Eggs of Kindness

Easter Sunday. Normally I'd be joining you all in posting beautiful photos of creatively painted eggs, family dinners, baskets of chocolate, and all things representing a cool yet comfortably warm Spring Sunday. But like I mentioned in a previous post, a few months ago I decided to take a step forward in my career and accepted a job that requires me to travel every second week for work. So for the first time, I’m spending the holiday alone. Before you stop reading...I promise this isn't a “woe is me” post. Keep reading!

After spending 12 hours at my computer attempting to balance our projected monthly budget with our actuals, woe is—just kidding—I found my way back to my suite to find that the Housekeeping staff had hidden chocolate Easter eggs in all the nooks and crannies of my room! I think I’ve found them all...21 thoughtfully hidden little eggs!

After my personalized home-away-from-home Easter Egg Hunt and a few giggles at the seemingly endless supply of chocolate, I got to thinking about tradition and the level of comfort and happiness that chocolate wrapped in colored aluminum brings us every year around this time. I thought about all the photos scattered throughout my social media outlets today in which my family and friends gravitated towards their friends and families on this beautiful Sunday. And even though I wasn't necessarily a part of it, I found huge comfort in the sense of togetherness that I saw. Tomorrow Monday will come as it always does. Stay connected-- share your chocolate with a stranger. I dare you.

This post is dedicated to the thoughtful stranger who took the time out of his or her day to help cure the inevitable homesickness of a person away from home over the holidays.

Stop counting, I ate one before I snapped this photo ;)

"What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” 

- Kurt Vonnegut

Who, What, Where is Home...?

I have always been both fascinated and perplexed by the concept of "home" and its meaning. I myself have struggled to develop my own definition of home. Certainly not for lack of having a solid place to call home. My father built the house I grew up in and called home for 20 amazing years. Perhaps it is because of this that I grew up with such an immense appreciation for the stable walls that I-- maybe too often-- used as a canvas. Crayola would have been proud! Time and time again my mother would invent some crafty concoction to remove my "art" from our walls. This was of course before the time of Magic Erasers. In my inevitably self absorbed 5 year old mind though, watching my mother scrub crayon off our walls was to me her way of allowing me to start fresh, to provide me with a clean, blank canvas with which I could create, learn, and grow.

On May 10th, after 25 incredible years, my dad will be moving out of our family home and the house will then belong to a new family. My only hope is that they use the house as my family once did-- as a blank canvas to create countless memories, make mistakes, and grow beyond unimaginable belief.

Perhaps my progressive definition of home is partially due to the fact that I grew up enveloped by a constant and stable idea of such that I am now able to open my mind to its larger concept. Despite my incredible childhood home base I've never considered home to be one distinct place. Home was and is the few and far between places where I could and can sit comfortably in stillness and be vulnerably creative. Home is where ever the people I love choose to gather, whether it be at a local hockey arena across town, a Cafe around the corner, or my best friend's living room.

Today I am writing cross-legged from smack dab in the middle of my bedroom floor. Because I can. And because there's no place quite so honest- wrinkled bedding and all. Happy beautiful Tuesday from my home to yours. Whoever, whatever and where ever home may be.

With love,

J.

Spring In Our Hearts

Although it snowed in YYC this morning, something in the air made me feel like flying.  As of yesterday Spring has officially sprung and I'm welcoming it with open arms! Despite the forecast, I always try to live like it's Spring. I absolutely love this season... it's when the sun decides to explode and stop hiding behind the clouds. The dark does not grow quieter. The lightness inside of all of us just grows louder.

Spring is the time for plans, projects, and newness. In the past few months both Ryan and I have successfully followed through with our separate yet seemingly intertwined plans to take steps forward in terms of our careers. We've also made plans to do some travelling in 2013. My first passport is in the mail and on its way to me as we speak! Our first few trips are booked and double underlined in our calendars. I am beyond excited and cannot wait to share our travels with you guys!

I'm happy to say that the main project I've taken on this year-- aside from planning our wedding-- is the development of this blog. 

So far so good I hope...?

       

It's the season to shine bright -- don't hide behind the clouds -- shine and radiate love.

"Sweet spring is your

time is my time is our

time for springtime is love time

and viva sweet love"

- E.E. Cummings  

Just Love and Life

Sometimes there are just not words that do justice to the way you love something or someone. Sometimes these things are beyond letters, beyond adjectives, beyond syntax or elaborate description. Sometimes they just are, as all things seem to be when they find you when you weren't even looking.

And so, six months have passed and there have been no words typed out on this page. But my God have I lived and laughed and loved in the past months. Stories and words for miles are coming. I promise you this, these amazing collections of stories that make up the past six months of my life have been documented, in true J Emily style, through photographs.