Nexus

Resolution Run

We're going for a New Year's Eve run tonight .... I guess I do this most years. Running is key to my fitness plan and running on New Year's Eve is symbolic for me - it restates my intention to focus on running for the upcoming year. Even though I do lots of other sports that contribute to fitness, running year round is what holds it all together.

My health & fitness resolutions for the New Year .... (subject to revision & fine-tuning)

Fitness - these are 'maintain' type of resolutions -
(1) Run 3 X per week + 1-2 cross training activites (cycling or skiing)
(2) Gym work-out 3-4 X per week, which includes weights, abs and stretching - work out a new weight routine for the New Year
(3) Pilates weekly
(4) Lose those 5 pounds I keep talking about

Health -
(1) Cut way down on processed foods & sugars choosing 'real' food instead
(2) Choose organic when ever that is a viable choice
(3) Add 'greens' to my protein shake
(4) Consistently take a multi-vitamin supplement
(5) Consistently drink 8 glasses of water
(6) Eliminate trans fats

I won't say these are easy, but, they are part of my life now so its a renewed commitment. There are other, and probably more important, resolutions I want to make ... these I am going to sort out tonight. It is these ones that I need the most and will represent a greater challenge.

Becoming Human

This is the title of a book written by Jean Vanier. The book is the text of five talks that were given on the CBC program - Ideas, the Massey Lectures, commissioned by CBC Radio and Massey College of the University of Toronto.

Jean Vanier is the founder of L'Arche, an international network of communities for people with intellectual disabilities.

The first chapter of the book is 'Loneliness' and here are a few thought provoking paragraphs :

When people are physically well, performing creatively, successful in their lives, loneliness seems absent. But I believe that loneliness is something essential to human nature; it can only be covered over, it can never actually go away. <em>Loneliness is part of being human, because there is nothing in existence that can completely fulfill the needs of the human heart.</em>
Loneliness in one form is, in fact, esstential to our humanity. Loneliness can become a source of creative energy, the energy that drives us down new paths to create new things or to seek more truth and justice in the world. Artists, poets, mystics, prophets, those who do not seem to fit into the world or the ways of society, are frequently lonely. They feel themselves to be different, dissatisfied with the status quo and with mediocrity; dissatisfied with our competitive world where so much energy goes into ephemeral things. Frequently, it is the lonely man or woman who revolts against injustice and seeks new ways. It is as if a fire is burning within them, a fire fuelled by loneliness.

Loneliness is the fundamental force that urges mystics to a deeper union with God.

Pictures Were Worth Thousands of Words

Stephanie Nolan - The Globe and Mail's correspondent in Africa has a <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031229.w1904feat1229/BNStory/International/">story</a> today with the tagline 'A Missionary with a camera in the Congo in 1904 changed the world's view of human rights forever'. This was 100 years ago.

On Being Human

The following passage was written by Joan Chittister and is taken from a book entitled 'What Does it Mean to Be Human?' (Reverence for life reaffirmed by responses from around the world)

I have a memory as a twelve-year old crying silently, bitterly, face-down into a pillow on the livingroom floor. That day, my bird, my only life companion had disappeared up an open flue in our apartment wall. There were visiting relatives in the house, in my bedroom, whom I know were not to be disturbed. The needs of the guests came first, I had been taught. But when the house was safely dark, I let the pain out, not simply for the loss of my dearest possession but also in sorrow for my own carelessness in this regard. Then suddenly, I felt the covers around me tighten. My mother had gotten in on one side of the mattress, my father on the other, and together they held me all the long and empty night. I learned then that being human meant to enter into someone else's pain.

- Joan Chittister

'Being human means to be able to enter into someone else's pain.' I want to remember this everyday ... try thinking this and callously informing a homeless person he only needs to get a job. The hard part for me will be to remember this even as I want to punch the self rightgeous abuser of the homeless. This topic has personal significance to me at the moment.

My Resolutions - Part 1

The newspaper clipping that I have been copying these resolutions from (<a href="http://allseasons.typepad.com/allseasons/2003/12/next_year_next_.html">See original post</a>) is two years old and fairly yellow. I'm glad I saved the clipping because I still find a lot of meaning in the advice offered. There is something about this time of year - stock-taking and a wish for self improvement - that always makes me look for this type of advice.

I plan to sit with all ten of these and make them personal for me for 2004. Find some small way to apply each. I'll let you know what I come up with.

**Update** - Anyone wanting a photocopy of the original newspaper article - send me an email with you address and I will put one in the mail for you. Obviously only if you're OK with giving me your address but don't worry - it would not go anywhere.

Tenth Resolution

This is the last one - I wish there were more ....

10. Resolve to be you because others are already taken.
You and I are at our best when we're being authentic. We're at our best when we're being positively spontaneous because that's when all our energy is being invested in the person in front of us or the task at hand. In a hyper-competitive world, we cannot afford to second-guess ourselves. Success in the new, new age is all about speed. So act now, because if no now, when?

So there you have it, 10 New Year's resolutions to help improve your life in 2002. So decide. And act.

- Mike Lipkin

Out of the mouths of celebrities

This is one of the many <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20031227/QUOTE27/TPEntertainment/TopStories">year-end wrap-up columns </a>in the papers today ... it is <strong>really</strong> funny.

Ninth Resolution

This is the ninth in a series of ten .... this one has the most meaning for me this year.

9. Resolve to increase your creativity by letting go of the familiar.
Nothing is as far away as yesterday. Try to see the world through fresh eyes every day. As Salman Rushdie writes, every year is the Stone Age to the year that follows it. Listen to your intuition and follow your instincts, they'll tell you what to do before your head has had a chance to figure it out. You are a Picasso or Einstein at something. Doscover what it is and then develop it to the maximum.

- Mike Lipkin

Eighth Resolution

This is the eighth in a series of ten ...

8. Resolve to increase your human connectedness.
The person with the best connections wins. The wider your network, the more opportunities you generate. It's all about trust. And it's all about profile - your presence in the minds of the people who matter. So invest at least 10 percent of your time broadening your sphere of influence. Connect other people to opportunities within your network: cross polinate their potential. When you are with others, make every encounter is a pleasurable one. When you listen, truly listen. And burn your fear of rejection.

- Mike Lipkin

The Great White North

I'm afraid the great white north is very green right now (and I don't mean green in the environmental sense). Where is my snow? We have a few piles of crusty, icy stuff leftover from an earlier snowstorm .... but there is no snow and my grass is as green as it was in September.

On my morning run today I was trying to remember the lyrics of a song by the wonderful French Canadian singer/songwriter/poet Gilles Vigneault called 'Mon Pays' (My Country). I did a quick search and here they are translated into English.

If I can't see the snow I will daydream about it reading these wonderful words.

My Country (English translation of Mon Pays)

My country it is not a country, it is the winter
My garden it is not a garden, it is the plain
My path it is not a path, it is the snow
My country it is not a country, it is the winter
In the white ceremony
Where the snow marries the wind
In this country of powder snow
My father built his house
And I am going to be faithful
To his way, to his example
The room of friendship will be certain
When the other seasons come
To build near it
My country it is not a country, it is the winter
My refrain it is not a refrain, it is the flurries
My house it is not my house, it is the coldness
My country it is not a country, it is the winter
Of my great lonely country
I cry out before I am made silent
To all the people on earth
My house it is your house
Between my four walls of ice
I put my time and space
To prepare the fire, the place
For humans along the horizon
And for humans from my own race
My country, it is not a country, it is the winter
My garden, it is not a garden, it is the plain
My path it is not a path, it is the snow
My country it is not a country, it is the winter
My country it is not a country, it is the reverse
Of a country that is neither a country nor a homeland
My song it is not a song, it is my life
It is for you that I would like to possess my winters.