One date I can't ignore
~ every year it asks, now what? ... another fork, milestone, finish line; a mirror, a marker, and a quiet revolution.
Where we start matters, I suppose, as much as where we finish.
Not unlike the dash between birth and death; — it’s that simple line that is supposed to capture all we’ve done. It reduces a lifetime to a placeholder between then and someday.
But today is now.
August 1 is my now point. Every year. Not a best-before or better-after date. Just a recurring pause that matters more than birthdays or anniversaries.
I couldn’t manage my life thinking the best of it is behind me. That simply isn’t true. The best is ahead, and this day reminds me, every year, to believe that.
Frost wrote of diverging paths. Berra said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” I’ve come to see August 1 as that fork. A signpost. A checkpoint I pass on each lap around the track. One that matters not because of what I’ve done, but because of what I’m doing now, and what I will do next.
Some dates don’t just show up. They arrive heavy with memory, with meaning.
A beginning. A checkpoint. A reminder of the uncharted path we somehow keep walking. A place for pause, for thought - taking time, thinking deeply if that’s possible, and believing in the meaning of what I do, what I’ve done and what I will do now, do next, do for the rest of my life. Yes, as if it is the most important and meaningful part of my life, and whatever ‘of me’ is left behind when I no longer look forward.
August 1 always lands with more resonance than most. A beginning. A checkpoint. A reminder to keep walking the uncharted path.
It’s the day I left a promising retail career to jump into real estate through a side door called mortgage brokerage. It wasn’t flashy, but it was brave. The fear of leaping was worse than the leap itself.
Two years later, I jumped again. Into my own business. That leap felt logical. Reflexive. Like the only step that made sense.
I was probably terrified. I don’t remember it that way. It wasn’t linear. It wasn’t easy. There was triumph and wreckage. Marriages and heartbreaks. Wins and do-overs. Two extraordinary daughters, by far, the best things I could ever do.
Cities changed. Industries shifted. I returned to Calgary in 1999, and I’ve stayed for 26 years. Will I stay longer? Maybe. Will I move on? Possibly. I don’t know yet.
But I feel the ground shifting. This August 1 feels different. Not seismic, but stirring. A slow-motion shift. Questions are getting clearer. Options are forming.
And the leap? It’s humming again. But this time, it doesn’t scare me.
That NOW point was starting my own business, stepping into a new/next phase of the risk-reward continuum of work and business life, supposedly with open eyes and not flinching.
I should’ve been terrified.
Maybe I was, but I don’t remember it that way.
It wasn’t linear, wasn’t easy, wasn’t without wreckage. I had triumphs and faceplants, marriages and heartbreaks, wins and reboots. Two amazing daughters remain the best leaps I’ve ever taken.
Since then, cities changed, industries evolved, and I circled back to Calgary, where I’ve now stayed longer than I ever planned. Twenty-six years and counting. Will I continue here or venture further in the coming year? I don’t know yet, I don’t have a clear sense of it, but I feel the right-for-me choices will present themselves, and circumstances will reveal the route, the path, and the choices will become clear.
Because this August 1st lands differently. There’s another kind of shift underway. Not seismic, not yet fully formed, but it’s coming. Changes are moving. Options are lining up. Not all answers are here yet, but the questions are clearer.
The same leap-noise is in the air again.
But this time, it doesn’t scare me.
Every August 1 holds a mirror — sometimes showing where you’re going, sometimes just how far you’ve come.
Not because anything I’ve done hasn’t been meaningful, but because so much has been.
Yet, I can’t imagine another year, this next future year, this one that starts today, being anything but a transformational one for me, for what I do, for those I do it for and for the intrinsic value contained within it.
Is it me?
Am I it?
I don’t mean in terms of defining myself or defining my work as much as I mean understanding myself and my reasons for being, for doing, for living and working and creating.
It’s the beginning of everything. Again.
A year from now, I doubt the politics of today, the rants and tariffs of the two-year-old tantrum Trump-it will be memorable or meaningful, and the tasks on my plate will be replaced with another load of worthy things to do …
There is always an unlimited mountain of tasks to climb, things worth doing and things that simply must be done. Taking one day from 365 to ponder all that matters in our lives is, for me, an easy and happy choice.
August 1st has become a deeply personal and professional milestone that’s once again marking a pivotal life change that still resonates. It’s an emotional, reflective and relevant litmus test day for me. One of gratitude and appreciation for everything up until now, this now, with wide-eyed enthusiasm to greet this sense of stirring I feel.
It’s not a report card, a checking in what I’ve done in one year - it’s a self-measuring of what I’ve lived, lived up to, lived to regret and lived to learn from. And now, another year or ‘this messy mess called a whole life, of one person, one human animal’ like all the other primates, in search of my morning coffee and wondering when I’ll next have time to reflect on what this day means to me.
P.S.: and happy long weekend to everyone
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Love this - “Some dates don’t just show up. They arrive heavy with memory, with meaning.“. So powerful!