my story

THE LONG(ER) VERSION

“This can’t be it.” 

I remember saying these words in late adolescence to my girlfriend at the time, who asked me why I seemed so committed to seeking the edges of culture and convention. 

I said “This can’t be it” because there was a deep voice in me that knew life, as it was presented to me as a suburban kid who grew up on the west coast of Canada, was more than this. Grow up, get a job, kids, the fence, grow old, then die.  

Life had to be more magical than that. And in some strange way, I felt the whole monotonous script was some kind of test. You had to see through the convention before the mystery would open to you.  

Since that time, I graduated with a degree in Communication from Simon Fraser University. I studied Buddhism and attended my first (and only) Vipassana retreat. I spent 8 months backpacking Australia.  

I got married at 26 to a lovely woman. We acquired a beautiful dog. And in 2010, I released my first feature doc One Week Job, about my best friend who spent a year traveling North America working one job a week. 

Somewhere in there, I discovered the harsh realities of peak oil, climate change, and the strong likelihood that human civilization was headed towards apocalypse. 

At first, I was depressed. But then, I recognized our collective crisis as an invitation.  

I wondered: what was mine to do? 

I connected with veteran Canadian filmmaker Velcrow Ripper and co-produced his film Occupy Love.  I collaborated with author Charles Eisenstein and released the short film Sacred Economics, which outlined an economic system that was aligned with life instead of against it. 

Through the medium of film, I found what I felt to be the most effective way to amplify stories of possibility and shift consciousness in the shortest possible time.

At TedX 2013, I gave a talk that outlined my strategy: 

That same year I met author and teacher Stephen Jenkinson and joined the Orphan Wisdom School. He taught me the nature of grief and the practice of disciplined wonder.  

In 2013, my marriage ended and I was plunged onto the road of ashes.

Around that time, I was invited to visit the community of Tamera in Portugal, who had developed an entirely different approach to relationships and community.  I attended their Love School four times over five years and have once again been altered deeply by the experience. 

In 2017, in collaboration with Nicole Sorochan, we released Amplify Her, a transmedia project that explored “the rise of the feminine” through the lives of female DJs and Producers. Throughout that journey, I realized how little I knew about the masculine, which prompted my exploration into mythopoetic men’s work.

In 2018, my son was born to myself and new partner. Fatherhood continues to be an initiation.

In 2019, I launched The Mythic Masculine podcast to share the conversations I was having along the way, and soon after, founded The Mythic Masculine Network. In early 2021, I brought together storytellers, musicians and poets for a live weekend, calling it A Gathering of Stories. The inaugural event sought to explore ‘the soul of masculinity.’ 

And now, in production is The Sacred Matrix, a short film based on my experience in the Tamera community, aimed at revealing what it takes to rebuilt trust in a post-pandemic world. 

I’M STILL WONDERING: WHAT IS MINE TO DO?

And the question continues to lead me into new and surprising places.