Tag Archives: no coincidences

Aging, God, life, love, men, Wordsmith

Be Married for 26 Years

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May 3rd, 2023

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary plus two days of me being 49 years old. The best part is that Sexy Neck’s birthday is two days from now, yes it is a fun week of celebration, at least this is what we thought when we were university students on our semester ended in April and Steve was getting ready to head to the National Team.

When Sexy Neck and I got engaged in November of 1996 at the West Edmonton Mall we were talking about a possible wedding date. We thought it would be hilarious if May the 3rd fell on a Saturday in 1997 so that could be our wedding date! Well, God knew that our brains would think like that and yes, you guessed it, our wedding day was on Saturday, May 3rd, 1997.

Sidenote: Sexy Neck was going to propose at the top of the rollercoaster at WEM, but we ended up getting in a disagreement because I didn’t want to go on it. He ended up putting the personally-designed ring in an ice cream, which I thought was the sweetest thing ever! I was shocked.

May 1

May 3

May 5

The beginning of May is a week of celebration!

On top of thinking about the date in which we decided, or God decided, for us to be married, I have been reflecting on being married for more than a quarter of a century.

It’s all about “choice”!

Yup, choice.

Not sex, love, infatuation, coercing, settling, changing someone, manipulation… it’s simply about a personal choice made daily by each person in a marriage.

I remember in the pre-marriage counselling that we did before May 3rd, 1997, the counsellor talked about marriage as being about a “daily choice”. As I sit here today, I couldn’t agree more.

My personal choices that I think about often are:

  • Do I bring out the best or worst in my husband?
  • How do I listen and also feel heard?
  • How do I show love even when I don’t feel the emotion of love?
  • How do I support my husband’s personal life journey even when it adversely affects my own life?
  • Do I want to be my husband’s biggest cheerleader or the “bring him downer” in his life?
  • How can I share my needs and also consider my husband’s needs?
  • How do you live with someone who has very different standard of timelines and schedules? (We shared a computer when doing our Bachelor of Education degrees. It worked beautifully because I always finished my projects a week ahead of time and he did everything the night before. And guess who always beat me in the marks department, yup Steve! Probably because I always stayed up with him and proofread all of his work. HAHA)

Choice.

Love.

Partnership.

Best friend.

Marriage.

Choice.

26 years baby!

Have a wonderful Wednesday folks and love what you do!

xoxo Joanna

author, Boys, God, Parenting, psychology

Be Learning from Animals and Children

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One March day, I asked my boys to give me an animal. An animal I could draw!  I didn’t know what I was asking at the time but it ended up creating deep conversation and insight about animals between my boys and I.  

Here is how it unfolded in pictures drawn by moi in my day planner and the subsequent research that I did on the spiritual and biblical significance of each animal.  The most divine aha for me was that every animal the boys suggested on each day met me exactly where I was at on that day!  I wonder which animal will land on you today? May we all continue to be open to God around and within us. 









May these words and imagines encourage you to be open to the divinity of children, the soulfulness of drawing and the power of words that tumble in our heads and out of our mouths.  

Be free! 

Be enough. 

Show up as the animal you want to be today! 

😘 Joanna 

author, Book, Boys, God, Jesus Christ, psychology, Self-help, Wordsmith

Be in Deep Knowing

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In one moment, things can flip from flabbergasted to “aha I get it!”  Today, that shift happened for me. 

All week, I have been praying and setting the intention for ‘depth of insight’ on six things: 

🏠 Our Home 

😘 Sexy Neck, Steve 

⛷ Apex Mountain 

👱🏻‍♂️ My dad 

🥛 My business 

💥 My brand (how I want to show up in the world!) 


Every day I have been writing at the top of my planner these goals for this week.  Today, when I sat with my pen and planner, I realized that I wasn’t searching for depth of insight but more of a deep knowing. I wrote this down: 


Then, in the next moment as I sat with my pen in my hand with my thoughts tumbling around my hamster brain, I decided to draw a lion. I drew this lion and then decided to google what the lion in the bible and spiritual realm represents. Can you guess?  


DEEP KNOWLEDGE! 💥💥💥

Wise

Powerful

Fierce Guardian 

Hearth of God 

Be open to signs and wonders that show you that you are on your path. 

Be open to flipping from flabbergasted in one ‘aha’ moment over words and a lion. 

Be open to staying positive that your personal answers will come. 

Be open to the still small voice that asks you to draw a lion. 

Now, off to sit in this deep knowing with gratitude for this beautiful planner I get to write in every day. Thank you to my beautiful friend Miriam for giving it to me and for the amazing Vancouverite Danielle Laporte for creating this divine gift in my life. 

😘 Joanna k