Thank you Dad

A mentor of mine suggested I write thank you notes to everyone that has been in my life, living or dead, to tell them what they did and why they are so important to me. I will start with my father, Bob Robertson. I by no means am trying to diminish the importance of my mom, but I have to start somewhere.

Dear Dad,

I know we had this conversation the day before you died but considering all that was going on with you at that time there are some things you may have forgotten.

You were the single most important man in my life. Period. I know that with you I talked about Uncle Ralph, Uncle Roy, Uncle Harold and others, but I was only comparing them to me and you. None of them could ever do for me what you did for me. For that I will be eternally grateful. You live in perpetuity through the stories I tell others, especially my kids, Morgan and Ainsley.

I appreciate all of the times you ran interference between me and mom. I know mom only wanted the best in me and was pushing me to be better but I think you saw something in me that she didn’t. You let me do what I did – like going to Niagara – and even encouraged me.

Thanks for all of the phone calls when I wasn’t expecting them. The phone at Niagara was in the basement and I remember being called to the phone and hearing your voice. It always seemed to come at precisely the right time. You’d seem to know exactly when hearing your voice would help centre me and help me focus. Looking back I now understand that you and I are more alike than I ever thought. I now know you saw that and knew I would want to hear from you.

Thank you for teaching me to laugh at the horribly outrageous and see the actual things that were happening. By that I could easily just use a paper weight you had on your desk that said something about people not understanding the situation. Another said “Those of you who think you know it all are annoying to those of us who do.”. I loved your humour. I try to be like you and even just yesterday I was telling a story about you in class and one f my students commented you live on in me. You taught me that no matter what happens, it has happened. Move on. Then you taught me to laugh at it.

Thank you for helping me be a better person. I know that my life became infinitely harder after you “died”. You never lectures me about ANYTHING. You managed to teach me constantly by telling stories and jokes and anecdotes about subjects we were discussing. I think that has made me a better father, teacher and leader. One of my students told me I didn’t teach but rather invited my students into my living room to tell them stories about what they were learning. I think you felt your history wasn’t important to me but I hung on every ward you said about your family and your ”youth”.

Thank you for putting up with me. I mean that. I look back and I wasn’t a very nice person to you at some times. But you always welcomed me with open arms, a hug and a scratchy kiss. Always.

Thank you for helping me see that I wanted to teach. Not in an arrogant, I’m better than you way but in a “let’s make the world a better place” kind of way. I’m not sure that when I was an assistant cub leader or helping out at school that I was doing it for altruistic reasons but I now see what you were teaching me. Giving back, even when you have nothing, there is always something you can give. You were a volunteer with the Boy Scouts for as long as I can remember even though your son’s were no longer involved. I remember being in your office one weekend working on homework and a tradesman stopped in - a plumber or electrician. He asked you for advice and you set him up with ledger sheets, coloured pens and instructions. I remember asking you if he was a new client and you told me you didn’t think so. But you told me it was more important that this chap leave with all of the information he needed to start to run his business. That taught me a lot. Thank you.

Thank you for folding me a paper ship’s captain hat. You told me you were going to fold this hat and I imagined a cap like the skipper on Gilligan’s Island would wear. I must have really hurt you when I hated the hat. (I know I didn’t, you were my dad, that’s what dad’s do) But I must tell you that I now fold paper pots for a class I teach a class on sustainable horticulture. Essentially I fold the same hat you folded me and then I turn it into a paper pot. I cry a little inside every time I do that.

Thanks for teaching me to love gardening. One of my favourite memories of you is peering out of my bedroom window and seeing you with the kitchen kettle watering the concrete planters on the front porch. You’d have your tie folded into your shirt as you had just finished the dishes and one foot up on the edge of the porch. My other memories of you are at the cottage in the garden hunting tomato hornworms.

Thank you for being you.

I think of you a lot. Maybe not so much when things are going well but when things start to get a little bumpy. You are the first place I usually turn. Thank you for all that you taught me. I think I will end this note here but know you will live on forever in my mind and soul and everyone I tell about you.

Matthew

Gratitude

“Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.” - Frances Rodman

Gratitude. What a powerful thing. I read that line this morning and knew it was so powerful. People are driven by any of many different things. The most powerful things I do for myself is every morning go through  gratitude list and do the same thing in the evening. Some days I have a hard time doing that exercise. I think I become so accustomed to everything I have I take it for granted. That and I start to focus on my difficulties and not the things I have to be grateful for.

Where would I be if I lost EVERYTHING. Well, the most important things are Linda, Ainsley and Morgan. My house and stuff is just that - - stuff. But I am grateful for everything. I have a place to live, I am warm and dry. I have a business. I teach. I have clothes.  

Some of the students I teach have less than what I have – a lot less. They go to school and at least on the outside seem to be grateful for what they have. Imagine having nothing.

My grandfather came to Canada with nothing, not even the ability to speak English (from what I know). He got off a boat in Montreal, took the train to Hamilton and started working in the steel mills. He became one of the highest ranking people in the foundries and all from nothing. So what right do I have to complain.

I am truly grateful for my life. I realize that what I get out of life is a direct reflection of what I put in. I want more out of life so I have to give more to life. By that I mean I need to be of more service to more people. Can I do that? Of course I can. I wonder though. I have many things I can do for others. I often get bogged down in trying to figure out what the universe wants me to do. I think what I need to do is relax and let it tell me on its own.

I have what my mom would say is “too many irons in the fire”. People will tell me to focus on one thing and do it well. I honest look at everything as just one giant thing. So in fact, although it looks as if I am accomplishing nothing, everything is moving ahead however slowly though it is moving ahead.

And I am grateful.

Perseverance

"Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This has been a busy few weeks for us. We are in the middle of fall clean ups and all of the other things we do at the end of the season. We are also trying to plan for the winter and getting things up and running so next year will be better than this year.

Why perseverance? Well, I think it is quite simple. When we wake up and the days weather looks sour and cold you must push through to get the work completed. That sounds really simple and it is. But that is only one part of perseverance. The easy part. It is so easy to wake up, look out the window at the weather and decide what to wear to stay warm and dry.

The hard part is the unknown. Trying to build new business and not knowing if it will work. I honestly believe that if my creative mind could conceive the idea then there is a receptive mind somewhere else. So we have these ideas to build our business. Are we convinced the ideas are sound? Yes we are. We have built some business models about the product and pricing and service. What is next?

We need to keep pounding at the gate until someone stirs and answers.

I honestly believe that as soon as we have one customer we will have a hundred customers. When we have a hundred customers we will have knocking at our gate. Once people see what we can do for them and their environment they will want us to work with them.

So what now? Keep on truckin’! We have what we believe is a service people want. We know how to do it, we can do it and we are ready to do it. So we need to start knocking on gates until someone answers.

I am sure you have something you want people to know about. So knock on gates. Do not be belligerent, be remarkable. Be worth remarking about. Be something, do something that people will talk about. Be better than the rest. Be unique. Be yourself.

When I am talking about knocking at the gate I don’t mean with a mallet or stick or something like that. Just gently tap to make them aware you are there and then show them what you are up to. If you have done a good job being worth remarking about, they will listen.

I think one of the best things I can say here is be persistent. Stay on message. Review to be sure but keep your core message consistent. It WILL pay off.

Chains

“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” - Rosa Luxemburg

I have a challenge in that I will go to bed in a healthy and positive mindset and yet wake in a mindset that is not so much… I realize I am “consciously aware of being in a negative vibration” and immediately change.

I think my biggest challenge is I DO move and threrfore I DO notice my chains. And I am allowing myself become frustrated. At least first thing in the morning. I can then move my vibration into a positive one.

Distractions – holy Hannah. More and more distractions every day. Keep focused. Stay on point.

And people who do not see their chains. Frustrating. I KNOW that 95% of all the people are going quietly to their graves. I do not want to do that. Hell I am NOT doing that. In think that is one of the main reason I teach. I want to help people wake up to their own potentialities.

I had a class last winter. There are a few groups of students I get.

The Keeners – these people want to have the highest marks. They came through The System thinking that the more right answers they have the better a person they have. They are remnants of the current educational system. The System is focused on parroting “stuff” and giving right answers. They do not realize they have chains on even though they move around. They are like trained elephants, they know just how far they can go without fear of reprisal. They know where to go to get praise – their report card. When they are at work they get a huge boost from “atta boys”. I’d say these people are about 5% of the group.

The Just-Get-By-ers – these people do just enough so they are not kicked out of school. They do not care about praise. In fact, The System has trained them to not be brainiacs. Brainiacs are ostracized by others in this group. They like to know they had low marks. I think these people see The Keeners and wish they were like them not realizing they could be. I believe that with very few exceptions we are all born with the same potential as everyone else. This group of people just do not believe they can do it. At wrk hey do just enough not to get fired and their employer pays them just enough so they do not quit. These people are about 80% of the group.

The Quiet Ones – these people are very hard to understand and yet very easy to understand. Some have excellent marks and some do not. They all have one thing in common -  a lack of self confidence. They do not answer questions in class. EVEN when I can see in their face they know the answer. Even if I call on them they either flub the answer or say they do not know. They have been beaten down by The System and their classmates. They may have been or are being bullied. They may just be going through a pile of shit at home or work. When they are at work they do what they are told – usually very well – but they eschew and opportunity to lead. These are about 5% of my classes.

The Hiders – I am very frustrated by these people. They are the people who zone out on Netflix in class. They are the ones that go and get drunk or stoned at lunch. They are the ones that get home and fall into some sort of stupor – drugs and alcohol or just avoidance – and don’t complete homework. Some have tremendous talent in my class but they just “don’t care”. The System has allowed this because they can function to a degree and may even eke through the course. They see NO future for themselves other than whatever they are doing. They work all week counting down to the weekend so they can party, get drunk or stoned and then spend Sunday recouperating. These people are about 5% of the group.

The Leaders – this group sees and feel the chains. They have talents in landscaping or horticulture and are in my class to maximize their talents to maximize their life’s potential. The System is scared of these people. They do not want to participate in a system that demands their compliance. They want to control their destiny. These people may participate by being an employee but they will be an intrapreneur – someone working within an organization to maximize their own and the organizations potential. They may end up owning their own company. They want to control their own destiny from now until the grave. They are the leaders of our society and are either getting very good marks or average marks. They are not driven by the scale of their marks but by the results of their education. They recognize they need a certification to be more easily able to open the first few doors they face. These people are a dream to teach. These people recognize The System and know they have to work within it to get without it. 5% of the people are LEADERS.

So please, please, please MOVE and find your chains. You may have to move a long way. But the chains are there. It takes a lot of work and thinking and learning to break those chains. The more you learn the more you will realize the chains are within yourself. As you learn more you will start to think more. As you think more you will start to change your paradigms.

Enjoy life – it is yours to live.

Matt

Happiness in an Inside Job

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

And there he is again….

And wow…..

True happiness lies within. It comes from within as well. In the past few decades I have realized that more and more. Even when I was a child I realized there was more joy in giving than in receiving.

I also realized that happiness cannot be forced. You can make yourself happy but you cannot force yourself into a state of happiness. In fact, happiness sometimes just creeps up on you and bites you in the arse.

Some people get happiness from looking at things like butterflies. They are pretty to be sure. But true happiness comes from service to others.

It is amazing how happy you can make other people by being useful, honourable and compassionate. It does not matter what your skills are it matters that you use them honourably and with compassion. I am a horticulturist. I use my skills in horticulture to change other people’s lives. That is an amazing feeling.

I belong to a group called Landscape Ontario. The executive director, Tony Di Giovanni has a great video about how we are the only industry in the WORLD that can make peoples’ lives better. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X78LODGxy7E Every customer we have we try to make their lives better. Honestly, the bulk of our business is simply cutting lawns.

I have one customer in particular who comes out to speak with us every week we are at his house. He walks around with his hands in his pockets and you can see the look of satisfaction in his face. And that brings me happiness.

And it is not only about me. The guys that work for me get so much happiness from this one customer we have made him our last stop of the entire week.

We have a lot of customers that our staff really enjoy working at. We have a few they do not. I have challenged them to make the ones they do not enjoy into the best clients we have. They approach each client with the idea we are going to change their life. And we often can. 

One of our clients we are "working" on!

I have found that there is more personal growth in fixing problems than is in just doing the day to day.Someone said that you will be remembered for one of two things; yhe problems you make or the problems you solve.

One of my favourite snippets of poetry is by Rabindranath Tagore - "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty. I acted and behold, service was joy."

Be of service. In any way you can.

Matt

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

What Lies Inside You

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What a great way to start the day. RWE is one of my favourite philosophers. I cannot remember when I discovered him or even why. I do remember a student of mine telling me more about Emerson than I had ever known. I have read some of his writings but MAN OH MAN is that hard,

What lies behind you….. pales in comparison…. Why? Too many people spend so much time remembering and reliving the past. I try to use the past as a guide for the present and even the future. I do not dwell in the past. Dwell, to live,… Some people I know LIVE for their memories of high school. To be honest, they seem t have peaked in high school.

Living in the past is like trying to drive down the highway by looking in your rear view mirrors. Its OK until you hit a really curvy patch. Then you’ll be in the ditch or worse, driving headlong into oncoming traffic.

What lies in front of you….. pales in comparison. What is meant when you are looking ahead? Honestly, either I am worried about something or am gleefully awaiting something that may or may not happen.

Look to the future with EXPECTATION to be sure. Expect good things to happen and they will. Expect bad things and they will happen as well. I see a lot of people who “hope and pray” things get better and do absolutely nothing to get there, Nothing.

SO let’s take a look at what Mr. Emerson is saying. …pales in comparison to what lies inside of you….

It is a wonderful thing to have a positive mind set but that alone will do you no service. You must always guard your heart, keep negativity at bay, stay positive. But there also needs to be a healthy level of realism. I love the rain. A lot of those I work with hate the rain. Nevertheless our work must be completed outside. And regardless of whether or not you like rain, you can be positive. Realize it is raining and have at ‘er.

What you cultivate inside of you will indeed structure your future. Life throws all sorts of things at you. It is not what happens to you that matters but how you respond to what happens. What is inside of you will pretty much dictate what happens to you. As long as you are working to a worthy end. 

A Butterfly represents the future potential of the caterpillar. A butterfly in October is a sure sign of a positive attitude, it has to get to Mexico before the snow starts flying!

So do this…. Focus on gratitude. Every morning as you wake and your mind is coming back from the subconscious go over a gratitude list. What and who you are grateful for. And really FEEL grateful. Once you do this a few mornings you will approach the day with a really good attitude.

And do this… Ever evening as you are falling asleep go over a gratitude list again. It may be different than your morning list – that doesn’t matter. And again, really FEEL grateful. As you drift off to sleep your subconscious mind will marinate in that feeling of gratitude. When you wake you will find yourself starting o feel grateful even before you start to review your gratitude list. You will be changing one of your thought paradigms. Do this for a month or so and you’ll be amazed at the changes you will see in your life.

Take care of yourself and have a wonderful day.

Matt