MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: I RESOLVE TO QUIT BEING A BRAGGART!

 

SELF-PORTRAIT

Yes. I need to quit being a braggart. I need to quit the me, me, me, and more me themes that are prevalent in this very blog you are reading.

My braggadocio really began in 1977 after I had just read The Complete Book of Running by Jim Fixx. Right after reading that book, I became a runner. Living in Kamloops, British Columbia at the time, running the main trail at McArthur Island Park became a daily habit, and running continued to be a daily habit for the next fifty years! Between then and now, I’ve run a marathon (registered with the Saskatchewan Marathon), several half-marathons (registered with the Echo Lake Road Race), and hundreds of recreational runs around Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan.

MY MARATHON MEDAL '89

My braggadocio continued as I began taking classes at the University of Regina. And that is when I formally became a swimmer. For four years, I swam my morning mile having my individual medley (IM) being the front crawl, back crawl, breaststroke, and butterfly. Though I was an English Literature major, I Swimming was my minor, taking Swimming 110 (introduction to swimming), 210 (lifeguard level swimming), and 310 (instructor level swimming). Upon graduation, I taught swimming and springboard diving and snorkeling for over a decade at the Regina YMCA.

I should mention, too, that I had also completed a scuba certification with the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) at Cariboo College in Kamloops, B.C., and a Scuba Bronze with the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) in Regina, Saskatchewan.

PUERTO VALLARTA DIVING

It has been some time since I’ve taught swimming. Even so, it does seem fitting that I now teach downhill skiing, having taken my instructor certification through the Canadian Ski Instructors’ Alliance (CSIA). My first time on skis was in 1972 at White Track Ski Resort just north of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Since then, I have bump-skied at Tod Mountain (now called Sun Peaks) and Harper at Kamloops, Big White at Kelowna, Silver Star at Vernon, Sunshine and Norquay at Banff, and Whistler at Vancouver. And every weekend I am either skiing or instructing skiing at Mission Ridge Ski Resort in Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan. I must confess that being a swimming instructor was a very plummy job, and that being a ski instructor is even more plummy!

In my adolescence and early adulthood, I dabbled in karate, and then as a middle-ager I took Tai Chi. These past fifteen years I have been both a student and instructor of Muay Thai (kickboxing). Muay Thai is not regulated so my instructor credentials could be specious. Even so, I still brag about it.

All these above mentions are my fitness creds. I could go on to mention that at one time I was a certified aerobics instructor (via the YMCA) and a certified Nautilus Weightlifting Instructor (also via the YMCA). Aerobics I’ve not done since my certification, but I still lift weights at least four times a week. I am a serious martinet when it comes to fitness. Muscle is medicine, and I lift weights for one reason only, and that is to look good! YOU. CAN’T. FAKE. FITNESS.

BUSKING AT TIM HORTONS SOMEWHERE IN ALBERTA

Of course, my academic creds give me more reasons to brag. My bachelor’s degree is in English Literature, and my Masters’ degree is in Educational Psychology. Having my bachelor’s degree gave me the opportunity to teach high school English, and having my master’s degree gave me the opportunity to teach university Psychology. I was on faculty as a sessional instructor in the Psychology Department for well over twenty years.

Having my master’s degree also prompted me to open a private counselling practice, for which I became professionally proficient in Choice Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Now, all these mentioned therapies are years behind me, for my present practice I focus only on HYPNOTHERAPY, for which I am a registered Master Clinical Hypnotherapist with the Canadian Hypnosis Association (CHS). I have been managing my hypnotherapy practice in downtown Regina for a dozen years and have no plans to ever cease.

Well now that I have bragged about my physical and academic creds, I still have space and time to brag about my creative creds.

More bragging. I am a published author, my first book being an academic writing of non-fiction, A WISHBONE EPISTOLARY published by the University of Toronto in 1985.

My second book, QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH, is an adolescent science-fiction fantasy, published by Wood Dragon Books in 2023.

EVERYBODY IS READING IT!

EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT!

Did you know that this self-published blog you are reading, has a readership in 152 countries to date?!

And now my creative creds. I am a singer-songwriter, having slung my twelve-string guitar and blown my Dylan harp while busking throughout Western Canada, and elsewhere in such countries across the pond in The Netherlands, Ireland, and Morocco.

BUSKING IN MARRAKECH

Being a planetary guitar-slinger busker, I have also been a caricaturist in those same countries. Drawing caricatures, I need only some Sharpies and a sketchpad. Locally, I love drawing at summer country fairs right here in Canada.

DRAWING AT A LOCAL MARKET

Yes. For 2026 I need to quit bragging. I think I brag because I think my sociability stock rises every time someone other than myself knows how talented I am at doing something! Because I think that they think that -- I do not deter them from thinking so.

THE LIFE YOU DREAM IS RIGHT BEHIND THE WORK YOU SHIRK! 

This I know. Yes. I am very close to writing a bestseller or being a famous caricaturist or having enough popularity to eke out a living as a planetary busker. I just need to quit shirking!

Yes. For 2026, my bragging shall be finis. 2026 shall be my year of wrinkled humility and mercenary notoriety. But alas, being 74 years of age, I am not as roseate as I once was. In fact, I’ll be lucky to last another ten years without suffering some physical or mental infirmity.

(But I’ll certainly not be bragging about that!)