Just feeling the need to express my longing for the warm Bali sun and the most amazing sand/shell beaches. I continue to mentally take myself back there to remember that state of bliss and natural beauty. With the sun kissing at my back, the breeze feathering through my hair, the sand tickling my skin as I sift it through my fingers, near complete isolation on a beautiful beach in Indonesia, and with my best friend by my side. Could it get any better? Here are some photos that I cherish and want to share with you of a very special time. I truly believe everyone needs to travel and experience true life as it should be: in the moment.
Bali Bliss
Koh Tao, Thailand
Ubud, Bali
My lovely bestie :)
This photo continues to be my inspiration, Bali
Halong Bay, 'Nam
Sometimes I forget that we have such beauty here as well. My other place of bliss...Tofino. Photo Cred..Braden
I feel like I should also share that instead of Leap of Life Creations, I've changed our name to Leap of Life Inspirations. Our mission is to inspire youth to step into themselves and take action on their dreams, so 'inspirations' seemed to be a better term :). Plus I fricken love that word...INSPIRE.
I love this artist. Something nice to listen to while looking back at Bali and the incredible adventures I've had :).
I so often find that we live in a society of competition. We always have to one-up each other. When it comes to sports I totally appreciate it and it's kind of the whole point. However, I see it so often within friends, family-members and businesses. Naturally we all have that competitive edge, which is great and totally necessary for certain aspects. But why do we continuously compare ourselves to others? Why can't we be happy with what we have and who we are? I think we all need to remind ourselves that we all have an AMAZING purpose that's our very own and nobody elses.
Last night I FINALLY watched "Dead Poet's Society". The professor, John Keating, takes a quote from Walt Whitman where he questions life and it's existence (I think...I'm no poet!!) and Keating answers: "That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?". I absolutely love that quote and it really resonated with me and Leap of Life. It made me question what I want to accomplish and the potential I have for positive change. I'm excited! Anyways, I wanted to share that with you and maybe ask you what your verse will be or what do you want it to be (as corny as that sounds)? Food for thought!
Back to the subject of competition. I think for the most part it's excrement :). We all want to be happy right? How is that possible when we're consistently in competition mode and nothing is ever good enough? I'm talking mostly personal and business-wise. It's kind of common sense that if more people/companies/organizations come together and collaborate. WAY more will get done and a message will be created.
That's really the whole point to Leap of Life. We believe collaboration is key to success and happiness and the more people/companies we bring together, the closer we are to our mission. We are already collaborating with Social City Networking (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-City-Networking-INC/122259574486548), a community and socially conscious company who connects and celebrates amazing and conscious companies in Vancouver.
I'm also looking so forward to July where I'll be meeting the incredible group of people that are the backbone to Light and Soul Creations (http://www.lightandsoul.ca/). Based out of Calgary, they are a group of artists that are committed to living a progressive lifestyle that breaks out of the conventional and limiting scene through art and their incredible creations. Their mantra is "Challenge reality, manifest progression." How awesome is THAT!? So stoked to meet them folks.
If you go to their site you can watch their amazing new video outlining their new "animalistic" line! Dooooo it!!! I wanted to post it, but I can't figure out how to get it on here. Blast!
In the meantime...an awesome and nostalgic summer swoon. He's here in August!
Today marks the one week anniversary of the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots. It's clear the riots were not really about the hockey game and that they weren't really Vancouverites causing the damage. Most of us want to move on and we'd rather forget about it completely. However, I feel the need to say my bit so please bare with me.
I was one of the 150,000 civilians downtown watching the hockey game. Fortunately, I was in an apartment with friends on Homer and Robson, a block away from the Fan Zone. We got caught in the riots trying to figure out a way to get out of there, although curiosity did take over in some circumstances. We ended up witnessing an attempted break-in to Louis Vuitton, beatings, and were tear gassed. I'm not going to lie, I froze. I didn't know what to do. I felt like I was in a movie of some kind and couldn't comprehend anything that was going on. As we watched the Boston Bruins bus with the hockey players inside drive down Burrard Street with a full on SWAT team behind them, I felt sorry that they didn't win the cup in their own city, and that they had to witness this embarrassment in ours.
ANYWAYS, my point of writing this blog isn't actually about the night of the riots. It's about what happened after. The city came together and fought back against the hate/anger crimes by writing messages of love and sympathies to the city. I wish I'd gone down in time to take some of my own photos before they changed the wood walls, but I didn't get the chance. Here's one taken from CBC.
It's incredible that after such a devastating event, we can unite and claim back our love for this city. Vancouver is truly an amazing place and I feel so lucky to live here. Thank you Vancouverites for fighting back with love (and giving in footage of the anarchists) for our city.
"You, whose day it is, get out your rainbow colors and make it BEAUTIFUL."
Here's a video that a friend and recording artist, Bonn Will Smith, put together. It's AMAZING!! Check it.
With life comes constant development and progression, both professionally and personally and so much of that is influenced by those around you. In my last blog, I shared my sense of self-loss and confusion with who I am and what my purpose is. I've spent the last week working on my heart and letting go of certain attachments from the past that I still have. It has not been the easiest couple of weeks, and I still don't feel like I've completely come back to myself. However, the fact that I'm totally aware of it means that I can consciously make the change within myself and my life. Huzzah!
I want to share some incredible people I've met recently. Two are twin sisters who founded an incredible and socially conscious networking company (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-City-Networking-INC/122259574486548) called 'Social City Networking'. Both have their own amazing story and great ambitions, which brought the three of us together. Last night, Sara hosted a potluck and invited some extremely inspirational people. It was a night full of heart-connections, great food, and AMAZING music.
Here's a little clip of the awesomeness that occurred:
Eland Bronstein was also there from The GiveProject (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vancouver-Riot-Pics-Post-Your-Photos/121837081234162?ref=ts&sk=wall#!/passthegive), which in short is about giving spontaneously and selflessly, from random acts of kindness to conversations that change people's lives. Professional dancers, professional DJ's, and free-thinkers came together and created an amazing vibe. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it. Thank you everyone for being there and sharing with me an absolutely incredible night.
Before I sign off, I want to share this amazing short clip from a documentary called Playing for Change. This peace-through-music project brought together vocalists and musicians around the world through film, bringing to the surface how much of a global community we really are. This is one of the best idea's I've ever heard and it absolutely blows my mind! ENJOY! Peace and love my friends.
I believe that having trust in yourself is the key to your own happiness. If that trust is lost, so is your direction in life. It's true that you can have others guide you, but do you really want that? Do you want to be a follower? And do what others tell you even if it's not what you really believe?
I'm really going to be myself all the time. That's a commitment I make to you as the readers of my blog, to Leap of Life Creations, and most importantly, to myself. It's a lot harder to do (or be) than you think too.
So, I'll be completely honest, these past few weeks I've felt fairly lost. My direction with myself personally has been very confusing and not totally on track. I noticed the confused feeling before Sasquatch. I sort of forgot about it while at Sasquatch, since it's its own world where happiness and music flows, and when I came home it hit me full force. I felt totally disoriented with who I am, what my purpose is, and where my place is in the world. I was pretty disheartened, but wasn't sure with what or why.
I reached out to some very incredible people who understand me completely and what I'm trying to accomplish. I shared with them what is going on for my heart and that I feel overwhelmed and exhausted and not sure what I'm doing. They made me realize that I'm still on the right path and that I'm merely in transition from one phase of self-development to the next. I'm just experiencing the rough patch in between that can be difficult to adapt to. Another wise piece of advice given to me was not to take on so many projects. I tend to say "yes" to everything that crosses my path and I do genuinely want to do it all. However, if I do it all then I won't do it nearly as great as one project, right? So my next goal is to simplify my life. Why make life complicated? Simplicity is true bliss.
I wanted to share this experience with you because even though you have taken or will take that leap of life, there are still times of confusion and loss where you don't know what you're doing. You just have to completely believe in yourself and your passion. If it takes some soul-searching and some much needed time by the beach with your thoughts to regenerate (that's what I need to do!) then do it. Take care of yourself and know that you're on the right path.
Thanks for listening :).
Here's a video that I regularly watch over and over again. No matter what Mickey Smith lives his passion and you can feel it through this short film.
Wow. What an experience! The Sasquatch Music Festival absolutely blew my mind. So much fun with great people and watched amazing music being played. I'm trying to find words to really articulate the emotions I felt there. I was completely in my element: neon, tribal paint, Live in the MO singlets, headbands, AMAZING music, tie dye, camping. Need I say more? What's awesome is that we sold out of our Live in the Mo shirts on the first day (I say thanks to my amazing "Live in the MO" models) and more are soon to come!
The campground itself was full of characters: kids with lassos, graffiti'd winnebagos, party busses, Justin Bieber flags, and weirdos with awesome Full Moon party buckets and an ol' pink flamingo flag. What a life! Welcome to Sasquatch.
My favourite shows? Ohooooo where do I start. My favourite day was Monday. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were so incredible I couldn't contain myself. I literally cried at this show it was so good. I've never seen a performer with more passion (I have a GIANT crush on Macklemore not gonna lie). Below is a video from my camera (not HD and not totally on target all the time, but let's face it, Fed wanted to enjoy the show as much as the rest of us...thanks for taking it Fed!)
We caught a glimpse of Foster the People, which way too packed to even get in to the front. Rodrigo y Gabriela performed on the big stage so we took a breather and listened to them during a much needed rainstorm and we ended up dancing to some ridiculously awesome guitar riffs. We moved to the dance tent to see Skrillex who blew me away. I know his music fairly well, but I've never heard any artist drop a beat as hard as Skrillex. Can't help but move with it! To finish off the insane weekend, we made our way to the front of Major Lazer, who put on the most entertaining shows I've ever seen. We witnessed some Rated R dancing (seriously) between Switch and his dancer and even observed the ladder dagger first-hand (see below). Meanwhile Diplo's swinging off some equipment in the background. SO entertaining and GREAT music. I'm having a lot of trouble putting this into words how amazing it was. Ending the weekend with bumping into Skrillex and Major Lazer wasn't too bad. We high five'd them, no bid D.
The other days were incredible as well. Friday we went in later and only saw Death from Above 1979 and the Foo Fighters (they played a couple of songs with Bob Mould). I've never been to a set as long as the Foo Fighters...over 2 hours! Then we danced a little bit to DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid. So fun!
Saturday we kicked it off with a chill Dan Mangan show. We then headed to the main stage and saw Wolf Parade (apparently their last show) and Pink Martini. This was in between napping on the hill so that we could be in full force for the night! After watching the beginning of Iron and Wine, we booked it over for Matt and Kim, which was an amazing show! Kim jumped off the stage and ran into the crowd. What a gem that girl is! Then we caught a bit of Robyn and her awesome moonwalking moves and listened to her very poor English ("We gonna have a Sasquatch Pahty!"...so classic) and then made our way over for Sleigh Bells, which was INCREDIBLE. Alexis Krauss is one foxy lady and damn is she ever a rockstar! We ended the night with Bassnectar and his epic Glowpocalypse (where everyone is prepared with glow sticks and when he drops the beat everyone throws them in the air) and let me just say I'll never look at the movie "Dumbo" the same. He was AMAZING.
Here's a link to the "Pink Elephants" song and the reason why I mentioned "Dumbo". Absolutely insane (in a very good way).
Sunday we had a goal to go see Beach House, but the line-up at the gates was irregularly long with literally thousands of people waiting to get in that we thought some people were going to suffocate. After an hour of extreme discomfort of being in the middle of way too many people crushing to get into the festival grounds, we finally made it in time to see City and Colour. We were then able to fit in Cold War Kids, Flogging Molly, and Gayngs before the Flaming Lips came on. In typical Wayne Coyne fashion, he rolled out in a big plastic ball onto the crowd. After making his way back to the stage, instead of actually performing he started talking about extremely random things like how important our hands are. Great. Everyone then sang a very nice "Happy Birthday Sasquatch" song and he threw cake out into the crowd. We then decided it was time to leave since Wayne Coyne was still discussing the gift of the hand and headed over to the wonderful Yeasayer.
This show was AWESOME. Chris Keating's smoking hot voice and Yeasayer's different vibe got everyone moving and it was a great warm-up to MSTRKRFT, which after Yeasayer we moved to in the dance tent (we did catch a bit of Modest Mouse, but had to much energy from Yeasayer that we needed to dance more!). We managed to sneak up to the front where some serious mosh pitting was occurring and I had to duck here and there while bodies were surfing their way across the crowd. GREAT times!! I'd heard that MSTRKFT's show wasn't that great, but they definitely proved otherwise. After MSTRKRFT pumped us up some more we moved to the next show: Ratatat. I didn't realize that Ratatat consists of two guys, two drums, two guitars, and a DJ set. It was awesome to see some dubstep that integrated musical instruments with the table. Gosh these guys are so cool. They had extremely trippy images for those on the "heighteners" like budgies, people (it doesn't sound weird but it was), etc. Hilarious! Here's a Yeasayer video just for the heck of it!
It was a long, yet unbelievable five days. I'm so lucky to have finally gone this year and it took me back to my SE Asia traveling days. Thank you Sasquatch and to the INCREDIBLE people I met and experienced it with. Count down begins for next year!!!
