Overflowing with gratitude.
Pouring out with thankfulness.
Grate-full.
My heart and soul are full!
Thanksgiving full with nature, fabulous food, beautiful friends and my brood of boys.
Our traditions.
Our rhythm.
Our choices.
Our freedom.
His fullness.
Our Thanksgiving.
A gift that keeps on pouring as we continue into this week.
Grate-full for life.
Celebration.
God.
Yessiree Bob, I tweaked my neck.
No idea how.
I wasn’t twerking.
Just living life.
I am so grateful for this time of tweaking.
Time to slow down.
Time to look at the clear blue skies.
An opportunity to be grateful.
No matter the circumstances.
I have work where I choose my daily rhythm.
I can put my health first.
I can lie flat on my back if I need to.
No day shall pass where I will not spend time in gratitude.
Even with a pain in my neck!
Look at this view:
Even in the midst of physical and emotional pain, we can find gratitude.
We just need to choose to look.
(From whatever position we may be in!)
![IMG_1929[1]](https://beenough.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/img_19291.jpg)
We are fortunate to have four, well-rounded seasons in our part of the world.
They flow easily and gently through beautiful hot summers, into a cool, colourful autumn, then a crisp, snowy winter and a mild, life-giving spring.
Can you feel the change in the air right now during this season?
It is almost as though now should be the new year.
The greatest gift of these seasons we are given each and every year, consistently without question is that we are all given the gift of the same amount of time.
No less than another and no more.
What will you do with this gift of your time during this new season?
Will you make your time count or just count the time?
You can choose.
No excuses.
It is your gift.
The seasons come.
Time goes.
Be enough.
We had a trip of a lifetime courtesy of Sexy Neck’s grandparents(in the bottom right corner).
![IMG_1488[1]](https://beenough.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/img_14881.jpg)
We spent seven days on the Disney Wonder living the magic inspired by Walt Disney’s vision. We had some of the happiest times as a family and the best food we have ever eaten.
![IMG_1487[1]](https://beenough.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/img_14871.jpg)
![IMG_1247[1]](https://beenough.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/img_12471.jpg)
We were very fortunate to travel into Alaska to see whales and beautiful blue glaciers.
![IMG_1248[1]](https://beenough.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/img_12481.jpg)
I am truly short for words with the incredible experience.
Over two years ago, I started down a road that I never knew I would go down. My energetic, athletic mom had cancer take over her body. It pummelled her, humbled our family and eventually took her body on Boxing Day six months later.
I rode waves of grief.
Face planting.
Knee crawling.
Life stealing.
Grief.
I had never known pain like this.
I had never lived a day without my previous mama.
But I did.
And I am.
I was at the beach a few days ago and was watching this:
And then I noticed a woman sitting under a tree, just like my mom used to, watching the boys play in the sand. I would have felt paralyzed by this before but now I just found gratitude in my heart for this beautiful woman who reminded me of my mama.
I am living.
Living with abundance.
Living a life of my dreams.
I am continually surrounded by saints on this earth.
Friends who walk with me.
Strangers who bless me with their presence.
Friends who LOVE my boys.
Friends who ask ‘how are you?’ And wait to hear the answer.
Right now in my life, I am riding the waves of gratitude.
It hits me every day at how blessed I truly am.
I feel extremely grateful for who I am surrounded by, all that I have and all that I can do.
The possibilities are truly only limited by my mind.
My opportunities seem to flow into my dreaming mind and humbled heart.
I am free.
I am flying.
I am riding waves of gratitude.
I love people.
Always have.
Always will.
Them my peeps.
I would not have survived the last sixteen months without.
You know who you are!
I was told that the hole my mom left in my life would never heal but that people would lean and the hole wouldn’t be so humongous.
I agree with this analogy.
Because of my peeps.
The strange thing that happened on this journey the last sixteen months is that I also learned to be okay with myself.
No more people pleasing.
Be with people because it is pleasing.
Using my gifts.
Being quiet when I need to.
Saying ‘no’ and being okay.
Letting go of relationships that are hurtful and judgemental.
Allowing myself to feel.
Allowing myself to be me.
I am forever grateful for the gifts my mom has given me through her life and her death.
I have never been so blessed in my entire life than I am right now!
As I watched my littlest one fly through the air on the chairlift, I thought of air, the importance of breathe and God’s Holy Spirit.
This is how my mind works these days, simple moments become incredible moments.
I can be sitting watching my boys play with Lego and I feel love and warmth pour over me like a dousing of water over my head.
I may be listening to a woman speak about her health struggles and I want to bawl my eyes out with sadness.
Often, I see women with their moms and I want to lie flat on the ground, humbled by what I have lost and amazed at how present my mom was in our lives.
Today, I come back to air.
To my breathe.
To God’s Holy Spirit.
I will seek with my whole heart the significance of breathe.
And I will breathe.
Deeply.
Full of gratitude.
I love this journey.
Life.
Alive.
Air.
Breathe.
Breath.
Life-giving Holy Spirit.
Who knew what these last twelve months would bring?
Surprise after surprise, both wonderful and heartbreaking.
My self-assessment twelve months ago would have used the descriptors: mom, wife, daughter, previous jock, teacher-on-leave, Vtown girl…
I no longer live in Vtown, nor think of myself as a teacher, neither do I have a living mother anymore… The fact that I am painting makes me lie of the floor.
I was introduced to watercolour painting by Herta at this retreat. Sexy Neck bought me a set of paints for my birthday in a month later.
My heart is full of gratitude for having the luxury to play with colour on beautiful watercolour paper. My boys love it and always join me. We paint quietly together often talking about cool new colour creation or telling each other what we can see.
Creative.
Peace.
Soul care.
Colourful.
Uplifting.
Unexplainable.
A pure gift from God.
Beyond anything I ‘thought’ I could do.
Have you lived beyond your expectations today?
Two year old OC:
Almost Five year old CC
Seven year old JC’s paintings including a hairless one of me.
My paintings from my soul, feelings and things I see in God’s creation.
Expectations.
Chains or freedom.
Choosing freedom.
Living in the beyond.
Painting.
Playing.
Expressing.
Me!
"Be" ENOUGH 
