Tag Archives: walking

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Baby steps 

Today was an absolutely glorious spring day. I grabbed the dog and went for a sun worshiping walk along the road. It felt so amazing to have the warm sunbeams giving warmth and love to my soul. I met my cousin on the road and we had a whole conversation about how glorious the sun felt on our skin today. No wind made a world of difference. 

So nourishing. 

At the beginning of my walk I passed a newborn calf. (S)he is the one lying down beside her mom. I didn’t want to stay for too long and upset her, but it was such a glorious sight that I had to stop for a little while.  

  

On my way back I was lucky enough to see the calf get up for her (his?) first wobbly steps. New life. It was so amazing and exciting   It most certainly was my happiness moment of the day. 

   

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💤💤💤💤 nap time 💤💤💤

In my Ayurvedic course we had a discussion about kids with ADD and how sometimes being chronically sleep deprived presents the same symptoms   

We discussed how kids will sometimes use electronics to stmulate their brains to stay awake when they naturally would want to fall asleep. I agreed with this theory but kind of out it out of my mind   

This morning I woke up at 5   I got up , had breakfast and some tea, and sat in my chair reading for a while. I soon discovered that I was exhausted and that no one wanted or need anything from me in that particular moment. I headed back up to bed for the most delicious nap. 

Usually in Ayurveda they say not to nap during the day, but there are certain circumstances where it is recommended and right now I fit quite a few of them. There has been so much going on that I’m physically and mentally exhausted. 

So I slept. And it was awesome. And when I woke again two hours later (giggle) I felt ready to take on the world. 

I realized when I woke up that had we had a tv here I probably would have plunked in front of it and not napped when I obviously really needed to. I can see how it adds to sleep deprivation. 

It was the beginning of the happiness moment of my day. It actually set me up for my happiness moment which happened tonight while walking with the kids and the dogs 

      

It also kind of happened earlier today at Target with Jacob. Man, he’s a funny kid  

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Freedom dog 

 My little Dotted Dog has some issues. She’s socially challenged and a little neurotic   This is why we get along so well. I understand those issues well. 

She has a history of chasing cars and being unsociable with dogs. It’s not that she’s aggressive, but since she has no social skills (and thinks she’s a human ) she’s run into some difficulties. More so typically with owners. 

This mornng she met my cousin’s dog, Star, who is 7 months old and full of energy. I was a little worried about how it would go. But Star came running at her like Dottie was the most amazing being in the world and Dottie decided to just pretend she wasn’t there. Eventually they ended up settling into an ok kind of walk with Star bouncing and Dottie with her cloak of invisibility. 

Out on the walk, Dottie saw what may have been her first gopher. I never saw it to be sure but there certainly was something of interest there. 

    

But the biggest deal of all was that as soon as we got back in the yard I let her off her leash. Because of the car chasing and general neurosis she’s always on a leash. But now she has more freedom. 

 

My moment of happiness. Freedom. 

This made me think how true this is for all of us. Dottie is not the only one to have freedom. Jacob got to walk to Tim Hortons with friends. Today the kids walked the mall by themselves. Freedoms they never had before.

 There is a huge amount of freedom that comes with the feeling of security and belonging.  

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Holy Cow!

When I was a little girl my grandpa used to take me around the ranch in his truck. I have fond memories of bouncing through the fields chattering away with him – laughing, singing, whistling. My mom says I thought that damngate was what all gates were called because of these rides. As fun as it was (and it was very fun), I also remember him warning me often and severely about how dangerous the cows were. I was little – like 5 or maybe 6 – and the regular cows were big, but the chianina’s they had were gigantic. The fear was real. I was terrified.

Sadly my grandpa died when I was 7, but I have tons of great memories of doing things with him (lucky me). However, one thing he didn’t do was reprogram me from my fear of cows. Still when I’m out walking and there’s a rogue cow on the road I’ll turn around and hustle myself back home as fast as I can. Even if they’re on the other side of the fence and they look at me funny I get a little giggly in the legs.

I have been lucky enough to have been invited out to “help” (and I use that term very loosely) chase cows on horseback which I enjoy. But, last summer my cousin invited me to “help” chase bulls and I have to say I was more than a little terrified. All was fine while I was just left to meander along through the field looking for flowers. But as soon as I was told to go get a bull and bring it back into the herd I was a total puddle of fear (after following the bull around for a while with him glaring at me and me pleading him to please stop being such a butt and just go back I was saved by one of the ranch hands who so easily brought him back).

Today I was out walking Dottie along the road. It’s calving season so the cows are up in the homestead field which is right beside where we walk. Across from this field is the slough where the swans are hanging out on a break from migrating north for the summer. I was stopped on the road to admire the swans when I felt Dottie push in between my legs and start to shake. I looked down and my little Dotted Dog was all puffed out like a porcupine. All of her hair on her body was standing straight up and she was shaking all over. I looked where she was looking and…. cows!!! Dottie saw her first cow and just about had a cow herself.

Finally she got a little braver and went across the road (on her leash) with just her hackles up to get a better look at them. Stopped, stared, ran back behind my legs. She did this a couple of times and then just ran/walked/glared at the cows until we were past the field

Fear of cows. It’s a real thing.

The swans were amazing this morning. Such beautiful birds. On my way back I was admiring them when a bald eagle flew over my head and up into the homestead field. Bliss. My moment of happiness today – swans, eagle, cows, and my dotted dog.

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Happy Dottie

this is what the happiest dog in the world looks like

   

I don’t think her tail stopped wagging the entire walk.  She’s as happy to be here as I am to have her. 

Even though she would never admit it , Ella is happy too. She is helping me blog right now

  

So happy they are safely here after such a long flight. Almost 2,000 miles they travelled yesterday. So grateful for all the love and kindness of my husband who worked so hard getting them here 💗💗. 

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My sanity walks

Walking  the river in Roanoke began the healing of my spirit. Ever since I stopped riding I’d been searching for something to take on that spiritual healing part of my life. I have found it somewhat both through yoga and my morning walks. 

Well, now my morning walks look like this:

   

And not only is it beautiful, but it is the place where my spirit soars. Where with every step I take I have a memory attached to it. This road I walk I have ridden my beloved ponies hundred of times over the years. I have ridden down this road with my grandpa, my mom, my dad, my sister, my cousin, my dog. I have even pretended to chase cows down this road. 

Today as I stopped to admire the view I heard honking. I thought it was geese, but when I turned 2 pairs of swans were right over my head   They flew and honked right  past me  heading towards my parents’ place. I had to just stand in the middle of the road and be happy and grateful that I was here in that exact moment. My moment of happiness.    

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Forced family fun time

Even though it always starts as the most horrible thing I could do, the kids actually enjoy the forced family fun walk along the river. I haven’t made them do it very often in the winter because the cold and the whining together was more than I could handle. But, today was sunshiney and pretty out so we braved it. After the obligatory grumble, grumble, grumble they started playing catch and running around like…. well…. kids having fun.

I’m so glad we forced ourselves out of the house and enjoyed some of what Mother Nature has to offer.

Sometimes you end up being a bump on a log. She thought this was very funny.

And proof they can be normal.

It was so good for our souls. And so important to do. Because you have to enjoy that happiness in that moment. In every moment there is somehow, somewhere happiness to be found. But, some of them are more difficult to find the bliss in. So, for those – I like to have these extra moments of joy built up to draw strength on.

Here’s my true moment of happiness right here. There’s actually a video with a dance but since I love him I won’t share that. Happiness is being silly and goofy at just the right moment.  (They’re light up shamrock glasses and he’s got shamrock socks to match – you just can’t tell because you’re blind from his shoes)

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Cilantro mint chutney and 44 days of happiness

In Ayurveda chutneys are the appetizers of the meal. Which makes sense if you think about the word “appetizer” – something to increase appetite. Not a mini meal before you have your main meal. They help both improve digestion and the absorption of your food, and can be specialized to nurture the different doshas.

There are many different recipes for this chutney. I seem to always make it with just 4 ingredients: fresh cilantro, fresh mint, a hot pepper, and fresh squeezed lemon.

I used 2 bunches of cilantro and 2 small packages of mint. I can’t wait until they’re growing outside instead of me having to buy them.

pretty, pretty….

Wash all ingredients, make sure you just have mint leaves – take them off the stems –  and put them in a blender. I used to use my Cuisinart food processor, but I found that the little green specks were impossible to get out of all the little nooks and crannies. So, I now use my blender. I have to cut up the cilantro and then add things bit by bit or it takes forever to blend up.

Once it’s all blended, put in a glass dish – enjoy!!

Today is day 44 of the 44 days of happiness. My happy moment came while I was driving kids from doing recycling to drop off a form at the library. Jacob was reading the form – it was for a teen night and so I had filled out his information – and he said “why did you put M as my grade?” Well, I had read it as gender, so I put M for male. But, since the three of us are huge Goldbergs fans I said “The M is for moron” (because that’s what the dad is always calling everyone – it’s how he says I love you). We started laughing so hard I had to pull the car over because I couldn’t see to drive (thankfully we were at a light). Those spontaneous belly laughs are what it’s all about!

I was thinking about my 44 days of happiness yesterday while I was out for my walk. This mini-journey has brought so much to my life. We have lived in such stress and chaos for so long that it was really easy to focus on that part of life. Which is a shame when there still are so many awesome things happening every minute. Finding one thing that made me happy every day has made me an overall happier person. I laugh more, I play more, I have more patience with the kids, I talk with friends more, I even lost some weight – clothes that haven’t fit for ages are fitting again. I’ve also been doing yoga much more regularly and that is so blissful for my body and soul. I’m 4 weeks into a 6 weeks course on Healing Light Yoga Therapy which is led by Asreal Zemenick. This session is about addictions and letting go of old beliefs and patterns, and man do I have some old beliefs and patterns that need to be let go. I hadn’t realized how addicting those ways of thinking could actually be. But learning to let go of what no longer serves me is life changing to say the least.

Overall I’d say that the 44 days of happiness has made me a better version of me.

I realized while walking that I was just starting to hit my stride with this whole happiness thing and that just ending it could very easily turn my focus back onto those things that cause me stress. And I don’t want to do that.

So, I have decided that in order for my 44th year to be a year of happiness, I need to continue to look for the happiness in every single day. Why not? I’ve had lots of years where the focus has been on  stress and anxiety and unease (no wonder my Vata is all upset) – why not have a year of happiness? It goes along with my intention of the path of least resistance and obviously I’ve intended on keeping this going from its conception as is evident in my birthday post.

So, now that I’m 44 and 44 days old I can say that I’m thankful that this year is off to such a blessed start. I feel happier and more blissful than ever.

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Melissa and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

This morning I woke up feeling like I was staring in my own version of Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Worst of all, nothing had really happened to put me in this mood. It was more the accumulation of a bunch of kind of icky feelings and yucky stresses that had been building up over the course of a few days and decided to make themselves really known today.

Interesting because normally Saturday is my favourite day of the week. We get to sleep in, we usually go downtown to the market (which I love), we get to hang out and relax. Knowing it’s the one day of the week where we don’t have to do anything,  I try to keep the day as stress free for us all as humanly possible.

But, today I woke up just as cranky as hell. Unfortunately (kidding) the kids didn’t wake up in horrible moods also so I knew if the entire house ended up being a black cloud of doom it would have come from me. There is nothing worse than someone sharing their black cloud of doom with you. They were all happy and bouncy. So, I tried to be happy and bouncy too. Fake it till you make it you could say.

Jenna said she didn’t want to go downtown and just wanted to rest and relax. I took advantage of that extra time and worked out on the elliptical (I’m watching original Melrose Place while I work out. It’s awesome!) and then did some yoga and meditated. Still cranky. Better, but still cranky.

Later on in the day I took advantage of the sunny 17 degree (Celsius) weather because the past week has been more like this:windchill

It was glorious on my path. It was filled with couples walking holding hands (I love all the older couples that walk this path holding hands, it warms my heart), families riding bikes, people rollerblading, and people walking dogs. I had invited the kids to join me but they politely informed me they would rather die.

I walked and walked, letting my brain start to unravel. This walk is the place where my brain lets go a bit and allows balance to come back. I started thinking about the things that were upsetting me. Some of them aren’t just little annoyances, they’re big freaking deals. But I tried to step out of myself and look at them. My intention for the year is the path of least resistance – which I am travelling on by allowing things to come, to happen – instead of white knuckling and trying to accomplish things by sheer force (which oddly enough hasn’t worked for me so far).

So, I picked out each of my issues and ran them through my mind and then said ‘ok, so what can I do to change the outcome of this issue?’ With every single issue the answer was nothing. A lot of the problems aren’t mine that I’m carrying. I’m making them my stress, but they aren’t mine to be able to deal with. There is nothing I can do to change the outcome of much of these issues, and no matter how much resistance, force and energy I pour into them – at the end of the day I’m going to just have to allow them to happen anyway.

Crap, this allowing things is harder than I thought.

Working it though made my body heave a huge sigh of relief though. There is nothing I can do to change these things. No action on my part is going to change any of the outcomes. So, by carrying them with me all I’m doing is creating an unnecessary stress which then will be my problem to deal with. But, created out of nothing.

So, I’m going to let that sh!t go.

Happy moment of the day – day 13 of 44 – happened walking on the path. Aside from just the sheer happiness it brought to my heart to see so many people out enjoying themselves, and the peace and joy it brought me being out in warm weather, there was an incident.  (no matter how this reads, the couple was happy and they were totally kidding around) A couple about my age was walking towards me holding hands having (I assume) just had some sort of disagreement. The man gestured towards Dottie and said “Can you get your dog to attack her (points to woman) right in here (points to throat)” he’s laughing – she’s laughing but has this horrified embarrassed look on her face like ‘honey I can’t believe you said that out loud to her’. I stopped, looked him dead in the eye and said “Sorry, but my dog is trained to only attack men, she’s smart that way.” The lady doubled over in laughter pointing at the man who gasped, giggled a bit and then grabbed his wife’s hand and dragged her away while she was still hooting and laughing. It was awesome.

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🎶 There’s a bluebird on your windowsill 🎶

There’s a bluebird on your windowsill, there’s a rainbow in your sky…

Every time I see a bluebird I think of three things: that song, spring, and chocolate.

When I was a kid, my mom had a deal with us that the person that saw the first bluebird of the year got a chocolate bar. This was a big deal for us as chocolate was hard to come by in our house (which probably helps explain the stashes of it I have hidden in my house now). But it also meant that spring had really and truly arrived. Many a barn swallow or purple martin was mistaken for a bluebird – there always had to be someone else to vouch for the fact that we’d actually seen the bluebird.

The past few days here I’ve been dealing with the winter blahs. It’s been cold (by Virginia standards, not Alberta standards) and windy, but more than that I think I’m just so tired of no leaves on the trees, no colour, no warmth.

Today on my walk this little guy landed on a branch in front of me and started singing. He let me get right up to him before he flew a few feet ahead sang to me again. This went on for quite a while. I was actually starting to feel kind of like I was in a Disney movie – walking through the woods with birds singing at me. I was looking at him while he was serenading me and thinking “he sure looks like a bluebird. It must be one of those barn swallows again.”

I came home and double checked in my bird book. Sure enough, it was an Eastern Bluebird, which is different from the Mountain Bluebird that I grew up looking for,  and apparently they live year round here. But, whatever. I’ve never seen them in the winter, and I’m taking it as a sign of spring.

here he is singing to me from one of the branches. The picture’s not very good because it was SO cold and the dog kept tugging on her leash to keep going

IMG_2948Day 12 of the 44 days of happiness was brought to me by my Bluebird. I want to say thank you to him for singing to me the joys of spring.

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