to do or be. 

Whole hearted living means that we can do and be that which we desire. The only thing that stands in the way is ourselves and how we view the scale of a thing. Genghis Khan didn't start out saying, "I'm going to rule the East." He started out with, "I'm going to avenge the stealing of my mother," then "I'm going to get back my wife who was stolen." and along the way, he became a fierce warrior.

I wanted to be a photographer. Fashion photos at first because that was the world I designed and modeled in and I LOVED fashion. So I shot some portfolios for fellow models and got that bug out of my system. I didn't need to be  a published professional photographer. I just wanted the thrill of capturing light, line, texture, form, movement, mood and colour in a shot. Composing. I kept the scale of the activity in check.

Last summer I got the idea that I should start a new business designing prayer flags. I'd done a few flags for a gift for a friend, and I spent the better part of 2 days scoping out the business plan/model for such an enterprise. I was two steps away from jumping in my car to head to the US for a gift show to scope out a rep. Then I thought, "But that is not my life's purpose. It's my passion, my pleasure, my hobby, my fun, my Joy but not my purpose. It's just for fun." I can explore the form without having to build a business around it. I kept the scale in check. It's a form of focusing.

So when you are dreaming about what's next, what now or what's your purpose, get clear about how you can have your Joys and Passions without having to make them into a big hairy deal of life's purpose -- unless you want to, unless you NEED to. The only person who says "it must be so" is you. So be careful the directions you give yourself. Just Start is a good direction. Stack your passions is another idea. So, like that 63 year old, Do Costumer Designer, do Opera Singer, do Party Planner, and do them all at once. Stack your passions. Just Start.

Walk at Work

A beloved friend who has also been a client told me this morning that when Steve Jobs had something important to say, he would go for a walk with that person. How fitting that I was walking while talking "with" my friend when I heard this. He was in Toronto, I in Canmore, and through the beauty of the iPhone, I was able to capture some of the sites I saw while we walked together. His words were the "soundtrack" to the live film before me.

These are for you, John. Now you can see the openness into which I yelled for the lost dog to return.

Yamnuska, before he became lost. Too many good smells, sooo little free-time.

Looking East at one of the 3 sisters.

Looking West up the Bow River tributary

Dawn comes late in Canmore. It's about 9am.

The sky may not be big, but it's glorious here.

Unsure

I'm unsure what to write about as there is a soup of feeling bubbling in me. Christmas season is over. Back to work, sure, but I love my work, so that's no hardship. I work in an amazing treehouse. What I'm unsure of is how to process the loss that comes my way as I get older. I've lost friends, dear family, loves, hopes and some dreams. Even some traditions, those things that can comfort us so by being repeated and looked forward to, are lost.

Breathing helps. Remembering what IS rather than what ISN'T helps. Clinging to those I love. Being grateful for what I am and have. But there is always the whisper of what has gone in every prayer for what is.

The girl group, the Dala, is coming to Banff Centre next week to play the Club. I'm intent on getting tickets. I hope that they play their song Hockey Sweater, which I send out into the ether for Brooks,   my nephews' uncle and brother to Keven. Brooks died suddenly just before Christmas. His absence is a reminder, that as sad as I might be at my losses, I'm still here.