PEOPLE POSTCARD PLEASE...

I appreciated the idea of creating / using a postcard as an initial introduction and representation of ourselves. (And yet I didn't conceptualize and pull it together until the day before our first session - I'm a procrastinator). 

With my postcard, I chose to use the front to reflect the content/focus of our course. In one of Stephen's first emails to us, he introduced the term "upstream" conditions / considerations, to us... and I really like this term. To me it's a term that is very tangible, topical and visual  - i.e., look upstream to better understand what is happening here downstream. Don't just focus on the surface, literally and figuratively.

Note: Photo credits to me... for this and all photos on the postcard!

The cover photo is from my visit to the Landmines Museum just outside the town of Siem Reap in Cambodia. I made three trips to Cambodia in the early 2000's and was both saddened and captivated by it. To my mind, the photo elicits a number of questions related to health and active living. Another boy was across from this boy, enjoying some passing, when I took the photo. As I see this photo again, I wonder/infer... Did the boys have their lower legs blown off while being active and having fun doing exactly what they were doing in the photo? Are there as many girls as boys in Cambodia who have lost limbs and lives due to IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device)? If there are fewer girls than boys, perhaps Cambodian girls are engaged in less physical activity than boys ... (or perhaps just different activities away from IED's?). And I observe that we really haven't heard much campaigning/activism related to landmines since the world lost Princess Diana.

What do you Observe/Wonder/Infer ("OWI") from this photo? This is why I ask the question "How do things look upstream?". Well, isn't that a loaded question given the history of Cambodia. And the question at top ... "How are you?" - often answered with "I'm fine" or "I'm well". What does that mean, really - and do we really even want to know or have the time to consider how someone really is when we (often) casually ask this question? It all goes deeper... as do the topics of this course! Hence my cover.

The backside and inside of my postcard represents my personal "agency". (Still finding this term odd used in this way!?!).



I love being active in a diverse number of ways, including physically active. Kayaking in Deep Cove with a couchsurfer, teaching swimming as a Life Skills teacher at the Taipei American School pool, heading out for a bike tour to the Alps in southern Germany with Martin!! Water and bicycles have been key modes and mediums in my "action" through the years.

Oh, and the postcard also represents the fortune I've had and the buzz I get (among other things) from being a traveller! The photos are placed in Siem Reap (Cambodia), Marburg and Weisenhorn (Germany), Deep Cove (Canada), Taipei (Taiwan) and Koh Tao (Thailand). 

I'm hoping that we could still pick one day of our course when we all bring our postcards back to the classroom and place them around the room along the whiteboards... just to browse at during our breaks. So much nicer and easier to see them this way rather than flipping through blogs.)

Finally, I included a poem I wrote. More on that in my next post. 

And, luckily (but by design, actually), I had two empty inner flaps to fill on the postcard when I arrived for the first night of our course. So I hastily - making me 10 minutes late - inserted on one flap a snippit from a very interesting and uplifting encounter I had just had with a chap named "Bill" on the skytrain ride to Surrey City Central, SFU! This snippit, that encounter - this character - about which I spoke that first night - is now the subject of my Assignment 2 narrative piece. 

And that, folks, is the flow of life... and my postcard! 

(Michael... don't forget your idea... "Postcards from the Edge"!)

GREETINGS!

Greetings fellow beings and H.E.A.L. Cohort folks! It's Michael here...

Attempting to live life to the fullest. I continue re-de-finding my mission! 
Be grateful. Be giving. Be bold.

Homo sapien. Planet Earth. Wanderer; Wonderer. Easy-going, open-minded guy. Can be oh so serious, safe and steadfast but lean toward being very positive, practical and playful.

Adopted as an infant. Grew up in Chilliwack in Fraser Valley of BC. Went to Uni (SFU) in Vancouver. Moved to Ottawa for work. Began reuniting with biological family in 1993. Backpacked for 9 months in Australia and Asia in 1998. Stayed and lived in Asia - based in Taipei, Taiwan - for 4 years. Back to Vancouver, Canada since 2002. Became an official teacher in 2004 (UBC BEd.). Living, loving, longing and learning!

This video clip captures a number of key sentiments and ways of being for me. Have a peek!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI

Pretty cool, eh!

My path to SFU's Master of Education - H.E.A.L. or Health Education and Active Living program - might have been a direct "b-line" from my teen years, after umpteen hours/days/weeks/years at my local YMCA in Chilliwack, immersed in youth leadership development, fitness classes, volunteering, lifeguarding, teaching swimming, competing in racquetball - oh, everything - alongside amazing mentors. 

Well, it took me another 30 some odd years to find and take this wee branch in my path. I have been pining to begin a Masters for 4-5 years, every year psyching myself out of even taking the step to just apply to a program. Counselling Psychology, Public Health, Land & Food Systems??... what do you want, Michael? Where do you want to head? Who do you want to be when you grow up... (some more - but not too fast)? Public Health endured at the top of the list. Nowhere in BC, though, could I find a 2 year program that would allow me to work full-time. "Way to go, Michael", I thought in January, "another year gone by and you're not taking a step towards one of your major goals." Until, that is, I saw HEAL after another glance at SFU's website and attended an information session. After a personal reply from Dr. Smith on my questions about the program, I was hooked. Thanks, Stephen!

I would honestly say that my first career was as a youth leader at the "Y" - a place and people that, for me, truly was all about Spirit, Mind and Body. My second career was with the Canadian Red Cross, first in Ottawa and then out of Calgary/Vancouver. Public health and safety, wellness and the vulnerability and capacity of individuals and communities - these were the lived topics in my work with the CRC. Then it was finally time to take the very belated "gap year" of travel. After a 9 month backpacking adventure I wound up broke and tired (but still curious) in Taipei, Taiwan. And promptly proceeded to fall into a career in teaching - as a Physical Education Specialist - foregoing a new job offer back home with the Red Cross. The Taipei American School and the island of Taiwan were my home base, South East Asia my back yard! Pretty sweet all around!

Hence - H.E.A.L. Really, how perfect!

Or maybe not. As I was getting the pieces of my application prepared this past February/March, my 87 year old dad was admitted into hospital with serious complications from his COPD, my biological mother was admitted to emergency and then palliative care in her struggle with cancer, and a couple weeks later I ended up passing out in a restaurant and being taken to Emergency. I'm writing this now, though, so the application made it in!

We had a very beautiful Celebration of Life for Rosella, my biological mom, last week. My incredible mom, Evelyn, also died of cancer, in 2004. One mom gave me life, and my new mom made my life. Mom (Evelyn) and my Dad, Chuck, adopted me when I was 3 or 4 months old; they already had my sisters Lori, Cindy and brother Robert. Deanna and Jody are my full biological siblings, and Gary is my biological father. I'm so lucky and grateful to be close with both of my families, along with 10 nieces/nephews and 11 great nieces/nephews!

Where will I take this program / let it take me? Good question. Nervous on that count. I currently have a list of 15-20 topic areas I'm keen on. Stay tuned! Okay... I'll share one. It guts me to think about foster kids "ageing out" of the system at 19. Talk about needing to consider what's happening "upstream"... not to mention the whitewater rapids of daily life for these kids. More later. 

These days, my health - in terms of spirit, mind and body - is being fed by, in no particular order:  playing tennis, being back as a PE/Resource teacher organizing events like the Terry Fox Run, soaking up the energies of super cool travellers as a host in the "CouchSurfing" community, the freedom when riding my bike... and, for sure, the energy and discussions of the first two weekends with Stephen, Jacqueline and everyone in HEAL!

thanks, m