INNISFAIL - For almost half a century Brock Tully has been promoting a world where kindness ought to be paramount.
And Tully never just said it. He put his words into action. In 1970 he cycled 16,000 kilometres throughout North America, the first person to ever do so, to spread the word on the healing power of kindness. Thirty years later he cycled another 18,000 kilometres for his Cycling for Kindness initiative, and then another 12,000 in 2009 for what was heralded as Cycle it Forward. Tully's kindness journey has also produced nine books, and the co-creation of the Kindness Foundation of Canada and Kindness Rocks in Schools, an initiative to prevent bullying and abuse.
The 71-year-old Vancouver native brought his internationally renowned kindness message to Innisfail's first Seniors Wellness Conference on Oct. 3 at the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre. Tully, the conference's keynote speaker, believes kindness is just as valuable for the elderly as it is for the young.
"I think we are all like little kids in older bodies anyways. Bullying happens with children. It happens with adults. It's everywhere," said Tully. "But I just want people to really see that we want a kinder world. That was my message on my bicycle trips, to focus on the solution and not on the bullying.
"I think when we focus on the solution then the bullying just goes away," he added. "I try to get people to understand why many people are so unhappy. I think it is because (they) have lost touch with their hearts."
The free day-long conference, hosted by the Town of Innisfail and paid for through the federal government's New Horizons for Seniors Program, also featured a presentation by Boomer Movers, whose mission is to expertly and gently guide seniors and their families through the downsizing and/or relocation process with as little stress as possible. As well, seniors, who were treated to a catered turkey lunch, had the opportunity to learn about the roles and responsibilities of the provincial Office of the Seniors Advocate, and to take in a demonstration of tai chi by Fung Loy Kok Taoist Tai Chi.
"I think it has been a big success A lot of people have told me how much they have enjoyed the day," said Allyssa Bremner, the town's community facilitator. She added a key goal of the conference was to ensure all the best and vital information, including the town's own programs and services, was laid out to seniors from the various speakers, which of course included Tully's celebrated message.
"We are building on seniors awareness in the community and health, and the aging demographics. We have to keep up to speed and offer as much direction as we can," said Mayor Jim Romane, a senior himself who was at the conference and praised what it offered during council's regular meeting on Oct. 9. "A lot of people need help and a little push in the right direction."
And that help, push, direction should always be towards kindness, said Tully, whose lifelong mantra has been to stimulate his audiences to act with compassion in their communities, schools and workplaces. But he also believes acts of kindness are not just for others. Tully firmly believes it starts with ourselves.
"We need to be kinder with ourselves. I think one of the worst forms of bullying is when we bully ourselves. We get bullied and we beat ourselves up so much," he said, adding his own ongoing journey is really all about the heart language, and how it can be used for healing and making a better world for everyone.
"That is where I am going to take them, a journey back to their hearts today."
For more on Brock Tully and his kindness mission visit his website at www.brocktully.com
