Magic

So you know the magic words,
Please and Thank you.
I have always wondered at the incredible meaning behind thank you.
It covers from Letting someone go ahead of you to a hug on a rotten day
Thank you I'd like to say.

Birthdays

I have always wondered why they were soooooo important.

Finding Christmas

I think it is interesting after finding that "Christmas is over," and talking to people Christmas Day how many people were unable to find Christmas this year.
It make me wonder how Christmas eludes them.
Then there are people, "expert gift givers and receivers," who seem to have no trouble.
They realize that the timing of December 25th has nothing to do with Christmas, the location does not have to by an open fire, and the activity of choice not roasting chestnuts.
They realize what the muppets taught us long ago.
"It is…the season of the heart, A special time of caring, The ways of love made clear. It is…the season of the spirit, The message if we hear it, Is make it last all year.
Because wherever you find love it feels like Christmas."
I hope that along with the resolve to "make Christmas better next year," is the resolve to learn today how to keep it with you all year long.
That way, come December, the Master Giver of Gifts is not someone that we "set out toward Bethlehem" to find, (That is why Christmas eludes them. He is not there)but instead, is someone with whom we have spent Christmas all year long.
Christmas will simply become a natural extension of who we have become, and you will not feel like "Christmas is only special after Thanksgiving."
The reason that it is special at all is because there are those who observe it all year long. There are those who "with the Holy Spirit as their guide" give gifts to many throughout the year out of love and compassion.
There are those who emulate the Savior and "go about doing good" as He did His whole life.
I submit that if you and I want to become more like the Savior that we need more practice at being "expert gift givers and receivers" all throughout the year.
Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

For unto you is born this day in the city if David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.

geeky

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Seriously?

So just about anybody who knows me will tel you that I don't take myself seriously.
I like being lighthearted
I think that too many people walk around with heavy hearts
They think, "I am not angry, bitter, pessimistic, etc. I am just being realistic."
Time for a reality check then
Lighthearted people are realistic, they just choose to not put heavy things in their heart.
I used to put them on my shoulders or in my "backpack" and then I realized that that was no place for them either. Life is too hard to pack heavy things.
That is partly what Christmas is about.
Letting go of heavy, hard, needless things, and helping others to do the same.
Scrooges crime was not that he carried bricks around in his backpack
It was that he loaded bricks into others.
Elder Holland says, "When a battered, weary swimmer tries valiantly to get back to shore, after having fought strong winds and rough waves which he should never have challenged in the first place, those of us who might have had better judgment, or perhaps just better luck, ought not to row out to his side, beat him with our oars, and shove his head back underwater. That's not what boats were made for. But some of us do that to each other."
I am not saying that is what all grumpy people do, but I is easier to do on days when we choose to not be lighthearted
I hope that in emptying out our heavy things we find that our heart now has room for Christ this season.
Merry Christmas!

One week and counting

So I love Christmas!
It is a great time of year
Something that president Uchtdorf said is still bothering me though.
"Looking back, I think my fear that I had ruined Christmas came from an incomplete understanding of what Christmas really is. And I’ve noticed that it’s not only four-year-olds who have this misunderstanding."
What is Christmas really then?
It is in smiling, being grateful, focusing on family, serving, giving, happiness...
I think it is a good sized list.
I also think that with such a good sized list it would be easier to implement all year long and not only at Christmas time.
I wish you all a merry Christmas as you find what Christmas means to you.

Car crashes

So I had a busy day and got everything done and after a party I am driving home and nearly died.
Death is interesting
We spend our whole lives trying not to die
I wonder why?
Death is really pretty wonderful, I think
It was unnerving for a little bit, but then I realized that I was going to die.
I relaxed and contemplated life and some other really stupid questions I have always had
Then I ended up not dying
But I am happy to now have new things to think about.
I am going to stop doing things to not die and start doing everything in order to live.
It is going to get interesting

Christmas Tree Joy

I have always loved laying under the tree and...you name it.
I think that most activities are naturally enhanced while doing them under a Christmas tree.
So, while I don't exactly fit under the Christmas tree anymore I still find myself underneath it as much as possible as often as possible doing whatever I love to do, because it simply makes it that much better.
Little me was obviously a genius and I am glad to have learned over Christmas' past that I need to take more lessons from little me.
Merry Christmas!

Smells

They are so wonderful
They inspire me

I am soooooo tired

Not in that way but I just realized today something about yesterday.
I was shopping all afternoon yesterday and even though it wasn't actual shopping I had lots of fun talked to a couple of people and saw a couple of others that I knew. It was a great Saturday!
Then I got in my car to go home and a very strange tiredness washed over me.
I got to thinking and could not think why I'd be tired all the sudden.
Then I thought of someone. Then I thought a weird thought, "You should let that person know how much you appreciate their modesty."
I did as much then drove home.
Then today at church we were talking about indulgences and judgement and thoughts, words and actions and I realized why I was so tired.
I had been subconsciously fighting all day.
I was not physically drained, I was mentally and emotionally drained from pornography.
Pornography is so pervasive that I don't actually recall a single instance that stands out. However, after shopping for an afternoon I got in the car and texted a friend, "Thank you for being modest."
Only later did I realize that it was so exhaustive to go out and be in the toxic that I could only find refuge in a friend, the temple, a day at church and the Spirit.

Waiting for Christmas

So I love Christmas
Which is funny, because most people with a Christmas birthday don't like it
But then again my birthday is officially moved to July or whenever in more recent years.
I think that has helped me to like Christmas more.
I just love the music, the lights, the smells and the smiles.
I love what it does to me and I love seeing what it does to others.
Waiting and watching Christmas happen.
It has little to do with the actual day
It has everything to do with what the day reminds us of all season long.
Only Jesus Christ could do for people what "Christmas" supposedly does.
Change them.

Yeah, today was better than expected.

I love when you have a day, it starts out like any old grand day.
Then things just go wonderfully.
Not that there is one specific thing that stands out in the day.
It almost seems like that day is like a dream, but more wonderful.
I love traffic jams

Just Friends Pt. 2

"Just" friends
I was writing with one of my friends and in the coarse of writing wrote "just your friend."
She quickly corrected that with crossing out the just
In light of that movie, I think that worst thing is, like so many other things, the things that are not said.
It implies that no guy would ever be friends with a girl if he was not romantically interested.
Wow. That is terrible.
I have friends that are girls, and not only that I take good care of them like I do my sisters.
There is just no romance from one side or the other.
Friend is possibly the greatest compliment ever.
It has now been taken out of context, dragged through the mire of the English language and then twisted and reconfigured to mean something much less.

Just friends

http://youtu.be/T_lh5fR4DMA
So I imagine that you have either: heard, seen, shared, or otherwise come in contact with this video.
I disagree from lots of experience.
Guys and girls can be friends.
1. They both have to want nothing more than friendship
2. They have to respect the boundaries of friendship
3. They have to be honest with the other person.
I think that simply being friends with those you find attractive and not being willing to date and explore the possibility of love would be one of the worst decision that you could ever make. Ruining the friendship because it doesn't pan out and one or the other wants to be "just friends" is right above that though.
I would rather be friends with smart, funny, amazing people than not.
Period.

My Life is Average

I really like that site.
But it is actually not what I'll be covering.
The correct statement is, "My life is an average of the 5 people I spend the most time with."
I won't cover extensions but food for thought; what does that say about our 5 movies, books, tv shows, songs, Internet sites, etc.
But I thought about it and you always hear things like, "You've been spending too much time around/doing..."
It is true.
You develop mannerisms, vernacular, inside jokes, lots of different things that make you naturally blend in with the people you hang around.
You don't become carbon copies of any one person but a mixture of the five.
It was easy for me because outside of work the five people were my family.
My brother passes his knowledge to me through sharing
My sister and I finish sentences for each other and could jinx each other all day every day.
My sister is brilliant
My dad is ingenious and red-yellow
My mom is blue-white which keeps me alive.

What do you want for Christmas?

A question that lots of people consider at this time of year.

A question that a very good friend asked me. 

A question that I never have a good answer for.

Do you remember me?  I sat upon your knee I wrote to you with childhood fantasies. Well, I'm all grown-up now. Can you still help somehow? I'm not a child, but my start still can dream. So here's my lifelong wish, My grown-up Christmas list, Not for myself, but for a world in need. No more lives torn apart, That wars would never start, And time would heal all hearts. Every man would have a friend, That right would always win, And love would never end. This is my grown-up Christmas list.
I love that song, but that is probably a better answer than I ever give.

The answer usually goes like, "Oh nothing, if I want something then I probably already have it."

Even though I don't have everything that I have ever wanted I also try to be rational most times, and correspond my wants with needs. If there are other times that they do not match up I still objectively weigh the options and then make a purchase.

I can probably count on one hand the number of gifts that mean the most to me (as far as material with intrinsic value).

They are a random assortment, but I look at each one and each represents a sacrifice and a person knowing me better than I know myself.

Each one has value that cannot be measured.

Each one represents someone that I love.

Gifts are simply an outer presentation of an inner feeling.

A feeling to give to others the greatest gift.

Realizing that is what we have received, 2000 years ago, and wise men seek Him still.

Mansions

Apparently mansions are not everything they're cracked up to be.
President Monson talked about mansions and heavenly treasures and one thing when he finds his hovel near the end sticks in my mind, "You didn't expect to get paid twice for it, did you?"
We don't get paid twice for anything.
I guess you just need to decide where you stand.

Temple Square

Sorry it's late but yesterday went to Temple Square to see the lights again.
It was grand as always
It did just what I expected as well
It got me in the Christmas spirit
That was all I really needed it to do
I now feel fully vested in Christmas.

Feel ings

I don't know how it happens
It just kind of happens
I wake up and have a choice
This week I decided to see what it was like to be different
I went through each day living for the weekend.
The week passed in a blur
I could not remember what I had done specifically each day other than some highlighted facts, but could not really remember what day they happened on
I have decided that living for each day is much better
Living for the weekend requires the weekend just to recuperate and go back and do it again.
No thanks
I live each day as if it were my last
I don't know why the other seemed like such a good idea in high school.
Oh I renember, I was stupid.

Sanity

I think that it is overrated.

Pet Peeve Numer 8

So not a lot irritates me and I have shrunken the list down significantly, but there are still a few things that boil me in unpleasant ways.

Number 8 is people who are not willing to stick up for Peter.

The apostle Peter

Maybe you've heard of him.

Man of incredible faith, second person to walk on the water by faith, healer, teacher, resurrected being who helped restore the Priesthood to the Earth....

The list goes on

So why people cannot deal with a few things in his life that they deem "sketchy."

"Why is it so hard to stand behind someone who always stood behind the Lord.

Peter was full of faith. He never faltered. From the day he forsook his nets and boats, his feet never turned away. Even in his moment of denial, he was a near to his Lord as he could be. Let him who would be critical of this apostle put himself in the same place—among the bitterest enemies, persecutors, and assassins—with a growing knowledge of the futility of defending his Lord, whose hour had come. He who had forgiven his crucifiers [see JST Luke 23:34c footnote] also forgave Peter who had denied him."

-President Spencer W. Kimball

I am proud to have him in my Priesthood line of Authority as a great man and Champion of the cause of Truth.

He is my brother and friend.

 The rest of the talk is really good too. This is just the last piece.

Historians of a different sort

You are so close to history you don't even realize it.

The Price is Right

So I have wondered recently what is the price of a smile for someone in pain?
It is easy to smile when life is happy, but what does I take to smile even in a good amount of pain if not out right agony.
Very few people can
The price is just too great
But I truly admire those that are willing to pay it.
They know that the price is right
Thank you

The thing about icebergs is...

You can only see the top 10% and the other 90% is below the water.
I seriously need to have the power to read minds for about one month and sort out everything that I can and then try it on my own from there. It would be like training wheels for a bike (that changes every mechanism every time you turn a corner).
Okay, so I know it wouldn't help, but I can dream. All I know is that guys and girls need to find a better way to have relationship communication or we are both going to be in trouble.

Saturday that never was

Today didn't feel like Saturday,
it felt like no day.
It was awesome!
No day when you have nothing that has to be done
No day when time melds in your hand
No day when you get to focus on the most acutely important items in your life
No days are my favorite
They mean visiting people that I love, not having a schedule and rewinding the clock of life even if just for a day

Black Friday

So Black Friday is supposed to rbe the biggest holiday shopping day of the year, I mean the biggest nation wide brawl of the year.

Experience

I find that experience is great because it gives a blueprint for anyone willing to dissect it.
Everything that you throw up falls down means that you should move out of the downward trajectory of the item you threw upward.
Likewise when we have good experiences we can break down why they were food and try to replicate them or at least provide a good environment to recreate it.
We like how thanksgiving feels so maybe we should, spend time with family, focus on being thankful, eat lots of good food, whatever you do to make it great.
I hope that you learn to rein experience as your slave rather than quake under it as master.

Funny thing to be thankful for

So I enjoy thinking/talking with myself a lot. It is usually a very rewarding experience, in an introspective way. Today I was thinking and talking to myself and as often happens my mind started to spin and then I was left with a logical conundrum. I thought about it for a minute and laughed at myself.
I am thankful that I do not take myself too seriously.
Many people worry and fret about imaginations they make with no loop holes, fearing they are in fact the way things really are.
I am thankful that long ago I learned that I can laugh at myself, not worry about the small stuff and still be happy and enjoy life.
If you can't laugh at yourself then you are taking yourself too seriously.
Find a funny moment to be thankful for.

Thank Full Heart

I love Thanksgiving for lots of reasons and pie is not among the least nor dark turkey meat or Mom's rolls, but even higher than those is the general feeling of people being grateful.
I find myself more grateful as well.
Grateful for small things like a text message conversation with an awesome friend, or meeting up with a friend unexpectedly, or just having a great day for no reason.
Whatever your reason for loving the season remember to be grateful!

Number 1

Of coarse Megamind

I have a special set of connections with Megamind.

I don't know all of them, but some that stick out are as follows

-Evil Genius

-Wants to be good, even though he is good at being bad

-Color Blue (different, but similar that is a story for another time)

-PRESENTATION

-Messing things up and then fixing them but not all the way

-Man with the plan

Number 2

Coveted spot 2 goes to Tangled

Really close with Number 1, but this is a great movie

-Dreams (I have a dream!)

-Finding new "adventures"

-Living a life that you create

-Humor and great music

Number 3

How to Train your Dragon

Loved the music and the storyline

-Great story about love and judging others

-I have always been the one to break my mind before my back

-I want a dragon!

-I can make just about anything come together (courtesy of my father's genes)

Number 4

Sorcerer's Apprentice

-I like magic and I believe, however in a different way, that magic is all around us

-He finds a great amount of strength through ingenuity.

-He is a geek

Number 5

Cars 2 just gets special mention because it was a great time of life and some awesome memories come with that movie.

Shoots and ladders

 So I am really picky when it come to people talking about the salvation of God and Perfection and salvation and I am also really verbal about it with others (including my teachers) when I see something that does not makes sense. 

Every single Latter-Day Saint has seen a picture of stick people looking up at this ladder trying to get to heaven.

I hate this ladder and everything that it represents

Loathe

Strongly about this ladder I cannot be

 

The main crux of what they teach is that you are saved after all that you can do and you have to be climbing on the ladder.

We are saved by grace after all we can do.

That is an amazing scripture that everyone quotes or rather many people mis-quote

After all we can do?

First off we can do nothing in the sense that most people use this. 

"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"

Secondly after is an interesting word, as in the English language it has 6 tenses

The Spanish version translates, después de hacer cuanto podamos or after making as we

That does not help much

Other items include the fact that "after all"

after all 
1. used to emphasize something that should be taken into consideration in spite of what has happened or been said

with the placement of punctuation this does not seem unlikely either

So bottom line. 

Obedience, or what we can do does not pay for salvation or exaltation any more that piano practice pays for piano lessons.

We as Christians hope that we can become more like the Savior, more loving, more kind, more perfect and holy.

We are in a sense practicing to become like Him.

He paid for the lessons.

We become like Him and show our gratitude for His payment by practicing. 

That is all

We can in no way contribute to our salvation through obedience

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

What does He want us to do?

"Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am."

If you do not want to be like the Savior then the answer is simple

Don't practice

If you do, then the answer is simple

Stop complaining and start practicing 

Of coarse it is hard at first

You have no idea what you are doing

The Atonement makes it possible for us to do that, to access the grace or power of God to overcome our natural, evil, carnal self.

We do everything that we do trying to consecrate out lives to Him.

If you are doing to buy a ticket into heaven and are not only saved by grace, but changed by grace, then you will no more want to live with God than you do right now.

You've got something that I want

Great song! Really Great song!

Human beings are ridiculous.

Really

I thought about the quote from Cool Runnings, "If you are not enough without it, then you will never be enough with it."

It strikes me that this is true in every sense.

A friendly exchange took place with the overall feeling being something like, "...it depends on why a miserable person is feeling miserable. It isn't always as simple as wanting to be happy. If there is a cause, that is an omission of something, then the introduction of what was missing could resolve the state of being miserable."
While we were discussing something different, but altogether related (things you can control that make you happy, I thought that it applies well, and have heard it used to address things that you cannot control)

I think that it is so incredible. 

Most people actually believe this.

The fact that something could actually affect you and who you are.

I guess I am harsh because I am a really big Holocaust junkie

I read books, watch movies, documentaries, talked with survivors, anything that I can learn.

People who literally had everything taken away and not only learned how to survive, but how to thrive in a place where there was no hope, no happiness, no life, no family, no love, no food, nothing.

And yet these amazing people had within themselves what it took to be happy. It is not as easy as wanting to be happy, but yet you do not NEED things to make you happy.

I am not saying that the survivors were happy, I do not know one person who is happy everyday. 

What I am saying is that THINGS or the lack of things will never make you happy.

People who thrived in Auschwitz, thrived after Auschwitz. 

People who barely survived went on barely surviving.

They may not have been happy, jolly all the time, but they learned that they possessed indomitable spirits that no one or thing could possess. They would not give up.

We are prone to give up until things are a certain way, until a group accepts us, until we make more money, until the person we love chooses to love us back

All of those things are superficial.

We have to decide to Carpe Diem regardless of what happens in life.

Make the most of it even if that means having waffles for dinner.

Nothing will ever make a person unhappy that is determined to live each day like they are going to die.

Nothing will make you happy. You have to choose to thrive and not be oppressed when things just don't go your way.

Take responsibility for your actions.

Stop wating.

Be happy! 

Fear

However funny when I think it is related with my soreness and tiredness from the turkey bowl. 

People can sometimes lose all sense of themselves when they are afraid. 

Like thinking that I was actually going to hurt them even though I scream like a warrior and act big.

Enough said. 

I am bemused.

Fear though seems interesting. People show have no reason to fear, or what you would expect as no reason to fear still have fear because they do not fully trust God. 

I find that funny because no matter how much you worry about a said event it either will come to pass or it will not. 

Those are the only two options.

I can strive and do everything in my power to effect my contribution and effect my personal growth or lack thereof through the process, but worrying about it much like crying about it, never really fixes anything.

Emotional value and other factors may play in, but the finality of what happens is not effected.

Early Christmas Present

So I am not going to join the Christmas in November rampage, and in all actuality this little to do with it, it just seemed fitting.

I thought that I would take the next little bit to talk about Stake Conference as it was a fantastic time and revelatory experience for me. 

It really was like an early Christmas present. I got to spend the entire day in meetings, and learning about myself. I think that it is interesting to hear people talk about meetings in different ways. They go stir-crazy, they lose focus and they get nothing out of them are common responses. I feel that I can appreciate those responses being ADD myself. 

I also find that there are ways to over come it. I probably drive some of those people crazy because I shift. 

I find that I can concentrate much better if I go in certain positions.

I can concentrate in each position for 10 minutes and then move to a new position. 

Hence it probably drives people nuts. 

Other simple things like taking notes, participating, being well rested. These all culminate in the ability to enoy a meeting.

The most important is the focus.

I go to meetings to worship the Savior and the gain revelation. 

I find that with most things in life, the less you worry about you and the more that you worry about someone else, the better off you are.

The differences between a good meeting and a bad meeting is what I take to it, what I expect to get from it, and what I do to actively participate during.

Now you can't very well participate in an extroverted manner when someone else is talking, but you can engage yourself in the topic, you can teach yourself, and you can take the Holy Ghost for your guide as to what you need to learn. 

It is easier to do things that were once hard.

I hope you enjoy these next few bouts of Stake Conference Highlights and other "Random thoughts that come throughout life."

An insturment

I hope you enjoy this video/talk

Elder Busche advice on Life

speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7908

11-11-11

A magical day in the lives of some.

I hope. 

I like to make my own magic for the most part though.

There are places where I go to refill my magic most certainly.

But the rest of the time it is just deciding that a day is going to be magical.

Music is key. 

My music machine is like an appendage. Not that I really have to have it, but it makes life nice.

I can always find something that gets me feeling in a groove and amplifies my feelings do that they can become powerful. 

However you make you day magical, do yourself a favor and don't wait for the next 11-11-11 to have a magical day.

I felt much better since I gave up hope

I read this on a bumper sticker and thought, "that is counter-intuitive."

I hope that you never give up hope, but only hope will not bring you the happiness that you seek either.

Hope is a very powerful emotion capable of doing lots of things, but happiness is not hope. Happiness is more of gratitude mixed with hope, with a profound sense of eternal destiny and meaning, and most of all obedience to the commandments of God. 

I find that it is ironic that lots of people think that it is possible to be happy without obeying the commandments of God. 

That is counter-intuitive. 

The way to happiness is by keeping commandments designed to make us happy.

Hope makes an anchor to the souls of men. 

Gratitude gives us God's proper place in our lives.

Divine Nature gives us our proper place in our lives.

Obedience gives us meaning and something to strive for. 

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God..."

Let us be happy. There is truly nothing better.

Learning and learning

So I am weird. 

Not that that was news to anyone, but just to establish that for the post

There is learning and then there is learning.

One of the things that I like to do is that I really like taking classes from the same teacher over and over and over.

I know that some of you are thinking that that sounds a lot like your nightmares.

I am not talking about college classes though (my only thought, intent and purpose were to get in and get out as fast, and painlessly as possible).

I am talking about institute classes

Spiritual learning.

Most of us are adept in one form or another to learning from books, but if you haven't noticed yet there is no book for life. 

No handbook, no instruction manual, no parts list, no spec sheet. 

Nothing.

So what are we to do?

The scriptures say that we must take the Holy Spirit for our guide and go.

Great. That was super helpful.

Obviously listening to the Spirit is key. 

That is not a strong suit of mine anyway.

Still not helping.

So seriously what to do.

I decided to practice.

When you go to class and hear something new it is easy to take away something insightful.

When you go to class and hear the same thing with the same slides, and the same jokes, and the same stories....

Is it quite so easy?

That has been my personal challenge.

I take classes over and over and over from the same teachers, who teach the same thing, give or take, so that I can learn how to learn new things from old material. 

The material and the teacher no longer do the teaching.

If I am to learn anything then I have to rely on the spirit to teach me everything that I need to know.

His insight becomes priceless, not just a "bonus."

I have to learn through the spirit because the teacher can no longer teach me anything.

It forces my growth in new ways that I would have never reached.

So if you see me in your institute class and the teacher seems to know me really well. 

That is because they do.

This isn't my first rodeo.

However you do it, you need to find ways to learn from the Spirit, for "He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance."

That is pretty amazing.

We just need to find our way in to the radio station.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Well I realize the Sherlock is not the perfect person (cocaine is not a huge plus in my book), and he acknowledges that he has faults a-plenty, I think that there is much to learn about the sleuth from Baker Street. Pick up a story and give it a read through. It just might change your outlook.

Nothing is ever as it seems

I find that life has many interesting things that people find boring simply because they have a fixed view of them. Physics is like that for me. Physics is something that i do not truly understand enough to master the subject, but I know that if I think something out without really thinking about it then make a conjecture about that thing, then take the exact opposite of the conjecture that I am really quite close to understanding physics. 

Holmes does that in a lot of ways. He takes the things that people count as obvious and then discards them. He works with what people have not considered first and then finds that the most common place answers and obvious facts, can really point in a hundred directions. The obscure facts are the one that are fast in finding the answer and the obvious facts fit that explanation as well as the truth.

Don't judge a book by it's cover, it is the intricacy of a person that defines them and you will find more often than not fits the obvious facts that you thought were their entire story.

Bridling your passions

A very Book of Mormon phrase and partially continued from my last post but not really.

Holmes has perfect control over his emotions. They never cloud his judgement. 

His eccentricities become his power because he has learned balance (except for a few things that will be in later posts).

His emotions likewise become his weapon because he has harnessed their power. 

People are very powerful, but often act like a thousand pin pricks instead of a spear.

Instead of concentrated our power and letting that concentration become our new power, we feel that our little contributions in life are sufficient. 

The truth is that we realize that in order to bridle our passion into the true force that it can be it is going to require a great amount of effort and we are lazy.

Holmes being the Master of his own emotions becomes the master of others'. 

Only as we order our passions, much like a garden that is over-grown, will our passions serve any productive purpose.

crazy

I wanted to post with full faculties as much as possible because lunacy is a fairly disconcerting topic.

Most people when they hear eccentric imagine a crazy, white-haired person who lives like a hobbit, with this weird obsession. 

That is mostly true

I am kidding.

That is not anywhere near true

Holmes is an eccentric about lots of things.

The truth is that at the core that an eccentric person has found what everyone has been searching for. They know the answer to the age old question, "What is the purpose of life?"

Asked mostly in jest, eccentric people have an answer unlike post others.

The reason that I like eccentric people is that they are passionate about something. Once you have learned to be passionate about something then you can be passionate about almost anything.

People who are not eccentric, first off are liars, and second off, have hidden the feelings of passion so they become lifeless. 

Eccentricity is a good thing, as long as it is metered in a productive way.

Just like anything your passion can kill you unless you become the master of it.

So don't kill the horse (eccentricities) just bridle it.

knowledge vs intellect

I do not believe that I was being redundantly repetitive using both knowledge and intellect to describe Sherlock Holmes. Knowledge is the know of something and intellect the using it. I may know that if you leave a pail with straw and food covered in a barn that there will be mice in it and no food given time. Intellect is the ability to see that the mice did not spontaneously generate from the cheese. 

I think that it is a rare thing that people have both knowledge and intellect. The reason that comes with intellect is usually subdued by greater knowledge, not enhanced. 

Sherlock Holmes mentions that he does not postulate theories without facts because you then suit theory to fact instead of taking the facts at face value and assigning them their proper place.

I think of our ability to judge. We know something about someone and start to make rash judgements about that person based upon the little that we know. Then when confronted with the truth and it no longer fits our knowledge we simply adjust the truth to fit. It prevents people from seeing the amazing person sitting next to them. I wish you knowledge and power as illustrated by 

The Serenity Prayer
God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathways to peace; Taking, as He did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him.
Forever in the next.
Amen

How very observant

I love how there is always a bit here and there in Sherlock Holmes' tales where he makes what appear to be incredible conclusions based on absolutely nothing.

He then goes on to tell them how he deduced what he knew. 

One thing that he tells Watson on occasion is that, "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear."

Sherlock is in the same room and hears and sees the same things as his companions but he observes. 

One of my favorite is a simple how many stairs are there to come up here? You don't know, neither did I. Then I become more observant. I have a respectable memory and started putting it to good use. I could find things that were lost because when I saw them they were not lost. But when they became lost I could find them. Seeing went from an endless flood of visual information to millions of facts coming through my optic nervous system in a constant stream. Taking notice of things around you. 

The most important part is that it taught me how to be happier. 

I went from existing to thriving. I could stop to notice things that most people take for granted, and appreciate it. That in turn helped me to appreciate life.

Elementary

"You will not apply my precept," he said, shaking his head. "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know that he did not come through the door, the window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been concealed in the room, as there is no concealment possible. When, then, did he come?"
     The Sign of the Four, ch. 6 (1890)

I won't spoil it for you, as it is rather fantastic and I love Sherlock Holmes stories. 

Sherlock has always been for me a very good kind of role model. I love how he can observe and his keen knowledge and intellect. He is eccentric in a lot of ways. He has complete control over his emotions to the ability that he can reason in logic without interference. He can simplify things that are very complex. He finds things reversed from the way that many people see them because he knows from experience that the common conception is really a misconception.

I hope to be like him in a lot of ways and not like him in a lot of ways.

Death

I wonder some times if I am the only one that ever thinks about dying/death. It is a reality that faces all of us at one point or another. I have often thought that it is the one thing left in life that I have yet to experience and thus it would be the last epic adventure. I don't hope that I die, but I have thought that it would be cool to have one of those "die and come back to life" experiences. Just thought that I would through that out there. 

P.S.

I don't need any kind of counseling for depression, or suicide, etc. I really do love life, I just also think that death would be pretty cool too. It is really the only thing that I have never done in an eternal kind of way. I am kind of looking forward to it in a lot of ways. But again I am really happy to be here with all my great friends and my great life.

Choices

Robert Frost (1874–1963)

1. The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Ten took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The only problem is that they both look equally traveled. A good poem anyway. Have a happy day!

Charity

So I don't usually blast scathing social commentary, and you probably think that this is ironic to come after it, but that was more of just a this has been building and I see people whine and figure that none of them read my blog anyway, and even if they do, they need to be told to stop whining (girls and boys). 

So on to Charity 

Elder Holland said, "One [meaning of charity or ‘the pure love of Christ’] is the kind of merciful, forgiving love Christ’s disciples should have one for another.... “The greater definition of ‘the pure love of Christ,’ however, is not what we as Christians try but largely fail to demonstrate toward others but rather what Christ totally succeeded in demonstrating toward us. True charity has been known only once. It is shown perfectly and purely in Christ’s unfailing, ultimate, and atoning love for us. ... It is that charity—his pure love for us—without which we would be nothing, hopeless, of all men and women most miserable. Truly, those found possessed of the blessings of his love at the last day—the Atonement, the Resurrection, eternal life, eternal promise—surely it shall be well with them.“This does not in any way minimize the commandment that we are to try to acquire this kind of love for one another. We should ‘pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love’ [ Moroni 7:48 ; see also 1Corinthians 13:4–5, 7–8 ]. ... As Christ lived so should we live, and as Christ loved so should we love. But the ‘ pure love of Christ’ Mormon spoke of is precisely that—Christ’s love. With that divine gift, that redeeming bestowal, we have everything; without it we have nothing and ultimately are nothing, except in the end ‘devils [and] angels to a devil’ [ 2Nephi 9:9 ]” ( Christ and the New Covenant, 336–37). 

As Charity comes to possess us then it guides our actions on how to minister and more importantly administer. We start to become like Him.

Fair is Fair

Since it has been a while since I have written and then even longer since I have written any kind of scathing social commentary I figured that today would be just as good as any other.

Girls want to date/marry a righteous, stalwart, dedicated, "Returned Missionary" kind of guy.

All that I can say is, "Good for you, but turnabout is fair play."

You want a guy that respects women and modesty and doesn't talk about how hot other women (particularly actresses) are. Good for you.

Guys don't want to hear about how good ______ looks without a shirt on.

You want someone who doesn't swear or watch bad movies. Rightfully so.

Guys don't care if it was edited either.

Bad music ditto

The list goes on and on. 

The double standard stops here.

That is all that I have to say about it. 

I don't like it and I see it all the time.

Shape up or stop complaining. 

Both of you.

Squirrel!

So, it happens that I have ADD and it is usually not manifest in the way that most people are used to thinking of "ADD people". I don't get hyper, but I do have some weird tendencies. One of those is that I can't read in the same position for more than about 30 minutes. I get distracted extremely easily. I get distracted by life. I am going to try to not get distracted by life. Today was a really good day. It ended with ice cream.

Love verses lust

Yes as a matter of fact we had the big "C" talk today in Priesthood as presented by one of our amazing elder's quorum teachers Alex. It was not your standard chastity talk as it was more focused on the difference between love and lust and how they relate respectively to chastity and fornication/adultry.

I feel that I have come to appreciate some of the nuances of this through different relationships and was quite intrigued when our Bishop indicated that a major difference between love and lust was that love has an appreciation of the person as a whole, a healthy view about their strengths and weaknesses and how those compare with the other party involved. Lust, however, focuses on one item to objectify the person into a thing. There is no whole to enjoy because the person becomes just their; hair, or their eyes, or their ankles, or whatever it is that pleases you. It is a selfish motive and does not help you or the other person grow. 

I also found out that the cure for lust is to know what love is. 

After you taste what love is and can be then you never want to indulge in lust because it is empty and tastelesss

The Book or the Movie?

So popular opinion says that the movie is never as good as the book which is more often than not true, or is it? Is the apple better than the cinnamon apple cobbler? It came from the same start. 

Now most people would look at that and say, "Well that is not a fair comparison because they are completely different."

That is a really good point, but the book and the movie are two completely different things.

An amazing person taught me that recently.

The book is one thing and the movie is another. 

The book was better give me absolutely no information. It only tells me that this completely different, however closely related, thing was better. 

What made it better?

The soundtrack was great and the acting was terrible lets me know to buy the soundtrack and not waste the time watching the movie.

So when someone asks you how you liked a particular movie instead of offering a comparison, evaluate the movie. It will be amazing what the other person learns.

All I Ever Wanted

We interrupt this long time having not written in my blog to let you know that I am going to be more regular though nothing really regular until after Disneyland which is this week. 

I have just been thinking about a lot of different things and so I am going to try and catch up and maybe even get ahead if I can.

I am also not one to promote non-church issued churchish movies as they are more often than not wildly inaccurate at best, but if you are watching them for cinematic enjoyment then sure. 

In The Prince of Egypt, Moses sings a song about all he ever wanted in life. He has found out that he is not a Prince of Egypt, some of the lines are; All I've ever known, All I ever wanted, Now I am home, A son of the proud history that's shown Etched on ev'ry wall Surely this is all I ever wanted All I ever wanted All I ever wanted.

He then forsakes Egypt and becomes Moses, the Prophet.

I find that more often than not we don't really know what we want until we find it. All we have ever known is that thing which we want. 

There are certain things that I want from life. There are certain things that I know are things that the Lord wants from me. Outside of those two considerations I am looking for the rest and building what I want from the things that I find in life and from what my updated knowledge brings me. 

Some things that are all we ever wanted we realize are foolish and childish. We then become the fool if we hang on to them and pass up the great blessings that the Lord has in store for us, because it is not what we have always wanted. It is different. But as the Lord presents us with more information I believe that He expects us to update our desires and see if we are willing to submit to His will and timing for our lives. 

So maybe once you decide what you want you should recognize that it may only be all you've ever wanted because it's been all you've ever known.

Miracles

So I have been thinking about his quite a bit a going over the story of Lazarus trying to pull the meaning out of it for myself. I have included some excerpts to get the general feeling and will interrupt as I have found meaningful things. The full account is found in John 11. 

Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. 

We learn from this and other areas that Martha had a good deal of faith in the Savior and of His power and had seen and heard of it's operation throughout all Israel.

Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.  ... Believest thou this?  She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. 

Again she affirms her testimony to Christ of His power and divinity and mission.

Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?  

There were many who were with Martha and Mary who doubted His power.

Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. 

Martha begins to doubt.

Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?  

The ever gentle rebuke from the Master

And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.  And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.   Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

He preforms a miracle of miracles among the Jews, based on their beliefs about spirit departure from the body and many believe on Him.

So what?

That is the difficult question that keeps the scriptures from coming alive.

I relate a lot with Martha in that, I feel that I have a fairly good testimony of the Savior, and have seen His workings in my life. Yet, whenever I go to Him and ask Him for a miracle, ask Him to intercede in some incredible way in my life, and finally come to the "gravesite" I simply want to excuse the Lord from any "obligation" to preform a miracle in my behalf. 

Looking back I have felt that if it did not turn out the way that I had hoped and was given assurances that it would I felt like it would shake my faith. There were times that I really thought that the Lord would not preform the miracle in my behalf.

And I find great comfort in the rebuke of the Master, "Said I not unto thee..." He truly is waiting to bless our lives, and sometimes, most of the time, it is us He is waiting on. So that He can show forth, "The glory of God" in our lives.

Kite Strings

I want to establish the difference between leashes and kite strings.

Leashes are self inflicted restraints that keep us from gaining out true potential. They are often unnecessary burdens that we load ourselves with.

Kite strings restrain us within our limits. They keep enough tension on our lives to keep us soaring off the ground.

I have never seen a kite fly on a leash.

Leashes

I have always been told that a cell phone is a really short leash.

I don't believe that it is, unless you feel obligated to answer every time someone calls, as soon as they call.

I think that we make leashes for ourselves.

Things that are used irrationally that we tie ourselves to; friends, computers, Facebook, phones, family, sports, job and the list goes on. Some of these things are great and some are less than. None of them should keep us from doing the important things, friends, should not keep us from family, and sometimes the other way around. Computers, should not keep us from having a life. 

I think all in all we should not be so attached to anything that we cannot do without for long enough to do what is really important now.

Alpha

Life is full of first's.

Foods, memories, crushes, days of school or jobs.

The first of the month.

I love having first experiences.

They are new and exciting. Full of the thrill of charting a course and never turning back.

I unfortunately bore quite easily with things and have found that if I can make them new again then  I don't get bored. I find new ways to do something and new ways to say something. So if I do something new and you think it's weird...you're right, but most first's are.

Have a happy first something.

Temple time

I love those times in your life when the Spirit moves and you just feel like you need to renovate your life just because. Change is underway. Watch out.

Dad, can we still be friends?

Interesting story, in church about how we do things that upset our parents and we feel that we may be cut off forever, or if you are not melodramatic you realize that things will never be the same. And how it can prompt us to want to re-establish that connection, and how with God it is similar. We sin and thereby tell God that we don't love Him, then through the Atonement are able to come back. If I discover anything poignant I will be back to share it.

Mormon Messages

Have you ever had a hard day and wanted to know how to make it better?
I recommend watching a Mormon Message. 
They are great!
You should give it a try even if you have before.
It will be well worth your time.
LDS.ORG

Zomibe Apocalypse

So I just found out that apocalypse is spelled phonetically and I think that is pretty cool.
But on the other hand I thought that I would get in on the action of "the world is ending tomorrow since it has been everywhere. Let me just say that if it is tomorrow and if there is a zombie apocalypse that Spanish Fork would be a really bad place to start, and especially my house. Nuf' said.
It was actually interesting hearing a bunch of people talk about it at work today, because the overall consensus was that we really felt bad for the people involved. 
I don't know if you have ever really wanted something.
Wanted something so bad that you put all of you hopes, and dreams, and wishes and belief into it.
Then had that thing ridiculed.
That is terrible.
The worst thing though is not to have it ridiculed, but to find out that that thing that you had believed in was not at all what you thought that you had believed in.
It would crush most people.
It was interesting as I taught people on my mission and then again as I came home to see peoples reactions to me. Probably the best compliment I have ever got went something like, "You know if God appeared to you tomorrow and gave you sufficient evidence that He was God and told you that there was no true church on the face of the Earth and there would not be until the Second Coming, you would wake up the next morning and keep on living you life the exact same way that you are right now wouldn't you?"
To which I responded yes.
He wanted to know why.
I told him something to the effect of, "I have never been happier in my entire life. Though I would like to make a clarification. When you say the exact same way you are right now I want you to understand that I live life in crescendo. I would not be the same in two years or two months or two weeks. But, yes. I would still serve out the rest of my mission, I would still go to the temple, and church and read and pray, and do everything that I am doing now. The reason why is because it is simply a better way to live. Can you tell me the same thing about the way that you live?"
To which he replied no. 
I relived that conversation many times over with many different people in many different circumstances with some variation in the dialogue. Faith, hope, and charity. I truly feel bad for those who are going to have their lives crushed tomorrow. But I feel that there will be more opportunity to go out and find those who unfortunately have to answer no.

Home

So yeah my little sis is home from her mission. She is probably one of the best examples that I know and we are super excited to have her with us so I may not be regular for a bit but I will have some epic tales to tell

Long awaited days

Waiting for a day is something that I don't do very well.
But this time I have done really well. For the most part.
My sister comes home tomorrow from her mission to the people of Houston, Texas. They are super lucky to have had her for 18 months! Which has actually been more like 18.5 months. 
We are all super excited for her to be back. 
It is interesting when you lose a piece of a puzzle you can put it together as many times as you like but it is still missing a piece. We know that she was needed out there and has had a great time and we have been truly blessed while she has been out, but to think of everything that having her back will mean to our family and me is pretty exciting to think about. 
Looking forward to a grandiose day tomorrow. 
It has been a long awaited day!

Trees

For FHE we went to a local cemetery and helped them clean up for Memorial Day.
We were digging up dead rosebushes.
My Bishop (who is incredible FYI) was teamed up with Roger (who is also incredible) and myself. The bishop was telling us how they make rosebushes like the ones that we were extracting and about their root system and it was incredible. Roger was also talking about how some of the greatest and tallest trees (Coast Redwood) grow root systems that are only feet above the ground, but can stay standing because they intertwine roots with each other. 

Another interesting thing is that we each started digging on our own until we found that three digging on one bush was much faster than any of us were working on our own. 

We had some other great insightful moments, the difference between hacking at the leaves vs the roots; using the right tools for the job, and elk hide gloves. 

I think that our ward is the greatest ever, lessons I learned while digging up rosebushes.

Obedience?

So obedience is one of those things for me that you don't know that there is much more you could learn and then my favorite thing about the gospel happens and I get surprised with new things that I need to learn, or things that I apparently didn't learn well enough and have forgotten etc. 
So we have a bunch of sacrament meeting talks about obedience and we are in the Doctrine and Covenants 130th section that everyone reads. 
It talks about how there are blessings that are obtained by obedience to laws, which is true...But then I got to thinking.
We are obedient because of our love for and trust in Heavenly Father. 
Obedience qualifies us for blessings.
King Benjamin even says that, "He doth immediately bless you."
Then I thought about a lot of the kinds of blessings that we get/are given. And they are usually not just handed out on a platter like a buffet. 
I am looking that even though obedience may qualify us for certain blessings I believe that in order to receive some of those blessings we may have to ask. 
We learn that some blessings which Heavenly Father is already willing to give us are withheld on the basis of not asking. 
I am going to look into it some more and let you know back on my findings, but it is interesting anyway for now.

Magical Magic (Magic pt. 2)

I find that along with places that are easier to talk with God magical places have this aura that erases time. 
The fact is that we are not creatures of time.
We have always existed. That in and of itself should floor you. We not only have always existed but we have always existed in a place where time did not exist.
Now we come to Earth and have deadlines, traffic jams, start times, end times, late, early, etc. not to mention the need for sleep.
It is a concept that is completely foreign to our eternal selves. 
Magical places have a way of erasing all that. 
When you can go to the temple and spend hours that feel like minutes. You can go up in the woods and trees and spend days that feels like an afternoon. Disneyland, where hours melt away and you feel for once like you are not only beating the clock but you are in control of the clock. The Art Ball where you can dance the night away and never think about it twice. 
Yes, so, I may have discovered a new magical place. It is interesting. Being an eccentric person I have a certain taste for the unique and different. The Art Ball is held at the Springville Museum of Art and it is an old building. Old hallways with stories that could take a thousand life times to tell. A courtyard with statues and a fountain (okay several fountains throughout). Rustic wooden doors that could not have come off an assembly line. It was fantastic! 
It is just one of those times when time stands still and becomes irrelevant. We begin to understand time and space as God understands them (infinitely less, but hey, you have to start somewhere). We can go forward and use those experiences to benchmark our life. We can reflect on those feelings and make sure that we are keeping ourselves in check with what we have found to be correct. I love those experiences.
Thanks to a very special friend who shared her magical place with me tonight. 

Zigzag

Z is one of those other letter that I haven't used yet, until now.
Up and down, side to side, the zigzag is one of the most misunderstood designs ever. People usually hate it. You feel like you never get anywhere and there is a logical reason behind that, being that the shortest path to any point is a straight line then a zigzag has to be the longest. 
The sad thing is thought that people don't pay attention to the direction they are traveling. While we may do lots of side to side or up and down in life we are moving forward. If there were no up and down then there would be no forward. 
It was on Tuesday when I was leaving for work and David asked how my week was so far and I responded with, "Absolutely grand, but I wish the weather would stop teasing us and it would just stay warm."
He then proceeded to tell me that the apocalypse was upon us because I had said something not 100% positive. I simply explained that you have to embrace all the good in life, but it doesn't do anyone any favors to ignore the bad. If you just ignore it then it will only get worse. 
The weather is something that I cannot control (although that would be freaking sweet) so I pick out all the good in my life, separate it out from the bad. and then separate each pile into two piles. Things I can control, and things I can't control. Then I group all the things I can control together and all the things I can't control together. Acknowledging the good and the bad that I cannot control are also essential. 
I never took very much happiness in the, "the sun will still come up tomorrow the world is not over attitude." Granted that is something to be happy about and grateful for, but the fact is that I did not have control over that. I did nothing to help or hinder that nor could I. 
I needed something to be happy about that I could control. 
I decided to pray that everyday God would put someone in my path or let me know where to go to find someone that I could help. Then no matter what happened during that day it had a purpose. I was finding the person God had prepared for me to find and help. I have also done other things over time that have helped me to be more positive, but just remember that along the zigzag of life you need to keep focused on the forward movement and wear your seatbelt. Because just when you think it is going to zig it ends up zagging.

Magic

Being a Disney freak I love magic!
A lot of people speculate about what is magic and what is good and bad about magic. 
I find that most people can't describe what magic is yet most people have no problem categorizing it as bad or good.
Magic is funny that way.
The hard part about magic for most people is that it is trying to explain a feeling.
For me magic is when I get to experience my true self. My ancient, eternal self.
Most people cannot describe this feeling and they call it magic, magical, special, spiritual.
Spirituality is different for me. Spirituality is more of my progression here in this life.
Magic is the re-awakening of something just as real, but ancient and powerful.
It is fantastic!
It is not necessarily the card tricks and other things although I believe that some magic is useful.
Sleight of hand is often referred to as magic. It is in a way helping us realize that what we physically perceive is insufficient at best. It teaches us to not rely on ourselves and our instinct and that we should be observant but not so focused that we miss the point. 
It teaches us to look for things. The fact is that there is a logical explanation for magic. Whether chemicals in your brain, or having a card up your sleeve. What is behind real magic though is something great. 
I notice it most in environments. Some people are social and some are not. Some love the mountains and others love the beach. Some love Mt. Rushmore and some love Disneyland. But there are certain places that we go to feel and remember and reconnect with our powerful self. 
I believe that it is true that there is a lot that has to be said for vacations and lack of stress triggering things in the brain, and that there is a logical explanation for most things in life. But the good things of God that help us to become better people and give us a strength beyond our own learned strength here is not so easily explainable. 
There is no reason why when I go to the mountains and take pictures and talk with God that I can handle the next week better. There is no reason that when I do something for someone else my natural talents are magnified 100 times over. There is no reason that going to the temple can shift me into a different realm of thought for days. There is no reason that Disneyland is also one of those places either.
The only thing that I can really think is that it is a place that for me it is easier to talk to God. Some people may think that is strange, especially if you have been in the summer, but wherever your place is. I recommend that you find your places where it is easier to talk with God. 
They are magical.

Oceanology

I am so excited to hear that Kid History is going to pre-release in a theater in Pleasent Grove (I typed PG, until I realized that looked kinda bad). I think that kid history is a great insight into the way that kids see things.
We tell stories based on what we remember and the rest we fill in. 
Some people call it exaggeration, some people call it enhancement, but that is just part of story telling.
It is interesting to see what kids fill in when they can fill in with anything. 
These are probably stories that have been told and retold, and the kids find interesting pieces and then fill in the rest.
I am always interested to be able to actually look through the eyes of someone else to gain new perspective on life.
But to look through the eyes of a child is something that is priceless. 
What they see as important and the kind of language they use and the way that they end stories, and start stories, and the people they include and what they have certain people saying and the fact that they just sometimes get lost while telling a story and start talking about something that can hold their attention. 
Not to mention that they are just great, clean, funny videos. 
I am making plans to attend the premier in June. Fact!
Will you be there?

Hate

One of the most interesting things. 
It is always so blind.
And people think love is blind.
Stupid is probably more accurate.
But hate is incredible to watch from the outside.
For whatever reason you believe that that thing or person is so evil that they will never change. Maybe even that they can never change. This logic will only damn ourselves. For the fact is that we have all committed that sin which keeps us out of the presence of the Holy God forever. 
One.
That is all that it took.
One sin.
And if not for Christ we would all be damned forever. 
Hate would do that to others, and then ultimately after we have fed the beast and nurtured it and grown it so powerful that it would crush those we hate it rears it's ugly head and destroys us. 
That which we would take from someone else, the power to be forgiven, is the thing which we need the very most.
Hate is blind, not love.

The Plays the thing

So tonight I got a treat that I don't often have and that was to go to a play!
An original play nonetheless.
I love the theatre. The lights, the acting, the story, plot and sub plot all masterfully displayed on the stage. I love the written plays, but I must confess that they are extremely hard to get through, even modern day ones when you compare them with the actual play.
Hence the play's the thing for me. Reading them, and I love reading, is nothing compared to seeing it on stage.
I think that the fact is that I cannot really connect with all the characters as I am reading. 
The fun things about plays are you see the flippant attitudes strewn across the stage in full color and they being to remind you of people.
Then I suddenly see the play with people I know in their places and it becomes so real for me. 
It is a lot like a dream for me, but only in real life. 
You always have those dreams, where you are in a movie or a book and you replace yourself with the good character and your friends and you are off on an adventure. The adventure of a lifetime.
So I say thank you, because the play's the thing.

My Mom

It's only fitting to post a Mother's Day post on Mother's Day. 
I really have always been blessed with great parents who love me a lot. They have always acknowledged that all of their children are different and have let us do that things that we naturally love. That is a major reason for always being so happy. I have always got to do the things that I feel passionately about. And while I've also had to do things that I hate, because it builds character, they always temper the experience so that it is bearable. 
Even though I am far from the perfect kid and my parents are far from the perfect parents I feel that in that way we were made for each other.
Happy Mother's Day

Computation

So yes my computer is back up and running.
I also love my family.
I was telling my brother what was wrong and what I had to do to fix it and he was going right along with me and understanding everything. 
He tells me at the end, "You know it is funny to think that there are people who wouldn't know how to do what you and I can do."
I lost at most 24 hours. 
That is excluding time to put everything back, but still
I know people who have lost a lot more than that, and I wonder about life.
My life is not my computer, but it is really nice.
But I think about things that are much more important that people are just as careless about. 
Relationships don't have a nightly backup that you can run, they don't have a history restore point.
You think that people would take better care of relationships. 
I have seen people ruin relationships for really stupid reasons. I have ruined relationships for reasons that I only found out were stupid after the fact. (I think those are inter-related)
It is funny how very little it takes to actually care for a computer. It took me about 3 minutes to realize something was wrong. It took me about 10 minutes to realize that I could not repair it.
It took 8 hours to backup and another 4 to get everything rolling again.
But that is not the whole truth. The fact is that I have know for well over a year that my computer has not been operating at optimal service, but I just let it go never having enough time to work on it.
It may seem like relationships fall apart like a blindside, but they never do. Things happen that you notice and then choose to ignore.
It will go on until we consciously choose to fix it or it ceases to function.
Then if you are a computer you start recovery and cleanup. If it is a relationship then that is much harder.
I have been thinking about it a lot I suppose because I have lots of great relationships that give me some of the happiest years of my life. I also realize that there are those that are less than happy. But I suppose that I think about it mostly because of a determination to live so that in future I can have the kinds of relationships that really make a difference.

Choose your own adventure

I want to know if anyone remembers these books. You are reading a story and you get to a fork in the road and you make a choice and then you flip to a different page and keep reading and finish out the story based on decisions that you make while reading.
It was really cool. 
Sunday during our stake conference we were told (by Sister Cook) that this church is a "multipurpose, full service choose your adventure church."
I love that imagery. 
It is for everyone (multipurpose), it is for everything (full service), and the ability to take advantage of it is ours (choose your own adventure).
However, much unlike the books which I would end reading the entire book to get the story that I wanted we begin with the end in mind. 
We know what ending we want our book to have and we know how to make sure that happens. 
If we follow the Lord Jesus Christ then we will have our happily ever after, our sail off into the sunset, our a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, or whatever other brand of adventure we yearn for.

Throne of Fire

It may be a cool title for my blog but it is not my title, it is the second of the books in the Kane Chronicles. Again no spoilers, no teasers of any kind, because i don't really like that kind of thing, but all of these books that I read have a pretty common set of themes; good v.s. evil, discovering your own great potential, love or some other grand quest, happiness...the list is quite extensive. Some books have some themes in greater depth than others or some are missing themes all together and have some of the regular with their own original twist (my personal favorite like from an aspiring author I know).

I notice that some books can really move you forward and backward and keep you on the edge of your seat and wondering what happens next, and some books are just boring. I find that the books that I like most usually have themes that I can relate to. 

That is why I will never understand why people find the scriptures so boring. I find themes that I can relate to so well; having no idea what to do about some some task, good v.s. evil is obviously in there, friends who are good influences, bad influences, good parenting, bad parenting, love, and of coarse happiness.

I find that of all the themes that happiness is the greatest. You want a how to do it yourself book on happiness? Well unfortunately there isn't one but the Book of Mormon is the closest that you will get. 

Here's to good reading.