Tag: Mr. Michie (page 1 of 20)

Nineteen

I saw an interesting video on “Meet Cutes NYC” earlier this month, “Mailroom Love 💌”, and the filmmaker asked the couple he was talking to, what’s the secret to 50 years together? And the woman’s (Alice) response was that “it’s much harder to like a person than to love a person”. And she LIKES her husband, Geoffrey.

That gave me pause. Love is a word so easily bandied around. And you can love someone to the depths of your soul, but that doesn’t mean you can be with them on a day to day basis. Liking someone is much harder. Continuing to get up every day and not only love but like the person you are with is sometimes a difficult challenge. 

I like the person I am with. I like him in the valleys and I like him on the mountain and I like him as we traverse this space and I like him as we have continued to grow up together. All relationships are not smooth sailing, seasons come and go, storms blow in and out, but we continue to weather them together and I LIKE him and I LOVE him and I couldn’t ask for more than that. 

So, here’s to 19 years of marriage with someone that I truly love and really LIKE and respect and value and who still makes me laugh and is the only person I want to be in the trenches with. 

{“Robert Redford, US actor, and Jane Fonda, US actress, cuddling as they pose for a studio portrait, issued as publicity for the film, ‘Barefoot in the Park’, USA, 1967. The Neil Simon comedy, directed by Gene Saks, starred Redford as ‘ Paul Bratter’, and Fonda as ‘Corie Bratter’. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)” | Pinned HERE}

Eighteen

Eighteen years ago today, you took my hand and placed it in yours and we’ve been holding hands ever since.

Here’s to the next chapter in our adventure.

{Publicity still of Myrna Loy and William Powell for “After the Thin Man”, 1936. Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}

Seventeen

Seventeen years ago, on a balmy Saturday afternoon, I walked down an aisle to join you and we’ve been walking together ever since. Here’s to seventeen more years of being side by side.

{Jane Fonda & Robert Redford in a publicity still for Barefoot in the Park, 1967 // Pinned HERE}

HELLO, March

Hello, March. February brought us the first flush of bulbs pushing up from the earth and bursting into bloom. The world around us has slowly been polka-dotted with the whites and purples of crocuses and the eruption of saffron painted daffodils. We’re ready for you to usher more pops of colour into the landscape. 

We’re ready to spend more days in the sunshine and for dusk to take a dash longer to arrive before the curtains close on the day. We’re ready for more chances to picnic outdoors and for longer evening walks. We’re ready for St. Patrick’s Day, where my Nana’s Irish Soda bread will grace our table.

However, we’re not quite ready for our rhythm to change with the latest government announcement that all children will return to school in one fell swoop on the eighth. Selfishly, I will miss the opportunity that this time has afforded us (Mr Michie and I) to work around one another again. I will dearly miss being able to pop out of one room, while on a break, and see Mr. Michie’s beautiful face working in another. That has been a gift that I have cherished.

We are blessed during this time to still have a roof over our heads, food on our table and jobs when so many others are not in the same circumstances. I think it’s easy to say during this time, that we’re all in the same boat. But, in actuality, we’re not. We’re all in the same fleet, but each of us face different challenges in our own boats. We should strive to be physically, mentally and emotionally aware of that. We are navigating these waters as best we can. 

So, let us continue to live in the moment and not let the small things pass us by. Let’s celebrate the coming of spring and welcome her with open arms. 

{Image by Barbara Dziadosz found HERE // Pinned HERE}

Happy New Year’s Eve

We are ready to ring in the New Year, hoping that it brings better tidings than this last one did. However, there is a silver lining to all things. This past year, Mr. Michie and I have been blessed to spend a lot of quality time with one another and for that I am forever grateful. In all the ups and downs that occurred in 2020, we have, as we always do, faced them together. I am blessed that I have a partner by my side who is truly a ‘partner’ in every sense of the word. We leave this year behind with a renewed sense of gratitude for each other. We will shepherd in that appreciation to the New Year.

I come from a family that makes the best of every situation and tries to find the humour in things. And I know that so many people have joked this year that they are “surviving, one glass of wine at a time” and I do see the funny side to that. But, I don’t want to be just “surviving”, I want to be thriving! And that is what we did in 2020 and that is what we will continue to do in 2021.

Wishing love and light to you all as we close the book on this past year and open a new one tomorrow. 

{Image: Arthur Sarnoff “Happy New Year!”, The Progressive Farmer Magazine Cover 1958 // Pinned HERE}

Life Lately

It’s Friday. The sun is glowing and the air is nippy. The shadows have been changing throughout the house on a daily basis. As I write this now a golden hued beam is dancing across the floor towards my feet. Two week ago at this time, that beam would have been in a different place. It feels like a beautiful autumn day, the kind of day my parents would pack up the car with a picnic and take us up to the mountains to feast and hike.

Christmas music is playing. It’s been playing since November 1st! The house is clean and ready for the weekend to begin. I’m working on a final plan of attack for Thanksgiving, so I can ensure that the bread I’ll use for stuffing and the loaf we’ll use for sandwiches and the pumpkin pie are all baked on time. I’m also working on a final grocery store list for the week ahead to ensure I have all the little odds and ends I need.

Thanksgiving will look very different for many this year. It will be as it has always been for us. It’s just us around our Thanksgiving table. Because of school schedules we have yet to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family overseas. But, one year that just might happen!

This year has found me very quiet in this little place of mine. I have felt at times that I did not have a voice. I’ve still been working on my own writing projects, but this has not been a place that I’ve wanted to come to. I’m not truly sure why? The time I have been spending here has been with the help of Mr. Michie, who has aided me in making changes to the overall visual look of my blog. It’s been awhile since I have written code, so this project was a good refresher! There are still a few things left to tick off the list before I get it close to how I would like it. It is a very different, more streamlined look for me and I have enjoyed that, although it was a hard design decision to come to. I narrowed it down in the end and decided what would work best for me.

Our days are moving one into the next. Life is still happening in the midst of all the chaos. There are lots of games of Scrabble being played and books being read and albums being listened too. There has been a steady rhythm that we have continued to beat out through this storm we are all weathering. And that rhythm will continue to carry us through.

I hope wherever you are today that my ramblings find you safe and well.

{Cranberries, Andrew Wyeth, 1966}

Goodbye, July!

We were up before 5am this morning and slowly got ready. Mr. Michie made a pot of coffee and heated up two pain au chocolat to go, while I worked on packing our bag with towels. We were on the beach before 7am and found a quiet spot to make camp. We ate our breakfast and watched the waves roll in. We toasted the end of the month and the beginning of the weekend.

After breakfast we went for a swim. The water was delicious! It was a perfect morning.

Life is GOOD!

Sixteen

Today we celebrate sixteen years of marriage. How did sixteen years go by so quickly? Mr. Michie is the only person I want to be on this adventure with. Whatever the road ahead holds, we face it together, just as we have always done.

I think that Henry Fonda said it best, as Frank Beardsley in Yours, Mine, and Ours, because in all the monotony at times of day to day life, there is still magic to be found with the person you love by your side, it’s there in the little things:

Until you’re ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won’t keep it turning. Life isn’t a love in, it’s the dishes and the orthodontist and the shoe repairman and… ground round instead of roast beef. And I’ll tell you something else: it isn’t going to a bed with a man that proves you’re in love with him; it’s getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful everyday world with him that counts.

{Image // Dean Martin with his wife, Jeanne, at home, 1958. Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images HERE}

Fifteen

“ Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In the Art of Marriage, the little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say ‘I love you’ at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon; it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have the wings of an angel. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding rooms for things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner. It is discovering what marriage can be, at its best.”

The Art of Marriage by Wilferd A. Peterson

Today, I celebrate fifteen years of marriage with Mr. Michie. I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side on this journey, but him. Here’s to another fifteen!

{Image: Bogart & Bacall // Pinned HERE}

The Last Day of the Year

Quietly and gently, we entered into the last day of the year. Our morning pace had a nice rhythm. We split up to do our run, but ended up crossing paths, so I got a kiss halfway through my 5K. Always a bonus!

I ran past a favourite farm and my little herd of cows were outside eating their breakfast. I shouted my hellos and carried on down the road into the village. I took a brief break outside the church yard before turning around and running back up the hill, I had just so gloriously and speedily run down. Going back up was hard work. But, I did it!

Then I met Mr. Michie at our favourite coffee shop for breakfast. As I was reflecting on my run with him, I caught myself and started to laugh-out-loud. Sitting across from him, I was niggling myself over my running time. I managed to shave a decent bit off my 5k, but it still wasn’t as good as it had been a few months ago, before a minor knee injury.

As I laughed, I reminded myself that I was out there. Running! That’s the point!

Before I started this journey almost three years ago, I wasn’t much of a runner and the last thing I would have wanted to do was run 5K, let alone worry about the time it takes me to do it.

So, as this year comes to a close and I reflect on where I am, I’m happy. There are things I wanted to happen this past year that haven’t yet come to fruition. We’ve hit a lot of unexpected bumps in the road, but that’s life; we roll with the punches and keep on going.

But through all of it, running has been a constant.

I never thought that I would be a girl who got such a thrill out of running. I’ve always been a walker, but running – no thank-you! However, I have come to love it. It’s not just the physical side of it either (although that has been very rewarding), it’s the spiritual side too. Running in the open and being able to see nature around me is meditative. It restores the soul.

So as we enter this new year, I’m going to keep on running. Running through the woods, running down the lanes and past the fields, running toward my goals and running toward our dreams.