Monthly Archives: July 2017

author, Boys, Family, health & fitness

Be Untrainable (a post for my three boys) 

1 Comment

    Boys, there are some thing that I never want the world or anyone in the world to train out of you.  I watched all of you complete a triathlon on Sunday. Personally, I love how sports and being active can teach us about life.  I feel this to be particularly true about volleyball and Triathlon.  


                        OC- 5 years old 


    Volleyball will teach you how to deal with failures when they happen and get over them quickly.  It teaches you how to always work as a team and how to be a contributing team player, no matter the role assigned to you.  Volleyball will take you through a life full of emotions in only one match.  But oh, Triathlon, this teaches us even more about life.  


               CC – 8th birthday day 

    Triathlon teaches us so much about ourselves.  Three years ago, I wouldn’t even have considered doing one.  My mind was holding me back.  So that’s the biggest hurdle we need to overcome is our mind’s desire to hold us back from success and adventure.  With training, anyone can complete a swim, cycle and run triathlon.  


                      JC – 10 years old 

    Swimming in triathlon is a special part of the event because you can drown! Mentally, you need to overcome that thought of dying, overcome the affects of water and waves as well as “Just keep swimming!” as Dory likes to remind us to do.  Now, we get to cycling boys! The part of the event that could lead to injury.  Through contact with other racers or the road.  You may need to hold your composure with equipment failure or getting passed on the hills.  Always remember that the swim and cycle part are really getting you ready for the run.  Imagine the swim as your birth to elementary school years.   Cycling is that adventurous and fast teenage years.  The run is adult life. This is where the real magic happens.  Every little stroke in the water or on the bike has set you up for the run.  On the run one step at a time, you will need to focus. Neither looking back nor too far ahead.  The run, like life, is a time to savour and enjoy a race well done!  And you did this on Sunday!   You showed how you want to live your life and my prayer tonight is that no one will ever take these skills from you, all these skills that you exemplified during your triathlons.  

    Tenacity. 

    Drive. 

    Heart. 

    Intrinsic motivation. 

    Deep feelings. 

    Athleticism. 

    Creativity. 

    And oh did you love that Sun Rype buffet at the end! 

    Keep celebrating.  

    Keep being you.  

    Always be you! 

    Love your very proud Mama 

    cancer, Family, Grief, life, love, psychology, Wordsmith

    Be Awake 

    Leave a comment

    Awake.  

    The world around me sleeps. 

    Calm, rhythmic breathing, like a heartbeat.  

    Steady.  

    Predictable.  

    Breath.  

    ✨

    Awake. 

    Pondering the dying.  

    Their raspy, grasping breath, like a tight fist holding on.  

    Wavelike. 

    Unpredictable.  

    Breath. 
    Awake.  

    Allowing my thoughts to tumble.  

    My thoughts to jumble. 

    My heart to mumble.   

    Mumbo jumbo. 

    ✨

    Awake.  

    Allowing myself to be, just as I am.  

    Awake.  

    Open. 

    Pondering.  

    Unafraid to feel. 

    Deeply.  

    ✨

    Awake.  

    Alive.  

    Outside in. 

    Coming out of the fog of oversaturated information from the world around me. 

    Going within. 

    Fully alive and awake to what is happening around me.  

    Living inside out.  

    Rightside up.  

    Standing strong. 

    Weak in the knees.  

    Pondering a future on earth without one of my role models, my overcomers, my heros! 

    ✨

    Awake.   

    Steady.  

    Feeling.  

    Inside out. 

    Facing forward.   

    Looking into the unknown.  

    ✨

    Aging, God, Grief, life, love, psychology, Wordsmith

    Be Having a New View 

    Leave a comment

    When do you feel your knees shake or your mouth turn to sandpaper?  What makes your mind spin with emotionally charged random thoughts? 

    For me, up until today, it was that building with the gigantic H on the top of it. Yessiree Bob, the hospital. 

    Knee shaking. 

    Sandpaper mouth. 

    Mind blowing. 

    Emotional muscle building hospital. 

    I walked through seven years, um I mean days, of hospital time with my mom exactly three and a half years ago. If you followed my blog back then you know this meant pain, excruciating pain, worried nurses who thought they were going to kill my mom with pain meds, a stolen chair, sleeping on said chair and a final ambulance ride in the snow with my mama to the incredible hospice house. 

    Hell 

    Healing.  

    Stretching. 

    Restoring. 


    Today, I walked into the hospital to see another dearly beloved family member.  I didn’t want to go, but my peeps are so much more important than any discomfort that I may feel.  I put on my armour, remembered what I learned in my last journey and walked through the doors.  

    Walked through the doors with a “New View”, knowing that I had experiences that could help, a story that could support others and the keen sense to find tea, be in the right place at the right time and know the questions to ask when that magic right time happens. 

    Shit, I have learned something and grown into it!  

    I walked through the valley of he shadow of death, embraced it, rowed the waves of grief through it and now I can see the sun! I can see hope!  I can see a completely New View.  

    Standing strong. 

    Calm, steady words. 

    Mind calming. 

    Emotional muscle built hospital. 

    The gift of grief keeps on giving and will for the rest of my life. My mom’s life and death had been one of my greatest teachers.  It brought me to my knees and helped me learn to stand.  Let this five all my fellow grief journeyers hope.  

    Standing in my truth. 

    With my experience. 

    Soaring in my gifts. 

    With my journey. 

    Soaking in my New View. 


    With love and gratitude for all that I can do and share. This post is dedicated to a beautiful couple who are our role models and the hospital that is supporting them in their journey.