Alberta Roses in Full Bloom

Today I'm stopping to appreciate the beauty of wild Alberta roses- a perfect representation of the amazing people within our great province. To the city workers, volunteers, positive thinkers- near and far - you are the Alberta Wild Rose! What an incredible sight to see our province, especially Calgary, in full bloom after such a storm.

In the twenty-some years that I've lived in Calgary, I've never seen such turmoil. But my mood today is fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. I'm hopeful and confident in our ability to go back to our roots and grow together as a community- stronger and more beautiful than ever before. 

With true Albertan love & pride!

J.

Alberta Strong

June 20th 2013. A date Albertans will not soon forget. It will be forever remembered by Calgarian's as the day we awoke to find our city in a frenzy, lying beneath an outstretched river.

It’s rare for me to sit in front of a blank white computer screen and lose the battle of the unfailing flashing cursor. But today I am speechless. The battle has been lost. In these moments I trust only 2 things to adequately explain exactly how I feel: borrowed words from my favourite writer, and photographs of memories frozen in time. 

"There will be bad days. Be calm. Loosen your grip, opening each palm slowly. Now let go. Be confident. Know that now is only a moment, and that if today is as bad as it gets, understand that by tomorrow, today will have ended.Be gracious. Accept each extended hand offered, to pull you back from the somewhere you cannot escape. Be diligent. Scrape the gray sky clean. Realize every dark cloud is a smoke screen meant to blind us from the truth, and the truth is whether we see them or not - the sun and moon are still there and always there is light. Be forthright. Despite your instinct to say “it’s alright, I’m okay” - be honest. Say how you feel without fear or guilt, without remorse or complexity. Be lucid in your explanation, be sterling in your oppose. If you think for one second no one knows what you’ve been going through; be accepting of the fact that you are wrong, that the long drawn and heavy breaths of despair have at times been felt by everyone - that pain is part of the human condition and that alone makes you a legion. We hungry underdogs, we risers with dawn, we dissmisser’s of odds, we blesser’s of on –we will station ourselves to the calm." - Shane Koyczan

Listen to the full quote here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPU3t-x3Vz4
(Seriously, listen! I promise you won't regret it).

For my favourite city park - now submerged under water - a place that has always inspired and motivated me to strive for success in all my endeavors. You will never be quite the same. That's okay. Neither will we. Trust that we will rebuild you – so you can inspire our next generations to go fearlessly in search of new and unlimited success.

We are Alberta strong - we will carry on together.

Prince's Island Park - 03.2013

With faith, admiration & appreciation.

J.

Lessons & Contentment

I've learned two very valuable life lessons this past week. The first was this: the best thing you can do when it's raining... is to let it rain. Some things I simply cannot control. Although it seems like a rather obvious concept.. it still admittedly took me ~25 years to fully grasp. Oh well.

It rained nonstop for 7 days in Northern Alberta this past week. I realized I could never live anywhere that gets that much rain. Arriving back home yesterday after a very long work week, and an equally long commute back to Calgary that involved a helicopter ride, and a prop plane ride through a Tornado in Edmonton, I was beyond thrilled to plant my feet on YYC soil. I got lost in the sunshine I'd been craving all week.

The second lesson I learned this week- one that I'm ever digesting- is to be content with what I have. In moments that I realize there's nothing essential lacking in my life I am overwhelmed with gratitude and contentment. Health, family, food, water, love (the pisces in me wants to list music). Five (six) check marks.

There's nothing quite like the feeling of going to bed utterly exhausted, knowing you've done good work, and waking up the next morning feeling like you're still dreaming- completely content.

Happy ordinary Thursday. 

As always, with love.

J.

Size 8 Font Love

Earlier this evening, over a ridiculously large piece of cheesecake and a few similar sized lattes, one of my best friends shook my world to the ground with a nonchalant comment she made about love...

"I have this very quiet, very patient, size 8 font love for him."

she whispered through her fantastically contagious smile. It was a smile so uncontrollably addicting-- the type of addiction that can only be understood when described in reference to new love-- that I myself couldn't help but smile.  I still can't seem to keep that all too familar goofy smile from taking up residence on my face.

With one descriptive sentence she rekindled my love of love (and love of language) and lit a small, very warm fire in my heart. Perhaps it was a combination of her brilliant wording and that smile that got to me... But of all of our human qualities, to be graceful in love is absolutely the most underrated! I am continuously mesmerized and inspired by all shapes, sizes, and fonts of love. 

For BM.

I love the way you love. 

J. 

Spring Cleaning

On the Agenda for yesterday and today-- Spring Cleaning. It's become a much anticipated annual therapeutic routine in our household. Call me weird but I do my best thinking, reflecting and planning with a vacuum, broom, or wet rag in my hand with music blasted, bouncing around the walls of our house-- sorry neighbours. 

By the end of today the layer of literal and figurative dust that has protected our furniture and minds for the past few months will be gone. Our curtains will be drawn and our windows will be cleaned- with the exception of Buddy's nose art that we can never seem to keep up with. We're merging the indoors with the outdoors and rebalancing.  

Refocusing.

With love & clarity.

J (& R too).

Thank you-

I'm not one to wish my life away but I've been dreading this week for months for a number of reasons and can't wait for it to be over. Ever since I started this blog both Ryan and I have had friends and family and even strangers comment on how perfect our life seems. Let me be the first to admit that it's not always rainbows and butterflies. We've been working extremely hard and have been under an immense amount of pressure as of lately-- more than usual this past week.

Sometimes life requires you to step back... or step out of a meeting and do a few emergency jumping jacks in the bathroom to stay awake...in hopes that it raises your endorphins enough to get you through the day.

circa 2010.

We could not have made it through this week without: SR, Gma May, JM x 2, JAM, The Steppers, Service Master Calgary, AT, AB, BM, YO. There is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which we could stand without you. We love you all so much. No words of gratitude would suffice in the face of such overwhelming support. Thank you.

Here's to you all.

With love. 

J.

Newfound Love.

Cabo in one word was perfection. The wedding went off without a hitch and was beyond beautiful. Huge congratulations and unending love to our dearest friends Mr. & Mrs. Joshua Yurkowski.

*****

I fell in love with the ocean last week. She resisted my departure as much I resisted leaving her. She lingered in my thick messy braid despite 14 hours of travel back to YYC attempting to dry her out. She buried herself in my books and magazines in the form of wrinkled pages and sand filled spines. The English Major in me usually craves books with clean, crisp pages...but in this particular case I adored the imperfections Sunday morning on our red eye flight home. The tiniest particles of the ocean's floor found ten little homes beneath my finger nails. Her powerful waves left cuts and bruises on my knees and ankles. I hold no grudge. I gave her full control. I allowed her to let me feel weightless and vulnerable and held my breath trusting that she'd release me and my friends - old and new - from her powerful grip as we surfed her waves all week. 

Her physical presence is slowly and inevitably beginning to escape me. I can't avoid showering any longer. Trust me on that one. Although my distance from her has left me feeling strangely empty - as though I have lost something that never really belonged to me - I will carry her with me. I'll cling to the moments and memories that made me feel truly at peace.

I would need new letters to form new words to marry them in new sentences to describe my newfound love for the Pacific ocean. I hope these few photos might do this love justice. More to come.

 Our first walk along the Pacific ocean. Instantly addicted

R on his birthday - lounging in a hammock on the beach :)

Nothing but smiles.

May those sunglasses Rest In Peace at the bottom of the ocean.. darn.

 Post body surfing daze - love these two!

 Completely and utterly mesmerized

Made a new friend ;)

Him.

Beach bumming it

Our boat tour along the coast of Cabo St. Lucas. 

Can you see Scooby Doo?? ;)

 Who me...? ;)

 Giddy J

 Breath taking cliffs and arches just past Lover's Beach
One of the highlights of the trip!

Apple of his eye ;)

 Soaking it all in

 We left our mark for miles and miles up and down this coast<3

"Is it what we see or how we see it? Where we are or how we are? I have a distinct feeling that if we love how we are and choose wisely how we see all life around us, suddenly where we are will seem precisely right, and what we see will never stop astonishing us." - T.G.

This is just a tiny glimpse into our trip - much more to come - when life allows.

With love. 

J.