Category: Life Journey

July 22, 2017

I dreamt I was having a deep conversation with my 100-year-old self.
I asked the 100-year-old version of me, “When you look back on your life, what would you have done differently?”
Heres what she said;
I wish I had ;
….been more courageous with my love.
….listened more thoughtfully.
….done more to protect the planet.
….worked less and played more.
….been a better friend.
….shown more gratitude.
….made a difference in the lives of others
….spent more time with my children.
….traveled to more interesting places.
….met my soul-mate
… told “YOU” more often that I loved you.

Then, in my dream, I leaned in, looked into her beautiful, tired, longing blue eyes and whispered…
“YOU still can.”

TO’K🌹❤️

 

Toni O’Keeffe, The Whimsey Angel

Aug. 5, 2017

Sometimes you just have to stop and listen.

Toni O’Keeffe, The Whimsey Angel

July 1, 2017

What is a Canadian?
Well, I suppose the view from the rest of the world is that we’re a bunch of maple syrup and bacon eating, plaid wearing, beer drinking, loggers, toting hockey bags out of our igloos and into our canoes to get to the Timmy’s “row-through” before early morning hockey practice. They (the rest of the world) see us as a friendly lot that play our fiddles and Bar-B-Q bacon and cheddar moose burgers on the weekends, (how we do this from our backyards without melting our Igloos remains a secret that we will continue to keep from the rest of the world)
But, who are we really?
We are a beautiful blend of many races and religions from around the globe.
This colourful mix of ethnic and lifestyle diversity has inspired tolerance, kindness, understanding and compassion (yes we still have some work to do). This makes us a people that open our doors to the worlds wounded, downtrodden and outcast.

We are curious explorers that have been drawn to the pristine lakes, majestic mountains, serene forests, rolling prairie and spectacular coast lines that we call home. This appreciation of the natural world has made us leaders in environmental stewardship and guardians of the wildlife that share this land.

Having access to universal health care, social infrastructure, education, clean water, strong human rights policy and basic equality (things that over 70% of the worlds population still live without) make us among the most fortunate people on the planet.

In addition to Poutine, Nanaimo bars and butter tarts, we have introduced the world too; the telephone, Insulin, AM radio, Sonar, hockey, the Cardiac Pacemaker, the alkaline battery, computerized braille, William Shatner, Michael Bubble, snowblowers(makes sense) and fog horns, OK and Justine Bieber.
We are not just that little country north of the US, we are the second largest country in the world, with one of the strongest economies. We consistently rank among the best places in the world to live, work and play.
So as you celebrate the 150 years that this country has stood proud, give thanks to those pioneers, your ancestors and mine that evolved Canada into a place where we could live strong and free.
Finally, you’re nice, I’m nice, your neighbours are nice and I’m sorry if anything in this post offends you😬
Sorry for saying sorry.
Happy Canada Day eh’🇨🇦

~TOK🌹❤️

 

Toni O’Keeffe, The Whimsey Angel

June 9, 2017

You and I sleep under the same indigo sky and walk in the same shimmering moonlight.
We dream and wish upon the same stars, feel the same wind blow through our hair and sigh at the same warm sand as it caresses our toes.
The waves that hit the shores have echoed in your ears and mine.
We inhale the same air that gives us life and wash away our days with rain that has sprung from the same clouds.
You, I and our planet are beautifully interconnected ~ we’re kind of in this together you and I, and, thats sort of a big deal.
TO’K 🌹❤️

Toni O’Keeffe ~ The Whimsey Angel

May 24, 2017

It’s okay if you don’t like me,
I’m gonna love you anyway.
Life is supposed to be filled with contrast to help us experience life fully.
You know how it goes;
– We need to experience pain to understand and appreciate pleasure.
– We need to experience sorrow so we can fully appreciate joy.
– We need the bad to understand and appreciate the good.
– Without the darkness we would not understand and recognize the light, blah, blah, blah.
– There had to be Trump so we could appreciate, well, every other politician in this part of the world.
We need to have people come into our lives that dislike us, challenge us, see the world through different eyes and have different tastes and opinions. These people are important because they make us think and motivate us to stay on our path or sometimes change our path. Without them, we could not fully appreciate the people that do “get us”, are like minded and bring us joy.

So, it’s OK if you don’t like me, I’ll love you anyway because I’m grateful for the experience, the lessons and the diversity you bring into my life.
Without you, I wouldn’t fully appreciate me.
TO’K 🌹❤️

Toni O’Keeffe ~ The Whimsey Angel

 

May 9, 2017

There’s a voice that has become an echo in my life, always whispering and encouraging my soul to wander, urging me to move from place-to-place, writing new chapters, seeking new adventures, new learning, new sounds, sights and people.
My soul was not meant to live in one place or with one person. I was meant to roam.
One does not wander for all these years without the experience of heartache. My gypsy heart has been caressed, bent, broken and healed countless times. Its thick scars of resilience leaving me filled with gratitude and admiration for those that have loved me, let me go and now forever remain apart my story.
I hear the whisper calling again, signalling another chapter about to unfold.
Hmmm, where and to whom will it takes me?
TO’K🌹❤️

Toni O’KEEFFE ~ The Whimsey Angel

April 29, 2017

We’re here to dance;
Our entire lives we’re programmed to believe that we are “heading somewhere” – that there is a finite destination our life path is leading to, a final station where we disembark. Well, there is, and it’s called death. But, before we get to that place, we have to explore, discover, play, stumble, love, hurt, heal and grow. We have to both bask in sunlight and walk through the storms that bring our lives to life.

We have to participate in a delicate dance between moments of happiness and joy and moments of grief and sorrow. This dance is your life and, “Your life” is the destination. Every min, every hour, every day, is a new station.

Think about the most pleasurable aspects of life, e,g;
– Experiencing the warmth of human touch
– The calm that comes when we sit next to the ocean and listen to the rhythm of the waves hit the shore.
– Listening to your favourite song and feeling your entire energy vibration rise.
– Inhaling the scents of lavender or eucalyptus as you melt into a hot bath.
– Eating ice cream and experiencing the taste and texture on your lips and tongue.
– Feeling free on the dance floor as you spin about.
– The emotions of being in love that inspire us to be our best selves.
It’s not the anticipation of the ending of these experiences that makes them magical, it’s each touch, each step, each taste, every smell, every musical note and each crashing wave that bring us joy, it’s the moment itself that brings your life “to life”.

Even the horrible things we have to overcome bring growth into our lives. The loss of a spouse or a child. The loss of a home or a job, battling an addiction, enduring intense physical pain. Surviving these experiences make us stronger, give us hope for a brighter tomorrow and make us grateful for the things that are right in our lives. And yes, we do anticipate the end of this type of pain. However you may have heard people say, “I’m different because this happened.” Or “I’m now more grateful for everything in my life because this happened.” Or “That was painful but I grew so much because of it.”

When my children were little I waited for them to talk, then waited for them to walk, waited for them to be out of diapers, waited till they were in school and then high school, waited for them to get jobs, to become successful. I missed so much by anticipating the end of one phase and the beginning of the next, always feeling like we were supposed to be heading towards somewhere, when really the “somewhere” was that moment.

If I could turn back the hands of time, I would marvel at every moment with my boys, I’d listen to their giggles, I’d answer every one of their silly beautiful questions like;
“Mommy can you make chocolate cookies from dirt”
“Mommy are Chinese people only allowed to eat Chinese food?” And, Mommy if I eat Chinese food will I be Chinese?”
“Mommy if I pee in the garden will peas grow there?”
“Mommy can we have our bath in the washing machine?”
“Mommy can we put makeup on He-man”
“Mommy can you dance like big bird?”
If I could turn back the hands of time, I’d stop whatever I was doing and answer all of their questions and yes, I’d be late for my chamber meeting so I could dance like big bird and put makeup on He-man. It went by so fast, “It” was their life and “it” was the purpose of my life.

So embrace and be grateful for all that is wonderful and good in your life. And, give thanks for the lessons that come through grief, heartache and regret. That place you think your heading towards, that final station, don’t worry you’ll get to there soon enough.
This gift of life is not about an end point or a destination. It’s about every moment of every day, that’s the gift – Life IS the purpose of our lives. So, let’s enjoy the dance.

TO’K 🌹❤️

 

Toni O’Keeffe ~ The Whimsey Angel

April 25, 2017

I’m sitting with my puppy in my lap, retired (for now😊) sipping on an amazing cup of coffee -reflecting on the past couple of weeks and how grateful I am.

Life is a gift. It is simple and beautiful. When we are grateful for each moment, each day, every soul (human and animal) that touches our life and grateful for everything that happens along the way, life just gets better and better.

Even the moments that are filled with grief, heartache, longing, sorrow and pain are gifts of learning. These moments “are” our lives and are shared with a cast of awesome characters made up of old souls that teach and guide us, young souls that challenge and resist us, lost souls that are seeking to find their own truth and cling to us for a period of time.

The beautiful thing about being human is that we can choose to love and be grateful for all these interesting teachers for the learning and adventure they bring into our life. Each soul we meet helps us write our story, and that’s something to be grateful for.

Even better is that together we are writing a collective story. Some people say we are born alone and we die alone, I don’t believe we do. Everything that has happened to me from the moment of my birth to the day I die will effect the rest of my soul group and I will effect them. We are not alone, we are on this great big cosmic camp-out with 7.5 billion other people and, our lives are interconnected whether we like it or not. This fact really hit me this past weekend as I celebrated my 40th high school reunion. The shared history and cultural experience with this group of beautiful people has created a bond that will last for the rest of my life. And, I’m grateful for that and all of them.

Once we understand that every moment is an opportunity to shape our life story and the life stories of others maybe we will all walk a little more gently on the world and be a little more compassionate and loving to every soul we meet along the way. Your ripple is greater than you think.

Yup, we’re on this wild ride together. We all come from the same place and will return to the same place. Religion, Race, sexual orientation, political stripes, social class, those that like Starbucks vs those that like “Timmys”, has created the illusion that we are separate from one another but “we are all one big tribe baby”, so we may as well get along.
🌹❤️~TO’K

 

Toni O’Keeffe, The Whimsey Angel

April 17, 2017

I had to let go of what I thought my life should be and embrace the life I got.
When I finally surrendered to the universe and let it take me where I NEEDED to go, my life became a more peaceful and beautiful place.
And I’m soooooooooooo grateful. For all of it.
Even the hard parts.

Keep your heart open to receiving things you never imagined were meant for you and you might be surprised at what (or who) shows up.
Wishing you a beautiful, peaceful week ahead.
TO’K~🌹❤️

April 5, 2017

As I head into retirement and write the final page of this chapter of my life, I’m filled with excitement and optimism.
I welcome the clean, smooth uncluttered pages of the next stage of my journey and look forward to colouring the pages with bright bold colours I’ve never seen before.

When I look back on the next fifty years I hope those clean, smooth pages have been well written, messed up and are full of side-notes, doodles, coffee rings and wine stains, photographs of interesting places and people, concert ticket stubs, old airline boarding passes and little hearts with my initials next to someone else’s, all representing a life well lived and a life well loved.

For most of us, I think the first half of our life is about learning. Learning how to survive, learning how to love, learning about loss, gratitude, pain, grief, acceptance, success, disappointment, tolerance, indifference, worthiness, kindness, compassion and spirituality. To learn these things, we have to fully experience them, we have to be both the cause and feel the affect. The second part of life, for me anyway, will be about living this learning.

As I reflect on the first half of my journey, more than anything I’ve learnt that people matter. Titles, positions, money, popularity, material possessions are not enduring, and while they provide experiences and temporary gratification, they are empty and can not, do not, love us back.

I’ve also learnt that:
– I am the only one responsible for my happiness and my joy. It does not matter how other people have treated me or what they’ve done to me, what matters is how I respond to both the good and the bad.
– I’ve learnt that being grateful for even the hardest lessons brings settlement. We can not let anger, regret, grief, fear, jealousy, obsession or hate be our compass. When we carry these negative emotions we carry them alone, and, they are heavy. Let all that negative energy go.
– I’ve learnt that there are five types of people, that share our journey. Those that come to teach us. Those that come to learn from us. Those that are members of our soul tribe – we help each other interpret lessons and share our journey. Those that are Karma returning- either theirs or ours. And, those that bring us unconditional love. So when people show up in my life I’m always curious and explore why they are here and embrace the gifts of the learning and the emotion they bring with them, even if those gifts are painful.
– I’ve learnt that we need to love ourselves before we can love anyone else. If we don’t, we will “settle” and accept less than we are worthy of receiving. We can not look to our life partners to make us feel whole and happy, that’s an impossible expectation to place on another human being.
– Our connection with the natural world matters. We need to fall in love with the planet. Spending time in nature is essential to our wellbeing as it allows us to reflect, to process our learning and renew. Going into nature allows us to “just be” . So go into the forest and breathe!

What I’m saying with all this rambling is; life “is” the journey, such a cliche I know, but true. How we learn, how we apply our lessons and how we love matters.

So, as I pack my lessons and head into part deux of this amazing mystery ride, I look forward to travelling and meeting interesting people and learning from them. I will be always curious when new people show up in my life, especially people that are different than me and, I will never stop learning. If you think you know it all, then you know nothing.

“Live your best life. Be curious, be grateful, be loving and kind towards ALL living things. That’s all we are really here to do.”
TO’K🌹❤️

Toni O’Keeffe, The Whimsey Angel