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Just a great time of year for us skiers; if you're around the Village this weekend, you can't help but catch the vibe of anticipation with all the turkey sales going on.

 

Of course, it is the time of year to reflect on our many fortunes, big and small and to be grateful for all the things that enrich our lives.  We need to remind ourselves how lucky we are to have found our way to this amazing part of the world and always be on the lookout for ways to give back and enrich it.

 

 

 

The following letter is the second update on the progress of the Senior Ski Team's [SST's] official goodwill challenge; to do our part in the ongoing Capital Fund Campaign to help raise some of the money to build our Sea to Sky Community Hospice.  The Capital Campaign has a target of $2 million with a total of $1.35 million in committed donations to date.

I am pleased to say that we are reaching the 25% mark on our SST goal to raise at least $70,000.00 and from the bottom of my heart, I thank those of you that are the initial respondents  and have already given "In Loving Memory" to this great community project.

Now is the time to focus ahead on the next steps.  Together, we’re going to get this done; because it is the right thing to do. 

 

 

 

With the recent passing of one of my all-time Rock Music heroes, Tom Petty, I’m reminded that “we, are the living legacy to the leader of the band.”  He will live on because we will continue to listen to the music that defined moments in our life every time we hear his songs. Inevitably, we move forward and create our own ‘music,’ our own legacies; it is my hope that it takes the form of dedicated donations to this hospice project.

As time goes on, so does life and in the news lately has been the senseless destruction of human life south of the border down Vegas way where a heartless individual reigned down terror on a crowd of people otherwise enjoying a country music concert on a warm autumn evening.

As we struggle to come to grips with this ourselves, clearly our  focus needs to be on the victims and their families and console with them in their loss.  More importantly, we need to focus on the 500+ people who survived but were wounded and face weeks, months and years of physical and mental recovery from their trauma.  But, heal they will, life will go on though forever changed.

We can’t and shouldn’t begin to think about why someone would do such an act or why someone is even capable of physically obtaining these objects of mass destruction but rather, stand with and relate to those people that threw themselves on top of loved ones as a human shield and with those whose reaction it was to place themselves on top of total strangers, selflessly sacrificing  themselves; these are real heroes.  As you know man’s best friend, a dog, has that sixth sense to danger, just like a dog, these individuals came with unconditional love and took action accordingly.

In our own mental digestion of these harrowing occurrences, we need to find a way to heal too.  We need to identify with the mindset of the hundreds of people who lined up and waited patiently for their turn in the hot sun to help the Vegas victims by donating blood.

In good time, we need to find a way to give our own blood, sweat and tears in some way to heal ourselves, to ultimately become part of the communal healing, become a human shield for our own communities, to help end isolation of people, and the incredible anger that percolates in any individual who is [or chooses to be] marginalized.  We must never give-in to this kind of fear or to the shameless leaders who perpetuate it.

I’m just your humble scribe but the way I see it is, that there is only two choices on the road; love or fear, don’t be afraid to start walking down either of them, you won’t fall off a cliff.  Both paths are a journey and a process.  You can always change course once you’ve taken enough steps to make the right decision.  Own your accountability, own your own life.

But you need to take action.  There will always be a need to line up and give blood, don’t wait for a disaster.  There are a thousand ways you can pay attention to the good things that are happening and get up close and personal with people that are joined in practicing moments of gratitude and selflessness to others.

Identify with the mindset of those people who used their bodies as human shields, use yours to be a human shield for others in your community.  Say yes a way more than no, overcome fear by simply counting down 5,4,3,2,1 - and Go and get at it!  Doesn’t need to be perfect, you just need to want to do it.

 

 

 

Thank you for reading this. 

 

 

 

And now, if you want to be part of a human shield for those who are losing a loved one and help to build a home away from home [a hospice] where compassion and dignity rules the day on the Sea to Sky Corridor, consider aligning yourself with me and the team members who have already found a way to join the effort and be part of the solution to make the Sea to Sky Community Hospice a reality by April, 2019.

If you’re ready, here is the link to the Sea to Sky Community Hospice Web Site where you can discover all of the various ways to give. 

 

 

Or, perhaps you know of someone who knows someone and would like to talk to me personally about it.  Please give them my contact info, it would be my pleasure.  Again, Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving.