a tall personality

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh"  Ezekiel 36:26 KJV I don't want to apologize for being spiritual...but I feel like this kind of post won't mean so much to some.  I hope knowing that it means everything to me can help you understand why I'd want to share it. The 21st and 22nd of August mark my SEVENTH year of being baptized and confirmed a member of my church.  The events of those two days long, long ago in 2004 have impacted my life like no others before or since.  Every good thing that has happened to me since then is connected to those days.  Every experience has been richer because of my beliefs and the commitments I have made to God, who I believe and feel is literally and in every way my Heavenly Father.  Knowing this has forever changed my mind and heart. I always suspected there was a component of myself that wen...

Everyone, meet my friend Skyler.  I asked him if I could take a picture of him doing a backflip, and it turns out he can not only do backflips, but just about any other kind of flip.  Skyler deserves his own post without a doubt, but this one is just going to be about backflips :) When I was a kid I learned to do backflips on my trampoline, and I quickly found that a backflip takes TOTAL commitment.  If you aren't ready to finish the backflip when you start, you end up landing on your head.  Backflips aren't that dangerous...unless you get half way and decide you don't want to do one anymore.  What's more, most of my head-landings interrupted otherwise perfectly executed flips. I had Skyler pose at the exact point at which it is most crucial to NOT  freak out! As I've thought about recent choices I have made, specifically the choice to get a master's in social work, this is the analogy that has come to mind.  It was a scary choice to make, b...

This weekend I went to the best fireworks show this side of the Atlantic Ocean, at least for me it is. It takes place every year on the 2nd or 3rd of July in Lander, Wyoming.  It's put on by a wonderful family, the Bills. "So...Why not on the 4th?"  I asked the first time I went to the show 6 years ago. Well, check this out: "The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more." John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776 (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/declarat.html) The vote for independence actually took place on the 2nd, and the declaration penned by Thomas Jefferson was adopted two days later on the 4th!  So the Bills are following John Adams' advice, and I think that is pretty legit!  This i...

On second thought...maybe I shouldn't call this post boring , it could be a self-fulfilling prophesy.  What I've been thinking of is how NOT to be boring .  I've been going through a patch of life where I feel dissatisfied almost all the time.  No matter what I'm doing or who I'm with I wish I was somewhere else...nowhere specific, just not wherever I am.  I've wondered why that is.  Do I have a short attention span?  Can I change it or am I doomed to be perpetually somewhat bored ?  What an awful fate. Objectively thinking, there is nothing boring about my life.  It's awesome.  I have sweet friends, I live in a place where the things I love to do are accessible, I only work part time so I have lots of time to play, I have a great education, I try to spend my time doing meaningful things.  Oh, and the best part, I LOVE the church I belong to!  The scriptures and other books I read are an endless source of new and inspiring ideas....

I never understood how certain friends of mine could be so obsessed with their plants, particularly the multitude of cacti with which (or should I say with whom?) they share much of their living space.  However, one day at Walmart I began to understand.     Flowers were on sale that day, and I decided I want to plant some outside my apartment.  I bought pansies, violas, hyacinths, and seeds for columbines, forget-me-nots (Alaska state flower and my favorite), and green beans. Ever since I brought my baby plants home, they have been constantly on my mind.  Throughout the day I check the weather and the moisture of their soil.  I move them to get more sun if it's cloudy in the morning, and I rush to bring them inside if it begins to snow.  I'm waiting patiently to plant my seeds.  Though I want to see the flowers, I would hate for them to be ruined by a snowstorm or bad frost.  Every time I see a flower garden I stop and study it to disc...

"Everyone is special...which is another way of saying nobody is" Remember when Dash from the Incredibles said that? Well I, for one, don't believe in it.  How does widespread specialness diminish the quality of each individual special case? Annie told me once a long time ago that everyone is the best in the world at something.  I think it's true.  Since everyone is different, if we can find the way we are different, we must be the best in the world at what is different about us!  Right?  Annie is (and this is self-declared) the BEST in the world at laughing as hard at a joke or a movie the 100th time she hears it as the first time.  It makes her delightful to be around.  I consider it one of her gifts. This is Annie.  She so funny, but not really in this picture. My Biochemistry professor always spent the last few minutes of class telling us stories from his life that taught him important lessons. One of my favorites was story of the time he ...

My mom said she thought this picture of me was symbolic of my life.  If I ascend the stairs, surely something greater than what I have now is waiting.  Training.  Education.  Structure.  Meaningful contributions.  The things expected of an adult.  Or I can go my own way by jumping out the window into the sunlight!  I don't know where I'd land, or even where I would want to land... Ok so she didn't exactly say that, but she gave me the idea! I realized today that this is sort of my last summer before I grow up.  I'll be in grad school next summer, and after that I'll hopefully have a 'real job' where you don't get summers off.  Am I happy about that?  I don't know.  It's inevitable.  But a big part of me...or maybe it's just a very vocal part doesn't want to leave this foot-loose and fancy free stage of life behind.  Another part knows I cannot get where I want to go by keeping things just the way they are.  No...

I have been making this list in my mind and I wanted to share it before I forget!  Lesson 1: Enjoy the weather, whatever it may be I checked the weather this morning and whined through the wall to Aleena, "Aww it's supposed to rain today!"  She immediately responded with absolute sincerity "YES!  I love the rain!" It changed my whole day. Lesson 1a:  You can change someone's whole day with one positive response. Lesson 2: Embrace the happiness that is affixed to the atonement. 2 Nephi 2:10 "which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer to ends of the atonement. It's affixed.  Why let it become like forgotten chocolate in the back of the cupboard, and only bring it out for special occasions?   Lesson 3: Every time a good thing happens, there is something to be happy about, no matter who the good thing happens to.  Thanks for that, Matt Hopkins. Lesson 4: Sometimes we reje...

Picture courtesy of the late and dearly missed Joe Leahy My Mom used to pay us a dime for each dandelion we kids could uproot in our yard. She explained that you have to follow the root deep into the soil to get every little bit out, or else they sprout again. More often than not, the stubborn roots stretched further into the soil than I could dig, so I ripped out all I could and tried to fulfill Mom's directions by chopping at the remaining strands of root clinging to the depths of the soil.  When roots are deep enough, they have to break when it comes time to dig them out.  There's no way to remove the plant from its roots AND keep it whole. That's how I feel now.  I just arrived in Provo from what may be my last trip to my roots, Valdez, for quite some time.  I took advantage of all the time I had on the plane ride back to the "Lower 48", as we semi-affectionately call it, to write my feelings.  Here are a few snippets.  A lot of them are about ...