Arise

It seems the theme of "Arise and Shine Forth" keeps appearing in my life.  We had a lesson on it last week in Relief Society and tonight I sang in a Jenny Phillips' fireside centered around this.  Of course, it is the youth theme for this year, so naturally it is rather wide spread, but I've been pondering more about it than I ever have before.  In the past, when I heard that phrase, I mostly thought of being a good example and focused on the "shining" part.  But I've been realizing the importance of the very first word.  We are commanded to "arise."

Arise is a call to action.  It's not a passive thing.  Sister Elaine S. Dalton said, "Arise and shine forth is a call to each of you to lead the world in a mighty cause."  I love that.  It is too easy to live life passively (at least for me).  It is much easier for me to be an observer rather than a doer.  But "arise and shine forth" is a call to action.  I must not sit passively expecting people to come to me.  No, we are not agents to be acted upon.  I'm done waiting around and letting other people take the action.  I've decided that I'm going to get out of my shell more and "arise."  I'm going to leave behind the cares of the world and rise up, not just for myself, but for others.  I'm going to act and serve and befriend and lead, just as Sister Dalton asked us to do.

I love the scriptures.  And I love how there are always new things to learn from them.  I'm sure one day I'll be reading this same scripture and gain a whole new layer of understanding.  So wonderful.

Take Time to Eat and Breathe

Today on the bus ride home I started feeling horrible.  My head was pounding and my stomach didn't feel so great either.  I normally do homework on the bus, but reading just made it worse.  By the time I got home, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep it off, but of course I have homework so I couldn't do that.  So instead I did some yoga, hoping it would help.

All the sudden it dawned on me.  I hadn't eaten for 5 hours.  Perhaps that had something to do with the misery I was in.  Food sounded less than appetizing at the moment, but I slowly ate an orange anyway.  I started to feel a little better.  So I ate a piece of toast.  And then another.  And then a bowl of some casserole my mom made the night before.  And then some brussel sprouts (yes, I like those things).  And then some crackers.  And drank two glasses of water.  And guess what?  I felt better!

Moral of the story.  Take time to eat and relax.  I forget to do that sometimes.  I'm pretty sure I gave myself a migraine from stressing over school and lack of food.  I had food in my backpack and I should have just eaten it, but I was too busy doing other things.  Bad idea.  Probably my lack of sleep hasn't helped either.  So here are some goals for me as finals approach: eat, breathe, sleep.

Wish me luck on accomplishing those and doing well on finals ; )

Skiing and New Years

Last week I went skiing for almost my first time.  The time before that I was really little and terrified of heights... So terrified that when my ski instructor took us to the lift I sat down and cried.  I refused to get on it.  I don't really count that as my first ski experience. 

Last week was great.  It was really hard, but at the end I started to get a hang of turning and was more in control.   I went at it determined to conquer any fears I had about it.  I'll probably have to go again to conquer all my fears, but I made a good start : )

My grandpa is in his 80's and is quite the skier.  He's incredible!  He will hit the slopes whenever he can and was kind enough to help me learn.  Thanks to my amazing ski school teacher and my wonderful grandpa I stayed alive.  I have to admit there were some near misses with trees.  The first time down the hill I couldn't figure out how to turn or slow down and I was headed right towards a cluster of trees.  I heard my teacher yell, "I'm coming for you!" and he flew down the hill, grabbed me and turned me to safety.  Yikes!  That could have been ugly! 

It was nice to finally be apart of the skiing that my family (especially my grandpa) so enjoys.

On New Years Eve my dad's family all got together to celebrate New Years with all sorts of Japanese food.  My sister and I tried making sushi for the first time.  So fun!  Now if only I liked eating it...

There's a little update, my friends.  I must warn you, school starts on Monday and I'll be diving head first into quite the load of school, work, and designing two shows so I might disappear a bit.  I do love keeping this up and the excuse it gives me to take pictures so don't be too surprised if I still write despite my schedule.

Focus on what you know

I've been working on a research paper for my theatre history class for the past month or so... although you could say I've been working on avoiding it for the past month. No, not completely, but doing research has been a lot more challenging than I expected, thus I've stalled the actual writing.

I just feel so inept writing about a subject I know imperfectly (sometimes this perfectionism can really get in the way!). But today I had this epiphany as I walked to one of my classes yesterday.  The thought came to me:

"Focus on what you know"

It was one of those moments that make you say, "Of course!  Why didn't I think of that before?"  It's just like the gospel where you can get caught up on all the things you don't know or are too complex for our little human minds.  We can get stuck and frustrated trying to understand how we came to be when there is no beginning of time OR we can focus on what we know.  From my experience, focusing on what we know brings so much more peace, calm, and eventually more enlightenment.

I was pleased when I realized that the same idea applies to studying and writing.  And guess what?  As soon as I started focusing on what I know about the decline of Roman theatre the task didn't seem so daunting.  I realized I knew more than I thought I did and I actually did have something to write about.  

I've got an outline and I'm ready to go.  There's still much to learn, but I've got a place to start.

And all these books and more to learn from:

Now lets see if I can crank out 10 coherent pages for Monday. Thank goodness it's only a first draft!