Author Archives: Melissa

happiness

Teamwork

I always avoided team sports like the plague. I loved the partnership I had with my horse, but I never really got into being part of a team. 

I have learned a lot watching my son who is so drawn to team sports. It hasn’t left me with a huge desire to go out and join one myself, but I am understanding more and more how important and fulfilling they can be. 

They had a game tonight and I walked into the gym when they were all standing in a little huddle. 


It’s cool to see how they all support each other. Sure, there are some conflicts but they have to work them out so that the team can succeed. 

My boy really needs this and he thrives in this kind of environment. And that is happiness. 

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The race marked out for you

The sermon at church today was about the race marked out for you. Meaning we are all here to run our own individual race, we can’t run someone else’s race, can’t run ours the way someone else does, can’t compare our results to that of the other runners. Our journey is ours alone to walk with God and we have to listen to how He wants us to walk it. 

This was big for me as I have spent years trying to live my life to make others happy – even when I knew that it was causing my own soul pain and taking me away from my spiritual path. These past few months I have really felt things like up in a way that they never have before and I’m feeling like I’m walking the right path. Honestly, a lot of it has to do with my decision to not give a f*ck about all the things that used to bug me. They were all distractions from my journey and took so much time and energy away from what I need to be doing. 

I’m finding I make myself go to church lately even when I don’t feel like it because his sermons always seem to hit exactly what I am struggling with at that moment. I consider our decision to start attending regularly last fall one of my greatest blessings. It has opened doors and put me back on my path. 

Happiness 

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Blankie!!!!

Today my mom and I looked at old photos of both of our childhoods. It was fun to see hers as most of the photos I had never seen before. Cool to see how she really does look so much like my sister and also one of my cousins. Fun to talk about some of my childhood events (and a huge heart hug as I saw photos of our beloved cat Torts – he was a cool one). 

And there in the photos was an old friend I haven’t seen in over 40 years – ever since he went missing on a family trip. My old blankie. I loved  him and was devastated when he got lost. It was a wonderful happiness moment seeing him again. 

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The Friday tradition 

After what feels like a long break the kids and I did our Friday night shopping trip at the Italian Centre. It’s one of my favourite parts of the week. The boy has his list of meats he orders to make his favourite sandwiches and there’s always lots of other yummy stuff to look at. 

This week I got figs. I love figs and was kind of sad when I had to leave my beloved fig trees behind when we left Virginia. 


The boy sat and had an espresso with an older Nono type gentleman and they discussed Italy and what constitutes a good coffee. That was happiness. It was cute to watch them together. 

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Laughs and love 

I and an early morning email that pushed me much further towards seeing Celebrate Every Child come to life. It’s funny, I decided I wanted to see this impossible dream come to life, and by completely disregarding the how and just moving ahead on faith it seems to all be falling into place. That is love in motion, that is happiness. 

I had lunch with an old friend who has been dealing with very similar issues in the last year. We get each other because we’ve known each other forever, but also now because we have seemed to found ourselves on paths that not a lot of other people seem to be on. And the fact that we are both horse crazy allows us to talk horse without anyone rolling eyeballs. That is laughter happiness. It’s also love happiness. We talked about how important our tribe is and how we would never be able to hold it all together without the support of our people. 

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Cheeses loves me

I was driving the girl home this afternoon and Jesus Loves Me sung by Paul Brandt came on. 

She starred giggling about how it really does sound like Cheeses Loves Me. Her little cousin made this announcement while out for Sunday brunch with his parents and Jenna has loved the story ever since. 

For some reason it kept getting funnier and funnier for her. She stopped laughing, took a deep breath, wiped her eyes and said I’m crying. I’m laughing so hard I’m crying. And went off in uncontrollable laughter again. 

I love it when she laughs, to hear it come from deep in her belly was awesome. It made me laugh too. Happiness. 

We laughed all the way through the hay valley towards home. 

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Memory lane is a strange place 

Tonight I watched my boy play basketball in the high school my best friend went to a bazillion years ago. Lots of other things may have changed over the last 30 years, but not in the halls of that school. 

It was weird to take that walk down memory lane. We were best friends from birth until we hit the age where we got married and started having kids and then our friendship seemed to have run its course. A lifetime of things have happened since then and I hadn’t thought about her in a long time. 

It was weird, fun, sad to sit in that gym where we had watched games, gone to dances, crushed on boys, and laughed with our friends. It was having a little memory movie run in my head. 

That part of my life seems so long ago. At the time everything was so urgent and important and I’ve since forgotten so much of it. There were lots of good times though. 

And to add more weirdness to the weird memory lane path, we passed the hospice dad went to right before he died on our way to the school. Another thing I’ve worked hard to banish from my mind. So there was an unexpected hit of emotion before I even walked into the school. 

But there was happiness in there too. Bringing myself back to the present and being in the moment allowed me to watch my boy and his team run up and down the court. They have such great heart, and although they didn’t win they never quit. I drove my boy and his friend to and from the game and I loved listening to them discuss strategy and be so excited to play. It’s awesome. 

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Filling up your soul 

Yesterday’s sermon was all about how to get your soul  refilled when you have completely drained it. It was very timely as I went into church feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. Honestly if we hadn’t needed food I wouldn’t have even gone to town or church. But we did and so there we were. 

Always the right thing at the right time. A reminder that sometimes I need to get completely emptied so that I can surrender and allow the miracles to happen. 

Since then I have had people step up and quietly fill my soul, all without me saying or doing anything. It’s pretty awesome. 

We had a ton of snow today and while it made for some crazy driving, the girls had a blast playing outside in it tonight. That was happiness. 

Seeing the beautiful winter wonderland we live in, that’s also happiness. Knowing my soul is being cared for… extreme happiness. 

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For the win!

We had a wonderful trip down Rhode Island memory lane tonight during the superbowl. Not only was it an exciting game, but it brought us to some really good times in the RI part of our gypsy life. 

The boy learned to be a huge Patriots fan while we lived there. They had an amazing sports culture and we all learned to cheer for and really enjoy the Patriots and the Red Sox. The girl spent most of her years there singing to Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, and Lady Gaga, so she was thrilled with the half time show.  

It has only been in the last few weeks that we have been able to dive into and enjoy some of the good memories from RI so tonight’s New England experience was a perfect extension of that. 

It was huge happiness to watch my boy jump and scream at the tv in those last few minutes. It was a good reminder to never give up as we watched the Patriots pull themselves to victory. And Lady Gaga…. that was amazing. I love her. 

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