Family Day 2015 & A Lil Look Back

For anyone who knows me... this will come with no surprise but has been a pretty great start to 2015 thus far and I continue to be blown away at how fortunate I am.  Family Day may be the greatest new addition to our Holidays here in BC, I think it was a few years ago that it was implemented but love that it is an opportunity for people to stop... reflect... appreciate their family and friends (as we all, so often consider our friends a part of our Family).  Thanksgiving being another one of those days that brings reflection to our lives.  

This year I was away with friends for Family Day weekend and kind of let it slip my mind a bit, as far as my own family.  Luckily I pester my family often daily if not at least weekly with letting them know that I love them, and how much they mean to me.  

Lately I have been sharing with a lot of people something I did a "few" years back.  For Christmas one year I wrote a letter to each person in my family, my Mom, Dad and my 3 older brothers Dorian, Justin & Aiden.  I am beyond lucky to have the best family in the world, so loving, so supportive and well... amazing.  For that Christmas I wanted to put into words how much each of them mean to me and some of those reasons why.  I was worried that saying "I love you" or "Goodnight, love you" every single day, to end every single phone call or before we went to bed each night may be taken as just words we said.  I knew they weren't but I wanted to ensure they all knew.  

Oddly enough in my attempt to organize a few things on my computer and in my emails I came across the letter I had written.  Turns out... it was 13 years ago.  So, with a few photos below, I would like to share this letter, there was a personal paragraph to each of them of what they meant to me and why they meant so much but the part of their letter that was to the whole family will be what I am sharing.   Fun to read again as the emotion & feelings have not changed but I can feel in re-reading this my age at the time, hard to express in writing but makes me smile :) 

Family Hockey Pic back probably from around 1989 or 1990

Dylan, Emmett & I  (Feb 2015)

My Mom, nephew Oli & I (Around April or May 2014)

Christmas 2002

Well, this might seem not like me but it is something that I want to make sure you all know. I know I always say “I love you.” But sometimes I am not sure if it may be taken as just something that is always said, so I am writing this to let you know that it is definitely not just routine. I love you guys so much, much more then words can say but I will do my best. Everyday when I wake up the first thing that I think of is how incredibly lucky I am, how can I not smile when I have a family like you. You are ALWAYS there for me, no matter what. I could phone any of you at any time and I know that whatever I need help with or if I just want to talk you are always there for me. If I am away for hockey, when I get back there are always messages seeing how it was and if I had a good time. After exams or my injuries (lately) you always make sure to ask how I am and that things are going well for me. I think that I used to take for granted just how awesome you guys are. I am so proud to have you all, I mean having the best brothers in the world and the greatest parents in the world. People always comment on the relationship that I have between my family and I guess I haven’t always realized that not all families have what we do, I couldn’t imagine not being able to tell you everything or being afraid of what you’ll think or afraid that you’ll be disappointed, that is never the case you are always there for me. Writing this isn’t the easiest thing either but not everything will be easy and thanks to you if I ever have trouble I know I will have 5 amazing people right there with me helping me. Thankyou! The main reason for writing this is, is because I know that I am not always the most expressive person in general and I may not find it easy to always share my feelings but I want you to know that I love you guys so much and I want to thank you for always being so amazing to me, I know that no matter what you will all play an incredibly huge part in my life as you already have. So for now, Goodnight, love you and sleep safely!

“Harsh words kill, kind words kindle, but a word withheld a dream may dwindle.”

“The best things in life aren’t things.” Art Buchwald.

“To love is to admire with the heart; while to admire is to love with the mind.” Theophile Goutier

“So tell the one you love, just what your thinking of; if tomorrow never comes.”
Garth Brooks

“Talk not of wasted affection, for affection is never wasted.” H.W. Longfellow

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Lao Tzu

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” Robert A. Heinlein

“Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.”

“Never deny what your heart truly feels.” ‘The Mask of Zorro’

“Remember ‘What’s Important’” Pat Norlin

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I share this to remind myself to never take for granted the amazing people in my life and to each and every day or opportunity to tell those people just how much they mean to you and what those little thing are that mean the most.  

Corny

Corny... this word is one that I use to describe myself, my actions and much of what I say.   This weekend I was out for dinner and Canucks game with a very close friend of mine, and old teammate Mo, from back in my UBC days.  We were catching up on life, work and all the funtivities that we've been up to.  I prefaced something, as I always do, with "This might sound corny...", Mo cut me off to say that "corny" is one of the things people love most about me.  We continued on our catch up, enjoyed a great dinner and headed off to the game.

This small statement and comment from Mo has been on my mind now for the past 24 hours and I am certain she has no idea what that meant to me.  All of a sudden, something I constantly say about myself, and to be honest usually with a bit of a negative connotation to it, hence the need to tell people the statement or action is "corny", all of a sudden her acknowledgement of this just gave me a complete 360 on myself.  Being "corny" is absolutely something that I am, and that I am OK with, actually more than OK, I wouldn't want to be any other way.

Google Definition of Corny:

corn-y
adjective
informal
     trite, banal, or mawkishly sentimental

So... this might sound "mawkishly sentimental" but I am proud of the fact that I am caring, that I get excited when I see a stranger hold the door for someone, or that I want to cheer on random strangers I see out running because I am proud of them for being active and healthy, or that I feel incredibly invested in wanting someone to make the bus when they are running to catch it (and often celebrate a lil when they do :).

I want to thank my friend for highlighting this for me, and once again I am shown just how impactful a few words can be if we are open to hearing them, and if we choose to receive and truly embrace a complement that just moments before was potentially suppressed.

Is there something you admire or appreciate in a friend that you may not have shared with them yet?  The first person that comes to mind, stop what you are doing and fire them a text, email or quick message.  So often things cross our minds and yet we don't take the step to tell those we care the most about.  I guarantee you will make someone's day.

We could all use a little more corny in our lives!