We made it folks! Summer has officially arrived. Last week were lucky enough to experience the Solstice and the Strawberry Full Moon back to back. It was quite a magical few days.

I had shared with someone how great it was that it was the Summer Solstice, and they responded with “now the days get shorter (cry face emoji)”. Yes, this is absolutely true. But not the way I choose to look at things. 

You see, I am a relentless optimist, and I have found this can be annoying to a lot of people. But it is also an igniter for a lot of people, and that’s what I choose to focus on.

Do unideal things happen in life? Heck yes. Do I act like they don’t exist and just live in my own little wonderland? No I do not, even though it can appear that way from the outside.

I am a dreamer, and love to see the beauty in everything. I definitely have not always lived this way, and spent most of my life ignoring life outside my bubble as it was too much to process and even more depressing. After reading Lost Connections, a switch flipped in my brain and I decided to re-wire it to see things differently than I previously had. I highly recommend this route.

So why am I talking about relentless optimism here? Well, back in December we applied for the CMHC Housing Supply Challenge, and I was 99.314% sure we’d be successful with our application. I even went so far as to build a webpage dedicated to it, as well as told everyone I knew that we would soon get the $1 million dollars to start building the software dreams. Even struck a deal with the guy at the local glasses place that when we won the challenge, I would get to name a line of glasses. I love words, and I already had eight picked out for another purpose. We then talked about random things, including how great the song Vienna is.

Well. Turns out, I was wrong. We were not successful in our application. But I believe in redirection, not rejection. And I know that timing is everything. So we pivot, and gather our energy for the next opportunity that comes our way. 

A philosopher once said “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. Although our methods here are a bit unorthodox, one would be silly to think we have not been preparing for what is to come. In the background, we’ve been tending to our seeds. The lawn is coming in nicely (don’t worry, we won’t sue you if you step on it). Although it’s more of a wildflower patch as we are a bit angsty towards the colonial status symbol grass brought to the west. But if we didn’t use the metaphor of lawns, the cryptic message embedded would not apply.

I’ve been known to disappear into a black hole at times. It’s been over four years of Kilo, and there have been a handful of times where I was ready to throw in the towel. I would doubt the vision, question my sanity, and almost give in to the nay-sayers. The self doubt and external pressures can be a lot at times.

But here I still am, and if you made it this far down, here you are. Kilo is not just a group of Code nerds to me, it’s been my beacon of hope. A reminder that if you build it, they will come. That people want to do good things in the world and make it better, but sometimes they are just bogged down with life and don’t have capacity. But once a  lone nut decides to go against the grain and risk being ridiculed, many join in. 

That’s all I got for now. Feel all of life as it comes to you, but don’t be afraid to toss on those rose coloured glasses if it starts to be too much. Everyone deserves a break from the weight of the world and seemingly endless heartbreak happening all around us.

Until next time,

KL