Living Life Under 5 Foot

A year ago I received a letter. This letter was powerful, friendly, kind, loving, and overall wonderful. This was a letter to celebrate a wonderful person. Now it's my turn to return the favour. My longest adult friend, It's time you know the value of you. It seems like just yesterday you called me after you heard about Teina’s death.   And it wasn’t long ago we sat in my car on your birthday and you sat there as I cried, and was angry, we talked about life, love, religion, me hating boys, and more so we talked about Teina. It wasn’t long after that after losing my grandpa I looked up during my speech to see you there, supporting my painful year yet  again. I don’t think you quite understand the rock you have been to me not only this past year, but basically all my milestones. You’ve been the official Shay cheerleader for so long it’s time I cheer you on for a bit. It amazes me to see how caring and selfless you’ve become. How you’ve managed to keep your fun, an...

Not many of us remember back in the 1950's when there was a separate entrance to buildings for boys and girls, coloured people and white people. Not many of us can remember sending loved ones off to war (praying for their return) in order for us to fight for equality. Even less of us were around when we, the women, were able to vote, work, earn a paycheck, own a house and so on and so forth. Usually I tend to keep my mouth, and fingers shut about political issues, because there's nothing I can say to change your mind, especially if you are one of the many in this province sending death threats to our Premier. But let me see if you can see something a little bit different. Man, this province is mad at Rachel Notley, and I can totally see why. She's making changes in a very liberal way. Alberta has been conservative for all the years I can remember, and finally a different government has been elected, by majority, to be in charge of Alberta. Here's what I see. She t...

Well, I haven't updated this lately.. well because I've started a few other blogs. One would be for my speaking career. You can find this at www.shaymotivation.com The other is for my new career, you can find it here at www.SymbolSyn.com Both of these are exciting adventures for me, and I would love for anyone following, to check out these, and see what I can do to help you. Feel free to continue to email me with any questions or concerns regarding life, and I will try my best to research and answer in a timely manner. Thanks for all the love, this is an exciting adventure for me! Loves, Shay!

Today is one of those days.  One of those days when my mind returns to previous years.  It turns to a laughter thats so contagious you soon would be laughing tears.  My mind turns to memories of growing up. Of spending as much time in the sun as possible.  It turns to old days when you weren't so far away.  I smile when I think of the time you made fun of me losing my voice.  The popsicles we would sneak before, during, and after hours. When they say "everything happens for a reason." I always pray that they are right. Because right now, this doesn't feel like a reason, more over it feels like torture.  When people tell me I will see you again, it hurts me to my very core. Because sometimes when I close my eyes, you are not gone from this life. Sometimes my best friend is right beside me.  But today, I'm reminded, you are not.  And I can't help but feel the sting of the hole you left in my life. So e...

I can recall all the times I've cried. I know that sounds silly, but hey, I'm a little odd. I can remember crying when I was a child over my cousin biting my teddy bears head off. I cried when I moved to Canada. I cried when I got attacked by a hornets nest. I cried when my cousin scared me so bad I fell out of my house. I cried the day I understood what it meant to be alone. And I cried when I lost you. I've cried in joy, in happiness, in fear,  sadness, and I've cried in grief. Some cultures think it's healthy to cry, to let out those emotions that are on the inside, yet our culture tends to frown upon tears as to some it seems like a showing of weakness. Me? I tried to not cry in public because crying hurts my eyes, it hurts my brain, and it thoroughly hurts my pride. To admit I'm feeling a pain I cannot express is a difficult thing to measure up to. Yet sometimes without warning things that have been suppressed emerge through my eyes. But l...

Saying goodbye to consistency. That's how I felt when a new driver took my 1994 Toyota Camry. For those of you who have ever sat or had the privilege of driving in my car would attest that this wouldn't be something to even feel remotely sad about. Since she (my car we will call her Rikka) sounded like a dump truck, only unlocked from the passenger door, rattled whenever we sped up, radio didn't work because the antenna was snipped.. and many more funny quirks, it still was a little bitter sweet, and here's why. I bought my car when I was 17 for only $1,500, she then moved me to Utah with my whole life in her, drove me to school, work, shopping, and back to Canada when my friends were killed, I sat in her when I cried, she listened to me belt out my favourite songs (which isn't pretty because I'm a terrible singer). Anytime I've prepped for a speech, she gets to be the thing to hear it over and over again. She then moved me back to Canada to experience m...

I wouldn't classify myself as an overly emotional human. Some might even say unemotional. But Me? I say that's not true. I tend to show happiness and anger (very well) on a consistent basis. Well, this girl went to a children's movie called Inside Out (Warning there are spoilers throughout) Anyways, there I was sitting with my pop and popcorn and was expecting to be entertained. Instead I had my heart pulled out of my chest and placed nicely in my hands, making me feel as if this movie was about my life, and that I needed to examine it.  Needless to say this unemotional girl held back tears in a pixar movie. This is why. Grief. It's a hard emotion to wrap around. This film is about a girl who at the age of 12 gets uprooted from her life, moves across the country, losing relationships with all old friends, and barely being able to see her father. Basically all sense of stability is stolen from her. How the film continues is through the 'lives' of t...