Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

Last night I took the plunge, went online and bought a plane ticket to what could be considered the edge of the world — Sandspit, British Columbia. It was one of those moments when my cursor hovered over the purchase button for a long time before I finally said, "What the heck" and clicked. Now I gotta shape up, I have less than a month to prepare for this ride!

I had spent the past few days doing my business accounting to file my tax return by the 15th of June (I get extra time because I'm self-employed), and it was sobering. Last year revenues were down 30% plus I'm also faced with the reality that a major client is being restructured at the moment. Full effect of this won't be evident until a few months from now, after which I will probably have to market myself to new people. Ottawa, being the government town that it is, completely slows down for summer and no real decisions are made until the leaves start to turn colour in September. A perfectly bad storm. I could stick around and stress about it, or dip into some equity to get inspired and recharged for when it's time to jump into action.

With work at half load and the weather being erratic on the miserable side, last month I distracted myself by fixing up my long neglected front yard. I had lost a century-old elm tree to dutch elm disease several years ago, and I never got enough motivation to do any improvements after the garden was depressingly decapitated of its centrepiece. I let it lie fallow as wild violets and dandelions took over. So I unleashed my restless creativity on it and built a waterfall.

"Maybe the street's alight, maybe the trees are gone...

...From underneath the rubble sing a rebel song"

As I was building it, this song from a couple years ago came back to my head:

Despite being a big Coldplay fan, I remember not really liking that song when it came out, I thought it was a bit silly and childish. But after re-examining the lyrics it brings to mind how in the past decade — ever since since 9/11 and the financial crises — the western world has been living in constant paranoia and pessimism. It is about time we focused on the positive, to channel our energy towards creating happy things like waterfalls (and going on awesome bicycle adventures) instead of crying and constantly living in fear and doubt :)

"Maybe I'm in the black, maybe I'm on my knees

Maybe I'm in the gap between the two trapezes

But my heart is beating and my pulses start

Cathedrals in my heart

As we saw, oh, this light

I swear, you emerge blinking into

To tell me it's alright

As we soar walls

Every siren is a symphony

And every tear's a waterfall"