One of my bestest, oldest girlfriends sent me a message today letting me know that she had an extra Garth Brooks ticket for me.
We saw him together in Calgary almost 30 years ago and I’m so excited that she’s going to be my date for the show again. I think it was the best concert I’ve ever seen and I’m so grateful that we get to go do it again.
That is happiness!!!
Today at lunch I caught up with an old friend from high school. I can’t believe that next year it will be 30 years since we graduated – or that our kids are the same ages or older than we were when we met. Unbelievable
We had a great time reliving old stories and catching up on where each other was in our lives. So much has changed, and yet we are still the same people we were all those years ago.
Old friends -that’s happiness.
It’s been super smoky here with all the fires from BC blowing our way. It cleared a bit tonight and I took Drishti and Dottie out for a walk.
The sun was a brilliant red through the haze – beauty in the smoke.
We managed to get really close to the heron tonight. As I was trying to take a photo while I was only a few feet away I kept thinking Dad would really like this
Dad and I used to email back and forth photos of our local herons when I lived in Virginia. It was a way of making me feel close to home, so this heron holds a special place in my heart.
My bond with my horse is getting stronger all the time. We are trusting each other and relaxing into comfort together finally. He is a true miracle in my life and I’m grateful every minute for him.
We stood by the heron and had a few minutes of quiet while I thought of dad. It’s sadness but it’s happiness too.
The kids and I did the rides at the stampede grounds today. Well, to be honest the kids did the rides and I people watched. I have never been a huge fan of the rides. Love those little donuts, don’t need the rides
But the kids loved it, and I love seeing them happy. We didn’t do the rides last year because it rained all of stampede week so it was really cool to see how those two years have made the kids excellent ride partners. They are so gutsy it amazes me.
Quality family time. These moments are precious. The boy is 16 – time is flying by. I’m honoured they want to spend so much time with me. Happiness ❤️
(The donuts were the best part in my opinion)
We went to a silent auction for handicapped riding tonight at the Ranchmans.
I was given tickets from a lady I used to ride with ages ago. It was fun to see that even though a lifetime has passed, all the horse stuff is the same. I am loving getting reconnected with these people. I lost such a huge part of my soul when I quit riding. I’m getting back the pieces slowly but surely. And that is happiness
We are having a visit from my cousins ex wife and their daughter right now. I haven’t seen either of them in 20 years, the little baby girl I met is a grown woman, and my cousin in law is just about exactly as I remember. I am really enjoying visiting with both of them.
We did a little tour of the ranch including a stop in jail.
This is one of my favourite places, it’s so beautiful and peaceful there. And to share it with them was so much fun. Happiness!!!
We spent the day celebrating Canada’s birthday.
First Canmore for the parade – this has become a really great family tradition
Then to my Aunt’s house for their annual Canada party. This is one of those sacred family visiting times.
After going home for a quick nap then it was off for the last family party
The boy stopped me and said how much he appreciated having all this family around and how great it was to have so many things to do.
And he’s right on. How lucky are we. What happiness.
Summer that is. We had our first trip to the creek this afternoon. Nothing says summer like watching kids run into the freezing mountain water. This is one of my favourite activities and we were in one of our favourite spots.
It’s just happiness in its simplest form – it comes right from the depths of my soul. I am so thankful I am mom to these kids and that we get to do so many things together.
When I was pregnant with the boy we joined a birth and baby class at the hospital. It was 8 weeks with half the focus on pregnancy and half on newborns. My kid was considerate and was born at exactly the half way mark.
For the first year a bunch of us did weekly playgroups which gave us overtired and overwhelmed moms an outing. There was a first birthday party, and a 10 birthday party (which we missed because we were living away).
Today we had the 16th birthday party for these babies. And all but three showed up which was pretty amazing.
And a shot of all the siblings
It was interesting how these kids who have no memory of each other, and us parents who have vague memories, were all able to come together and laugh and visit and share stories
I consider moments like this to be huge blessings. It’s a special kind of happiness. It comes from good old memories, love for our kids, and sharing of happy times.
We went to Easter service at the Anglican Cathedral in Victoia today. It was meaningful for a few reasons – obviously celebrating Christ was one, but also it’s the place my parents took us when we used to come to the Island for Easter and is filled with happy family memories. One reason I hadn’t thought about until we were sitting there was that Ansley who had been the priest at my parents’ church in Calgary and who walked with us in the last stages of dad’s life and after he passed away was preaching there. I knew she was there, but I wasn’t really ready for the emotional kick I got when I saw her. Interestingly although there was a sadness when I saw her, there was also a lot of peace, joy, and comfort – she was part of a very important event in our lives and one that brought about great change for me.
I cried through most of her homily. One thing that I have really realized on this little vacation is that somewhere along the way I had lost hope, and over the last couple of weeks I’ve been finding it again. I had been saying I was feeling overwhelmed, but I think what I was really feeling was hopelessness. That’s a bad feeling.
My meditations lately have been about finding hope during times of chaos, my readings have been about how chaos takes us away from our connection to God and He’s the one who gives us hope, my prayer time and chats with God have been about finding hope and believing that anything is possible. So, it makes sense that we were here for Easter to hear her story of being Easter people and of finding hope as well.
She told her own Easter story about her sister and as she was talking I kept thinking of the parallels in my own life – my story with dad and leaving Mr. X, and all that has come with it. She talked about how Easter is remembering and celebrating that even in dark times we know that God puts things back together in different, beautiful, and usually better ways – sometimes it’s just a matter of seeing that. How important it is that we always hold onto our hope that the sun will shine out of the storm.
I have always felt that the kids and I coming back home and getting out of that abusive and scary environment was dad’s last gift to me. It came with a lot of pain and a lot of change, but I am starting to see the hope shining out of the storm. Tears were streaming out of my eyes (I will be glad when I stop crying in public all the time, but I’m learning to embrace it more) as I sat and listened and really absorbed the miracles that have happened in my own life over the past two years. There have been a lot of storm clouds, but rainbows and sunshine along with them too.
Happiness is hope, happiness is celebrating Christ, happiness is time here at the ocean with the two people I love most in the world.
Happy Easter!
