Finding Joy in the Journey

People ask me all the time "What's it like to live in Canada?" As if Canada is some faraway mythical place like Middle Earth or Neverland.

I'll get to that question in a later post.

If you ask me "What's life been like the past year?"

I'd reply, "Have you seen Inside Out?"

Inside Out tells the story about a girl named Riley, whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco.

The characters in Riley’s head - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust - make up her ‘control’ center.  The deeper Riley’s family gets into their new life in San Francisco, the more ‘sadness’ overtakes core memories.

Joy and Sadness end up on an adventure to get back to Riley's 'control center' after being swept away.

I left the theatre thinking, “Finally someone gets it. Someone understands what it's like to move across the country, into a new country." 

That’s why I wanted to write this. Because someone else, going through a similar transition, needs to know they’re not alone.

The past year has been filled with moments of intense emotions.  Some of those include:

Sadness:

• My grandma dying
• Being diagnosed with two chronic illnesses
• Grieving friendships that simply ran their course
• Not knowing how to answer the question “Where are you from?”
• Only seeing my family four times a year.
• Not being at family birthdays, parties, holidays.

There's also been moments of joy (both big and small) 

Joy:

• The first time I went to Costco without plugging it in my GPS.
• The first time someone asked me for directions on the Skytrain. (Did I finally look like I belong?)
• Making new friends
• Face-timing with my niece and seeing her smile and wave at me.
• Falling more in love with my husband after overcoming the challenges that come from moving three times in two years.

Back to Inside Out …As the movie progresses we (and Riley’s control center/emotions) learn that joy and sadness are not mutually exclusive. 

We need sadness. Just like we need joy.

That’s when I started thinking how have my “sad” memories become “joy” memories.

I used this phrase: Because (sadness), I have (joy)

Because my grandma passed away, I am reminded of the importance of spending time with my family especially my grandma who’s still living.

Because I don’t get to be at every family gathering, it makes the time I do get to spend with my family and friends even more special.

Because I suffer from Hashimoto’s disease and PCOS, taking care of my body by eating healthy, exercising and keeping my stress level low is more important than ever.

I just finished reading, “Choose Joy”  by Kay Warren. In it she describes joy as:

True JOY can only come from Jesus.

• Not from my job
• Not  from  my husband,
• Not from my family
• Not from my friends.
• Not from movies
• Not from a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core.

Just Jesus.

Last year I wrote a blog post about 25 things I learned before I turned 25.

“The grass is greener on the other side because it's fertilized with bull sh--” is still one of my favorite quotes.

Recently I saw another quote on Facebook.

"The grass is greener on the side where you water it."

There’s so much about life we can’t control….let’s focus on what we can, better yet let’s keep our focus on WHO is in control.  

Bloom where you’re planted friends!