2019 My Year In Review

Every year I make a ritual of reviewing the past year to reflect on what's happened and to get excited about the things yet to come. I think we all tend to get caught up in the minutiae of everyday living and forget to take a step back and celebrate all the amazing events and experiences that shape us. Doing these yearly reviews has been a fantastic exercise.

One of my failings is that I never stick with anything too long. One of my endearing qualities is that I'm always changing it up. This year was no different. 

I immigrated to the USA and finally got my green card last December after what seemed like an eternity. I felt that I could finally relax and settle into my new home in Colorado with Anne, the woman who I love and adore, and my favorite person in the world. So I started the process of making the transition a permanent one, getting my son an apartment of his own and packing my stuff in Canada. 

Shortly after getting back to the US, I got a call from my neighbor in Canada informing me that there was smoke billowing out the back of my house and that they had just called the fire department. I had rented it out and the tenants accidentally set it on fire. It was big news in my little hometown and I made front page headlines in the North Bay Nugget. The entire house was completely gutted. Oh well, I didn't like those tenants very much anyway. (They were safe.) Big thanks to Clair for managing the mess in my absence!

I've been trying to leave the massage industry for a few years now. Over the past few years I've studied language acquisition and was making plans to develop a unique online English language learning program. But as fate would have it, I keep getting dragged back into massage, (but maybe only half reluctantly). The truth is that I still love love the profession. I started working on a new project late last year and work is ramping up. It's top secret and will be a game changer. Super psyched to release it in 2020. 

Oddly enough, I didn't write or launch a new book in 2019. I did compile a book of massage marketing tips, however, and I'll release it on Amazon early in 2020. 

To satisfy my creative needs I decided to take up photography. I've been producing video for over a decade using DSLRs, but I never actually took pictures with my cameras. If you follow me on Facebook you'll find pretty much no record of my life in images, certainly none taken by me. I did my first real photo shoot on April 14th and I was hooked. Fast forward to the end of the year and I've done about 80 photo shoots and took up residency at RAW Photographic Studios. You can see some of my recent work on Instagram.

It's been an incredible learning experience and I think I'm finally getting a grasp on studio lighting. More than that, I've met an amazing group of creative people and have developed a community who I consider my tribe. Connecting with these awesome humans has now made Colorado feel like home.

Best part about it is that I have found some beautiful young people to nurture in the absence of my son. I've "adopted" two young woman who I consider my daughters. They are absolutely ridiculous and I love and adore them. 

In July, Seth's exchange partner, Samuel, from France came to visit us in Denver with his siblings. I flew Seth in for the reunion. I don't have much opportunity to speak French so I was exhausted by the time they left having to pull language from the recesses of my brain. But it was a delightful trip. That inspired Seth to spend several months in Europe where he is still hanging out. Some of you may still remember him as Seth the Chef. He's the one on the left below.

We sold World Massage Conference to ABMP last year and we have officially closed the corporation this year. We knew ABMP would be the best home for this incredible resource of over 400 educational videos that we produced over the years and they make it freely available to their 80,000 members. If you're a massage therapist and not an ABMP member, now is the time to make that leap. Our WMC administrative goddess, Marla Gold, came to visit me in the summer and we had a very memorable trip to hot springs around Colorado.

In the absence of a massage conference, my WMC partner Scott Dartnall reeled me in to do a massive online dog care conference, Dog Care On Air. It was a big success with about 40 presenters and over 5,000 registrants. We ran it on a tight timeline, so next year will be even bigger and better. 

Anne, my love, talked me into doing a nine-day camping trip in Zion National Park this fall. I wasn't crazy about camping in 0 degree weather (that's Celsius, but still cold). But I loved the experience. Zion was absolutely breathtaking and we had deer in front of our tent every morning. Hiking up Angel's Landing was incredible. Looking ahead at the narrow 4 foot ridge and 1,500 foot vertical drops (see the top left pic below) freaked me out a little and I didn't summit with Anne. The next morning I kicked myself for wimping out and did the hike again, this time summiting with Tera, my most lovely fearless friend. Hiking up the narrows was exciting too. It's like six miles of river crossings in a deep slot canyon. Of course, the group of people who we were with were exceptional human beings and gifted athletes, so it was great to spend time with them. 

What does the next year hold? Who knows? I'm going to continue with photography as a hobby as I hunker down and launch my next big massage project. Stay tuned for next year's review.