365 Gratitude: I'm Sorry

My sincerest apologies to all you dedicated readers (or those of you who stumble on my blog from time to time). I have forgotten to record my gratitude things. I will list just a few of the things that have made me happy recently and then get back on track this week!

1) The Olympics
2) Winning Womens Curling Gold
3)Winning Mens Curling Gold
4) Winning Womens Hockey Gold
5) Finally finishing my delivery systems paper
6)The safety of Canadian Bobsledders
7)The Warm Temperatures Today
8) 10 Hours of Work on Valentines Day and 7 the following day
9) Alone Time to Watch Harry Potter and Refuel
10) A Great Province/Country to Live In!

I promise I will do better this week. Please forgive me.

-Britt

365 Gratitude- Installment 4

This week was a little crazy, and not going to lie somedays it was hard to find something to be grateful for, or sometimes I wouldn't think of it until the end of the day. Never fear, I managed to find at least one each day :)

February 1, 2014- JOEL PLASKETT! I know technically this started the night before, but it was too good not to be grateful for. I love Joel Plaskett, and what's more he played a lot from his Ashtray Rock soundtrack. It was actually the best concert I have ever been to. And I went with someone really cool :)

February 2, 2014- Winterfest! This was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. there were giant snow slides, a snow maze, animals, dog sled races and more. I had to volunteer at a few events for class and this one was pretty great (although a little cold and chaotic).

February 3, 2014- Class. After the strike it was pretty great to be back in class again. Although this euphoria quickly wore off with the amount of strike talk and work piled on.

February 4, 2014-Yoga. It's free, active and fun. All I need to be happy and relaxed. Although I also realized I was a little too tight which stressed me out, likely making me tighter...

February 5, 2014- Sleeping in. Rolled out of bed at 8:45 for a 9:30 class. Life is good.

February 6, 2014- TedxUNB. Pretty great speakers, good food, all that was needed to end a good/stressful/busy day.

February 7, 2014- Bed. I fell asleep at about 9:45 tonight. It was a Friday. I was a little tired.

February 8, 2013- Mountain Biking on City Trails. Weird eh? The snow and ice make it just like going through the woods. Also the view was breathtaking.

February 9, 2013- Warm, comfy sweaters. It's not really that cold out today, but work is freezing, so there is a nice warm sweater at our desk. And it's soft. That's all.                                                          

Ted X UNB

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to get to watch some TED talks in person at the (now) annual UNB Tedx.

The theme was igniting the spark and the individuals there tonight definitely did that and more. They kind of made me look at my life with a critical view and forced me to think a little more that million dollar question on my mind (and apparently everyone else's lately) "What do I want to be when I grow up?" More to come on that one. 

There were seven live speakers and two videos. 

Christy Clarke was first to take the stage and she talked about horses. I mean what better way to start off the night! She worked with her first rescue when she was in high school and adopted her first horse when she was only 17. She also talked about how horses listen to that gut feeling and how they stay in herds, protecting each other. If they sense something is wrong, they'll run, they won't stay and wait until they see danger because then it might possibly be too late. That was actually a really good point. How often do we sense something is wrong, maybe it isn't danger but it might be the wrong decision, and we stick with it until it blows up in our face? She also made the point that horses have more fun, which I really can't argue with, maybe we could all benefit from some "Horsing Around" (haha)

Greg Hemmings was up next. He is a filmmaker primarily based out of Saint John. Not going to lie, I wasn't expecting a whole lot when he stepped on stage. I was pleasantly surprised when he started talking about time spent in Venezuela working with a music program, and how that program eventually made it's way back to NB. More than that he talked about the six traits of success. I may have forgotten most of them (this is why I take detailed notes in class) but he definitely mentioned setting goals, setting more goals and telling others when you have achieved them. Something for thought...

After Greg Hemmings' talk we watched a TEDx Video from somewhere else in the world. It was an Italian guy and he was talking about listening. He told a story of going to an African community and teaching them how to "do agriculture." The Italians walked in with a wealth of knowledge, a ton of Italian seeds, and low and behold tomatoes, and other crops grew. Just when those tomatoes were about to be harvested a herd(?) of hippos came in and ate everything. The natives laughed at the Italians because they knew that was going to happen all along, but never bothered to tell them BECAUSE THEY NEVER ASKED! The entire point of this talk was to shut up and listen. Listen when someone asks you for help, don't just do!

Corey Poirier was the last speaker before intermission. He is a stand up comedian, radio personality, writer and so on. In his life he claims to have interviewed over 2500 of the worlds most "successful" people. Th kicker is he defines success not by the money they made, but the impact they had. It was a very well laid out 5 point presentation on how to get rid of the "weeds" in our life. The "technology" weed , the "bad weeds" weed, the "why me" weed, the "I can't" weed and one more that I seem to have forgotten. Near the end of his talk he told a story of his granddad. A man who dropped out of school in 3rd grade to help around the house, and eventually became a carpenter. He was asked out of the blue one day to build a scale replica of a space ship in fibreglass. He took the contract without even knowing how to build from fibreglass, other more experienced carpenters turned it down. It just goes to show education isn't everything!

Intermission was up next, it had free food. Even if the speakers were garbage (they weren't), that made it worth it. 

Gene Fowler's talk was a little crazy, a little heartbreaking and a lot awesome. He is someone who comes from a small town, works hard, gets lucky, gets unlucky, works hard again, gets lucky again, continues to work hard, loses that luck once more, loses everything he has known, and then finds meaning where he never expected it. Gene Fowler is a graphic design artist from "the Miramichi." He made it big, but then everything crashed and he had to lay off friends, family and community members. He burned more bridges than I hope I will ever have to in my life. Just when he lost it all in his company his wife left, then within 2 weeks his father died. How does one overcome that loss? He ends his Tedx Talk about how life is about quality not quantity. It's something we have all heard for years, but never has it been more real than when this guy was standing in front of us telling from his own experience. This one really shook me a little and made me really think about what's worth it. 

Jan Wong is a lady who spoke primarily of mental illness. She was writing for the Globe and Mail when her story was criticised. Not only was it criticised by her readers, but ended up being criticised by her editor as well (after it was approved by them before publication). She then was unable to write but her work would not accept her diagnosis as an illness. There was a long battle when they tried to fire her, because they had no grounds, and she "won." She ended up publishing a successful book on the matter, then the Globe came after her again. The moral of her story was keep fighting, don't give up and mental illness is just that, an illness.  

After that we watched another pre recorded video on emotional vulnerability. It was pretty good, nothing spectacular, it just reminded us that we are worth "it" and it is ok to show a little emotion from time to time. 

Dr. Levi Cosgrove was the second last speaker on the program. He is doing some super cool stuff with bionic limbs in the US. It's mindblowing to think that we can now make limbs for people that can not only support their bodyweight but can also work alongside a healthy limb. These bionic body parts can move when you think about moving them. The nerves are rewired and a computer is trained to read the nerves. How crazy is that? What will this mean for people born missing limbs, or even in the future those who are paralysed? Is there a future for them as well?

Dr. Ryan Hamilton closed off the night (at about 10:30 (aka past my bedtime)). Ryan Hamilton is a great speaker, with a sports background so he is a pretty interesting guy. Tonight he talked about courage, fear, and acceptance. He told us stories of cancer survivors who taught him lessons when he was supposed to be teaching them, truly incredible stuff. However the story that kind of resonated with me was of an old man. This guy worked everyday of his life, and once he retired walked every day to fill the time. Then one day he was attacked by a bear (no joke) and had some minor injuries, scratches, broken bones, and some bruises. More than that he was afraid to walk anymore. The point Dr. Hamilton made was sometimes things happen and sometimes they scare us. This guy started walking again once he found a big stick to carry with him. Maybe we need to do something to get over that fear, but we need to face it. Sometimes acceptance is the greatest form of courage.