April

Gotta make hay when the sun is shining and that's what I've been making. I had a record month and managed to pay off a nice chunk of our biz startup debt as well as secure many new customers. I'm up over 80 now, some weekly, many monthly, many more seasonally. Cory Straker stayed with us for a few weeks and helped me bang out 2-3 treatments a day, which I know doesn't sound like much, but they are usually 6-7 hour jobs for one person so you do the math. Cory also lectured, I mean educated, us on nutrition introducing us to such wonders as Cocunut Oil instead of Margarine, Walnut Oil instead of salad dressing, Yams instead of Chips among other things. It was great actually. Besides, we introduced him to stuff too ok.

May is beginning a bit slower than April mostly due to the fact that Cory helped me do six weeks of work in 3 - so today I am going to go back cold calling like I did in the beginning, to ensure business continues to move ahead strong. Actually I have an exciting meeting this morning as I'm sitting down with an ecologist to discuss eco lawn/landscape plans for the grounds of the local university. I'll let you know how it goes. Anyways, in case you're interested, most of our treatments involve power-raking, aerating, liming, seeding, compost top dressing and then 2 other treatments unique to our company that are garnering great results. Mycorrhizae Fungi and Effective Micro-organisms. These are the new innovations in lawn care and will be standard one day, especially in 2012 when Canada bans pesticides. Amazing stuff you should try in your lawn and garden.

Angie has been more supportive, helpful than is possible by continuing to make our company look good online and in magazines as well as keeping me fed and loved each night as I roll in exhausted at 8pm. In her spare time she works for Nurse's Next Door, is an excellent mother to 3 high energy kids and has transformed the clay pit outside our house to a lovely landscape. She also has been doting over her other kids, veggie plants. I can't get enough of this woman and I shudder to think what life would be like without her.

You may have heard about our Disneyworld plan. Next January we are flying down (thank you Visa Avion points) to South Carolina to visit my parents. They are only 7 hours from Disneyworld - which I know sounds like a lot- but not to 3 motivated kids. We made a deal with the kids that if they wanted to go they would have to work for it just like us. They called our bluff and said, fine, we'll start our own business. And that's exactly what they've done. Ethan and Lex are the neighborhood Pooper Scoopers and have gotten quite busy. In fact, Ethan said the other day as we were driving somewhere "I only have Sunday and Wednesday off next week." haha. Currently they are bringing in over $100 a month heading towards their goal of $1500 for the year. Maddie has been baking delicious cookies and selling them along with home-made lemonade and after a strong first Saturday ($50 profit), she's been busy the past few weekends but excited to get back at it. We never wanted kids who saw places like Disneyworld as a right instead of a privelage, so we're hoping that working for it will help.

As usual, I gotta get back to it, so tales of church, wine tasting at Averill Creek and movies will have to wait until next month. Speaking of next month, our good friends Darcy and Hope/Family are coming to stay with us for a ENTIRE night. Can't wait....to convince them to stay longer.

John

Ressurection: Factual Truth?

I hesitate even further to open this 4 gallon pail of worms because casting doubt on the factual ressurection of Jesus Christ is analagous to denying the existence of God. In fact, that would be the expected reaction to anyone doing such as thing. So, I'm not about to be one of those people. You can relax. Dad. :)

Instead, I will share 3 lines from "For the harvests of the spirit" - a song we sung just this morning at our church's easter service. These words perfectly sum up where I'm at on the issue.

For the wonders that astound us
For the truths that still confound us
Most of all that love has found us, thanks be to God.

Happy Easter family and friends.

John

Jesus' Death: Divine Necessity?

I hesitate to open such a large can of worms but I will for two reasons. The first is connected to my current distance from such matters. There was a time when all I thought about was questions such as these but now that I'm a small business owner of an organic lawn care business, I'm up to my knees in dirt and any spare time I do have is spent catching up on invoices and sending out quotes. I miss these questions and the discussians they create. The second reason is my apparent "love of controversy" as my wife jests - to which I respond - go make me supper woman.

As you may recall, I opened a smaller can of worms last Christmas when I intimated that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin but was written that way as an alternative to Caesar (also suposedly born of a virgin). A spirited discussion resulted - one that will hopefully continue here.

When it comes down to it, Crossan and Borg are quite right. Jesus' death was either the result of divine necessity (God needed him to die) or human inevitability (Jesus message destined him to die). I guess the third alternative is unbelief (there is no God and Jesus may or may not have existed either) but let's assume they both exist, because I believe they do (not that that is evidence).

Most of us were raised to believe, and still believe, that the death of Jesus was out of divine necessity. God's creation was steeped in sin and previous attempts to break them out of it had fallen short (flood, visions, animal sacrifice etc). God needed a permanent solution. It was decided (at some point or was known all along) that the only suitable long term solution would be the death of God's perfect and only son. Only a perfect human could free imperfect humanity from their sin. With the plan in place Jesus would appear just at that right time to accomplish God's plan. With centuries of prophecy behind him, Jesus appeared on the scene miraculously and after thirty years of stone masonry/ carpentry Jesus brought about the discussed plan.

Approximately three years later, Jesus freely gave up his life, was crucified on a Roman cross, and in his death, brought about the salvation of mankind. Three days later Jesus walked out of the tomb, spent a month preparing his disciples to take over and then returned to the God he had left 33 years ago. This of course is a brief summary of the plan of divine necessity.

The second option of human inevitability claims crucifiction was simply the logical end for any man living in the first century who taught the kind of things Jesus taught. Like Martin Luther King after him, Jesus was killed because the ruling powers/culture of the day was not able to absorb the implications of his words. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not, which means he's no longer all powerful and without an all powerful leader the (ironic) Pax Romana can be threatened. Rome responded swiftly to this threat and although the bible portrays Pilate as an "aw shucks, do we really hafta kill him" kind of guy, it was Rome through Pilate in the end who tortured Jesus, nailed him to a cross, and carried out his death. Sure it was the Jews idea, but the Romans made it happen.

It's important to note here that Rome didn't crucify people willy nilly. It was a brutal capital punishment reserved only for those unfortunate souls who subverted Roman law thereby disturbing Pax Romana. In other words, the Romans would not have crucified Jesus because some orny Jews pressured them "crucify him crucify him crucify him" and like tired parents they finally caved. We must remember this was an empire built on doing what it wanted, when it wanted to whoever it wanted and so in the end, they chose to crucify Jesus along with two other revolutionary, freedom fighters, as the greek word for "thieves" implies- thus killing off 3 potential threats to their rule and ideology. Rome had the Jews to thank for alerting them to this potential threat so in an odd friendship, these two enemies killed Jesus Christ.

As I reflect on the options before me, I find the second option of human inevitability to be more likely and thus inspiring to my journey of faith. Jesus passionately preached his beautiful message knowing full well it would one day lead to his death. His predictions in the gospels "the Son of Man will be.."were not indicative of his rememberance of the heavenly deal he made with his father 33 years prior but rather his intuitive sense that the world in which he lived was not yet ready to hear a "pray for your enemies, turn the other cheek, religion is not important, woman are not inferior and Caesar is not Lord" kind of message." Jesus continued preaching anyways, knowing full well it would cost him his life. And when it did, Jesus died with love in his heart for the humans he served, even the ones who brought about his death. It was a Good Friday.

A few days later an awakening occured. But that's another story.

John

March Update

It has actually stopped raining 9 days a week so I can finally get some work done.. I remember a good friend telling me "you'll love the Island but get used to the wet winters." Didn't sound too bad then but after 3 months I get it sky. Time for something new.

It's amazing how much our business has changed since its inception. I think about what we knew last fall and what we know today and there's simply no comparison. I think besides the financial struggle, having this winter "off" was the best thing as it allowed Angie and I to really think things through, plan, plot and learn. I took an extremely helpful Organic Turf Management course, had a coffee with the world's foremost organic turf guru, devoured every Seth Godin word, solidified my product line, made great connections, and Angie created our phenomenol website. You know you take pride in something when a visitor to your site elicits a bottle of wine and dance around your house (not that we did any of that)

With a spring of Lush growth ahead of us (hey, Lush, that's the name of your..) we are feeling confident, secure, assured for the first time in some time. In the last month we've gotten over 30 new customers and its grows every day. We are the only chemical free lawn company in the valley and the word is getting around. We hadn't plan to hire this year but we may have to re-examine things. In the meantime, I'm working from dawn to dark trying to get the treatments (seeding) in so the grass plants have time to establish themselves before the heat of summer hits. Yes, I am a farmer now. Never checked the weather so much in my life.

Next month I'm teaching 4 workshops on how to care for your lawn naturally. This is important as I've really missed the teaching part of my past life and this is a way to keep that alive.

Anyways, the sun's up so I'm off. Miss you, wherever you are.

John

Humus

Not the eating kind, although just as healthy, humus is literally the place where new life springs up. Humus is what's left when micro-organisms (bacteria) consume organic matter (vegetable waste, leaves, grass clippings etc). We call this finished product compost. Our composters or compost piles are host to this process. This black gold when used at the time of planting or to topdress tired lawns will inject health and vitality into otherwise barren places.

The interesting thing about humus, besides its ability to grow things well, is that it comes from the same etymological root as the world humility. I don't know about you but due to my "hold nothing back, live out loud, risk it all" personality, I have experienced my fair share of mud on my face. In fact, sometimes my whole self has been so mired in mud I've required the help of others just to get moving again. The unfortunate thing about these muddy times, is all I'm thinking about is getting out so I don't take the stuck time to think or notice. It's only when I'm out that I'm able to realize my growth.

The humus analogy is apt (and not my own). New life grows out of mud. So next time you're in it, don't waste your time trying to get unstuck. Let it grow you up.

John

I'm an Athiest?

Having always been a person of deep faith I was struck across the face this morning as my author of choice suggested otherwise. He claimed that many people of faith actually function as athiests believing that they alone are in control. The result of this unbelief is it leads a person to impose their will on others (control) the only real option if its all up to them. This of course puts enormous stress on all their relationships (who likes to be controlled?) and if left unchecked, will cause breakage. The end result is burnout, depression and despair as the person learns that they can't control others and the world will not bend to their will. As depressing as this all sounds, its much worse living like this. And explains a lot. If you're this person.

In other news, I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" yesterday's gold medal game. Most of the time involved me biting my nails and ignoring my stomach pain. Perhaps the stress came from the fact that I knew I couldn't control the outcome? Hmmm. That being said, I did predict at the onset of the game that Crosby would score the winner so maybe I did control things....

John

Let your life speak

It's rare when we read in a book descriptions that so closely resemble ourselves. When it occurs it can be un-nerving, off putting, or, if we're open, convicting. Let Your Life Speak has been one of those books for me. It was wisely recommended by a perceptive friend, years back when I was lost in the thick woods of life, career, vocation. The book's subtitle is "Listening for the Voice of Vocation" and its genius is how it resists the temptation to give 7 steps to Vocational Bliss, or How to Discover your True Self in 15 days - but instead asks the tough probing questions that lie at the heart of who we are. In my experience, it is difficult if not impossible to be at peace until we know why we are. This book has helped me know, time and time again.

John

Shortcuts

Shortcuts like McDonald's may seem like the best decision in the moment but almost always are fraught with disapointment (and diarrhea) afterwards. My own life has often been an exercise in one shortcut after another leading me further away from my intended destination. The times that my short cuts have seemed to "work" were because I had arrived but not at the place I intended. I could write a book (Close Cuts: Random House, 2012) on the shortcuts I have taken in my life and what I learned from them but for today I'll just leave it at acknowledgement along with this quote from The Dalai Lama:

"When we approach probelms with compassion, sincerity and good motivation our solututions will take longer but ultimately, they are better."

This principle should be applied to the hundreds of situations and scenarios both large and small that each of us experience and avoid each day. The point is, the quickest, easiest most pain free options we are all so fond of take longer, are more difficult and usually cause more pain than we can imagine.

Here's to long cuts, life change and healing our world. And here's to Team Canada taking the long cut to gold.... :)

John

Olympic Controversy

There is no doubt a lot of money goes into the Olympics. For instance, 25 million dollars was spent on the opening ceremony alone. You would have thought another $50,000 could have been spent to "inspire" Bryan Adams to actually sing or even convince Ms. Furtado to not wear that. Critics of these games claim - the money should be given to the poor instead. Although noble in nature, this re-occuring comment is eerily similar to one made by Judas right before he betrayed Jesus Christ. There is a difference between what's righteous and self righteous.

Besides advertising, money has very little to do with the Olympics and certainly is not its point. The point is what it represents and even more, what it means. And after watching our mogul hero Bilodeau win our country's first gold on Canadian soil and then later embrace his family in studio, its meaning is evident. We play these games because at their core exists the elements that make us truly human - passion, drive, determination, commitment, discipline, unity, success, love. And perhaps most importantly, belief in oneself.

Well done Athletes, you have set the bar high.

John

It's our business

You may have noticed we haven't blogged in awhile. My apologies. Believe it or not, spring is on it's way here so we've been hard at work on our spring programs, marketing campaign, etc. If you don't believe me, about the spring I mean, you'll have to come over and check out our herb garden, and blueberries/strawberries and lilacs and all the other nature we just planted last week. That's right Easterners, we've been planting. Score.

Nature. I work with it. This is my new life focus. For years I worked with people in church settings, now I work with plants in nature settings. Bill Hart laughed out loud when my parents told him "John started his own Organic Lawn Care Business. No seriously Bill, he did." Growing up in Dauphin, Bill had the greenest thumb I had ever seen. Entering his backyard was like being reborn. The way he arranged his plants and knew them by name, it was boring, to be honest. But now, I get it. I see. Nature is a civilization given to us by God to care for. That's a tall order, one that I resented for years as I pushed our old electric mower across our tree happy property. Bill reminded my parents of this "I remember driving by your house and seeing John out there on the lawn fighting the cord and scowling." I remember too. I suppose until you approach nature on your own terms, it'll feel like a sentence.

Last week I was sitting in my minister's office talking to him about the ebbs and flows of my life. He suggested I must miss the ministry. My answer was muddled as I said yes and no and well, hmm, I guess there are parts I miss. The truth is, there are things I miss like trips and events and causes and classes, and community. Especially the community. I miss our dear friends, like you the readers. I don't miss the boxes. Theological and Professional. Still, ministry was good to me and my family and I will cherish those years for the rest of my life.

In some ways, old ministry habits die hard. I still meet with people one on one to discuss things precious to them. The discussian now favors what's underfoot instead of what's inside yet its amazing how often the two come together. I've already officiated the wedding of one of my client's daughters for instance. I still give speeches. I joined the local BNI (Business Networking International) and each Thursday I meet with 40 other business owners to share. Included in the sharing time is a 60 second infomercial where we stand up and promote our business. It's good still being able to use my gifts. Later this Spring I will be facilitating 5 workshops on how to care for your lawn naturally, chemical free, and why it makes sense. That's the neat thing about owning your own business, you can structure it to support your strengths (and subcontract all your weaknesses :)

Yikes, its 7:35am and the house is still asleep. That's not good when kids are supposed to be in school. Better run.

See you sooner next time.

John

Agent of Hope

If you're like me, you've probably found the Haiti tragedy difficult to comprehend. So you haven't. You've distracted yourself with Facebook, listening to music, sports, sleep -anything really. With numbers of the dead closing in on 100,00 men, women and yes, children, I don't blame you. That's half of Regina. Dead. 10% of Calgary. Dead. 20 Duncans. Dead. It boggles the mind and breaks the heart. Especially THIS story. You may wonder what you can do, if anything? Giving money is probably the most popular and easy option - and for good reason, without it, relief, supplies etc. would not be available. If you have money, you need to give. Period. If you don't have money, and with an economic year like this last one it is highly likely, you need to get creative. One lady in our church stayed up all weekend and made 80 beautiful cards. She will use the money from the cards for relief and the sold cards will be used for encouragement. What skills do you have? Who do you know? What are you passionate about? What great ideas do you have? It's time we pulled ourselves out of the rubble and became agents of hope. In times like these, it's the only certain thing we possess.

Haiti

Prayers are with the people of Haiti today and indefinitely after they experienced their worst earthquake in 200 years. Tens of thousands are feared dead. Millions are displaced.
We can help.

John

Words of Wisdom?

Here's some things I overheard in my house today.

Alexa - "It doesn't matter cause all old people look the same." (I told the kids that the actors from the first 3 Spiderman movies wouldn't be returning for the 4th movie. Ethan asked "But what about the old grandma?" - to which Alexa responded....

Maddison -"We can't use it, the batteries are out on the light bulb." (The reason why we couldn't hang up her lamp)

Angie - "Yeah, but can you use it to make phone calls?" (My wife questioning the wisdom of acquiring a Blackberry for our business)

Ethan: - "Hey Dad, an actual Olympian who plays Olympics is coming to our school." (No word yet on what specifically he plays)

John - "I think the Oilers might win tonight" (Immediately after saying this John woke up)

Father

Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a business/marketing guru with the unique gift of saying things plainly and poignantly. There is a link to his blog on the right and you can actually sign up to recieve his free wisdom each morning. If you're thinking "I'm not a business dude and marketing is only for blood sucking leeches", his words often transend business, touching the core of what makes us human. His "Tale of two Lemonade Stands" was especially good today. Besides blogging, Seth has authored more than 3o books, many of which are free here.

John

My Friend Tee Y

This week my good friend Ty or (Mr. Tee Y) as the Ugandans called him - came to visit. Ty and I got tight in youth group because we laughed at the same stupid stuff while managing to still take things deep. If you've ever seen our grad videos, you know the stupid I speak of. Ty had never been to the Island which is why he asked "which airport do I fly into - Vancouver or Victoria" and "how long does it take to drive across the island, 1hr?" His ignorance made the prospects of us having a swell time much higher.

We only had 2 days so the pressure was on. Its a curious thing how when entertaining guests we're willing to do all sorts of amazing things we don't ever seem to do on our own, when its just us. We started by canoeing in the Ocean. As we set out Ty asked if I had ever done this before (not that he was nervous). I said yes because I had been canoeing just not exactly here, in the unpredictable and often dangerous Ocean. 2 hours later we rowed back in having been entertained by a curious sea lion, passing jelly fish and splendid views. We also managed to talk about our women and how lucky they are. I mean we. We arrived home just as the kids were getting back from school. Ty is one of the few truly gifted 20 something with kids that I know and so it took all of 3 min before they loved him as their own. We decided to take this energy on the road and found ourselves swimming, sliding, and chicken fighting in the local pool until supper time. After the kids were in bed we spent the rest of the night laughing ourselves sick at old grad videos and stories from days gone by.

The next (and last) day Ty came with me on a lawn consultation (what a professional) and then by some small miracle we were able to borrow a full set of hockey equipment and play drop in hockey at Fuller Lake arena. I name the arena because rumor has it the Russians will be using it as their Olympic practice facility next month. Greatest player in the world practicing at my local rink. Anyways, hockey is one sport Ty and I had never played together so it was awesome. He's a magician out there with his passes which explains how even I was able to score, conveniently in the final minute. In the afternoon we met Angie's family at EVE's Park, an undiscovered jewel just east of Crofton. There we witnessed 300+ year old Douglas Firs still stretching for the heavens. After, we spent the rest of the day drinking coffee, honey brown and re-watching our stupidity. Later that night we watched Blood Diamond, Ty's favorite movie. Angie and I had never seen it before. WOW best describes Dicaprio's performance and the film's message. Conflict free diamonds folks, when buying, always make sure.

Ty left the next morning having recieved a full Island Experience. Aquaintances are dime a dozen in this world but great friends are hard to find. Thanks for the visit buddy. See you in the Spring.

John

Don't live a Grisham

A few months back I wrote about my life as a starter. I excel at starting stuff but when it comes to finishing, like the Oilers, I need a lot of work.. I'm already excited about starting a new year, a new decade in fact. 2010. Sounds like such a futuristic year. But its here. Pregnant with possibilities. My mind's already resolving to do... To start.

Get up at 6am. Go to bed at 10. Get lost in the moment. Centre myself. Strengthen my core. Read Dostoyevsky. Run a successful business. Be a family man. Make a difference in my community.

The problem with all these resolutions is unless they're connected to a greater story by February I'll be back on the couch drinking Honey brown and living my life through Jack Shepherd. Donald Miller says he has resolved to no longer make resolutions, instead he' going to live a good story. That makes good sense although part of me wants to just add it to the above list - Live a good story. For Milller, living a good story isn't one more thing we resolve to do but the only thing we do. The list should be defined by the story not vice versa which means as I sit here on January 1, 2010, my focus should not be on making a list but on the kind of story I wish to live. When my great grandchildren hear my story 100 years from now will they be proud? Will they share the story? Will it stay with them, helping to inform their own stories? Or will it be a Grisham? An entertaining yet forgettable read.

Forget that. I'm living a Dostoyevsky.

John