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A social solitude walk 

 
My walks are a very spiritual time of the day for me. I need that solitude in nature to connect with the Universe and to connect with my inner being. 

I’ve always craved a certain amount of solitude although our years in Roanoke taught me that there absolutely can be too much time alone.  It’s all about finding that balance to satisfy my introverted self. 

My solitude walks along the road by our house seem to be balancing this perfectly. For example, today I headed out with my Dotted Dog and about half way through ran into my aunt. She pulled over and we had a nice chat. I decided I should turn around because I was going to go for a drive with my dad and the day was slipping by. On the way back my nephew and a friend blew past me in their truck. Soon after that a cousin stopped and we chatted for a while. I kept walking and ran into my aunt again who was pulled over visiting with another cousin and Jenna who were headed off to check calves. Chatted again and then kept on walking home. My nephew blasted by once more  and yelled out the window holy Auntie Melissa, are you ever a slow walker. Because of course by then all the people I’d been chatting with were gone and it was just me again. 

Solitude and companionship. Both are so important to feed my soul. My happiness moment for the day was that I got to perfectly balance both.   

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Party party 

Tonight we went to a big family birthday party. Thrown by a couple who really know how to throw a good party. Since childhood I’ve made it a point to try and weasel an invitation to one of their “hellabaloos” as he called it tonight. 

Good timing too because we really needed to get out and let our hair down and have some fun. I went with my parents and my kids and it was much needed fun and visiting. 

Every morning on our drive into school we pass a man driving a black truck heading the other way. We always wave and smile. In fact the kids and I judge how late we are by where we meet him on the road. 

Tonight at supper we were eating with my parents, my aunt and uncle and a few other people. One of them said I pass you when you’re out walking your dog during the day. I drive a black truck. So Jacob turned to him and said do we pass you on our way to school too? And he looked at me and said you drive the silver car through the hay valley?  We both decided now we will be giving big huge waves as we pass instead of little polite ones. 

I’ve told the kids that when they go out here they’ll always run into family. To find out this man is married to a cousin of my mom – their nana – just confirmed for them that they are home and constantly surrounded by family 

It was fun, it was important to be brought back into the loving arms of our clan. Today’s happiness moment. Out with my family with the family. 

Here’s the kids at the party:  
Don’t you love the cowboy light hat? 

 

Just to prove we live in the most beautiful place in the world this was the view towards our house on our way home. The pair of swans has decided to stick around for a while.   

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Divine order in chaos

 
This quote from Louise Hay popped up on my newsfeed and I have to say it perfectly describes my life right now. Probably always, but absolutely right now in this moment. 

The past few months I have felt guidance from some power bigger than I in ways I have never experienced. Things have fallen into my life in ways I would never have expected and it’s all happened with ease and grace. All of this during a time that is challenging and emotional and…..

Yet there is this guidance, this comfort.  This presence that I can truly feel that is walking along with me.  A physical manifestation of this loving guidance comes in the form of my beloved dog Kayla who has been gone for 8 years now. During times of uncertainty in my life I see her out of the corner of my eye. She has been many places guiding me and I see her often lately here walking around. It sounds crazy, but it’s true. I feel her around me. 

But this Divine Guidance of course comes from a bigger power. The Source, God, the Universe, whatever you want to call it. Something big is helping to guide my life right now and it’s so important that I stay out of my own way. 

My life is in order at a very deep, peaceful level. 


Happiness monent: Jenna was invited to a birthday party today by a girl at her school. It warms my heart the way both kids have settled into this school. But the fact that she has a friend who invited her to this party was huge. She has been so excited all week. 

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The bouncy back road. 

Today I got to spend the day doing errand type things with dad. Normal things like a trip into the mall to get his hair cut. Then over to the bank to pay taxes. 

This afternoon we drove the back road into Cochrane to pick up the kids and for him to have an appointment. Driving the hay valley at the beginning of spring is always beautiful, but it was extra special to share it with him. Just doing regular things and visiting and enjoying each other’s company. Happiness moment with my dad   

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When life gives you lemons…. Eat lemon cake 

Today was a day that in many ways felt like life really had handed me lemons. This afternoon while  I was at the grocery store thinking about my lemon day, I looked down and there was this lemon cake. I figured what the heck, when life hands me lemons darn it I’m going to eat lemon cake. It was delicious by the way. 

   

I have sometimes wondered how my exit from this world will be. I hope at the very least it’s somewhat dignified. It probably won’t be. But one can hope. 

Today when I was driving my kids home from school I had a little preview of what that could be like. Trust me it was not dignified at all.

We were driving on the highway following some other cars when suddenly a very large gravel truck with an extra trailer pulled out from a side road and started making a left hand turn across the two lane highway and in front of us   

I was doing 100 km/hour and suddenly there was a monster of a truck just a few feet away from us and moving in our direction. I hit the brakes and the horn as we skidded/flew across our lane and onto the shoulder I screamed FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU – well you know the rest – as loudly as I could. Either the horn or my swearing caught the attention of the truck driver and he stopped – blocking all oncoming traffic. Thank goodness no one was coming right at the moment. We were somewhere between 2-4 feet from the front of the truck when he stopped. 

So while my motto has always kind of been this:

 
Apparently it’s more likely that I will slide in screaming the F bomb. My poor children.  

I took away several things from this moment. 

1. My guardian angel works hard and probably falls into bed exhausted at night. 

2. My life has been saved several times by my being behind the wheel of a Volvo. 

3. I should always take backroads. 

4. Sometimes when life seems to be all lemony it’s not really so much so. That living in the moment thing. Sometimes the moments are good and sometimes they’re not so good. But they are moments and there is something to be gained from each one of them.  

My happiness moment today was that I got to spend most of the day with my parents and my sister. While it was a day that seemed to want to hand us lemons we did our best to make lemon cake. In fact we ate that lemon cake together tonight before my sister headed back home. 

Happiness is those small moments with the people you love. 

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Buttercup 

 
Today my mom, my dad, and I went out in the field to search for crocuses. After searching and searching we were unable to find any. Bummer. But along with some buffalo beans, I did find this buttercup along the ridge. Spring. It’s finally happening. Actually today may have been summer as it was 27C and wonderfully sunny. 

My happiness moment of the day was wandering the field with my parents. It was so wonderful to see dad out all excited in search of the hiding crocuses. May the joyful feelings of spring give dad lots of love and strength. 

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The daily commute 

It’s a double post today. This is the one I had planned before the after school incident took place. 

I was thinking today how awesomely lucky we are with our daily commute to school. This is the traffic jam I was in on my way to pick up the kids:   

And this is the view on the way home: 

    

It was so awesome that Jenna had to get out and do her holding the world in her hands picture 

 

Happiness drive. Happiness moment 

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Your best friend 

When my kids are arguing and fighting with each other I have a standard speech that I give. You guys will be each other’s best friends in life. No matter where you go or what you do you need to know that you have each other’s backs. So, even though you disagree no one will ever know you or love you like each other. 

They have moved so much that there have been many times where they have only known each other and have had to rely on each other. They can still fight like you wouldn’t believe, but they are good friends and look out for each other. 

Today I was late picking them up after school. Not late just a few minutes late. I have no idea where the day went. I picked them up and Jacob told me about their after school incident. 

They were sitting on the ground beside the school, hooked onto the wifi playing a game. A kid came up to them and said ahhhh haaaa you guys are watching porn? Then he came right over beside Jacob and looked down and said oh no I was wrong they’re just having sex. At this point Jacob stood up and towered over the boy (Jacob laughed telling me and said obviously the kid didn’t know how much taller Jacob was). 

Once Jacob stood up the kid took off. Then Jacob said you know what it’s like when auntie Cherie takes off on her horse after a cow? That’s what I was like after that kid. He caught up to the boy and stood over him and said you need to go back there and apologize to her. No one talks like that to her. Then he herded the boy back to where Jenna was sitting. The boy said I’m so sorry, sometimes things just come out of my mouth and I don’t know why. I’m so sorry. Then he took off. 

Proof that they love each other and in fact DO have each other’s backs   A happiness moment in a tough after school incident 

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Between the horse’s ears

 

Today was a double happiness moment   First of all the kids and I were invited by my extremely patient cousin to go help (and I use that word loosely) chase cows. Mostly we just sat and watched and then walked around on the horses. But since horses are my most favorite thing on the planet and it was the first time my kids were riding out by themselves on the ranch it most certainly was a huge moment of blissful happiness. 

When I was pregnant with Jacob we were part of a birthing and babies class. For the first year or so after they were born, our group would get together once a week for a play date. I became good friends during that time with one of the moms. I hadn’t seen her in at least 10 years though – ever since we moved away. Well tonight she had us and one other family from the group over for supper. We had a fantastic night eating supper, catching up on 10 years, watching our kids play, playing board games and laughing ourselves silly, and watching the Flames win (Go Flames Go). An extra special happiness moment and something we have missed out on for years. Just getting together with friends. 

As one more special treat, my sister and her kids are down for the weekend so we get special family time too. 

It was a blissful happiness day.  

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