Rain and Happiness.

So for my work's Book Club we are reading this book called Finding Fish by Antwone Fisher. It has been really sad and kinda slow, but last night as I was reading I came across the most amazing passage that I knew I needed to share. Antwone writes, "Halfway home, the sky goes from dark gray to almost black and a loud thunder snap accompanies the first few raindrops that fall. Heavy, warm, big drops, they drench me in seconds, like an overturned bucket from the sky dumping just on my head. I reach my hands up and out, as if that can stop my getting wetter, and open my mouth, trying to swallow the downpour, till it finally hits me how funny it is, my trying to stop the rain. 
           This is so funny to me, I laugh and laugh, as loud and free as I want. Instead of hurrying to higher ground, i jump lower, down off the curb, splashing through the puddles, playing and laughing all the way home. In all my life till now, rain has meant staying inside and not being able to go out to play. But now for the first time I realize that rain doesn't have to be bad. And what's more, I understand, sadness doesn't have to be bad, either. Come to think of it, I figure you need sadness, just as you need the rain.
          Thoughts and ideas pour through my awareness. It feels to me that happiness is almost scary, like now I imagine being drunk might feel-really silly and not caring what anybody else says. Plus, that happy feeling always leaves so fast, and you know it's going to go before it even does. Sadness lasts longer, making it more familiar, and comfortable. But maybe, I wonder, there's a way to find some happiness in the sadness. After all, it's like the rain, something you can't avoid. And so, it seems to me, if you're caught in it, you might as well try to make the best of it. 
           Getting caught in the warm, wet deluge that particular day in that terrible summer full of wars and fires that made no sense was a wonderful thing to happen. It taught me to understand rain, not to dread it. There were going to be days, I knew, when it would pour without warning, days when I'd find myself without an umbrella. But my understanding would act as my all-purpose slicker and rubber boots. It was preparing me for stormy weather, arming me with the knowledge that no matter how hard it seemed, it couldn't rain forever. At some point, I knew, it would come to an end."

Who would you invite? Day 3

So today I conducted my own little social experiment. I asked a bunch of people this questions, "If you could have lunch with any 6 people, alive or dead, who would you want to have lunch with?" I loved listening to people's answers! Almost everyone chose Jesus Christ. I should have prefaced that he was pretty much a given. There were a lot of religious figures: People from the Book of Mormon, like Nephi, Sam, Captain Moroni, some from the Bible, Peter, Stephen and Moses. Latter day religious figures like, Elder Holland, Julie B. Beck and the person almost every one chose, Joseph Smith. Emma Smith was a chose a lot too, but only one person chose both of them together. I think I would love to see their interaction with each other.
After the religious figures there were Politicians and historical figures: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Da Vinci, Alfred Nobel, Einstein, the Dalai Lama.
There were writers and musicians: Shakespeare, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Mozart.
Then there were the people that really told a lot about the person choosing them, the athletes: Shoe-less Joe Jackson, Willy Mays, Hank Aaron (All three of those were my little brothers,), Babe Ruth, Patrick Roy and Alex Ovechkin (Both Hockey Players).
The icons: Audrey Hepburn, Coco Chanel, Agnes De Mille, Brad Pitt, Dana White, Ricky Martin, Christopher Nolan, Obama.
Then you had the most telling, the personal: The Grandparents, The Fathers, the sister in her non-handicap state, the Father-in-Law that died before they met.
Then two of my favorite answers: The husband and the fiancée. Even though they see them almost everyday. They would want them there to have lunch with them and the share that experience.

It was the most amazing day as I got to know the people I care most about a little better.


Mine would be.......

My Grandmothers,
Joan and Madge.



John the Beloved, He has been around forever! What stories he could tell!

I would also like C.S. Lewis to be there.

And Audrey Hepburn

And Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 OR
Cary Grant, Depending on their Schedules ;)

Wouldn't that be a great lunch? What would we talk about? How would they interact with each other? What would each person want to eat? I don't know if I would even talk, I could just sit back and listen and watch them talk to each other. It would be amazing. 

Who would you want to come to your lunch? What would you ask them?

Day 2 of the Facebook Challenge.

So it is day 2 of the Facebook challenge. Well yesterday was but I couldn't blog about it yesterday because the internet was down at my house. I didn't even know until late last night. Did I really care? No Because I don't have Facebook any more! How liberating. Well anyway. I talked to 3 besties, (Hey Besties) that I haven't talked to in weeks. I talked to the beautiful, Danielle, Kayleigh, and Nicole. Danielle, I have been friends with since high school. I love and adore her more than words. So we are going to have a girl date on Monday. I am very excited about that. Kayleigh, is amazing and I am grateful to Mozy for be that is how we became friends. The job and company sucked but I got a best friend out of it. We are still trying to work out our schedules so we can play. I need to see her new house that she just bought! Then last night I went over to Nicole's house, I have known her since jr high, but we weren't really friends until two years ago. She was apparently having a pretty bad day, she didn't even go to work yesterday. So I was very glad that I decided to skip out on institute and go and see her instead so I could try and cheer her up! She showed me all of her engagement pictures, Breathtaking, and then we did a little shopping for her wedding, Matt you should love me ;),  it was so much fun. We laughed and had a fabulous time. I really needed my wonderful friends! I love them so much and they make me so happy! So day two of the Challenge I feel was very successful! 




So on another note. My mother is wonderful. She works with this really funny great lady, and my mother noticed that she had the soundtrack from my all time favorite movie, Cold Mountain. So she asked to borrow it and I fell asleep to it last night and it was best sleep I have had in a while. Such an amazing movie. If you haven't seen it you need to. I have an edited copy of it. I can watch it over and over and over. It is so sad but so beautiful! Everything about it is brilliant and breathtaking. The music, the cinematography, the story, the acting. Listen to this line up, even big names are in the tiniest parts.... Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger in lead roles as well as Natalie Portman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Melora Walters, Jena Malone, and Giovanni Ribisi, Lucas Black, Cillian Murphy, Donald Sutherland, Ethan Suplee, and Jack White from The White Stripes.  All amazing. 
There is one line that I love oh so very much. Inman is talking to the old goat lady Maddy, he says,  "She gave me a book. Ada Monroe. Man by the name of Bartram. Wrote about his travels. Sometimes just reading the name of a place near home - Sorell Cove, Fire Scale Ridge - enough to break your heart. Thing is, I've been thinking - those places belonged to people before us, to the Indian - What did he call Cold Mountain? How can a name, not even the real name, break your heart? It's her...She's the place I'm heading. And I hardly know her. I hardly know her!"

If this movie doesn't make you cry, I am pretty sure you are heartless. 

Facebook Challenge

So in light of me deactivating my facebook account I am going to try, what I will call the Facebook challenge. The premise. Spend the time I would have been on facebook cultivating relationships with the people I care about. So call them or do something nice, thoughtful, unexpected...you get the idea. So today is day 1. It has been pretty good! I called my younger brother who I haven't talked to for over a week. I love him and miss him and he always makes me happy. Why haven't I talked to him more? His birthday is on tuesday so I called to see what he wanted for his birthday dinner on sunday. Malva pudding of course. Then we discussed different options, he finally settled on sweet potato fries, shrimp with fettucini alfredo, it is going to be random, but very good! Oh he makes me happy.

Everyday there will be small things that I do that will help me build better relationships with people. Because really you have no friends until you are a friend to them first.

Facebook

So I have deactivated my Facebook account. I was wasting too much time on it. It makes me sad how much time I commit to it. It is also sad that it defines my relationships with people. I need to strive for things that are real and better. Maybe I will turn into a recluse and a social outcast. Who knows. But that is what I am doing right now. ;)

I really love Sundays.

So what a fabulous weekend. It started with Saturday. Julie B. Beck is my hero, with her, "the Lord doesn't care about your issues, he cares about his Sheep." Speech. Brilliant and amazing and just what I needed. I have been way too focused on the little things that don't matter at all. Had a huge epiphany. I was letting all of the little things get in the way of things that really mattered. I went home and was thought and thought and thought. And read my scriptures and prayed. And realized what I wanted and what I needed. So I am trying to focus on the things that really matter and not let all of the other stuff get in the way of that. Then today church was amazing. Sacrament meeting was amazing. The speakers talked about being Grateful. And Relief Society was about service. I just love our teacher. She always has a different persecutive on things and it is always so good. I need to be better about giving service to others. Doing the little thoughtful things. I talk about being thoughtful and it is something I am looking for, but I need to be it first. So this weekend was a very very very good weekend! 

Really

So pretty sure a girl in my ward wore something similar to this to church on Sunday. No yellow shoes, but leggings and a very very short "dress". 

Really. Real-ly?