Tag Archives: Bliss

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A little Ayurvedic magic

 
First of all the happiness moment of the day. It was a beautiful, sunny 20 degrees Celsius out today and the kids and I took an early summer break and went to our old favourite, Mackay’s  Ice Cream in Cochrane. It was lovely and delicious. I had a very non Ayurvedic scoop of chocolate fudge chunk and blissfully enjoyed every bite in an Ayurvedic approved manner of mindful eating. OMG it was good!!

This weekend Jenna has been complaining on and off of a sore ear. Yesterday I pulled out my essential oils and tried putting some of them around her ear. While it helped a little nothing was solving the pain. 

This morning she woke up in terrible pain and I actually ended up keeping her home from school. As I was preparing breakfast I remembered where  I had stashed my mustard oil and decided to give a remedy a try that I’d been given by a friend from India a few years ago. 

At one point both Jenna and I had sore ears. I put her on antibiotics and I used the Ayurvedic remedy to see who healed faster. I did at a significant rate. 

So, you get a pot and put some mustard oil in it. Then add a couple of cloves of garlic and heat it until the garlic turns red. Remember it’s oil so hot is hot! I put a clear lid on the pot. 

When it’s done, let it cool and then put some on a cotton ball and place it in the ear. Leave it for as long as possible. 

Jenna wore hers for 3 hours and her ear is completely pain free. She went from not wanting to move to skipping down the road smiling and laughing. 

Magic

I love learning about and healing with Ayurveda 

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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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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 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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Recess

  

Jacob came home and said if we still lived in Roanoke I would be in school  until 3:30. Instead now I finish at 2:30 and I get two recesses every day!!

And I think that he’s right on by being excited. He used to get dropped off and go into school and not come outside again until the day was over. Now they have a morning recess and then one again at lunch time. You’re never too old for recess. 

I get stories every day now about what he’s doing at school and most of those stories happen at recess. It makes him bright and alive (full of ojas) when he’s talking about being outside with his friends. 

PLUS he gets to go to school camp this year! 

Happiness moment is the joy of hearing about the fun the kids have at recess. We should all take a recess every day and go outside and play for a half hour. 

I spend my recess on my walk or standing at the corral talking to the horses 

  

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Dear old friends 

Merlin is a horse that has been around the ranch forever   I’m not completely sure of his age but I can remember kids riding him around when I was in my early 20s and I’m now 44. He’s been a good friend to many kids and especially to my cousin’s daughter. She’s grown up loving good old Merlin. 

Today Merlin waited for them to come see him and then he went on to the happy hunting ground in the sky. He was taken and put to rest, with lots of love and heartache I’m sure, beside my dear old friend Pirate. 

Although this comes with some heart sorrow, my happiness moment of the day is the memories of my best friend Pirate and the moments of my childhood through to the moments of my childrens’ childhood that I shared with him. 

Those four legged beasts touch my heart in amazing ways. Much as I know there’s a little girl sad tonight, I know that we are always blessed to have the love of a horse.  It’s an honor to be able to have that kind of pure love. It hurts to let it go, but loving truly and deeply comes with that risk. 

Here’s an old photo of something I spent many days of my childhood doing. Out exploring with my two pals, Pirate and Buster. This is what my bliss looks like. 

  

Happiness.  

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Drive a fast car

When I was a kid I remember being packed in the Suburban with cousins flying up and down back roads at breakneck speeds. Once in a while we would find that magic road that had the right bumps in it that made me feel like I was losing my stomach when we would drive over it.  Of course once we found that magic road we had to drive back up and down it a few times squealing with delight the entire way. 

Today I had my kids and my cousin’s kids (the same cousin who used to do the driving on those magic roads) in my car and we were driving to drop off some recycling. As we drove past another relative’s driveway I told the kids of the magic road and how their mom/aunt had driven us up and down that road one afternoon while we giggled. 

But I didn’t turn on that road, I kept driving. I got to where the gravel road meets the highway and drove under the overpass. As I did all four kids squealed and Jacob yelled I think my bladder just fell out a couple of seconds later it happened again. A magic road. We dropped off the recycling and flew over the bumps on the way back. When I got to the turn into the back road all four kids started yelling for me to do it again. So around we turned and flew back up and down the magic road.  

Magic times. My happiness moment for the day. 

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Swans

Happiness moment of the day: driving by one of the sloughs today there were still swans swimming around. This slough goes right up to the road and the swans were only about 10 feet away from me. 

I really wanted to stop and have a good look at them and be one with nature. But there was a truck coming up behind me, and it was a gravel road. If you are lucky enough to be in first place on a gravel road you don’t give that up   So no swan picture…

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Pickle ball

Apparently this is a real thing. The kids and I saw it for the first time Tuesday. They laughed hysterically and called it old people ping pong. Today we went back and they were playing it again. We joined in. Not only is it awesomely fun, but we were much badder at it than we would have thought possible. 

Fun fun though. Happiness moment of the day:    

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Herd of bears 

 Happiness moment of the day today was playing an impromptu game of songify on the road this afternoon with the kids. There’s nothing like singing loudly and badly in a car to make me happy. Especially with them. 

Funny moment today happened on the drive to school when I convinced the kids, albeit briefly, that there was a herd of bears up on the hill. 

They aren’t the exact same bears, but I saw some more in a herd while I was out waking today. Magnificent views I have. 

   

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