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I took a seat several years ago in Purgatory. Its what I call the gloomy cancer treatment room down in the hospital basement. One in three of us will eventually take a seat here waiting. I feel it is a transportation hub like an airport: one departure is either happily going back to life, the other to death. Beside me today a young girl head in hands was crying. Crying is not so unusual as many do here . She was young and pretty maybe 25 wearing the tell tale breast cancer treatment hospital gown over her jeans and she had no hair. People walked by, nurses doctors all busy like cars just driving by the poor hurt animals I see on the roads. I asked if she was ok or if she wanted to talk or make a puzzle with me. She looked up surprised with her strikingly beautiful green eyes and she even pulled together a little smile. "Thank you. I have been coming here for 4 months for radiation and chemotherapy and today is my last day". They were tears of joy. She made me cry tears of joy with her, because today, for this beautiful young woman, the stairs out of purgatory opened up and she was returning to life. A stronger and more beautiful person that she ever was before or ever imagined she could be.. 
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A year of sunsets from my special place one each month. See how the sunset moves north in summer south in winter.  Im ready for deployment to help in Europe with Red Cross. Likely staging in Romania. International Aid and Emergency Response Technician. There are 500, 000 refugees and many injured that need help. Very excited, packed and ready, using all my previous firefighting skills. Frustrating just looking at turmoil pictures, and not being in them helping. Now I will have followed my inspirational Fathers footsteps in all three of his major life events: Engineer/Firefighter/Paramedic and Red Cross in war. Love you Dad (Rudy Sr.) ! Catch if you can, free meals on wheels this spring for seniors in Kitsilano. Never carried this much food but, I ride like the wind and never deliver a cold meal, or its on me! Maybe give a quick hug or story if they are lonely. Get exercise and help a good cause at the same time, no gym membership ever needed for me! I sat under this magical tree a lot in beautiful Jericho Park on the ocean, when the Doctors thought I might die 20 years ago after fighting a fire. I lived .... a lot. I pictured the trunk as big tough knots in life that eventually found their way into long beautiful branches. The knots are like faces if you look close. So if you are reading this likely your face is in these knots. Because, I have sat here with a few people that had big tough knots in their lives with relationships, lovers, illness etc. I listened, meditated and held them when they cried. I miss them.They eventually branched out beautifully. Some still find knots in their lives so I hope they sit here. The tree will find you if you look for it. Teaching my best friend on the entire earth to cycle. He loved it so much he said go go to end of the world. He makes friends and has a beer with the amazing art he creates from driftwood he finds on the beaches ! He dislikes they want to log old growth at Fairey Creek. They forest parts usually just sit still and listen to him, but he gets a lot off his chest talking .  My yearly summertime Ironman training pond. Would be good training for the Norseman Ironman as water is 57 F. 12 C in Norway for that swim. Cycling elevation gain 5000 m. Hope to qualify.  A remarkable photograph showing workers constructing 4th Avenue in 1909 with picks and shovels in Vancouver. The streetcar tracks that would soon be put in. back breaking work this was. This before and after shot was taken near where Waterloo Street and bike route would later cross it. This is Andrew at my local coffee shop. He is a front line worker as far as Im concerned. I usually give him a tip as he is only 15 and makes little money. Today I gave him a generous Christmas bonus. His smile was so big he took his mask off to show me and his braces almost locked up. Happy New Year to workers like Andrew. Please help them out!  |
Current LocationIn memory of the
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FIRE FIGHTER CYCLE
FIRE FIGHTER CYCLE
A Cycle Around the World For Cancer Charity
