Joy

Lately, to me, joy has come to mean those times in life when you have a quiet happiness and peace backing up whatever stress or problems you are working with.

There was awhile last summer when that joy seemed pretty dead for me.

But...because of that, even when I let myself get sucked into the "woe is me" of a problem...I know underneath it all that all will be made right and happiness can be found!

Some nights seem longer than others, but Joy always cometh in the morning.
Then the next night will come. And the next morning :)

"At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel's end, no dawn to break the night's darkness. We feel surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the bibilical plea "Is there no balm in Gilead?" We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone.
To all who so despair, may I offer the assurance found in the psalm "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome."
-Thomas S. Monson

:)

Summer Lovin'

I love the summer!
Mmmm. It makes me feel alive. School is great...but breaks are great too ha.

Summer reminds me of this poem by William Wordsworth:

"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of the bay.
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in a sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee,
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils."

:)

UP2U

"To live is to change, 
and to be perfect is to have changed often."
~Pack o' gum

(I just wanna add...to change "for the better" often.)

Ahem...


"Every time
you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. 
And taking your life as a whole, with all you innumerable choices,
 all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature....Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other."
~C.S. Lewis

I like this. Little moldings of your soul with every little decision you have to make.

Seems more hopeful to me than just thinking about what grand changes you must make.

Side-note: UP2U is not the first time I've chosen gum for its sweet packaging. I love the cheesy inspirational quotes inside :)

Side-note dos: Not that I'm gonna be a wino or anything, but this made me chuckle...

On that note...life is great.

:)

It'll be OK!

This has been stuck in my head for days:
"It will all work out, don't worry."

I'm not really troubled by anything, but the rhythm of that line just keeps popping up whenever I'm not thinking about anything.

The whole things is quite good, I'm sure you've heard it:

"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is.
It all works out,
Don't worry.
I say that to myself every morning. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us...If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers."
~Gordon B. Hinckley

:)

Shark Bait ooh haha

This inspired me ;)

Seriously, I'm impressed. 

Also, seeing watermelon makes me extra excited for summer!!!

:)

Dreams

Someone once told me that "I Dreamed a Dream" was the most boring song in Les Mis. I agreed. I have since come to love that song.

An added layer of love was attached to the song when I saw Susan Boyle's famous rendition.

Tonight I was at a talent show, where a girl sang this song.
She was a better singer than me, but will probably never be a Susan Boyle.
But the small audience cheered as loudly as if she was a superstar :)

Does it change the story for you if I add that she is a student at a school for adults with autism and learning disabilities? (Sometimes I wonder if details like that shouldn't change how we feel about things.)

Anyhoo..

"I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid,
No song unsung, no wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame...

But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather.

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living.
So different now from what it seemed,
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed."

The big lines give me chills. Ha...as negative as those words seem, they inspire me!
Both to check myself and see if I'm being cynical about the dreams of others. If I'm being too "realistic."
Cuz whenever I find myself in an environment where people clap at every best effort, I feel good. I feel the not-so-subtle reminder that when we can triumph in the successes of each other, everybody is happier.

Yeah, life usually puts us where we probably never expected. I expect we imagine our lives quite different than how they are ha.
But we can weather the storms. And the hell of any moment won't last forever.

:)

Edge of Glory!

Love that song, it pumps me up.

Life pumps me up! Sunshine pumps me up!

The future pumps me up :) Some things in the future seem way further away than I'd like, but I'm so happy to finally have a little more direction in my life.

I'm on the edge of glory....................do you ever feel like that??
Like every day you are "out on the edge of forever, ready to run"? (David Cook)

So many possibilities ahead, and summertime makes them all seem more..possible :)

Also, I never read the Chronicles of Narnia as a youth. So I'm using them as study breaks (along with ..short shopping trips, bike rides to nowhere, and lunch with former roommates...heheh). They aren't half bad.

:)