I went to a funeral yesterday for a man who I didn't know extremely well, but I wished that I had. He had been working as a Shaman outside of Calgary for over twenty years, and Heather (my wife) and I met and spent time with him over the past year. Each time we would go for sessions with him we left wishing that the time hadn't ended, and that we could have more time to pick his brain and learn from him. We attended a weekend workshop with him as well, and Heather even travelled up to the Yukon to attend a course that he was teaching with a colleague (which he wasn't able to attend due to health problems).

The funeral was one of the nicest ceremonies that I've ever attended, but what struck me most was the huge volume of knowledge that was lost when he passed. I think it's important to find a positive amongst the grief, and what I realized was this; there are people like him in every aspect of life waiting to help pass on their knowledge and passion. Their passion might be for accounting, pottery, woodworking or hiking, but in every community there are people that we pass every day who have an incredible amount of knowledge; probably in subjects that you're interested in but are too scared to ask people about.

My point is this; if you don't tell others what you are passionate about, you will never find these people in your community. But if you make a small leap of faith and put yourself out there you'd be amazed at the different opportunities that present themselves to learn from masters instead of youtube! Go out in your community and start talking to people; ask them what they love doing and tell them what you love; you just might find someone who can teach you something or you might get the opportunity to pass along knowledge that you have too!

We create the communities we live in. Go out and make yours better today :)