A Christmas Letter To My Daughter

Me and my daughter Sivanna who was born prematurely…. she is my ‘little bird’ in this picture. 🙂

Although I have not done it every year, I have for most years, written a letter to my daughter at Christmas time. I like to share with her about the year, her achievements and milestones, and mostly how proud I am of her and to let her know much her Dad and I love her.

This morning I worked on this letter to Sivanna, who is now 15. It has been a tough year for us with the ongoing pandemic situation and my Stage IV cancer diagnosis back in March. So let’s just say writing the letter today was pretty intense for me.

I am so glad I have done this throughout the years. Sivanna will always have those letters to go back to and to reflect on and to also receive insight and wisdom from us that she can use later in life.

What About YOU?

What about you? Do you have any traditions that you like to do? Is there something special that stands out for you? We have many opportunities in life to participate in sacred moments and these moments help to enhance our earthly journeys. They help us to connect to the real, raw, sweetness in life.

I wish you all an amazing day and Happy Holidays!

JOY! JOY! JOY!

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JOY JOY JOY – i wish you joy now and always for ever & to eternity

The Peace Love Can Give

Some of You Know…. And Some Don’t…

Know that my Honey Don is a lovely writer of poems that are inspired by his deep connection to Source/God. This was his poem from 10 years ago. I thought it was so worth sharing again today in 2021.

My Honey’s Christmas Message 2011

Peace on earth and goodwill to all men.
The words God, Life, Love, Energy, and Source all mean the same thing.
God is the energy that is the source of all life.
Love is the highest energy that we can vibrate at.
When we vibrate in pure love we are at total peace.
As we celebrate Christmas this year,
May we experience the peace that only love can give.
May that love that is inside all of us be the gift of peace that we give to the world this Christmas.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Love All Ways,
Don

I too wish everyone PEACE, LOVE and JOY this holiday season and always and as Don says in All Ways (his famous signature) 🙂

3 cute snowpersons

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• Why Not UNchoose?
• The Past is Real or is it?
• My Virtual Interview with M. Louise Pistole Around The Healing Power of JOY & Stage 4 Cancer
• Inspiration About Women on International Women’s Day
• Miracles? Always!!!

The Best Made Plans In Life… LOL

A picture of my daughter Sivanna playing in the grass and picking flowers. She is around two years old. 🙂

I have always loved this picture. It does make me smile though. It shows me how life does not always go as one plans.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my due date was at the end of May 2006. I had visions of me after my baby was born and what my summer would look like. (っ◔◡◔)

I saw myself spending the summer outside in the yard planting flowers and beautifying this space in nature while my new baby sat outside with me in their little seat, cooing and kicking their feet back and forth in delight.

What Really Happened!

What really happened was that Sivanna was born prematurely on April 8th and spent 39 days in the NICU. I made over 100 trips back and forth to the hospital before she came home. Then shortly after she got home and we adjusted to our new life with a baby, she turned colicky!

Well, needless to say, I barely made it outside that summer, but it was all worth it. 🙂

I have learned that the best-made plans in life don’t always unfold as you would expect and you just have to learn to roll with it. How we adjust and adapt to life’s swift currents, is truly the key to grace and peace. Adapting and adjusting is learning to roll with the Universal punches.

Struggle is never the best choice….. we need to go with the flow and adapt as we go. And just because we say “Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away!”, doesn’t mean that ladybug will. We must adapt 🙂

Have a great day my friends and remember to roll with the punches.

EnJOY the Moments

“The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enJOY it.” Richard Bach

Oh, the moments in life. They go so fast do they not?

The sweetness comes when we can be present in every moment and do so with an open heart that is a conduit to both give and receive love and kindness.

My friends, I wish you all many lovely moments.

I love you all!

A Delightful Surprise

What JOY!

A week ago on a Friday night my hubby and I were enJOYing our date night at our Little Lake House on the shores of Lake Superior, when out of the blue some delightful carolers appeared on our back deck. Some I knew and some I did not. This turned out to be a specially planned event and it was beautiful indeed!

We opened the patio door and I sat on a chair inside with a blanket while they sang three songs to us. 1) Silent Night 2) Love Is Christmas and 3) Let It Snow.

They were all beautiful. I had tears streaming down my face for silent night and I loved the 2nd song “Love Is Christmas”. I had never heard that before. My Dad always loved “Silent Night” and that made it extra special. And of course “Let It Snow” is always great!

The whole experience was deeply moving but the most touching part of the experience was to see the kindness and compassion in each person’s eyes as they sang to me. It is a moment I will never forget and I will cherish always.

Thank you to these beautiful souls for this gift that I will always cherish.

Maggie’s lake superior collection of pictures

What I Want At This Time In My Life

Peace

My Journey With A Stage IV Cancer Diagnosis

After 9 months of living with a diagnosis of apparent Uncurable Cancer according to medical diagnostics and opinion, I have come to a few conclusions on what works for me.

What I really want and need each day is PEACE…. peace of mind, peaceful rest, and peace within my heart.

I don’t feel like I need to be known as ‘Brave’ or as a ‘Fighter’, although I acknowledge that I am indeed both of those things.

What is important to me is for me to be at ✌ PEACE.

How Do I achieve this?

So how do I achieve this? I do it first and foremost by accepting what is.

I have this diagnosis. Yes I do. I cannot resist what is because when I do that I am in resistance and in the frequency of fear, which are two places that I don’t want to be.

So I accept what is, I expect the best, I appreciate everything and I have gratitude for whatever I can latch onto. This my friends gives me the peace I seek.

When I lay my head to rest at night I no longer worry about the troubles of the earthly world anymore. They no longer seem as important to me. I recognize that I am a spiritual and infinite being.

It is interesting because I also no longer care about things that I thought I would care about. For example, when I die cremation or burial? I don’t care. What color or type of casket? I don’t care. And on and on my list goes….

What I do care about is as you know, is having PEACE and JOY.

Did I laugh today? Wow, that orange was so delicious. Look at the kindness shown to me today. I had energy to write a blog post today. Yay! I sat in someone’s presence and we just loved each other with no judgment or hidden agenda. People sang to me. I have an appetite even if for a moment. Bella is purring and lying on top of me as I see Sparkle dust all the way up to the ceiling (true story). I am so loved. I love so much.

Sweet juicy luscious oranges…. a gift from the Gods.

There have been so many gifts that I have received on this journey and I am so grateful for them.

What About You My Friends?

It is my wish that others who choose to do so, benefit in some way from these insights. We put so much energy into our earthly journeys and roles, but what is truly important for YOU?

Can you seek peace now? Are some things really worth the so called fight? Where does your JOY come from?

Go within. This is where you will find your answers and I promise you they never appear from fear and strife but they always show themselves when peace is present.

I love you all!

see all of maggie’s blog posts about peace

If I Could Live My Life Over Again There is One Thing I Would Do More Of And It Seems to Surprise People

In Hindsight

It is interesting what becomes clear to one when contemplating life and in looking back especially after being diagnosed with a serious illness.

No regrets…. But….

I have no regrets in life but I have become clear as to what is important to me and I have also realized what I have really enJOYed doing in my life. It seems to really surprise people when I tell them that I wish I did more of this!

I Would Do More….

Cooking!

I would cook with fresh and interesting ingredients. I would try more recipes! I guess this surprises people because I have cooked a lot in my life and I still cook when I can.

Cooking With Fresh Ingredients

Here Is The Difference

I always saw cooking as taking time away from what I could be doing. And that ‘could be doing’ was usually related to ‘work’ or to ‘working’.

Being a serial entrepreneur I seemed to always be racing to some imaginary finish line and I was and am very zealous and dedicated to my work and in helping other people. I love to help people and have found many different hats to wear to do that. But with that said it kept me busy so although I indeed do and have done a lot of cooking up until now, I would have done more of it!

This just tells me that in retrospect, it was and is really important to me! Food is one of the greatest earthly pleasures! I would not only have tried more recipes and used fresh ingredients but I would have also had more fun with it by allowing myself to do it more and with JOY! I would have been more passionate about it!

Unfortunately today I don’t have the same appetite or energy depending on the day, and all of this affects the enJOYment of food or in the making of food. I have been enJOYing food gifted to me by friends and family which has been lovely too.

My Main Message For Everyone Today!

What do you love to do? What do you put off doing or make excuses about doing because you don’t think you have the time or that you think you might be wasting time by doing it? Or that it’s not a priority. Maybe it is a priority? Maybe you really enJOY doing it? What is that? What is that thing? You know it. 🙂

I invite you to get clear and seize the day and start doing the very thing that you have just received answers and direction on. You know what they are, even if it is just one thing.

I love you all. Have a great day!

One of The Best Days of My Life

Sunday November 28, 2021

This past Sunday my family got together at my house to celebrate American Thanksgiving. Our parents were Americans who immigrated to Canada, so we like to do this and we always like an opportunity or an excuse to get together and to love each other up. 🙂

My nephew came all the way from North Bay and my sister came from Toronto just for the occasion. How special is that? 🙂

And I have to put in an extra plug for my nieces and nephews. I have the BEST nieces and nephews and I LOVE being Aunty Maggie!

What A Day It Was!

This really was one of the most special and best days of my life. I cannot express fully or put into words how deeply grateful I am for this family of mine!

They rallied together and brought food, cooked the food, served the food, cleaned up, did the dishes, and packed leftovers for everyone including a container for me and one for Sivanna for lunches during the week.

My niece Alisha showed up with decorations and placed them throughout the house. Sister Stephanie and my daughter Sivanna also decorated the house and Sivanna made her famous scalloped potatoes.

There was no stone unturned. As I sat on a comfy chair, with a warm blanky, being catered to and waited on, my nieces even asked me if I wanted the turkey carcasses for soup or did I want niece Aimee to make me soup. I chose to have the soup made for me of course ! 🙂

I felt like Royalty! Well, actually I felt supported and loved beyond measure.

Me in my kitchen admiring the feast that was prepared.

I am truly in awe of my family. I think we could be positive role models for other families. We have had trials and tribulations and went through the loss of our parents, but we used these experiences to bring us closer and to appreciate each other more.

And now with my Stage 4 cancer diagnosis and me being the baby sister to all the siblings, this experience is connecting us even closer. We are all gaining insight into life and into the gifts that opportunities like this present. We have developed as a family over time and our relationship together as a family has an added depth and a greater sweetness than ever before.

How Do We Support Each Other in Life?

How do we support each other in life as human beings whether traveling as friends, family members or others on this journey called life?

We show up. We hold space. We love each other. We laugh together. We love without judgment and we break bread together.

I hope that you too find support and beauty in life and that you too break bread with those that you love.

I love you all! EnJOY the pictures.

My Siblings from left to right: Barb, Steph, Wally, Ed and Me. (Missing brother John)

Baba Audrey our official turkey carver and Steph & Eddie

The Food, It’s All About The Food!