Well, here we are...

Bet you didn’t see this coming...

Me either...

I mean, I expected change. I expected disruption.

That’s what I do right?

I’m a “change” and “uncertainty” guy, an expert on resilience…

Economic collapse?

Sure. We can’t live beyond our means forever; someday the piper needs to be paid...

Environmental collapse?

Same.

We can’t take, take, take forever.

Where is that going to end?

A paved paradise, put up a parking lot?

But a pandemic, nope.

Didn’t see it.

The last pandemic movie I remember was 12 Monkeys...

You might think I’m writing now to tell you how I crushed COVID last year; how my years of practicing resilience had me just cruising through life while the world fell apart...

Nope.

I’m writing you now to tell you that COVD, or more specifically the pandemic, kicked my arse and almost broke me...

It took me a while to figure out exactly why it took such a toll.

I mean, in so many ways I was ready for a crisis.

I kept myself in reasonable shape.

We lived within our means.

Sure, it didn’t help that COVID caught us without a home, which also meant, like most of you; we didn’t have access to a gym.

It also didn’t help that COVID shutting down travel also shut down meetings and conferences, which happen to be my primary source of income.

None of those things helped, but none of them are what crushed me.

What crushed me, as Margo pointed out one day, was I’d lost my purpose...

I had no idea how much of my identity was wrapped up in being “the guy with no legs who climbs mountains”; in sharing my story and helping others see the world a little differently.

No idea that is, until I couldn’t do it.

A life without legs is one thing.

A life without purpose?

That’s a whole different story...

I’m happy to say, that slowly, piece by piece, step by step, I was able to turn things around.

Part of the process was finding a new home.

We’re happily settled in the Columbia Valley, the next valley over (west) from the Bow Valley we’d called home. Our new home feels just like that, a home. Canmore had begun to more and more feel like a town that exists for visitors, not the people who actually live there.

When I’m not out exploring our new surrounds, you’ll find me in the studio connecting with people all over the world; back doing my thing; albeit virtually, in working to help change the way we see the world, and our place in it...

So, that’s my news.

I hope this finds you and yours safe and well, navigating through this as best you can.

And hey, because it’s been a while; just a reminder that if you’d rather not receive these email updates from me (and have managed to read this far), you can unsubscribe at any time using the link below.

Oh, one last thing.

I took the opportunity to update my speaker demo video during COVID.

You can check it out HERE

Until next time.

Warren