Adventures in Canada’s Pacific Coast
I spent a month living, working, and traveling in Vancouver with two wonderful women from my Cansbridge cohort, Shiyan and Ghalia. The city is vibrant in culture and surrounded by natural beauty, and my experience here has been full of discovery, connection, and inspiration. This post is a reflection on some of my adventures in the Pacific coast of Canada.
The Meticulous, Subtle, and Vast World of Tea
Seeking somewhere to cool off during a hot afternoon bike ride, Shiyan and I ducked into a tea shop in Kitsilano that turned out to be one of the highlights of my Vancouver trip. The shop was quiet and we were in no rush, so we struck up a conversation with the store owner. We ended up chatting for hours over countless steeps of Puerh, a delicious fermented tea from the Yunnan Province in China.
He taught us about the origins and traditions surrounding many varieties of Chinese and Japanese teas, and I was really taken with the calming, communal, and cultural nuances of tea ceremony. We returned to learn how to prepare and really taste traditional Matcha shots, and it was a great pleasure sharing meaningful discussions over our cups of tea.
The culture around tea dates back thousands of years and today more than ever I’m thankful for the reminder to make a habit of enjoying the little things in life.
A Leap of Faith
Some adventures I plan and prepare for, but jumping off a bridge 160 ft above a rapid, glacial river was not one of them. It took everything in me to jump, but the rest was effortless within seconds. It didn’t require meticulous preparation or sustained effort like some challenges do, this required a leap of faith.
It was terrifying, exhilarating, serene, and nothing like what I expected. If Ghalia hadn’t talked me into it, I never would have done it, and now I have an entirely knew sense of how limitless the world can be if we’re willing to face our fears head on.
The Old and Wise
Vancouver Island is home to some of the oldest and largest trees in the world. Some of these trees reach higher than that 160 ft bungee jump and have trunks 20 ft in diameter.
Walking through the old growth forests has really put things into perceptive. The natural world is all a lot bigger than just ourselves and we depend on it absolutely. Whether it’s through small actions to reduce our impact on the local environment or advocating for change in government policy and business practices, we all need to do our part to protect it.
Predicting and Catching the Waves
Situated on the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation on a peninsula off west Vancouver Island, Tofino is home to stretches of beautiful beach with large, white-capped waves. Surfing is huge in Tofino, so we all signed up for a beginner surf lesson and after squirming our way into wetsuits we spent an afternoon in the waves.
To my surprise, it wasn’t balancing or standing up on the board that I found the hardest part. What I found challenging was predicting which waves to catch and when to make a move to catch them. This is a skill I one day hope to master both in and out of the water.
Envision Your Rich Life
I was introduced to this concept by Ramit Sethi, a personal finance advisor and author. He challenges his clients to envision their rich life, getting very specific on how they want to spend their money down to what it feels like to have or live their deepest desires.
The elements of a rich life are extremely personal to our values and tastes, and of course they will change over time as we experiment and question the status quo. It’s become a frequent topic of conversation and connection over the past month, and I’ve learned a lot in hearing how my friends and family view wealth and long-term success.
What I’ve learned is that this tool is much more than just visualizing the things we want. Instead, it is visualizing who we need to be. This results in change at a deeper level, to our habits and paradigms which make up the bulk of our behaviour. When we become who we need to be, it is only natural for us to be able to accomplish and afford the things we really want.
A million thanks Shiyan and Ghalia for getting up to this wonderful adventure with me, I’m sure there will be many more to come.
Thank you to the Cansbridge fellowship, SmartARM, and Queen’s University as none of this would have been possible without their support. Thanks very much to you for reading and stay tuned for my next blog post!
