5 ways to nurture your friendships

As I get older, I come to understand the value of my friendships more and more deeply – and I have been blessed abundantly when it comes to this area of my life. I have gathered quite a collection of my absolute favourite people all over the world, in all the cities I’ve lived in.

It also occurred to me that perhaps not all of my friends know how I feel about them, or how much they have impacted my life. And it’s important to me, that they do know.

Today I’d like to share with you a few different ways you can bring more love and intention into your friendships, nurture them, and watch them grow!

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Daughters of the woods

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I’m finding it difficult to write these days. This month of June is a heavy one for me, because it is the month that would have been my daughter Mia’s due date, on the 22nd. My sadness disguises itself as many different things, and my grief twists its way around everything I touch. I sit down every morning to write to you, but no words come.

So instead, please join me as I revisit memories of a warm, cloudy afternoon in May.

Three sisters and our dog, playing by the small trickling stream, stepping on slippery rocks, wetting our feet in the cold water.

Holding hands and running through the hills made of long, long grass.

And walking bravely at the edge of it all – where the blue mountains meet the sky.

“Nature is a woman’s best friend. If you are having troubles, just swim in the water, stretch out in a field, or look up at the stars. That’s how a woman cures her fears.”

Fatema Merniss

We are daughters of the woods.

We are daughters of the earth. 

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Devaki & Me

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Readers who have been following along with this blog since the beginning of time, just kidding – the beginning of this blog, will know about one of the main characters in the story of my life. And her name is Devaki (pronounced they-va-ki)

She is the daughter of my mother’s best friend. And her parents are like second parents to me. They have known me since I was 9 years old, and I have known Deki (pronounced they-ki) since she was born.

Living in Kamloops together, just a 7 minute drive from each other, I watched her grow up and she watched me. She was the sweetest little girl; imaginative, considerate, thoughtful and soft-spoken. A few years later we welcomed her little brother Ishaan into the world. He was the first baby that has fallen asleep in my arms and that is one of the loveliest things that has happened to me.

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An evening walk through the Ballinasloe Horse Fair

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Let me tell you about Ballinasloe, the little grey-skied town that has been my home for the last 10 months, and will be for just another two.

It is a town where old man who owns the small shop, knows everyones names and will come out of his store to personally let you know that you have missed your bus. It is also a town where the bus is always and consistently 25 minutes, except for that one time of course. It is a town where the streets are practically empty after 7pm. Life for me orbits around the hospital and the small group of final-year-almost-doctors that like me, chose to do their 1 year placement here.

For 51 of the 52 weeks in a year, it is hushed, muted toned, peaceful town.

But then there is one week where this little town is transformed into a place I can’t even recognize! The Annual Ballinasloe Horse Fair. Yes, this quaint Irish town is home to Europe’s oldest Horse festival.

I have never been a horse festival before, so this was a special experience I wanted to share with you!

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