My definition of growing up!?

Growing up, interesting. Now that I am 28 years old and almost half way to growing up, I am starting to get a better understanding of what it entails. For any of you kids that are reading take note, for all you adults out there, let me know if I'm getting close or not.

So here it is, Growing up is when you get to the point that you can differentiate between the times when it is okay to be immature and when it is required to be mature.

Personally, I am starting to see the difference, but I still really enjoy those times when I am allowed to be immature and simply play.

Let's hear what you think.

A championship year on the horizon?

Hi world,

Today I thought I would briefly try to explain how excited I am for the upcoming year of lacrosse. The upcoming year, will see me work full time for STX for the first time, play my fifth professional lacrosse season, and compete for the World Championships as a representative of team Canada, in my home country and college town of London Ontario.
A single year in sports rarely holds such exciting events.

As a result I am working out and training harder than ever. I have always been a diligent worker, but I have yet to win a NLL championship or a world Championship. Silver in both. Silver will not be good enough going forward. I am so driven to put myself on the map and into the history books as a part of a championship program. Nothing is going to get in my way of being the best that I can.

PS Congratulations to all of the palyers and fans of the Victoria Shamrocks! Glad to know that the leaders of the Rocks will be playing a huge role with the SJ Stealth as well.

Thought I'd try a joke today

I thought it might be fun to throw a joke up every now and then. If you’ve got any good ones, pass them along.

I have to admit I am a bit of a gambler. I enjoy craps, poker and roulette. Thats why I thought this one might be applicable.

Rotten luck...
A lady is having a bad day at the roulette tables in 'Vegas. She's down to her last $50. Exasperated, she exclaims, "What rotten luck! What in the world should I do now?"
A man standing next to her, trying to calm her down, suggests, "I don't know... why don't you play your age?"
He walks away. Moments later, his attention is grabbed by a great commotion at the roulette table. Maybe she won! He rushes back to the table and pushes his way through the crowd. The lady is lying limp on the floor, with the table operator kneeling over her.
The man is stunned. He asks, "What happened? Is she all right?"
The operator replies, "I don't know. She put all her money on 29, and 36 came up. Then she just fainted!"

SMILE!!!

You know what, Smile. It won’t hurt and it will likely help those around you. It might even get to be contagious. What has happened to us that we don’t smile more often, and more naturally? I am sitting at an airport and looking around. It cannot be possible that all of these people are in that poor of a mood that I shouldn’t at least see a couple of people smiling.

I am doing a little experiment, give me a second…

Okay, I just smiled at three people. They all smiled back. In fact they almost looked a little embarrassed that they got caught totally not smiling.

Hopefully one day, I’ll have a couple of people that read all of this trash that I write on this Blog. I will look forward to hearing some people’s opinions on this.

God, wouldn’t it be great if more people looked happy? Man, all of these people are getting on a plane to California, whats not to be happy about? Have I missed some breaking news that California just slid into the ocean, and that is why no one is smiling? Or are they all horrified thinking about eating the airplane food?

I don't mean to sound preachy, but hey, this one is a no brainer.

Sometimes you have to let things go...

I have recently had a visit to my family and home town in Ontario, Canada. What a difference from the Bay Area in California. It is always so welcoming to get home to family and friends, see familiar places from your past, and breathe in the nostalgia that comes with it all. I spent a few days in Toronto, did some business with the Professional Lacrosse Players Association and partied like a rock star at the Toronto film festival. When the work and play was over, I ventured three hours North to Port Elgin Ontario.

I bumped in a number of old friends while in Toronto. They were people that I referred to as being “blasts from the past”. They were people who held a different place or time in my life. Some of them were friends that played a more major role while others may have had a less significant impact, but an impact never the less. Previously, I have referred to the idea of “bumbling along through the universe” and this was one of those weekends. So I bumbled along, even stumbled a couple times after having had a few drinks.

It got me thinking. Life seems so random at times and at the same time it can often feel like it is all planned out. I traded war stories with the people that I met and we caught up to different degrees. It was great to hear that they were doing well, and each one of them was able to give me a brief update on a few other friends.

Our friends and environment have such a vital role in defining who we are as we grow. Think about this for a second? Can a place begin to hold us back, once we have used up what it had to offer us? Can people do the same thing? Is it possible that certain people and places are meant to hold a short period of time in our lives, pass along whatever is intended of them, get from us what they need, and then move on? I would suggest that it is. With each person that I met, I was taken back to a time and place, and with it I can remember where I was in my life, and how far I have traveled forward from that point. In any of these places and times, I could have settled down, and I can think of people that did exactly that, but instead I have continually chosen to continue bumbling along. Each place and time has left its mark on me and helped to evolve. Looking back I can’t imagine who I’d be if I had stayed in any of those places for longer than I did?

I don’t know where exactly I am going with this. I guess the point is that sometimes you have to stop and evaluate where you are in life, evaluate the people that you are surrounding yourself with, and think about whether it is time let some of it go, let it fade into the background, knowing that it will be fine without you, and you’ll be better off for moving forward. It might hurt a little at the time, but like any small pain, it’ll get better.
Ultimately, you’ll be better off having added the experience to the ol’ belt.

Bumbling Through The Universe

Here we go again. I think I am actually getting to enjoy this. No wonder so many people keep a journal. It’s like having a session of prayer or meditation, all to yourself. I really do appreciate those people who have the discipline to maintain a regiment of prayer or meditation. It can do such great things for you. Unfortunately, I am much more random. I have convinced myself that I enjoy the randomness of life. Like a pinball, banging around into things and every once in a while getting lucky and hitting what it is that I am supposed to hit. I am beginning to learn that a little bit of planning doesn’t hurt. That is something that I have fought against for a long time. For some reason I have dedicated myself to things, but never really applied myself in a way that deserves the success that I often have. My mother always said that I have a horse shoe up my ass. Maybe that’s why it’s so uncomfortable to be sitting on this plane right now? (I am currently on my way home to Toronto for the Professional Lacrosse Players Association AGM)

I definitely do count myself as being lucky, and I’m not afraid to say it. I have a great life. I have an incredible wife and family, an incredible group of friends that are my extended family. I get to play the sport that I love, (and get paid a little on the side to do it), a great job, and my health. What more can a person ask for. Surely everything else can be considered superfluous. For any one reading this, know this, I am happy, lucky, and appreciative. How can I help others to have the same fortune?

If you are reading this and you have an answer, let me know.

#55

Live like you're on borrowed time!!

I thought I would write a little blurb on the importance of living each day like it your last. I am not sure that I can shed any new light on the matter but I can provide a recent example.

One of the lacrosse players in our league recently had a terrible incident involving bleeding on his brain. At some point in the past few years he has had a couple of concussions, but the doctors were not sure if they have anything to do with the problem. As it ends up, Casey (that’s his name) went to the doctors office to complain of the bad headaches that he was having. While visiting the doctor, he collapsed in the office. Unfortunately the way that he fell when he went unconscious had him hitting his head on something in the office, on his way down. As a result, not only did he find out he had bleeding in his brain, he also broke his cheek bone and damaged his jaw.

I am positive that Casey would be comfortable about me telling his story, that’s the kind of guy that he is. If my telling it might make one person think twice, he'd be okay. Casey has a beautiful young wife of a couple years as well as two young children, both under the age of three. He is a great father and husband. Casey worked as a high school science teacher and coached every team that they would let him at the school.

All of the wonderful aspects of is life, could very easily have disappeared in an instant. Take a moment to think about all of the good things in your life. Do you appreciate them? Do you tell the people that you love, that you love them?

I have to be honest I take a lot of pride in the way that I live my life. I hug and kiss people hello and goodbye. I never miss an opportunity to tell someone that I love them. This includes my family but also my friends. I am very lucky to have the group of friends that I have so I try to let them know.

This might sound funny coming from "the axe" (that’s what they call me in my professional lacrosse league) but I am so very okay with it. I took a class on forgiveness this summer. The underlying theme in the class was the importance of forgiveness... because life is too short. Why waste time holding grudges, or holding back your feelings at all. As the cliche says, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow and it would all be gone.

As for Casey, he has been very lucky. He is back on his feet and improving a little bit every day. They say it will be a year or so until he is back to how he was before, but if he keeps the kind of attitude that has got him this far in life, he’ll do it in 6 months.

see ya tomorrow,
#55

Two days in a row!

Look out I have written for a second day in a row! I am kind of cheating though. I have created a reminder on my microsoft outlook that will remind me to write every morning!

SO what to chat about today. lets say money... I am learning, now that I am getting a little older, that money is out there waiting to be made. It is made by the people that have the initiative to go and get it. It's almost lie it is floating out there in space and all you have to do is want it and think a little outside of the box about how to get it.

My wife Jenny and I have been looking at some opportunites to make some extra $ on the side, and as soon as we started to look, it seemed like a tsunami of possibilities rolled across the computer screen. All these years of living on a professional lacrosse salary (not really, I have always worked) and there are all sorts of ways to get extra money.

What I am finding is that the extra money is to be made on extra hours. This makes sense. When everyone else is sleeping, or watching TV you can make extra money by a little more motivated than the next guy (or gal). I wouldn't even want to know how many hours of television I have watched in my life. Even scarier would be to learn how much money I could have made, had I spent more of the hours working smart.

I am not going to preach. I'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say that I have been let in on a secret that the wealthy hold close to their chest. There is far more money out there to be made then they want you to know about. I am going to get my hands on more of it!

here we go again

Well back at it. I set this site up some time ago and have ignored it for the summer.

Its been a crazy fantastic year! I got married on July 9th and it was the best day of our lives! Everything went perfectly, we wouldn't have changed a thing, even if we could have.

I got a great job with STX, the equipment company that was formerly endorsing me. I am now the west coast sales and marketing rep. I now officially get to go out to local youth programs and spread the good word of lacrosse and teach them about STX's long tradition in our sport.

All West Lacrosse camps went very well this summer. My close friend Matt Ogelsby runs a great camp, and we take pride in the kids having a blast but also learning a ton.

I am very much looking forward to this lacrosse season. I have started to train. I am putting off surgery on my famously terrible feet, and can't wait to start breaking sticks on people again. My evil side is building up inside of me with no outlet just waiting for the season to come around so that it can come out and play.

I'll try to come back again tomorrow. If your reading this, feel free to email with your thoughts.

#55