happy

2015, a love letter

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Dear 2015,

Phew. What a ride! This is meant to be a love letter, so I’ll be nice.

Thank you for teaching me that I am strong, that I can get knocked down and rise wiser and kinder. I bow to the lessons. Thank you for giving me the strength to keep going and for showing me that I am not alone.

And thank you for reminding me of how truly blessed I am! This life – wow.

Thank you for helping me to see that I am a good mom and that I have a great kid. He is my guru, my sage, and the littlest love of my life. Thank you for giving me the strength to wake up at all hours of the night, for being patient during his tantrums (sometimes), and for the magic he’s showing me in the world. Thank you for answering all of my prayers with that kid!

Thank you for the original love of my life – the kid’s dad and my partner in crime. I’m still not sure how I got to be so darn lucky… thank you!

Thank you for this home! When I was a little girl, I dreamt of a home like this – beautiful and serene, somewhere to live forever and always, a fireplace with stockings, and lots of rooms to fill with memories. Now I live here and I am in awe.

Thank you for the adventures and travels, for friends near and far, for chocolate and wine and lattes, for morning snuggles in bed and five seasons of Scandal.

Thank you for showing me that there is still so much to come. Thank you.

2016, hi.

With love,
mxo

soakuplove

:: inspired by a Note of Gratitude by my dearest, Nikki Belcher and Love Letter by the ever-awesome, Elena Brower.

 

it’s enough to begin…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

“What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

It’s been awhile and in that while, I’ve often made my way to my blog and wondered if and how to resume – how to begin again. Life has been busy and time scarce. But this is always the case and unless we consciously choose to add the things we cherish to our schedules, they often get lost even if they are important (but perhaps not urgent).

For me, writing has become urgent. 2015 has delivered a series of blows to the gut that I just wasn’t expecting. Now it’s time to heal and since I was kid, that’s involved putting pen to paper (for the really, truly personal bits) and sharing stories. So today marks my beginning… again.

And today, I’m invoking gratitude because I know that even on the darker days, I still have so very much to be thankful for (my spirited boy, the love of my life, family and friends, a roof over my head, food in my fridge, breath in my lungs, etc…)

I hope that today, on this last Friday in March, you too can find something to be grateful for.

much love and light… mxo

Lovingly borrowed from the ever-inspiring, The Healthy Ginger (at www.thehealthyginger.com)
Lovingly borrowed from the ever-inspiring, The Healthy Ginger (at http://www.thehealthyginger.com)

 

a pic a day… (and sprinkles!)

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Some days I find myself complaining a lot. It’s ludicrous really because life is pretty darn amazing.

I have a baby boy who has brought me more joy than I ever thought was possible. He is happy and healthy. He eats and sleeps (kind of), and moves like there’s no tomorrow.

I have a husband who is my best friend and always makes me see the beauty in things.

I have three awesome families, a boatload of tremendous friends, a beautiful home to call my own, a job, and a fridge that’s always filled with food. You see? Life, it sure is sweet.

SO I’m proposing a wee challenge to myself to help keep my focus on the sweetness:

a pic a day and a word to go with it

… of something awesome, something I am grateful for, or just simply something that makes me smile.

You can follow it here: instagram.com/mayacollum

Life is short. Take too many pictures. Say thank you often. And always order sprinkles.

sprinkles

mxo

happy happy to me!

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Today I woke up grateful. And happy, like deep down in my soul happy.
Today is my 30th birthday and it has been an absolutely perfect day.
Today I realized that all of my dreams have come true. Every single one.
It scares me to say that, as if saying it will bring something bad on, but there’s so much crap in the world that sometimes we all have to shout out loud about the good stuff.

And there’s a lot of good stuff everywhere.

So, dear world, thank you for making this gal feel so darn loved.

Hugs,
mxo

life list…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Inspired by one of my new favourite blogs (little miss momma), I made a life list. It took awhile but it was fun!

In no particular order:

  1. Be a momma.
  2. Bake cookies with my babies on Sunday mornings.
  3. Learn to make pancakes.
  4. Drive stick shift.
  5. Master parallel parking.
  6. Figure out how to walk in heels.
  7. Surf.
  8. Travel to California…
  9. … and all over B.C.
  10. Eat croissants in Paris.
  11. Visit my old stomping grounds in Greece.
  12. Backpack through South America.
  13. Drink tea in London.
  14. Eat pasta in Italy.
  15. Share my story.
  16. Have monthly dinner parties.
  17. Have baby-free brunches with the girls.
  18. Define my style.
  19. Find a lipgloss that’s the right shade and not too sticky.
  20. Get regular manis.
  21. Practice pilates often.
  22. And yoga.
  23. Go on a silent retreat.
  24. Take the kids camping.
  25. Read 1,000 new books.
  26. Live by the ocean.
  27. Know how to pair wines with meals.
  28. Paint paintings.
  29. Make someone a birthday cake.
  30. Scuba dive.
  31. Do a pull-up.
  32. Do 50 push-ups without resting.
  33. Make friends with navasana.
  34. Have a penpal.
  35. Make my own greeting cards.
  36. Have a logo…
  37. … and personal business cards.
  38. Learn Illustrator and Photoshop.
  39. Stay in B&Bs.
  40. Attend a play in Stratford.
  41. Hike up a mountain.
  42. Make something from scratch.
  43. Take my kids to a farm.
  44. Buy less, spend more.
  45. Buy someone a coffee every week.
  46. Learn to change a tire.
  47. Make photo books.
  48. Drink a green juice every day for a month.
  49. Run a race.
  50. Wear something colourful everyday.
  51. Wear short-shorts.
  52. Take a road trip.
  53. Have a garden. Grow my own veggies.
  54. Host a big family holiday meal.
  55. Make my own jam.
  56. Play piano with my babies.
  57. Cook every recipe from a cookbook.
  58. Take a train ride across Canada…
  59. … and across Europe.
  60. Have a massage a month for an entire year.
  61. Get a body scrub.
  62. Own a stock portfolio and understanding it.
  63. Ride my bike 50km.
  64. Have picnics with my babies.
  65. Display all of my tea cups.
  66. Collect random bowls and plates.
  67. Make a gallery of family photos.
  68. Take the hubz to Pebble Beach.
  69. Make my own natural perfume.
  70. Sleep through the night (again).
  71. Read 10 biographies.
  72. Learn to use a DSLR.
  73. Develop a product.
  74. Volunteer at a retirement home.
  75. Volunteer at a hospice.
  76. Sit in those green seats behind the plate at a Blue Jays game.
  77. Spend an entire day in bed watching movies with the fam.
  78. Start a birthday tradition for my babies.
  79. Go back to school for something fun.
  80. Teach another yoga class.
  81. Have my own business.
  82. Take the kids on a trip around the world.
  83. See the Scarborough Bluffs.
  84. Go to Cherry Beach.
  85. Touch up the star tattoo on my foot.
  86. Buy each of my parents a house.
  87. Learn to curl my hair with a flat iron.
  88. Spend a birthday at the beach.
  89. Sew a quilt.
  90. Go ice skating…
  91. … and snowboarding.
  92. Document my family history.
  93. Write a thank you letter each day for a whole year.
  94. Attend a TRX class.
  95. Play in a sandbox with my grandbabies.
  96. Have a chalkboard wall at home.
  97. Own a ridiculously expensive pair of shoes… or a purse… or both.
  98. Institute wine and cheese Wednesdays.
  99. Do a yoga handstand.
  100. Tell someone I love them every single day.

What’s on your life list?
mxo

joy…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

I’m up a bit earlier than I’d like but Ryan rules these days. Doc says little ones often peak in their fussiness around six weeks, as their tiny digestive systems mature, and judging by all of the squirming and tooting, this is definitely the case with Ryan. He sounds like a horse having a bad dream or an old fashioned machine that needs oiling.

So I’m sitting in my in-laws beautiful family room wrapped up in blankets with my favourite creature in my arms. I’m not sure life gets any better than this.

This is joy, pure joy.

It’s different than happiness. Happiness would be sleeping in, waking up late to go to brunch or yoga, lazing around aimlessly – in essence, my old life. I had to go hunting for joyous moments (see project joy). Now, despite the exhaustion and occasional weepiness, it overwhelms me.

I can only hope that my life is filled with more of these moments. I hope yours is too.

Hugs.
mxo

P.S. For a truly inspirational read, check out my friends Mark and Lynne at http://www.tenpercent.ca and http://www.lynnenewman.com

Joyous Quote
Joyous Quote

eight TLCs…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

There’s a 13-foot hole where my front lawn used to be and five guys with big machines tending to it. Junior’s due date is in a week. Yesterday, I stressed. Today, I’m moving on. 🙂

A beautiful friend of mine recently shared this video which is now going viral:

I like a lot of what Logan has to say, especially the attention he brings to Roger Walsh’s eight therapeutical lifestyle changes (or “TLCs”).

tlcsThat’s my equation for a happy, healthy life… what do you think? 🙂

Happy Tuesday!

mxo

2013…

~ Maya C ~ 2 Comments

It’s the last day of 2013. For this gal, it feels like the last day of a much longer chapter. Today feels rather monumental.

At some point in the next month, I’ll become a mom. Just a few days ago, I said a temporary, year-long goodbye to the job I’ve held and molded for 10 years. And this is the last new years I’ll ring in as a twenty-something-year-old. See? Monumental.

As I look back on the last decade, I do so with awe. Life gave me so much more than I could have dreamed of. I married my best friend. We bought a house and adopted a crazy cat. I finished my degree and then my yoga teacher cert. We travelled the world and found our home away from home (Nica). I met new friends and held on to old friends – the very best kind (core!). It was a decade filled with adventure.

decade

My goals for 2014 and the next decade of my life (my thirties… woot!):

to be much more open to all of the amazing things life has to offer…

to live my days more deliberately, taking advantage of the breaths I’m afforded…

and to savour each and every croissant.

Wishing you and yours the most magical of years!
mxo