Kent's weekend experience with the Soldiers Repatriation Procession

Today, everyone in my company (Royal LePage Team Realty) received an email from Kent Browne, the broker/owner of the company. It gave me pause, as it was intended to do.

After I'd read it a couple of times, I sent a reply suggesting Kent post it to his blog. His response suggested he didn't blog. Well, until yesterday, neither did I, so I don't feel justified nudging him ... yet.

Instead, he has given me his consent to post his message out to the larger community. Here it is, in it's entirety:

Hi All...As we enter 2010, I think it is important to remember what really matters, what is truly important and what we should concentrate on. Too often we get wrapped up in work, complain about small issues and worry about things that don't really matter.

Lets remember our families, our friends, our neighbours and concentrate on things that we enjoy, things that are important and things that make the world a better place.

I drove my daughter, Abby, from Ottawa, through a wicked winter storm, back to her nursing program at the University of Toronto on Sunday afternoon.

As we approached the bridge over the 401 in Trenton, we were awestruck by the hundreds of people gathered there, the dozens of service vehicles with flashing lights, the sea of flags and signs being waved.

We were just minutes ahead of the procession that was to carry Canada's fallen soldiers to Toronto along the Highway of Heroes.

From Trenton, to downtown Toronto, in the worst of weather, thousands were gathered on bridges, at interchanges, in fields on ATV's, at truckstops, in parking lots, randomly on roadsides. There was not a stretch of highway, or a bridge over it, that was empty.

I can honestly say it was one of the most moving and memorable sights I have witnessed, and with that in mind, wrote the following poem, so as to share the experience with others.

Slowly we drove under bridges,
Slower through thickening crowds,
Thousands were gathering roadside,
Some silent, some humble, some loud.

Canadians well represented,
By locals standing as one,
Saluting a somber procession,
Remembering all they had done.

Hearses to carry the fallen,
Back from a war far away,
Followed by wives and their children,
Never to share a new day.

Like many who went on before them,
To ensure us a much better life,
Remember the life that was given,
His family, his children, his wife.

It seems now all too common,
That a soldier dies abroad,
But a life that is so freely given,
Deserves more than a wave and a nod.

So OUR mission, while different in nature
Should support what THEY tried to do,
Make Canada all that much better,
For them, and for me, and for you.

Take up a cause in their honour,
Help out a person in need,
Support everybody around you,
Plant, for that soldier, a seed.

Lets have a great 2010!!!!

Kent

Kent Browne
Broker of Record for
Royal LePage TEAM Realty
Partner in
Royal LePage Gale Real Estate
Proudly serving Ottawa and the Eastern Ontario Region
1 613 725 1171
1 866 TEAM RLP

Why blog?

I love technology. Well, most of the time anyway. New software, new gadgets, new computers ... for the most part I'm game to try anything at least once.

For all my enthusiasm though, the whole world of social media is one I have approached with caution. Facebook and MySpace hold no interest as I have no desire to share my personal life so publicly or globally. Flickr caught my attention as I love photography, but making the most of it means getting my photos organized. That may happen one day, but it hasn't yet!

LinkedIn was my first foray into social media. Over the last 18 months, I've found it a terrific tool to connect and communicate with friends, clients, colleagues and others, while many of the group discussions have led me down new paths of learning.

Twitter was my next step, and I continue to tread carefully, fascinated by what others say, do, share and think but not so certain as to how best to incorporate it into my work and world.

But BLOGGING?? I could never see myself blogging. Who would be my audience? Why would they read what I write? What would I write?

Bell Mobility changed all that for me. Two months of frustration led me to tell a certain Bell manager that if he didn't put an effort into resolving the issue I was dealing with, I would take the entirety of our email conversation and publish it in a blog. Thanks Jeff Jarvis/Dell/What Would Google Do for putting the idea in my head.

The only problem was, of course, that I didn't have a blog, so while I was waiting for a reply to that message, I decided I'd better set one up. No sooner had I done so, than the issue was magically resolved. Within 24 hours. Between Christmas and New Year's. After nearly two months of headaches and bellyaching. Hmmm.

So now I have a blog and I've decided to try doing something with it. What, exactly, remains to be seen. If nothing else, it will be my own little experiment in communicating with the global community, and I have to admit that seems, well, kinda cool.

Let me know how I do, will you? I'll be curious to know who might read this and why :-)

warmly,
Wendy