At a time when the world is reminded about how fragile life is through the recent Paris attacks, I was blessed to be surprised by some of my closest friends and family. This post was inspired by, and is dedicated to, all the people who showed me their love this past weekend. Especially my wife, Natasha. I love you all.

Knowing my wife, Natasha, I had a feeling she was working on something for my 30th birthday but I had no idea what or when it would happen. To my surprise, it happened this past weekend, one week before my actual birthday.

This past Saturday, my day started off as usual with the exception that we didn’t have Sullivan since he spent the night at Nana’s. I read, meditated, did a workout, had a green smoothy (thanks to my wife) and then hit the road. I normally cut my own hair but decided to treat myself to a haircut since I had some extra time.

After my haircut, I picked up my dad, did some running around and then we ended up at The Canadian Tire Centre early where we were going to enjoy watching the Sens play the Rangers. We decided to grab a bite to eat and then joined my brother, Chad, and his friend, Ken, for a somewhat boring hockey game. Luckily for us, the boring game ended with excitement! Seeing how I spend most of my waking hours working on the businesses, working on myself or hanging out with my family, I had no idea that the NHL had introduced 3-on-3 overtime. This is exciting hockey and was the best part of this particular game! Unfortunaltey, the Sens ended up loosing in the Shootout but it was all well worth the afternoon hanging out with the guys.

After the game, we proceeded to work our way through the usual game-day traffic and grabbed a bite to eat at Moxies where my brother wanted to treat me to an early birthday dinner. Interesting enough, our conversation mostly revolved around our Bucket Lists and travelling.

I have to admit, I do a lot of work on myself and personal goals I want to achieve but I have never written out or put much thought into a “Bucket List”. The first thing that came to mind was growing the businesses that I’m currently working on as well as the businesses that I have plans for in the future. Although exciting to me, these things are long term goals. The next things that came to mind were travel (although I’m not sure where yet), sky diving and flying a helicopter. After that, I didn’t really have anything… I decided that it was time to start a list.

This is something that I think we can all benefit from. We spend so much of our time doing things for other people that we often forget about ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, I personally believe that true fulfilment lies in serving others, however, I also know that we can’t give what we don’t have. If we don’t take care of ourselves, love ourselves and bring excitement to our own lives, how can we expect to do those things for others?

After dinner and the thought provoking conversations, my dad and I parted ways with Chad and Ken. As dad and I rolled up to my place in Manotick, I quickly realized that this whole thing was planned. The street and our long driveway was lined with vehicles. I looked at my dad with a smirk and said “you guys are sneaky.” To which he replied, “I’ve never had to lie so f*%#$@! much in my life.”

I entered the house through the garage door to a house full of my closest friends and family. Friends from high school, friends from work, family from the other side of the country, family from across the border, team members from The Conscious Builder and business partners. People from every part of the last 30 years of my life! People who have influenced me, mentored me, changed me, shaped me, supported me, helped me, laughed with me, grew with me and made me into the man I am today.

Every part of this surprise was absolutely perfect! Natasha got every little detail just right. A sign of a true soul mate. All the right people were there, there was live piano music, the food was all healthy, the cake was vegan, organic and gluten free (and made to look like a piece of wood), the dishes were being washed instead of using plastic, there was freshly pressed green juice being served, the servers and piano player were all friends of our nanny and were all young people who wanted to help and could use the extra cash and, most importantly, it was all held in our Passive House which was ultimately built for bringing people together.

To everybody who was at the party, both physically and in spirit, thank you. Thank you for bringing the love into our home. Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of your life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. As I write this, I am filling up with so much emotion that it’s coming out in the form of tears. I could not have asked for a better life. I only hope that I have had as much of an influence on your life as you all have on mine.

With Unconditional Love,

Casey