February 24, 2010

Sarah's Fairy Tale

Most of you know I'm not a native English speaker. Why I write this blog in English is a long story, but it's in large part because some of you, my friends, don't read French. But that's beside the point.

My friend Sarah is an English writer. So when she told me she'd written a fairy tale in French about our crazy weekend in Lac Brochet, I found it befitting to publish it here.

'Cause, ya know, she's the other way around :)

Her writing in French is as charming as her accent. So without further ado, lights, curtain. It's story time.

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Chalet Lac Brochet, Un conte de fées

Par Sarah Bartsch


Il était une fois, Carlos (La Princesa) a invité trois de ses bons amis et confrères de débauche à son chalet pour une fin de semaine de testosterone.

Son Hospitalité ayant aucuns limites, il a aussi aceulli Sarah, La Vrai Princesse (ayant un nom qui signifie Princesse et étant du sexe femelle) et qui dans le bon ordre des choses, était donné la chambre Princesse avec le grand lit

Alors, après les longs délais de départ attriuable au drug du choix de la royaume,

La fin de semaine est commencé.

Et quelle fin de semaine de

TESTOSTERONE!!!!

La (vrai) Princesse s’est trouvé dans un monde étrange

d’Alcool, pets, rots, et rock and roll où la pouvoir de son authorité semblait avoir aucun effet. Ses ordres: pas de Rock Band! n’était même pas entendu, peut-être a cause du qualité de rêve dans cette chalet enchanté, peut-être parce que les rots et pets étaient trop fort.

Comme test de ses pouvoirs elle a crié: OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! Mais rien n’est arrivé. If you can’t beat em, join em, elle a decidé, et elle a pris une autre gorgé de

Bière.

OK, OK, Rock Band it is: Run to the Hills, Sex on Fire, please Say it Ain’t So!

Plus ça devenait tard, plus les hommes dans le chalet ont transormé.

On pourrait plus les reconnaître. L’un d’entre eux est devenu un

monstre épeurant, un autre resemblait a un

Cowboy. Un autre a tranformé en marin saoul et a pris son planche de neige pour un bateau. Il y avait les bizzares de disparations et réapparitions. Désespéré, La Belle Princesse a pris la potion GJ en espérant de transformé elle même, parce que c’était trop pour elle de naviguer cette monde inconnu.

Hélas! La potion avait seulement les effets de transformation avec les niveaux hautes de testosterone et La Princesse était surtout une créature de

L’Estrogène.


Traumatisé, La Princesse est sorti du chalet pour chercher son Prince. Elle a marché et marché, elle a croisé le Lac Brochet, mais elle n’a pas trouvé son Prince. En retournant au chalet, elle a entendu une voix qui venait d’un trou énorme dans la glace. La voix s’addressé à la Princesse : “Princess, Princess, open your mind, monsters can be Princes”. Soudainement, La Princesse elle même était transformé.


Elle était rempli de joie avec la réalisation qu’elle avait quatre Princes.


La Fin

February 15, 2010

Release With A Sigh

My eyes are closed. I’m concentrating on my breath. Not 15 minutes ago, I was running about in a bustling noisy workplace. I’m about to turn my day around.

“Take a tall, dignified seat. Push your sitting bones against the Earth and feel it support you. Lift your heart and push the crown of your head to the Sky.” Her gentle voice echoes softly in the silent room. Kelly, my yoga teacher, is about to work her magic. Again.

When I started yoga, back in November, I must have been the most unconvinced student to ever enter the studio. I’m all about hard training and physical effort at the threshold of suffering and I have high aims for the coming summer... Do I really have time for this?

I would be hard pressed to take any credit for attending a yoga class. This is actually part of a much broader voyage of the soul that started some years back with a friendship very dear to me. She knows who she is :)

Having successfully dragged my sorry ass into meditation – I will never thank her enough for that – I guess it was only natural she would eventually convince me to try yoga.

I wanted to take Jiu-Jitsu...

“Take a deep breath. Release with a sigh.” A wave of exhaling sounds fills the room, and as I do it myself, I get the impression I’m taking the first real breath of my day. Kelly’s soft voice guides us into a mindful introspection. “Dive inside and scan your body. Notice any part that needs extra loving care. Do this with kindness.”

What I feared would be a gimmicky stretching class disguised as a body-and-soul experience for bio-tofu enthusiasts turned out to be a fantastic discovery. Kelly’s Kripalu method combines strength training, flexibility and presence of the mind, organized in such a way that it’s challenging, soothing and rewarding all at once.

As the class goes through the series of poses, she walks around and patiently corrects postures, adapting her approach to the specifics of everyone. “If it’s available, explore deepening the stretch.” Her mindful attention is never intrusive, her comments always uplifting. She’s a teacher, in the real sense of the term.

"Breathe your thoughts out. Let them flow away, into nothingness." As the class closes its end, we’re invited to rest, and eventually to come back to the tall seating position we’ve opened the session with. “May all beings live in peace and happiness.” She bows, thanks everyone, invites them to do the same, smiles. And as she does, a new day begins.

Since I met Kelly, I have not only dramatically improved my running performance, my body strength and my flexibility; I can now root my soul into the Earth and stretch it to the Sky.

Namaste, Kelly McGrath.

February 8, 2010

The Snowflake Principle

You know, when she left I think I really accepted the situation well. I follow a life philosophy of not building expectations and living the present moment, two principles which may sound tacky but make an unbelievable difference when applied to situations like this. I had been extremely happy for four years, after all, and I’d enjoyed every little moment of a fun, creative relationship. So again, when it ended, I felt mostly joy and a sense of achievement, simultaneously with the surprise and sadness. I knew why she was leaving. I simply made sure this had been given proper thought and wished her well.

I had a stripped-down house on my hands and a tight construction project to manage. I had a full-time job in the meantime and not a minute to myself. I was challenged, on edge, tired and needed, most of all, to stay focused.

I’d also lived through moments like this before in my life; I knew I can be happy alone. I know the lifestyle, the pros and cons. I mostly like it.

As construction was ending, I had vacation projects, plenty of awesome friends around me, a brand new house to enjoy living in. I picked up running again. I took a project manager position at work, which brought a welcome change. I went to the movies, ate in restaurants, enjoyed Montreal. Fall came late so I even had the impression of not completely losing my summer over a house makeover and my marriage’s surprise-ending.

Romance-wise, I met just enough interesting people to be reassured there are, in fact, plenty of fish... And the little thrills of dating aren’t that bad, either. Among the unavoidable load of over-the-top desperate thirty-somethings I’ve crossed paths with, I mostly spent enjoyable time with stable, pleasant, interesting young women with a life and stories of their own.

Now, it seems life is testing me. The weeks have turned into months. Seasons have changed, not for the better. No one feels like going out. Plans get canned left and right; the cuddle-together-on-the-couch season is peaking, rubbing on my frozen nose the fact that I have no one in my life.

The previous excitement of my new life has become life, period. It’s the dead of winter, everything’s frozen, still, lifeless, dirty. I’m cold all the time. “Outside” is now a harsh, inhospitable concept keeping me away from BBQs, runs on the mountain, aimless wandering, cigars with friends, terraces, motorcycle travel. It’s waning my will for adventure. Drains my life force.

The weight of the multiple layers of clothing I have to wear adds up everyday, like falling snow in Maryland. And the weight of the multiple thoughts about my life and where it’s going are doing the same.

I think I’m depressed.

February 1, 2010

Big Jay and The River of the Last Chance

I love my friends. Every single one of them is unique. No matter how different we might be from one another, the one thing that unites us all is our taste for adventure.

My friend Jérôme (everybody calls him Jay, or Big Jay) almost kills himself every year. No shit. He dove head first in a 12-inch-deep fountain he mistook for a pool. He punctured a main artery in his leg while climbing up a fence in New-York. He was hit straight in the eye by a flying 2x4 while doing construction work... We’ve stopped counting the amounts of close calls he got, yet somehow he always manages to escape them almost unscathed.

So you will understand our worrying when he announced that he was going to spend a full week canoeing down La Romaine, a whitewater river that runs down several hundred kilometers in Northeastern Quebec...

What I didn’t know back then and only learnt some days ago is that Big Jay and 3 other friends had scheduled this trip because it was the last possible summer to explore the beautiful river... since Hydro-Québec is going to build no less than 4 dams for electricity production starting in 2009, hence transforming the river forever.

Not only will it not be possible to practice whitewater sports anymore on La Romaine, but the river as we know it will also cease to exist, being replaced by a chain of retention basins and power plants. Numerous species of wild fish thrive in and around this river, among which salmons and trouts, as well as wild animals. Native populations also depend on the river for a part of their food supply.

Wanting to see for themselves this beautiful piece of heritage before it’s too late, Big Jay and our friends Martin, Cindy and Pat packed their bags and a pair of canoes, jumped on a plane that carried them and their gear up the river... and traveled it for a week in total autonomy!

I invite you to follow their fantastic adventure through a series of videos they created to share their experience, and a last sight at beautiful, wild La Romaine before we fill it with concrete and exploit it for electricity.













And if you are interested with the La Romaine project and its impact, check out “Chercher le courant”, a French documentary film soon to be released.

Enjoy!