As a stay at home dad for the last four months I had developed a decent routine for my son and I. The morning would consist of some breakfast, puzzles, setting up the train set, basketball out on the deck and then some spelling exercises before he dropped for his nap. Nap time for me meant getting a head start on house details like laundry and cleaning the kitchen before settling down to the computer. Here I would enter my cyber-world checking my emails, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace accounts, then finally setting up outside in our hammock with book and pen. It was my daily trips to the hammock where my pen would unleash the latest scribbles from my brain on to the paper - CHICO DAILY. Those days are now over it seems until July 12 arrives.
Once again I am volunteering for the Young Men's Adventure Weekend and I have been asked to be this year's communication manager. Every summer for almost twenty years, about 125 of us venture out into the wilderness to take part in this amazing mentorship program for young men ages 12-17. In the past I have held various roles at YMAW from the audio visual team to the MC but nothing as intense and involved as this year's role. As the main voice for our founder and event manager, I'm constantly on the phone and internet communicating to every member of the team and actively marketing YMAW to everyone, everywhere. I'm loving every minute of it. There is something incredibly powerful that happens when you are involved in higher purpose work. It's a positive feeling that carries with you through to your personal life and beyond.
So these hands are nice and full for this stay at home dad, well, at least nine fingers full. It wasn't only YMAW that helped slow down my creative writing outbursts lately. I've had my share of distractions including staging the whirl wind stag and stagette for our friends The Cruisers. Half a dozen clubs, copious beverages, a blow up doll autographed by a ton of strangers and six stitches on my pinky finger later - my writing simply came to a halt, until now. The Queen of Nanaimo ferry has just pulled into Galiano Island and I am ready for my digital detox weekend.
Since arriving at Chateau Two Penguins, a perfect waterfront home, I have been tempted various times to come write in this book. Stop! Put down the camera, the pen and take it all in already! I'm constantly torn between writing and completely experiencing these moments in paradise, like the renewing and cleansing swim in the Pacific Ocean I just enjoyed which included a close encounter with a massive sea lion checking us out. There is nothing like living by the water. That ocean air and a day full of play in the sun makes for a good deep sleep. This morning is cooler and more overcast than yesterday. A coffee and pen down by the shoreline is a great way to start this day, but after a few minutes sitting on this ass-numbing stone, I cozy up in another hammock, this one by the ocean instead of my deck.
Oh sweet victory! There is peace here with the chanting frogs and the singing birds. The oceans handshake with the rocky shore sets the beat to these natural orchestral maneuvers of the day. The wildlife play like precision timed samples dj'd by David Suzuki. Mosquitos, flies and bumblebees, nature is at work here. A hummingbird just buzzed by my ears sounding like a bee on steroids with a sub woofer on its back and is now hovering in front of two trees by my side. A duck just passed through these same trees, flying low and down into the water. The forest is dense and the green air fills my lungs. It all seems so perfect, so in tune and naturally harmonized. I feel very connected to it all, I feel nature's pulse. Here in the hammock I am swaying with the nature of things. I could stay here all day in solitude changing the world one sentence at a time. Galiano Island, I think I'm in love.
Away from the hammock fantasy I am now back in the reality of us being here together with the Griswolds. Eight is enough in this household. Four adults and four children temporarily take precedent over my blissful moments with nature. Children run around in circles in a game of tag while the adults prepare dinner. Now my new found reality is that I just got ditched by a seven year old in the middle of a triple word score in Scrabble. Ah the world of distractions.
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