Author Archives: Melissa

happiness

Too much fun

I really could have my happiness moment just be this one photo. I have waited a lifetime for this to happen again, for the longest time it seemed impossible. Drishti is proof of the power of prayer and my heart has a broken piece put back together. Love is a beautiful thing. 

He loves the girl too….

But there were other moments of happiness today. It was the last Sunday for our pastor at church today, and while it was a sad time, there was also happiness. Happiness that he is following his calling, happiness in the form of a community lunch gathering, happiness that people share faith that there is always a plan even if we can’t see it at the time.

There were happiness moments like the one I felt driving this morning and this evening. The next two photos were almost taken at the same spot – the first of the sunrise reflecting on the mountains this morning and the second of the elk hanging out in the evening. What an amazing place this is where we live.

I feel like I’ve been really impatient with God lately and wanting Him to shine the light a bit further down my path. This weekend, while I don’t feel like the path is brighter, I feel like I have a lot more faith that I am on the right one. It all reveals itself at the right time. 

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Softball started

Today was the first day of softball evaluations and finally after missing two years because of family issues the girl is back at playing. This is her sport. She not only loves it but is quite good at it as well. I loved seeing how excited she was this morning as we were getting ready and even more watching her play. 

We all should follow our passions. 

I am so happy for her that she is following hers. 

Another happiness moment of the day was a community party celebrating the 50th anniversary for some family members. I love this tribe.  I love that people find someone to share their lives with for that long. 

This was how I finished off the night which also made me happy and grateful for where I live 

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This is Drishti

Sometimes gifts really do come from heaven.

This is Drishti. I have prayed for him to come into my life for years. In the dark times, and even in some of the bright ones, I wasn’t sure how it was ever going to be possible for me to have a horse back in my life again. But, I kept praying and praying.

And then literally this gift from heaven came to me in the form of Drishti. Those of you who know me know what a big deal it is to have a horse in my life again. Having that bond and friendship with a horse is what makes my soul whole, it is the easiest way for me to find God, it completes me.

This week I have closed off one major chapter in my life in the form of divorce papers being finalized, and I have reopened one that makes my soul overflow with joy.

Watching my daughter hug on him brought back all the best memories of my childhood. I have spent hours in these corrals and in this barn playing with horses, and here we are again doing the same thing. And he’s such a love!

I am so happy I am unable to even express how I feel. It’s surreal. Two years ago yesterday we landed back home and have been so slowly rebuilding our lives. Drishti reminds me of who I am, who I was. He is my focus, my intention, literally my drishti.

If I had to paint a picture of happiness it would look exactly like this. This is what happiness to the core of my being looks like. This is what moves my soul.

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So here we are 

It has been two years exactly since we landed in Calgary and started a new chapter in our lives. So much has happened since then – death, divorce, love, friendship, pain, healing… we have pretty much covered it all. And not a moment goes by where I am not thanking God for bringing us back home where we belong. 

Being back in our tribe, having people to share our lives with, being able to see the mountains every day – none of this is to be underestimated. 

Healing is hard. Or at least it has been for us. I feel often like we have just managed to heal up some wounds and the attacks come again, or old wounds are reopened. And yet we all are so much farther along than we were even 6 months ago. It all had its time and it all has a lesson. 

I keep coming to that – that I need to make sure I learn the lesson in the experiences because I know they are there and they are changing how I live my life. 

This evening I got together with a couple of my cousins. We are so fortunate that we have this tight group – I was born with a ready made tribe of female friends. We can pretty much share anything with each other which is a rare and important quality in a friend. 

Driving the boy to basketball tonight for his time if happiness I had to pull off the road. The sunset was amazing. 

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The life changers

I realized today that two years ago the kids and I had just said goodbye to our life in Virginia and were on our way home to live… back where we belong. We ended up having to spend the night in Seattle due to some weather issues, but we were on our way home. So much has happened in our family in that time: pain, sorrow, joy, faith, laughter, family. It has been a season of great change. I am starting to feel like the person I was before, and I think the kids are starting to figure out who they are now.

At the very least, we are safe in this life.

At the very most (is that a thing? It should be a thing) we are making bonds with family, planting roots where we already had some growing, making new friends and deepening connections with old ones, healing, growing, learning to fly, settling into a new normal of life.

Today was a good day. A couple of HUGE happiness things happened for me today which I will share down the line. But, let’s just say…. I found my Drishti… I have kept that steady, focused gaze for years… I have had faith… it has coloured how I see the world… I have found my Drishti.

I also, out of complete frustration after a crappy day yesterday, sat down with my Streams In The Desert devotional book and read today’s entry. Honestly I only read it because I was kind of frustrated and pissed with God because it felt like he wasn’t really listening to me. Basically what I got was to calm myself and chill for a bit, that He works in His own time.

Today we may be unable to see the final outcome of the beautiful plan that God has hidden in the shadow of his hand. It may be concealed for a very long time, but our faith may rest in the assurance that God is still seated on His throne. Because of this assurance, we can calmly await the time when, in heavenly delight we will say “all things have worked together for good.”

We should be more careful to focus on learning all of the lessons in the school of sorrow than to focus anxious eyes towards the time of our deliverance. There is a reason behind every lesson, and when we are ready, our deliverance will certainly come. Then we will know we could never have served in our place of higher service without having been taught the very things we learned during our ordeal. God is in the process of educating us for the future service and greater blessings….. 

Don’t steal tomorrow from God’s hands. Give him time to speak to you and reveal His will. He is never late. Learn to wait.

Got it.

And of course today was a day of things falling into place and happiness falling into my heart… my Drishti, my focus, is clear and it’s mine and that is happiness.

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Cards and kids 

The boy and I ended up having some pretty intensive healing stuff happen today. We have an amazing support system of people here in town who are helping guide us to a better place. It amazes me how much stuff there is that seems to need to be addressed. For me it was a big chunk of my life but for them it was their entire lives. 

We were exhausted but knew we had done some big stuff. One thing we had agreed on was making sure our house returned to a place of love instead of one of fear. 

So when we came home we sat at the table and played cards all together for a couple of hours. We laughed, we discovered our competitive sides, we were reminded that I can’t bluff. It was fun – it is the way I want our family to be. Happiness. 

Love is going to win. 

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First day of spring 

I am so happy that today is the first day of spring. I love this season for many reasons (the biggest being that it means that the cold is hopefully on it’s way out), but this year I find more than ever I need the reminder that change is possible. I need to change how I am dealing with things. It seems that Mr. X plans on spending a lifetime trying to keep us in a place where we are insecure and fearful. We just got through the emotional  episode he created a few weeks ago and now are in a financial one where he is apparently refusing not only to pay for the ordered treatments for the kids, but also the support payment for this month.  It seems to be the one way he figures he has left to cause pain and chaos and he wants to push it until I break.

Except I’m not going to break again. The last few weeks have really made me realize that I need to strengthen my coping skills when it comes to him. I can’t allow this kind of chaos to reign in our home.

Obviously I can’t change who he is or how he rolls, but I sure can change how I deal with it. I think I have finally realized that no matter how much I hope or pray (and I have for years) that he will turn into someone I could trust or even just have a basic polite relationship with, that’s not going to happen. I hope I have anyway – it’s painful to want someone to turn into the kind of person you know they could be but to know it’s probably never going to happen.

But, here we are in a season of change. I get to decide how I am going to handle things as we move ahead. I am not going to spend the foreseeable future feeling insecure and afraid.

I was reminded in church yesterday that loved people know how to love and that it is important that we receive love so that we know how to give love. The main focus of our home has always been love, but somehow fear and anger got caught up inside of that and it changed things.

I need to make sure that our home is once again filled with love so that we can go out into the world and share love. We all need to know how to give and receive love. So, I am going to hand off my feelings of fear and anger to my higher power and to the people here who can deal with it, and I’m going to go back to loving. Part of stepping out of my fear is being able to stand up to him and not allow the way I am being treated to continue any longer. It’s not ok.

Happiness today is knowing that the season is changing and so am I. It’s been a long ass road.

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Splashing in mud

We took my car on a back road today and splashed in as many of the puddles as possible. Hearing my boy howl with laughter as the muddy water sprayed over the top of the car was one of the best sounds I’ve heard in ages. Deep and true happiness 


It’s starting to feel like spring – the days are getting longer, the eagles are flying, the people are smiling more. A season for change. 

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Wasn’t that a party 

We celebrated my uncle’s 80th birthday today with a huge party at the Hall. This guy has always been a bonus dad for me (I call him uncle-dad) and a bonus grandpa for my kids. He’s pretty cool.

It was a wonderful afternoon spent visiting with the community – friends and family – lots of people I haven’t seen in ages. And the Hall looked amazing, just like it is supposed to look with an old-time feel.

As someone who spent years floating as part of  a lost little pod of people in various places, I can’t express properly what it means to be part of this community, to know that we have this place where we are from, where we belong. Everyone has a family of some sort, but our family is really pretty unique – both in size and in the way it functions.

It is a deep kind of happiness, one that I carry with me all the time. An extra happiness was celebrating the birthday of one of my favourite people – I have always looked up to and admired this guy – I am really lucky that he’s my uncle.

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Signs of spring 

We did a little driving around this afternoon and aside from the puddles everywhere there are some new signs of spring. I passed a gopher running along the road and we saw three bald eagles. We do have a few eagles that stay year round but I think these were new ones. 

I am ready to say goodbye to the cold, dark times of winter and jump into spring. It is happiness. 

Taken with my iPhone. He was huge!

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