Treasure Life

 On Sunday May 20th I was blessed with the opportunity to accompany my sister Charlene on a road trip to the Ol' MacDonald Resort near Stettler, AB to join families who had spent the weekend at the Children's Heart Society Campout. This is an opportunity for families with children who have heart disease to get out and have some fun and to be with other kids who are living life like they are.


We went to spend some time discussing the Treasure Bead program which was launched at the Stollery Children's Hospital for the "heart kids" in January of 2011 by the Treasure Life Foundation. This foundation was formed as a legacy to honor the memory of my great nephew Evan who passed away from Congenital Heart disease in 2006.


To start, each child is given a string with a Treasure Life anchor bead symbolizing the start of their journey. Then a "Child Life" bead is added which represents the many wonderful people who help the kids at the hospital. After this it is a personal journey with each bead representing a procedure that the child has gone through. It could be a needle, an x-ray, an echocardiogram, surgery and of course so many more I can't even name..the kids and parents remember it all.


 Many of the children hadn't started their bead chains so they were extremely excited to be able to document their personal journey with their heart. It brought so much joy to my heart to talk to the families and to see the love and joy they felt doing this.

Procedure beads...a few of many.

These beads were her journey!

Me and my sister.

It was a wonderful day that I got to spend with my sister and with families who touched my heart!


To learn more about the Treasure Life Foundation please visit: http://www.treasurelife.ca/
and the Children's Heart Society: http://www.childrensheart.org/

The Power of Yellow

  It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon and I was outside staining my Adirondack chairs a wonderful yellow. I wanted a color that would make the yard pop. After I had put one coat on I sat down to enjoy a drink and chat with Anthony. He was sitting on my lap and we were discussing bees and "waspes" as he calls them. All of a sudden something absolutely amazing happened. A butterfly came up on to the deck and fluttered right by us. It was the biggest yellow butterfly unlike anything I have ever seen. I do not remember ever seeing a yellow butterfly. I have only witnessed the little white ones or the orange Monarchs. It was breathtaking and it left both Anthony and I utterly speechless. All we could do was stare at each other both knowing exactly what and who it was...Kari. I take that moment and hold it tight....I will never forget that moment.
A few days later I was catching up with my best friend Drina and she said that she had the most spectacular story to share.
She was outside in her garden and the biggest most beautiful yellow butterfly fluttered into her yard. Without even a pause she spoke out loud "Kari...it's you!...you are so beautiful. You're O.K I know you are....My Mom is with you..is she O.K?" She thought nothing of the fact that she was talking to a butterfly because she knew she wasn't.....it was Kari.

Drina, Anthony and I were blessed with the opportunity to spend a few precious moments with our beautiful yellow butterfly...but what is so dear to my spirit at this moment is the fact that we shared it together....not in the same yard and not at the same time but in the same spiritual way. We are in tune with the many wonders that life has to offer and we are walking the same spiritual journey together. Being best friends is in itself the most precious gift but to be able to share our spirits is the best blessing ever!

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  And everyone deserves a little sunshine.  ~Jeffrey Glassberg

  

Water Bugs & Dragonflies

My Mother was telling me about this story...it's beautiful. Enjoy.....

Water Bugs and Dragonflies
By Doris Stickney

Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs.  They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun.  For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond.

They did notice that every once in a while one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about with its friends.  Clinging to the stem of a pond lily, it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more.

“Look”, said one of the water bugs to another.  “One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk.  Where do you suppose she is going?”

Up, up it went slowly.  Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight.  Its friends waited but it didn’t return.

“That’s funny!” said one water bug to another.

“Wasn’t she happy here?” asked a second water bug.

“Where do you suppose she went?” wondered a third.

No one had an answer.  They were greatly puzzled.  Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together.  “I have an idea.  The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why.”

“We promise,” they said solemnly.

One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk.  Up, up, up he went.  Before he knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water, and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above.

When he awoke, he looked about with surprise.  He couldn’t believe what he saw.  A startling change had come to his old body.  His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail.  Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings.  The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body.  He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water.  He had become a dragonfly.

Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air.  He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere.  By and by, the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest.  Then it was, that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond.  Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs!  There they were, scurrying about, just as he had been doing some time before.

Then the dragonfly remembered the promise.  “The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went and why”.

Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down.  Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away.  Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water.

“I can’t return!” he said in dismay.  “At least I tried, but I can’t keep my promise.  Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body.  I guess I’ll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too.  Then they’ll understand what happened to me and where I went.”
The dragonfly then winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air.

Saturday morning inspiration

It is a beautiful Saturday morning! The sun was shining brightly in the dining room window so I sat down at the table and put this together. Sometimes ideas come when you aren't planning for them....

The time was right

A couple of pieces I made tonite. I had these heart beads for a while but it was not until tonite that I knew how to put them together. Life is alot like that too.....it all comes together when the time is just right!

There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart . . . pursue those.

Author Unknown

Pretty Butterfly

You can shed tears that she is  gone
 or you can smile

because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray

that she’ll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow

and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow

because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she’s gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she’d want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

http://youtu.be/yt8MAFApHWg

In time you will know

It has been almost a year since Kari passed away..... It is so hard to imagine that the time has gone so quickly. It has been a year of many ups and downs as I try and deal with my loss. Mine is of course so much different than her Mother's, her Father's, her Sister's and most of all her children's. We all had our own relationship with Kari and are dealing and trying to understand it in our own way.

I can say that through her passing there has come some understanding, not about what happened or why it happened because I still try and piece it together. There is no way that I can but my mind wants to balance the scales....I am a true Libra. The understanding comes in the form of my spirituality. I have been what could be referred to a a sideliner.....I would watch and listen and take away what I thought I should at the time. Now I feel like I am in the centre of the learning and growing and understanding. There is still so much to discover about this life that we have been given but I feel like I am ready to really "see" things in the way I am meant to. I feel like I am getting ready to bust out of my own coccoon....that my purpose is being unveiled... 

I have decided that I am going to slow down and make a point to see something everyday. Take a minute to really look at someone, or something or even a situation. It's quite an amazing feeling to have that moment sink deep within your soul and see it differently. I had a revelation of a moment that happened last year. I don't remember alot of the small details from the past but this one has stuck with me and I have finally figured out why. 

It was Friday morning at the daycare the day after Kari's Celebration of Life. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were dropping Anthony at daycare so that we could go and golf in the Treasure Life golf tournament. While we were waiting for the doors to open at 7:00 a semi truck drove up to the 4 way stop. On the passenger side door were the words "Kay Jay Trucking". At the time I noticed the name and thought...wow..that's cool. Looking back at it now I have finally figured it out....it was Kari....."hey guys here I am"....she wanted to get a glimpse of us and for us to get a glimpse of her. It took me a year to appreciate this moment for what I think it was. I know that some people would say "Oh, it's just a coincidence" but in my mind it was Kari......   

Take the time to really see..and to appreciate what is in your life. It is such a wonderful experience!

I love you Kari and I miss you....