As a dog, I would previously have been seen as a fluffy, golden retriever.
I love human beings and can talk to anyone, anywhere. I have made friends after a 4 hour plane trip and even made a lifelong friend in a checkout line in Nashville. She complimented me on my shoes. We stayed in contact and then I ended up finding her the same pair of shoes and sent them to her.
My boys often ask me to stop “chitty chatting”!
I might be weird as I will talk to anyone, but I won’t be someone’s friend just because our kids do the same activities , our kids are the same age, we teach in the same profession or we live on the same street.
I love every ONE, but my friends are people who are authentic, straightforward, family-oriented and passionate.
These last three years as I grew through deep loneliness and even discrimination as I wouldn’t share or talk about the greatest science experiment our generation has gone through. My golden retriever spirit died. I have happily morphed into the ever-watching guardian dog, the Great Pyrenees.
I still see you, but I am not going to chase you to hangout with you.
Watching.
Looking for what will happen next, but not engaging.
Watching.
Waiting to see who will “see” me back.
Watching.
I have gotten more mellow, more calm and more still.
Moving from an every chasing Golden Retriever to a watchful Great Pyrenees shifts things up in the friendship realm and many of my friendships fell away in the last three years.
I guess when you are doing a lot of chasing, you can think you have lots of friends, but it is truly the friends that will stand with you in the calm and the storms as a Great Pyrenees that are here to stay.
Thank you to my salt of the earth friends from the past and those to come in the future. I love you and I send you a big virtual lick!
Happy Sunday Funday Folks! This journey started on Friday morning.
The 11 months and 10 days we lived in Switzerland in 2004 were some of THE BEST and the darkest time of my life (besides watching my mama die!)
The darkness of living through depression and having no energy but to sleep, to be working in a difficult teaching environment, having Steve away training for volleyball each night and living in a country that is clean and exceptionally beautiful for a reason. They ‘control’ each other. I have never been yelled at more in my life.
The BEST moments meeting friends and students that are still in my life today, living in a pristine natural environment, travelling easily and learning more about myself.
We had such an incredible day on the Rigi.
Being back here now in 2019 with our boys is truly sublime.
Drove from beautiful Milan to the Rigi in the Swiss Alps.
With one stop in Locarno for our last Italian pizza and Calzone.
November 15th
Over 25 tunnels. (We lost count!)
One 17 kilometres long.
17 kilometres through this mountain!! The tunnel! They do things right in Switzerland! **This picture was uploaded while driving THROUGH the tunnel. Unbelievable.
We arrived in Vitznau about 3 and a bit hours after leaving Milan. What an indescribable drive. I am not sure my pictures can even explain.
One Mountain Train (Rigi Bahn) straight uphill into the Swiss Alps.
Time Lapse of our 20 minutes ride up to the Rigi Kaltbad
We have snow folks!
Meeting old friends that we taught with and their wonderful eleven year old daughter.
A gorgeous place, an incredible meal and amazing hot pools. Kaltbad Rigi
Guten abend von de Schwiez.
November 16th
Guten morgen friends!
We started off with opening the hot pools before breakfast at 8:00am. We had a solo swim and play in the pools.
Then it was fruhstuck time here in the Alps. First, our super juice that helps our bodies deal with stress and goes everywhere with us. #partner
Keeping our super power juice cold!
After a buffet breakfast, we decided to head to the top of the Rigi via the Mountain Train and then hike down. What a gorgeous three hours. And God even gave us another rainbow, like He did on the Eiffel Tower and at Vimy Ridge.
How is it possible for a rainbow to be formed in light cloud without precipitation anywhere in sight? On the top of the Rigi.
Now an afternoon of journaling, postcard writing, eating Swiss chocolate, shakes and German cookies!
Awe sweet boys! They are learning so much about people and culture.
PLUS another swim in the hot pools before dinner:
Dinner was many hours long, but the boys rocked it and luckily our friend’s play games like we do.
November 17th
This is THE shift! This morning at 7:20am, Steve headed down the mountain on the train to take two buses and another train to the Zurich Airport as he heads home, then travels to Mexico in five days for another fair.
I had tears this morning as we said goodbye. I love this man on so many levels.
We decided I would stay here with the boys until Steve is done his trip to Mexico. I will travel with the boys for 8 days in Germany visiting old friends and then back to Paris for 3 more days for some tourist activities. And surprises for the boys. 😉
BUT FIRST, one more morning on the Rigi, a get together with some Swiss friends at an old school bowling alley with a jukebox near Zurich, then back to Germany.
Hot pools at Hotel Kaltbad. A Berliner (donut) with Nutella. This guy is embracing the European life. Morning game time after breakfast! This wall in the restaurant was one of my favourite things to look at. 11:15am Mountain Train back to Vitznau. 1:00-4:00pm Get together in Zurich.
This is the building where we were…
Through that little brown door on the left lies surprises and beauty and bowling!
Then a 1.5 hour drive to one of our favourite spots in Germany with people living God’s plan through their lives and delivering a package from a mother’s heart to her daughter.
Finishing off the night with one of these… Sexy Neck would be proud! It was as good as I remembered.
Goodnight sweet friends from the Bodensee. Thank you to everyone for your kind words and for truly living these simple moments of an unfolding dream with us. I wish I could give you a HUGE HUG.
And its SURVIVAL mode for those people being inundated with company, people they see six to eight days per year. I had an epiphany to share with you, one to make you THRIVE this year.
First, start by thinking about those 365 day per year peeps in your life. Who are the people you live with or choose to have in your inner circle? What do you have in common with them and why do you choose to hangout with them? What do you talk about and what do you love to do together?
Now, think about those six to eight days per year people. Next proceed to throw everything that you thought about and love about your 365 day per year people and fling it directly into the bottom of the swimming pool. These peeps that are in your life six to eight days per year, may be old friends or family. They may be colleagues from your spouses work that you attend conferences with or neighbours you only see in the summer.
Here’s my secrets to not only SURVIVE but THRIVE with these peeps.
Remember that everything that you thought and love about your 365 day per year peeps has been flung to the bottom of the swimming pool, now throw any negative thought or judgement about the six to eight days per week peeps in there too!
Get ready to look at you: What are your standards for healthy relationships and how do you want to interact with all people, no matter how often they are in your life? For me, this is pouring love and bringing the joy. I don’t share much about my life or even feelings at all, with my six to eighters, I save this for my 365 days per year peeps. But I do have fun with everyone. We eat nourishing delicious food. We go on and find adventures. We talk about travel. We discuss health. But I do not go into the deep end! Remember all that stuff that you had flung down into the deep end of the pool? Don’t go there! Oh I used you and boy what a mess it made.
These six to eighters can’t keep up with the change that happens in the other over three hundred and fifty days of your life. They can’t embrace the change because it would be like getting hit by a fast moving train. The people who can keep up, are on the train. Invested in you. In your inner circle. Those every day peeps who support and love you. The six to eighters receive the benefit of your high standards and love-filled hospitality. But that’s it folks. You may end up talking about things you don’t give a shit about for hours, but you ask questions and listen. You probably will end up doing mind numbing activities that were never on your wish list, but you will discover the joy and enjoy the ride. You will create space to recharge with who you are as you live these six to eight days per year. I exercise. I read. I spend a lot of time locked in the bathroom. I bring games I enjoy playing. I bring up new topics of conversations and then change it back once I see the six to eighters eyes start to gloss over.
Imagine….
Pure joy.
Overflowing love.
Judgement thrown away.
Negative thoughts too!
Thriving with the peeps who show up six to eight days per year.
Staying on your train, but diverting long enough to embrace other peoples rides.
Sit with me today and ask yourself if you have ever been rejected. I mean really rejected, back-turning, door slamming, get the f* out rejected? I also want to talk about the simple rejections that happen every single day as we live our lives.
Have you ever been dumped?
Rejection.
Have you ever applied for a job and not hired?
Rejected.
Have you ever apologized and had that person never speak to you again?
Rejection.
Have you put in a business or book proposal and received a denial letter?
Rejected.
In the sadness, anger and humbleness of rejection, what do we find?
A new way.
A new path.
A new resiliency.
A letting go.
Or holding tighter.
A fortitude to persevere.
Or a desire to walk away.
Rejection is a true gift, a branch of the gifts of grief.
It is ready for us to unwrap in every rejected moment.
We can choose our path with rejection.
We can envision rejection as a branch of a metaphorical tree.
Ponder, with me, how this gift of rejection can help us grow!
Perhaps rejection has come into our life because we have been growing roots in places that weren’t in rich soil. We may have needed more light rather than darkness. Or maybe something or someone new may have been needed in our life to bring us new living water. Rejection needed to create space. Our branches may have needed some pruning so that we could have new growth in our life.
Rejected.
Rejection.
Light.
Growth.
Life.
All symbiotic and much needed in our lives.
Gratitude today for EVERY time I have been rejected in word, thought or deed.
Celebrating friendship, Jesus’s birth, family, and just being together! We had an amaaaaazing Christmas. Love a duck, I do have to say it was “Cann”tastic!
There were so many coincidences and blessings that came our way. The opportunities we have to talk and sit with people were inspiring.
Skiing.
Skating.
Bowling.
Road Trip.
Lego.
Sleds.
Food.
And discovering a ski sign with our last name on it.
I allow the hamster wheel of thoughts go round and round.
I allow the thoughts to stop the wheel on “I feel sh*tty!”.
I am not one to swear, nor one to go towards the side of feeling sh*tty.
Tonight I do.
Feel.
Sh*tty.
I have a dear friend walking the same journey that I did two years ago. After a hospital stay and doctors doing what they can to prolong life, my friend’s beautiful mama is going home to die.
I have one of my best peeps in KCity awaiting to see if she has cancer in her body. She had a biopsy to have melanoma removed from her back last week.
I have a fellow volleyballers who’s servant-hearted Dad is living with Alzheimer’s.
There is a girl in the boys elementary school that starts life-saving, on your knees “hoping for a miracle” treatment for a brain tumour. This sweet soul was also in Owen’s preschool last year.
My cousin is back in town from up north to have surgery, the second surgery in a few weeks.
And my three wee boys are under the weather.
So, what do I do?
I lean into the people who love me.
I spend time carving pumpkins.
I look at the beautiful autumn leaves.
I take a week off from my teaching job, to sit, to serve and to be.
"Be" ENOUGH 