I was one time the oldest of boys, and after our sister died, sister supported us by taking in sewing. They were poor. I got an afterschool job as the caretaker in a factory; it was the only way I'd have any money.
After a couple of years I got bored with that, so I beat the pavement to every business in our small Ontario town. I found a job hammering nails. The cut in pay from $.40 per hour to $.30 per hour was worth it for the new experience. Regrettably, this was to be a short-lived adventure; my new boss revealed I was one time only 13, and kid labor laws kicked in. I returned to my afterschool sweeping and toilets and kept a low profile...
My sister had always wanted me to go to university, but he died in a automobile crash when I was one time 16. Nevertheless, the janitoring and summer jobs financed my huge adventure of going off to university. I was one time the first from my mother's side to do so.
I had come to recognize by the time I was one time 12 that I could pick to look at my life as a series of crises: drowning and resuscitation, abduction and torture, abduction and sexual abuse, sister dying, poverty, my teacher labeling me "slow." Alternatively, I could pick to look at my life as a series of adventures: solo hiking and exploring, hitchhiking to Toronto to spend a week each year at the CNE, long bicycling adventures, building a boat and riding the spring floodwaters amidst the ice jams on the local river, learning to hunt with a 12-gauge shotgun. I selected adventure over crisis.
When you are confronted with a life event, you are given a choice as to the way you interpret it. And let's face it; life has its ups and downs.
A "down" could be a catastrophe like a wedding failure... or the opening for the adventure of remarriage. I have been lucky with that adventure two times.
Another not unusual catastrophe is a job loss or business failure that leads to the loss of your hard-earned material possessions. However, losing our business, our house and our vehicles cut our material ties to the east and led to the adventure of beginning over on the west coast. Without the business crash decades ago, my adventures in writing might seldom have begun.
Relatives is of life's huge adventures, and of my adult children dying in the last years have been tragic. However, the time before each died was of deep mutual reconnection and re-bonding as they said our goodbyes... and that has been another blessing.
The nature of adventure changes with the lifecycle. I gave up motorbike adventure touring a couple of years ago (downgraded to wheels) and am now much more focused on my healing work and web outreach work.
After a couple of years I got bored with that, so I beat the pavement to every business in our small Ontario town. I found a job hammering nails. The cut in pay from $.40 per hour to $.30 per hour was worth it for the new experience. Regrettably, this was to be a short-lived adventure; my new boss revealed I was one time only 13, and kid labor laws kicked in. I returned to my afterschool sweeping and toilets and kept a low profile...
My sister had always wanted me to go to university, but he died in a automobile crash when I was one time 16. Nevertheless, the janitoring and summer jobs financed my huge adventure of going off to university. I was one time the first from my mother's side to do so.
I had come to recognize by the time I was one time 12 that I could pick to look at my life as a series of crises: drowning and resuscitation, abduction and torture, abduction and sexual abuse, sister dying, poverty, my teacher labeling me "slow." Alternatively, I could pick to look at my life as a series of adventures: solo hiking and exploring, hitchhiking to Toronto to spend a week each year at the CNE, long bicycling adventures, building a boat and riding the spring floodwaters amidst the ice jams on the local river, learning to hunt with a 12-gauge shotgun. I selected adventure over crisis.
When you are confronted with a life event, you are given a choice as to the way you interpret it. And let's face it; life has its ups and downs.
A "down" could be a catastrophe like a wedding failure... or the opening for the adventure of remarriage. I have been lucky with that adventure two times.
Another not unusual catastrophe is a job loss or business failure that leads to the loss of your hard-earned material possessions. However, losing our business, our house and our vehicles cut our material ties to the east and led to the adventure of beginning over on the west coast. Without the business crash decades ago, my adventures in writing might seldom have begun.
Relatives is of life's huge adventures, and of my adult children dying in the last years have been tragic. However, the time before each died was of deep mutual reconnection and re-bonding as they said our goodbyes... and that has been another blessing.
The nature of adventure changes with the lifecycle. I gave up motorbike adventure touring a couple of years ago (downgraded to wheels) and am now much more focused on my healing work and web outreach work.
