perspective

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.

 

#ordinarylife

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Instagram and I have a love/ hate relationship.

I like sharing tidbits of my life here and there, and seeing what others up to.

Once in awhile, a picture will tweak something in me that I’m not proud of. Sometimes the perfectly sculpted bodies in perfectly arranged yoga poses, or the perfectly nutritious food perfect families are enjoying, inspire a full-on meltdown (last Sunday).

Here’s the crux of the matter:

instaperfect

Our lives are mostly ordinary but we tend to only document the extraordinary, best-possible, once-in-a-blue-moon tidbits. Read this article: instagram’s envy effect

I think the world needs to see more of these magical moments. The problem is, they make all of the other moments seem less magical and in not documenting them, we can forget what’s normal, perfectly a-ok and just #ordinarylife.

My life is both this:

insta1

And more often this:

insta2

I’m going to try to be a little bit more #ordinarylife in my ‘gramming. @mayacollum

Happy BEAUTIFUL Sunday!
mxo

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

evidence…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

The left shoulder of every shirt I own is perpetually covered in puke.

My belly is a collage of stretch marks and my belly button, once a cute outie during pregnancy, is now a cavernous hole.

My thighs are sturdier and my hips wider.

I’m still wearing my maternity jeans.

But as I look in the mirror, I see my most beautiful self. My body is now evidence of my greatest accomplishment: my beautiful baby boy.

mxo

merde happens…

~ Maya C ~ 1 Comment

We have a bit of a plumbing situation nightmare on our hands. It’s going to involve some serious plumberdrilling outside and possibly a full tear-down of our downstairs bathroom.  With the polar vortex and Junior’s due date fast approaching, it’s not the best timing.

Former Maya would have been freaking out about this. Freaking right out. But that’s not my style anymore.

Instead, I’m choosing a different approach.

As I see it, when life inevitable throws you a merde sandwich, you’re much better off with this strategy:

  1. Assume the best.  Don’t bleed until you’re shot. And stop worrying in excess.
  2. Perspective. Remember that whatever it is you’re going through, however truly terrible the situation, you can probably spin a globe and randomly point to 100 countries where someone is going through something much worse, like apartheid (my friend wrote this amazing piece).
  3. Believe in happy endings. They happen. Here’s proof and more proof.
Jelly sandwich looks much better than a sh*t sandwich...
Jelly sandwich looks much better than a sh*t sandwich…

Stay warm out there!

mxo

lenses…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

When student season ends at U of T, tourist season begins. They come by the coachbus-full, all keen with their shiny cameras and perky smiles, snapping pics of the buildings I walk by every single day. To them it’s new, it’s exciting; to me, it’s same old, same old. Same buildings, different lens.

Seeing these tourists today got me thinking – how much am I taking for granted? How much am I not paying attention to?

Take this, for example:

image

It’s possible that I have walked by this thing at least once a week for the last… umm… 10 years. It’s also possible it’s brand new. Hard to say and that’s kind of scary. 

Nothing is ever the same from moment to moment. And I’d venture to say that there are no ordinary moments… we just have to pay attention…

But enough of that. Today I wandered over to Manic Coffee upon recommendation from a good friend. It blew my mind. We are spoiled in Toronto. The coffee is to die for.

image

And now back to my ‘oregano oil comfy pant Game of Thrones’ party… yes, I’m sick. Bah humbug.

mxo

P.S. But not really bah humbug… happy weekend! 🙂

dreary march days…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Today I feel like the weather.

Dreary.

I could barely drag my butt out of bed. I was a grumpy pants all the way into work. My usually-delicious coffee tastes funny. 

Not quite ready to work yet, I read my horoscope, which I almost never do. The very first line reads:

“Look at the big picture.” Pow, zap, zoom batman!

Exactly. This day is my attestation that everyone has bad days, even super duper happy people. They are normal. 100%

The fastest way to deal with them: perspective. 

And if that doesn’t work, please remember: this day will pass. This too shall pass. Spring is just around the corner!

mxo