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The Father Daughter Game

She took me! My daughter took me to the game!

Karlie took me to a Toronto Raptors’ game; it was her Christmas present to me. We just went, having planned it for a time I had some business in the area.

I haven’t been to a Raptor’s game in a long time, so I wanted to go to a really good game. You always want your team to win, but especially when you attend a game live.

The trouble with this game was that the Raps were on a 5 game losing skid and their big star, DeMar DeRozan, was injured and not in the lineup.

The good news was they were playing a team that was well below them in the standing.

But my focus was on how my daughter was going to take in this game.

… The last time I took Karlie to a basketball game was in Edmonton. Now Edmonton has never had an NBA basketball team, but a minor league team was operating out of the city for a few years when we lived there.

I took a group of students from our church to a game and had an extra ticket.

I can’t remember the reason why, but I brought Karlie along to the game … she was three.

I’m not sure what I was expecting – an instant love for the game? an ability to understand the intricacies of the play? a keen interest in the players’ skills?

But what Karlie zeroed in on was the team mascot. Though we were sitting way high up in the stands, this fuzzy, energetic animal captured her attention.

I don’t think Karlie watched the game; she just kept her eye on that mascot.

When the game was over, she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay. I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t want to get going – the game was not a big hit for her. Then she started pointing right at the mascot.

I realized that this event wouldn’t end well without us at least trying to see the mascot.

We headed down to the floor level, and I maneuvered us over to where the mascot was giving high fives to all the kids swarming around him.

We got close but then he turned and started walking away from us. I thought we had missed our chance for Karlie to  get up close with the star of the game.

Just then the mascot stopped. He turned around, looked right at Karlie, got down on one knee and put out his arms.

That was all the invitation Karlie needed; she ran to him and got engulfed in his fur.

That was the highlight; we could go home.

This time around for Karlie, it was all about the skill, the plays and the intricacies of the game – not the mascot … oh, how 24 years changes things.

Here’s the thing: We are supposed to grow in all areas of our life as we get older. To stay the same in an area doesn’t make sense and really only stunts us. Be sure you are still growing in your relationship with God. Don’t be stunted spiritually.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What area of your life have you seen growth in over the last five years? Leave your comments below.

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Oh, The Sweet Taste Of Victory

I can almost taste the victory – that’s the victory of completing the Apple watch fitness challenge.

I’m not sure if Apple thought that we weren’t using their watches to succeed at keeping up with our fitness goals or routines … maybe they just wanted to help us all be a little more motivated to get exercising at the beginning of the new year.

At any rate, they put out a challenge to Apple watch owners to complete their fitness rings every day for a week in January.

There are three fitness rings that the watch measures. One is standing. You complete this ring by standing a minimum of one minute per hour for 12 hours a day.

This sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? But if you work at a desk or sit in a car, or do both, those hours can easily tick away without you standing in every hour.

You have to be conscious of it and get out of your seat for at least a little bit each hour.

Then there is the move ring. This measures the calories you burn simply by moving about in your day. You don’t have to put out much effort at all to get this ring swirling, but it won’t budge if you are sitting down most of the day.

And then there is the exercise ring. This ring measures when your heart rate is elevated – not like in a stress-filled meeting, but by exerting yourself physically.

These three simple rings wind around my watch face, and this week I’ve completed all three rings for six days.

Tomorrow is the last day and I know I will be able to do it.

I haven’t set the bar too high, but it did require me most days to do specific workouts for at least 20 minutes. For me, it’s either I play hockey, or use my stationary bike and rowing machine to get my exercise in.

It wasn’t a cinch but it also wasn’t hard for me to accomplish. The trick was to be aware of what I needed and make sure the day didn’t slip away without me getting in those necessary, needed elements.

For example, I knew on Thursday that I had an evening meeting in which I would just be sitting. During that day I was mostly sitting as well.

But I did have a midday meeting outside the office and so I decided to also spend a half hour on my bike and rower to ensure I completed my exercise ring before my evening meeting.

So what’s the prize for all this? Do I win a new Apple watch or get a discount on a new Mac computer?

… It would be nice to win some free software or something.

Unfortunately, none of the above. All I get is an achievement award that shows up in an app on my phone.

It’s not much; it’s sort of like the online course I took at the end of the year. When I completed the work, I got to print out a completion certificate with my name on it.

Wow … it probably won’t get framed or put on the wall.

But along with the satisfaction of completing the challenge, there is the knowledge that a healthier body will enable me to live longer and with more energy. … Sweet victory!

Here’s the thing: Though there may not be any big wow’s for daily living for God, you do experience God working through you and you get to spend eternity with God in heaven. … Sweet victory!

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find satisfaction in? Leave your comments below.

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I Just Renewed My Muscles

I finally have some life back in my muscles. I am feeling better than I have in a long time on the ice.

It’s sort of like Popeye in reverse. Remember that cartoon character? Popeye would get beaten down, usually by Brutus, and just when it looked like Brutus would finish him off, Popeye would say, “That’s all I can stands; I can’t stands no more.”

Then he would pull a can of spinach – yes, a can of spinach – right out of his shirt.

It’s only through the magic of television that he could hide that spinach there.

But once he ate that spinach, he got new strength and “he was strong to the finish cause he ate his spinach. He’s Popeye the sailer man (toot toot)” … You have to see the cartoon.

I did the opposite. I didn’t eat anything to give me renewed strength; I cut something out.

Back in November, I wrote a post about how my muscles were really giving me some pain when I played hockey. I was trying to figure out what was causing it – maybe medication, maybe my heart, maybe sugar. You can read that post here.

I decided to try cutting out sugar … well, not cut it out entirely; we were just about to head into the Christmas season.

My plan was to reduce sugar by cutting out snacks and junk food.

It’s been two months, and I said I would report back on this topic. This is what I discovered …

I dropped some weight over these two months – about eight pounds to be exact – and I didn’t do anything other than reduce my sugar intake.

Yes, I still have my hot wings and a can of Dr. Pepper on Saturday nights, but that’s pretty much the only time I have pop or fried food all week. … I’ve tried to cut out french fries as much as possible.

I purposely didn’t try to exercise any more than I had, so the weight loss is due solely to the diet change.

Here is something else: I feel good. I actually want to remember how I feel right now because that might keep me going when I get tempted to get back into sugar.

The other thing that seems to have changed is my hockey playing. I was experiencing muscle pain and fatigue in a huge way. That pain and fatigue is gone.

Now, I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not ingesting sugar like I was or if it has to do with me having a few less pounds to carry around on my skates.

But I will take that mystery and live with it.

The last several times playing hockey have been a treat for me. I don’t feel like an old man out on the ice.

I feel more like Popeye – strong to the finish. I like how this feels, and it’s way better than the momentary enjoyment of a chocolate bar.

Here’s the thing: After you have confessed your sin, take a moment to think about how you feel, how close you feel to God, how grateful to God you are, how you want to please Him with your life. Then remember that feeling because you will be tempted to sin again. And when you’re tempted, remember how you feel pleasing God with your life. That may keep you from falling to sin again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to add to or cut out of your life? Leave your comments below.

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Another Christmas Eve Nightmare

I had said that I would not shop on Christmas Eve again, but there I was going from store to store.

This year Christmas has been particularly busy for me. There were many things I didn’t get to that I should have or really wanted to.

I just couldn’t fit it all in. Each day I had plans to do more than could possibly be done in a day so there was always some carry over.

And in that list of things, shopping for Christmas presents seemed to get bumped the most.

It’s okay to put it off from one day to the next to the next, but you eventually run out of days. And there I was staring at Christmas Eve and still needing some presents for the family.

I know people who complete their Christmas shopping in August. I don’t know how they do it. I can’t think Christmas when I’m sitting on a beach with the water lapping at my feet.

I’ve also had a bad experience with early Christmas shopping … but it wasn’t me doing the shopping; it was my mother.

She got way ahead of herself one year, and bought presents for my brother and me. But by the time Christmas came, she had forgotten all about them.

Those presents showed up mid-Christmas morning unwrapped, while my brother and I were wandering around the house thinking, “Is that it? Is that all we get?”

I don’t want to be doing that. I also don’t like wandering around stores in a daze or trance-like state, looking for the perfect present which I will only know what it is when I see it.

That’s not a good feeling.

There was one Christmas – it seems like a hundred years ago now – that I had thought of getting Lily a sweater for Christmas.

This was in the days before we had children. We were living in Edmonton, a city with more than a few big shopping malls.

I had scouted out all the women’s clothing stores in all the malls and had seen a sweater that I liked in one of them.

The only problem was I couldn’t remember which store or which mall I saw it in.

Christmas Eve became a little frantic for me. It was Lily’s main gift and I couldn’t locate it.

To make matters worse, the sweaters were starting to all look the same and I couldn’t remember exactly which sweater was the one.

I literally flew from one store to the next, from mall to mall in search of a sweater I hoped I would recognize when I saw it in a store I had been in over the last few weeks.

I was in a panic at 4 pm, dragging myself through West Edmonton Mall like I was in the middle of the desert without water.

I went in to one store and literally had to convince myself that this was the sweater and that it would fit her.

It all worked out back then. But it was deja-vu all over again this year … I’m never doing this again – for real!

Here’s the thing: We sometimes get so caught up in details that we miss the big picture. Christmas is about celebrating Christ but we get all stressed about having the right present. Often in life we are so detail focussed that we bump our relationship with Christ to the next day and the next, thinking we have time. The details will always pressure us, but you can run out of time with Christ. Don’t let that happen; make Christ a priority today.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kept you too busy this Christmas? Leave your comments below.

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Christmas Tradition

The Silcock Christmas wouldn’t be the same without our annual tradition.

It’s not a generations old tradition, passed on down from great grandparents. It’s a tradition started with my generation. We keep it every year when we get together for our Christmas gathering.

We play hockey.

My father passed away 11 years ago and, since that time, we decided to do something special when we got together for Christmas.

Hockey is a unifying thing in our family … though over the years there are less and less of the women involved.

When we started, the kids were still pretty young. We would pleasure skate for a bit and then start a game, during which the pleasure skaters were just more obstacles for us to deke around.

It got to the point where the pleasure skaters didn’t really like the pucks whizzing by their heads. They have slowly dropped off over the years.

This year my wife, Lily, was the only pleasure skater and my daughter, Karlie, played hockey with us guys.

In the early days, when the kids were younger, my brother and I kind of dominated the game. It was great having all the ages on the ice working together.

Between my brother, sister and I, we have 8 children. Their ages span 12 years.

Each year we invite a few friends along to round out the teams, and the calibre of hockey is pretty good.

The last two years, the games were really fast-paced.

However, not everything is getting faster. The kids are faster, and their friends they invite out are faster … but my brother and I are slower. We don’t dominate the ice any more.

In fact, my brother John hurt his knee the night before and he didn’t play in our Christmas tradition this year.

I was the old guy.

Now even the youngest of the kids can hold their own, make plays and pass well.

I was the one who was gasping for air and needing to come off for more than regular breaks.

It’s not like I didn’t contribute at all but by far the tables have turned and the young guys are taking over.

It reminded me of a time when my son’s hockey team had a father and son game. The sons were talking like they were going to take it to us and that we didn’t have a chance.

I thought they would be surprised that the old men still had it in them. I guess I was wrong. The other dads either hadn’t played in a very long time, had never really played before, or were really out of shape.

The long and the short of it was, us dads didn’t look good and we got creamed by our boys.

From now on every year I will measure my decline by our Christmas family tradition.

Here’s the thing: As time goes on, we take more of a backseat to those coming up. As the younger generation starts to shine, and we take more of a supportive role in life, don’t merely bow out of the scene. Our role is to instill values and character in the young ones so that as they shine, they shine with the light of Christ in them.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What Christmas tradition do you make sure you keep? Leave your comments below.

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Today Is Special; Everything Changes Tomorrow

Today (November 19th) is a special day; tomorrow everything is supposed to change.

… I remember the day before we had our first child … life was so different. Everything changed the next day.

Life was just Lily and I. The next day when Karlie arrived everything about life was different – what we thought about, how we approached our day, how we made plans.

I remember going to the mall the day before our daughter came on the scene. It was a spur of the moment decision; we just left the house, got in the car and drove to the mall.

I remember going to the mall after Karlie was born. When we wanted to go, we couldn’t because Karlie was napping. Then when she woke up she needed to be fed. We packed a bag and finally got her ready, but just before we were to leave she needed changing.

I almost threw my hands up and said, “Forget it! It’s not worth it; it’s too much work.”

One day changed going to the mall into a whole new experience.

Today we are on the cusp of that kind of day. Tomorrow we are supposed to get snow for the first time this year – and it’s supposed to be significant.

Today, however, it’s sunny and plus 16°C. I’ve already played hockey this morning and got in my exercise for the day.

But this is most likely the last day of the year I will be able to go biking. Everything changes tomorrow.

After today, I will need a fat bike to ride the trails at my club … and I’m pretty sure Lily isn’t convinced that I need to spend $1200 – $1500 on a fat bike just so I can keep riding in the winter.

So this is my last chance to take my bike out. It will be 4 1/2 – 5 months before I ride again.

That’s the thing – tomorrow brings such an abrupt change. It’s not slow or gradual; it’s all of a sudden.

… When I was in grade 4, all my stories started that way. I would write, “All of a sudden” at the top of the page and then continue with some action.

My teacher responded the same way to all those stories by giving me another “C”. It was a predicable mark, not all of a sudden. For some reason, she wanted me to develop the plot before I got to the “all of a sudden”.

As I sit here planning my day, all I can think about is the “all of a sudden” snow we are supposed to get tomorrow.

Today I need to go for that bike ride, put up the Christmas lights, and apparently I need to wash our new car because I’m told it looks dirty.

Well, tomorrow it won’t matter how clean the car is today. Tomorrow it will be dirty. And I’m sure there will be some mild temperatures in the next few weeks for me to put up the Christmas lights.

But it’s today or never for that last bike ride. I think I need to escalate it to the top of today’s list.

Here’s the thing: Christ’s return will be one of those “all of a sudden” stories. It will be the day everything changes. We need to do something today so that we are okay when everything changes, when “all of a sudden” happens. Be sure you’re right with God by placing your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What would you do if you knew everything was changing tomorrow? Leave your comments below.

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Playing Hockey With The Old Man

The old man showed up yesterday on the ice … and the old man was me!

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It’s been a slow start back to playing hockey regularly.

The first time I played this fall I felt pretty good. I had some speed, hands weren’t too bad, scored a few goals. Things were looking promising.

I had worried that after turning 60 in June I somehow wouldn’t be able to skate any more or pass or shoot.

But from my first outing, things seemed just like they were when I left the ice in the spring.

Now I’m about a month into playing again and yesterday there was a shortage of players for shinny. We had to play four aside with only one sub.

Let me tell you, I needed that sub!

I think I was coming off the ice twice as much as the other guys on my team … and it wasn’t because I was trying to be courteous.

I needed to come off; I was dying!

With only four guys on the ice, there is so much more ice to skate and it was wearing me out. Mostly my legs were in a lot of pain.

It felt like I had shin splints after about 30 seconds into a shift – sharp pains in my shins that traveled up to my thighs as well.

All I needed was about a minute on the bench and my legs returned to normal, but it sure made it tough to skate when I was out there.

It didn’t help that I had the three oldest guys playing on my team. In fact, we may have had the four oldest.

The young guys on the other team didn’t seem to want to take it easy on us either. They checked us close and made us really work to get the puck out of our end.

I felt like an old man, not able to skate like I once could, having to take rests more frequently than the others.

It was pretty discouraging.

I know I could still skate well if I didn’t have the pain, and I know I could have more stamina if I was in a little better shape.

The pain in my legs has been happening since I had a heart attack over four years ago. But it has gotten a little worse.

I’ve tried loosening my equipment, and drinking insane amounts of water, but the pain doesn’t seem to be a circulation or an electrolyte problem.

I think it’s coming down to either my medication messing with my muscles, too much sugar in my system, or my heart not working at the capacity it needs to to enable my legs to work properly.

… I really don’t want it to be the latter reason. So my next step is to work on my sugar intake. For the next while I’m going to cut all deliberate, unnecessary, gratuitous sugar from my diet.

Let’s see how that goes and how it effects my muscles. I’ll check back on this later.

Here’s the thing: When you face something that doesn’t seem right, always question it, seek to discover possible reasons for it, and try potential solutions to solve it. The best environment for this is in consultation with God. Meet with and ask God for help as you question, discover and try to get past what you’re facing.

That’s Life,

Paul

Question: What difficulty have you faced and just accepted, rather than trying to solve? Leave your comments below.

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It Was A Spectacular Moon; I Missed It!

I missed the moon this morning. It was supposed to be a super moon. It was to appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than what we usually see.

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I didn’t see it at all.

I woke up at about 5 am and for some reason it was on my mind. So I got up and looked out five different windows hoping to catch it from at least one angle.

Nope, I didn’t see a thing. At the time I was still a little sleepy so I didn’t think of venturing outside to get a full view of the sky.

Instead I went back to bed and ended up sleeping in a little later than usual … probably due to the fact that I got up earlier and then went back to bed.

When I did get up at 6:20 am, I checked the windows again. This time I also went outside … I still saw nothing.

Maybe the moon ducked out early. I figured because the sun was not quite up yet, just starting to peak out over the horizon, the moon should still be hanging around.

Now I’m no sky watcher, but I do know the general direction to look when trying to spot the moon. The only other thing I can think of is that the houses around me were blocking my view.

If the moon was low in the sky it may have been hiding behind a nice two-story home over on the other street.

All I know is that I missed it. The last time the moon was this close was 1948 and we won’t see another super moon like that one for another 28 years.

Doing a little calculation, that will put me at 88 years old.

I should still be around and if I am I better not miss that one because for sure it will be my last chance.

Only two chances in my lifetime to spot the moon this close to the earth. Those are rare opportunities and maybe I should have been a little more curious so that I spotted it.

There have been other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that I have made sure I witnessed … like the time I had a chance to see Steely Dan in concert.

I made sure I didn’t miss that one, because I certainly won’t see them again.

A few years ago I had the chance to look through the lens of the largest telescope in our area. You had to climb up a ladder to look through the eye piece – that’s how big it was.

After looking for a while at stars, galaxies and planets, my friend turned the scope on the moon.

Talk about a super moon! It was so big and so bright that it hurt my eyes to look at it. I had to squint looking through the eye piece.

I don’t think seeing the super moon yesterday could beat seeing the moon lit up like I saw it through that telescope.

I can wait another 28 years and, if I feel energetic then, I might just get up and take a look outside.

Here’s the thing: Never worry about missing out on experiences because you are a Christian. There is the ultimate experience you will have one day when you enter heaven with Christ.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Did you see the super moon? And was it super? Leave your comments below.

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Anyone Need Their Grass Cut?

From time to time I will republish a post I’ve written in the past. The post was originally written and published in October 2012.

Sometimes you start a simple task or job and it grows into something bigger. I have certainly experienced this at times in my life.

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One time we had a water leak in our vacation trailer.  I decided to see if I could fix it myself.  I checked and found the problem needed to be fixed from the outside, which meant peeling off the metal shell at the front of the trailer.

I started at the bottom and noticed the problem extended a little higher so I took off the next strip, then the next, and the next.

When I had the whole front of the trailer removed, with just the wood frame left in place, I stepped back and thought, “What have I done?!”  It was way more work than I had thought.

Another time we had a leak in our basement.  I thought I would dig a hole outside and patch the foundation where the leak was.  In the end, the hole I dug was over 5 feet deep and about 12 feet long.  Again, that job got way bigger than I had first thought!

Reading about those two experiences, you might think they weren’t that bad, and that I must be a handy guy.  That’s where you would be VERY wrong!  I’m not that handy, and for all the handy work I have done, I don’t really like it.

It takes me too long; I don’t have the right tools; I make mistakes; I get frustrated; I get discouraged; I cut myself (another story).

Recently, we were at our cottage on a rainy weekend, when we happened to get a break from the rain for a few hours.  I decided I’d better take the opportunity to cut the grass since we wouldn’t be back for a few weeks.

It’s such a small piece of lawn that the job really doesn’t take much time.  But, as I was running the lawnmower over our grass, I thought about my brother’s lawn.  He had left his cottage a few hours earlier in the rain and I had noticed that his lawn needed a cut.

Since he’s up at his cottage almost every weekend and often cuts our grass (because we don’t get there all that frequently), I thought it was my chance to return the favour.  So, when I finished our lawn, I walked over to his place and started to cut his grass.

As I got close to finishing, I started to think about my brother’s neighbour who’s wife had just had surgery and was in intensive care at the hospital.

I thought, “That guy doesn’t need to be bothered with his lawn”.  So, as I finished with my brother’s lawn, I just kept going and worked on his neighbour’s.

As I walked back to my place pushing my lawnmower, I realized this was one of the few times a job that got bigger didn’t become frustrating or discouraging.  In fact, I walked with a sense of satisfaction that I had, in some small way, been a help to others.

Here’s the thing:  One of the greatest ways we can show the love of God to others is not by telling them but by showing them.  The problem is it takes time and, for many of us, time is precious.  We don’t have a lot of extra time to allow the task or job we are working on to become any bigger.  But sometimes that is exactly how we are to “love one another as I have loved you” John 13:34.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kind of “loving one another” acts have you done recently?

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It Was A Multitasking Nightmare

I proved to myself today that I’m not a very good multitasker. It’s not the end of the world for me because they say men aren’t good at it anyway.

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Apparently, the way the female brain is set up, women are much better at multitasking. Yet there was a time when multitasking was something everyone was trying to master.

But just like margarine was supposed to be better for you than butter, it turned out not to be true.

The same mantra has been proclaimed about multitasking. It doesn’t work; you don’t get more done, and you certainly don’t get more done faster.

I proved that today.

I was in a hurry trying to get out the door for a few errands on my day off. I just needed to brush my teeth … something I’m pretty good at since I’ve been polishing those chiclets for many years.

But when I put the toothpaste on my electric toothbrush there was just enough for that cleaning. The tube was finished so I threw it in the garbage.

With my toothbrush in one hand, putting it into my mouth, I though with my other hand I could get the next tube out of its box and ready for my next cleaning.

So I brushed with one hand, and picked up the box with my other. I was just going to leverage the box against the counter to open it and pull out the tube, but they had some kind of sealing mechanism on the box.

I couldn’t see very well because by now I was brushing my teeth and, if I looked down, the toothpaste would probably drip out of my mouth.

Turned out that the sealing mechanism was tape – very strong tape, I might add – because I was really struggling to continue my brushing and, at the same time, fight with the box.

I ended up having to let go of the toothbrush, so that it was whirling away in my mouth with only the strength of my lips providing the counter balance from the heavy handle that was dangling from my mouth.

With two hands I was literally ripping the box, tearing it limb from limb (if it had any).

Finally the tube was free and the box fell into the sink. I tossed the box in the garbage can and placed the tube in my teeth cleaning container. … Back to brushing my teeth while actually holding the brush.

When I finished up, I felt like I needed to sit down and calm down – I was all riled up after my multitasking disaster.

I’m way better off sticking to one thing at a time! … That’s why there are laws against texting and driving, putting on your makeup while driving, or doing pretty much anything while driving.

For those out there who still think multitasking is a good thing, I just have one piece of advice: Stick to one thing at a time.

Here’s the thing: Multitasking gets you moving at a frantic pace; you live hurried. Life is not a race but a journey we are on. God would rather you take time to enjoy the moments than to hurry through them so that they are a blur. Take time throughout your day to just breathe, take in  your surroundings, and thank God for those moments of calm.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you take breaks through your day? Leave your comments below.