Welcome to my Substack.

Thank you for being in this corner of the internet with me.

In life, my path has generally felt… unclear.

Perhaps it is like that for all of us? But one foot in front of the other, has always led me exactly… someplace. So where the substack goes feels similarly unclear. But I thought with the first step to share my favorite lines from my grandfather’s poem, “David.”

Mountains for David were made to see over,

Stairs from the valleys and steps to the sun’s retreats

Mountains for David were made to see over. It is a remarkable sentiment.

I hope to embrace that in this substack, sharing ideas that allow us to see the peaks and the valleys and the sun’s retreat.

A space to share ideas, connect, and inspire one another.

Ambitious perhaps.

Perhaps it will be more the inane ramblings of a madman.

A few steps further and we shall see.

At the start, I thought it would be a good idea to start at the beginning.

An Introduction, A Connection

In 2006, at the Paremoremo maximum-security prison in New Zealand, a friend of mine was giving a talk on meditation. One guy started getting uncomfortable, got up, started walking around, and said…

“How can I listen to you give a talk when I don’t even know who you are?”

There hadn’t been an introduction. There was no connection.

A little while later, I was sitting with an older Maori man who had been living on the streets and had been picked up for some sort of minor offense.

He used to trade his dinner for smokes, so I would share my food with him.

On this day, he was singing a traditional song listing the names of the first people who came to Aotearoa in canoes, perhaps from Hawaii.

He then explained the meaning behind the moku on his face.

As I recall, the lines on his forehead represented his ancestors, how many generations there were, and how many people were in his family. Other lines indicated profession, and the lines connecting the nose to the mouth showed a connection to God.

It was quite amazing — there was an entire introduction tattooed onto his face. If you could read it, you could know a part of who he was.

That‘s their tradition … you don’t just start talking, you introduce yourself — and you start with your family and lineage.

I was named after my grandfather.

He was born in Calgary, May 13^th, 1904.

Sometimes I wish his name was something more cool or hip than Earle… but nonetheless, I have always felt honoured to carry his name.

He was a famous Canadian poet (as much as one can be famous, Canadian, and a poet) who lived for the outdoors and traveling the world. I love how this inspired his poetry, as I too, have always found inspiration in these things.

As famous as he was, he was always just Grandpa to me.

My Grandmother’s name was Esther Bull.

It’s kinda appropriate as she was a hard-headed woman! She was a literary genius who made us read Jane Austin instead of comic books and inspired me with her quest for knowledge.

One day, I took a friend to meet her at her apartment in False Creek. His cover for being a drug dealer was that he was a music producer.

“Oh, I’ve never met a producer before. Where do you work? What do you do?”

I watched him flounder around for about five minutes as she asked him question after question, before finally letting him off the hook.

“Grandma, he sells pot for a living”.

“Oh! I never met someone who sells pot! Where do you work? What do you do on a typical day’s work?”

Music production or drugs — it was all the same to her.

She just wanted to know people, she asked interesting questions, and she was interested. That made her fabulously interesting. I loved that about her.

This is the last time I ever saw my Grandmother Helen.

I would give anything to be able to bring her flowers again and to sit down and share a cup of tea with her.

Blind as a bat at the end of her life, she saw the world so beautifully. Without a doubt, she is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met.

Ray Taylor

Grandpa Ray worked at the mill his whole life, built 3 houses for his family, was an avid sports fan, loved to fish, and was just an all-around good person in the truest sense of the word.

Salt of the earth.

But what I remember most was his soft side… taking me out for ice cream, to the 88-cent store, going clamming, throwing rocks at the Spit, shooting hoops, or watching the games at Shane Park.

Its kinda of a long list – he always made time for us.

What can you say about your parents in a short paragraph that could possibly suffice?

These are my folks, Marsha and Bill, at my half-finished retreat cabin, where I did a 3-year silent retreat, outside of Bowie, Arizona.

Maybe that is what I have to say about them… they have supported me through thick and thin, no matter how weird the idea, no matter their sacrifice, no matter what. Just flat out always been there for me.

Some people say you choose your parents at birth.

I don’t believe that.

But if it’s true, it’s the best damn decision I’ve ever made.

This is my big bro, Chris.

I’ve got nothing bad to say about him except that he likes big cities, always lives too far away, and that my dad had to sell his ’65 Mustang to put food in his mouth.

He was born on the day Hendrix died, September 18^th, 1970.

When God takes something from your hands, it’s only to free them up to receive something better…

Like an angel

standing in a shaft of light

Rising up to paradise,

I know we’re gonna shine…

August 9th, 2025, was the day Sarah and Earle became Searle.

I love how Sarah truly rejoices in the successes of others. How she is sensitive and open-hearted to the world, sometimes a bit painfully so.

I love her laugh, how we can play around, and can just be ourselves in each other’s presence.

Home is with her.

I got to marry my best friend. And now I hope to be the rock in her life.

I bring all this up because, as Breakfast Club Brian said, “we see each other in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions”… but who am I?

“A brain, a basket case, a princess, a criminal…”

I hope I am a beautiful amalgamation of all these and so many other people who have influenced my life along the way.

A poet, a taskmaster, a brother, a lover, a guide, a salt of the earth dreamer visionary hippie ex-con hockey player turned yogi meditator youth worker teacher and friend.

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