Tag Archives: moon

happiness

Perfectly imperfect

Over the weekend we were talking about the Christmas concert at church. Before they started the pastor made an announcement that things  could be a bit messy, joyfully messy – there were little kids, big kids, and with that anything could happen. 

There was a comment that he had to say such things because someone would be sure to call and complain that it wasn’t a traditional concert, that it wasn’t perfect. 

My cousin said something to the effect that people miss so much when they expect perfection, and hat when things are imperfect is when the real joy is to be found. 

Isn’t that the truth?

If we spend our lives seeking perfection, we miss out on the joy that is imperfectly there, right in front of us. Nothing we as humans do is ever going to be perfect. We will waste our entire time here chasing an impossible dream. 

This morning I had a text from a cousin telling me to make sure I looked at the moon. As the boy and I were driving down the road I pulled over and had to stop and look at it. It was probably the best morning moon I’ve ever seen. The camera does not do it justice. 


And somehow we went from that perfect moment of joy to a huge fight. We yelled at each other for the next few minutes (doesn’t matter what it was about, it was stupid) and then came over the next hill and had to stop and enjoy this gift from God


It was a perfectly imperfect morning. Perfect in the beauty God created for us, perfect in that we took the time to enjoy it. Imperfect in that we fought over stupid things. Perfect that we realized we were being stupid and missing a moment of joy. 

Remembering that it’s not only ok but a good thing to be perfectly imperfect. My moment of happiness. 

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God and the moon

On the way home from town Jacob and I got into a big God talk. I love talking God with that kid because he feels Him from his heart in the same way I do. Having spent time trying to talk God with someone who only gets things from their head recently, I found it refreshing to have deep talks with sowmone who feels things the same way I do. Not that different perspectives aren’t a good thing, but that one just confirmed for me that feeling God from my heart is the best way for me to go. 

As we were mid talk, Jacob was really letting go on some of his beliefs, we looked west and saw the beauty in the end of the day. It was so amazing we had to pull over and sit and admire it for a while. Which of course led to a moment of gratitude for that God whom we were talking about – he makes some pretty cool art. 


Sitting with the boy, enjoying the last rays of light was an awesome happiness moment. 

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Stretch it out 

I woke up this morning and realized that it was time to deal with the fact that I’ve been ungrounded and out of sorts the past few days. 

Thank goodness for my Ayurvedic training. I’ve already been working at my sleep routines, but today I kicked it all up a notch. I cancelled other plans and put work to the side and spent the morning doing yoga, meditating, and going for a centring walk along the ridge with the dog 

This was the early morning view from the ridge. The moon had already gone to bed by the time I made it out there (this was yesterday morning’s photo)   
Because this was the walk I always did with dad, I stopped by where we had scattered some of his ashes and had a mini meltdown. I could feel him loving and guiding me as I gathered myself back together and carried on. 

As I was walking I was filled with gratitude that we are back in this place that is home – where we are safe and loved. 

My happiness moment was realizing that even in times of turmoil I have learned how to nurture and ground myself. Learning Ayurveda was one of the best things I’ve ever done. 

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When opposite views come from the same thing 

This morning I had to stop everything and run out to the barn to look at the sunrise. 

We often get pretty beautiful ones, but today it was absolutely stunning 

 This is no filter and the sun really was shining that huge beam straight up into the sky.  
As I was standing there doing a happiness-gratitude dance, I received a text from my cousin who lives about a mile and a half away. 

Look at the lavender sky and the full moon!! She said. We couldn’t see the moon from where we were (and we were now getting late for school) but we did take in the beautiful colours over the mountains. 

She sent me a photo of the view from her window 

Breathtaking morning view of the moon and the mountains   
As I was driving home I was thinking how great it was that we had been sharing the morning beauty at the same time, and that she had thought to reach out to me to make sure I was enjoying it. I also appreciated how our opposite views – mine to the east and hers to the west were so incredible. They were completely different, and yet a product of the exact same morning light. 

What a great happiness moment. I just knew today would be a day filled with joy and blessings. 

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Yoga Bliss

I wrote the other day about how doing yoga has made me a better person, albeit not a more flexible one. Since then I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it was that really drew me to the practice of yoga in the first place. Mostly it was the way it calmed me and made my soul happy. When I would really get into it I wasn’t as bothered by the fact that that I don’t bend as well as I want to because my spirit would just feel so good.

I was really good and faithful about my practice before I fell into my dark night of the soul years. I’ve struggled as I’m finding myself again to really develop a solid routine that makes me feel good.

I realized that maybe I’m doing the wrong kind of yoga these days. Now, I’m doing my Healing Light Yoga Therapy, which is a completely different kind of practice. One that is so important to my emotional and spiritual well being. But, it’s not something I do on a daily basis. It’s something I need to do in addition to some kind of regular yoga practice.

I had to sit down quietly and think about what it is that I want from yoga. What I came up with was that I needed to go to Kripalu. Lovely, but not really possible at this moment in time. So, I had to think what is it about Kripalu that makes me feel so good?  (ummmm everything) and what can I do here to replicate that feeling.

Lightbulb went off.

On several of my visits to Kripalu I have been fortunate enough to have attended a class led by Rudy Peirce. The way he leads a class made me fall in love with yoga in the first place. Yoga based on compassion and love. Every time I have done one of his classes I feel so much better about everything.

He has some CDs that he sells and I had bought a couple of them on a visit to the Berkshires years ago. I loaded a class on my phone (they’re audio) and spent some time this morning reconnecting with my spiritual practice of yoga.

I felt so much better when I was done. This morning I had felt really anxious and ungrounded and when I was finished my yoga I felt more like myself again. There is something about his voice and the way he so calmly and patiently guides one through the poses that calms me down. I knew it was working because Ella the Yoga Cat showed up on my mat and purred her way though most of the class. She only does that when she’s really feeling the bliss.

My happiness moment was the wonderful feeling I had after my class this morning. I need to keep attracting all that love and bliss into my soul so that I have more of it to shine back out into the world.

As a bonus happiness moment, Jenna spent the entire ride into school this morning looking out the window of the car at the moon shining brightly with Venus underneath it . I love how being in this space is getting us more and more in tune with nature.

   

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The morning rush 

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. Having been a fan of Thoreau for almost 30 years I have read those words over and over. Yet the actual concept of being  and living a more simple life is often one that I struggle with. 

I don’t want to be all high maintenance, yet I know I kind of am –  I like nice things. My body does not want to sleep on a wood palate, I like nice clothes and tasty food. I have purple streaks in my hair that take more time a month to get touched up than I care to admit. 

When we went to Waldon Pond a few years ago I had a better understanding of what Thoreau meant. Simplify was an easier concept when I stood in the beauty of that pond and saw what it was he looked at every day. And he didn’t live there in isolation either, he was constantly back in town visiting. Simplify and deprivation have very different meanings and I think I’d been confusing the two. 

Over the past few months the kids and I have learned how to simplify. We have gone from the big flashy house to the old in need of love house. We are now living in about a third the size of house, with a third the amount of stuff and on a much stricter budget. 

We have to be simpler. 

And here’s the interesting thing. We are all happier in the old in need of love house. I can see it in the kids’ smiles, in the way they run outside and yell at me to come see something that has caught their eye, as they’re running across the yard to play with cousins or to visit nana. A happiness that has come from simplifying our lives.  

I’m thinking that maybe simplifying does not mean giving up what I love and going without so much as it means figuring out what is really important and only keeping those things in my life. Getting rid of excess and clutter has lessened my anxiety and brought me back to balance and happiness. 

We turned onto the road today and I looked west. The moon was hovering so perfectly over the mountains we had to turn off into the neighbors’ driveway to look at it.   
Then as we went down into the valley, the sun was peering up from the other side. 

  And as we came out across the valley the moon showed itself to us one more time before we turned the corner and headed into a huge wall of fog coming up from the river. 

I said to the kids how lucky we were that what made us slow on our drive to town today was that we had to keep pulling off the road to admire the beauty of the morning. 

So many people started their day rushing and anxious and tired. We are so blessed that we started it in amazing nature of Creation. It blesses us, grounds us, nurtures us, and brings us incredible joy and happiness. My happiness moment today.  

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Canada (boxing) Day in Waterton

Boxing Day is generally my favourite day of the year. It’s the day after Christmas, when we get to just relax and hang with family and enjoy everything we weren’t able to during the chaos of Christmas. 

I feel today like we took a Boxing Day for Canada’s birthday. A day just for the enjoyment of each other. 

The kids and I headed to Waterton – one of the most beautiful places on earth in my opinion. 

I woke up at 5:30 to this view from my bedroom window. When a day starts like this, you just know it’s going to be a good one.  By the way, that’s the moon hanging over the mountains. An amazing full moon.   

We arrived in Waterton and went through the bison paddock. There aren’t any shown in this picture, but the view….

Then off to the town to skip rocks. Part of our routine from last year. I love this lake.  

  

Next up: flower hunting. Last year we were too late, but this year was perfect. 

Here’s our provincial flower the wild rose. 
  

A stop on the way to Red Rock Canyon. I was looking for flowers, they were looking for the water to play in at the end. 

  

Yellow Paintbrish, it’s rare to find, but it was all over this meadow. Beauty. My spirit sings here. 

More of them. I got obsessed.   

  

Monsters still waiting to get to the canyon. 

At last the canyon and some water to cool off in. It was almost 30C and there was no wind. A big deal in a place where the trees grow sideways from the blowing! 

We had to drive up to Cameron Lake which was unfortunately very busy and we couldn’t rent boats. Fortunately though we came across tons of Bear Grass which is unique to this area. 

 A long drive home chasing the sunset (and being chased by the moon) and I feel like my soul has been strengthened and cleansed. I need these kind of days where we just stop and enjoy each other’s company and marvel at the beauty that is in the world. 

  
The great thing about it being light from 4:30 am until 11:00 pm is that we sure can pack a lot into a day. 

This was a much needed break.  I’m so thankful that I had this day to nourish my soul and fill up my heart with happiness. 

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