Being Happy

I have the secret! Okay, no secret. You caught me. However, I have had some personal insight lately. I have actually been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't gotten the chance (or motivation). So, even though I already posted once today, I will put this one up as well. They just didn't go together... I am actually going to be somewhat serious in this post. I have been thinking quite a bit lately about what exactly happiness means. As many before me have already concluded, there is not right answer, secret recipe or magic potion to create happiness. It is a choice, a choice that has to be made over and over again, often minute by minute. Now this is not to say that if you are not happy 100% of the time, you are failing and it is your own fault. Life is hard, and sometimes that choice to be happy is a very difficult one. There are many factors that play into our lives, and I am in no way an expert, nor do I pretend to be able to comment on them. However, in various conversations and experiences over the past couple weeks I have come to the conclusion that there are two large factors that we CAN control that contribute to happiness!

1. Faith. I know, hard right. It is hard to have faith, hope and patience when trials seem to stretch on forever and have no end. It is hard to have faith when the future is scary. It is hard to have faith when there is uncertainty. However, the knowledge that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us is comforting. Sometimes I wish he would give me a bit more of a sneak peak, but even knowing that there is a plan is helpful when it is hard to see my own plan. I just need to have a little more trust, and chose to know that it is all going to work out better than I could ever plan. To borrow a line from Bishop Edgley "Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism." It is a choice. I chose to be happy and have faith.

2. In keeping with the current season, the second secret is gratitude. Being grateful really does make a difference. We were talking about happiness in one of the group therapy sessions that I was in at clinicals. I wish I could remember who had written the article (a non-LDS affiliated article by the way) but he made an interesting point. The article said that no grateful person is unhappy and all happy people are grateful. This really struck me, and I realized exactly how true it is. When we take time to realize just how blessed we really are, the problems don't seem so big. Life really is Beautiful :) Who knew the song "Count your blessings" was right!

Random Thoughts

Thought #1: I have decided all entertainment actually has some basis in fact. During clinicals this past week we started classifying people's lives as to where they fit. I have known people who literally have lives like soap operas. This is a bit sad, but true. The majority of my friends seem to have lives like Disney movies (at their own admittance). I however, have a life like a sitcom. All of the hilarious coincidences, random happenings, and very funny awkward situations actually happen in my life. Now I know you are thinking, there is no way some of those things could ever happen in real life, it is just too much like the perfect storm. Nevertheless, that is my life. It is pretty funny. At least I always have good stories!

Thought #2: Going along with thought #1, I have also decided that I am insane. Now before you laugh that off or decide that you already knew that, hear me out. Everyone uses the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I had an epiphany yesterday as I decided that is exactly describes dating. Now for the disclaimer, I am not against dating, I actually enjoy dating most of the time. It was just a funny though that I wanted to share... I personally seem to do the same thing over and over again with people that I am interested in, and always seem to come up with the same result....Insanity :) Now I actually have proof that I'm going just a little bit crazy!

Thought #3: Why do people who go to the gym worry about parking as close as possible. Aren't you there to exercise? So does it really matter if you have to walk an extra 20 feet? Doesn't seem to make sense to me. Oh well, the world is a funny place. Good thing we all can laugh!

Multi-Tasking

Everyone says that girls are great at multi-tasking. I would agree with that. However, I have found that my multi-tasking has a limit. Yesterday I was attempting to do an assignment while curling my hair. For those of you who have never curled your hair, it can be a dangerous practice waving that curling iron around. While in the process, I received a phone call from a friend whom I hadn't spoken to in a long time. So of course, I took the call. Well, to all of you who doubt that I could curl my hair, do my homework, and talk on the phone at the same time, you are wrong. I was successful. However, my attention was slightly distracted to everything else. So I grabbed my hairspray to make sure that the curls would stay and sprayed it on. Right about then I looked in the mirror and realized I had a problem. My hair was all of a sudden covered in white foamy stuff. After a second of confusion I looked in my hand and realized the bottle I had grabbed from underneath my counter was not the intended hair spray, but instead the scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner. Oops. Needless to say I had to start all over on my hair, and cut down the tasks I am doing at the same time. Slowly but surely I am losing my mind :)

Good Times!

I LOVE FALL! The crispness to the air that comes as it starts to cool down, the fresh feeling all around, and especially college football! It is one of my very favorite times in Utah. Although it only lasts for a very short time, I love watching the colors creep down the mountains. The steady march from Green, to yellow and red to brown is really quite stunning. Then they fall to the earth, and we get to have the fun of stepping on the crunchy leaves.




It reminds one that life is cyclic...that things are always changing, but that the change is not necessarily bad. It is interesting as well to think that something so beautiful comes from the leaves dying. Normally people think of death as a bad thing. With leaves, it is a necessary thing...that might be a challenge to the tree. However, there is always a Spring that follows the fall (after a crazy cold period of time known as Winter...) and everything comes to life again. Kinda like real life...sometimes we have challenges that seem fatal, but we can always find the beauty during that time, and eventually that passes, life goes on, and flowers come again.


So enough for my pondering thoughts at the moment.
I went hiking up Logan Canyon and here are some of the pretty pictures! I wish I had a better camera...but at least you get a bit of a feel for how it looked. I was surprised at how pretty the whole canyon was. I had never been there before, but I hope to make it back!

Beginnings and Endings

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

A true, and bittersweet statement as I am once again experiencing.

Change is a constant in life. If we never moved forward none of us would ever have made it to elementary school, to middle school, moved on to high school, college, or a job. Without change, we would all miss out on a whole lot of good things. Even with that knowledge, change is sometimes hard.

As my family begins to move to Utah I have been surprised at how sad I am about the move. I have been away from Georgia for 6 years but it is still home to me! We have been here for the past 20 years and I have lived in this house since 2nd grade. The memories that live in this house would take forever to mention. Countless Christmases, birthdays, parties, my first date-boyfriend-and subsequent break up, leaving for college, my mission call, late night conversations with my brothers, and a million other fleeting moments that will linger here unknown by the next owners of this house.

The Peachtree Corners Ward knew me as a Sunbeam, and Young Woman and a member of the Relief Society. I understand a bit of what some people must feel about me when I see the kids I used to babysit going off to college...

So now as I am looking at goodbye it doesn't actually feel real. A large part of me feels as if I am just going off to school the same as every other semester and I'll be back for Christmas. Although it won't be Christmas, I will be back eventually.

It is sad to say goodbye, but on the other hand, there is a door open for new opportunities. I am excited to see what is around this bend in the road...

32 months

It has been 32 months since my family has all been in the same room....

I am happy to say that this Friday that was changed! I came home from efy in California on Saturdsay (well really Sunday morning), Andrew returned from his mission in Las Vegas West on Tuesday, Dad and Bryan came in from Utah on Friday. So as of about 1am on Saturday, we were once again gathered around the island in our kitchen. It was so much fun!!! I had forgotten how funny my brothers are, especially when they get around each other.

I am so thankful for family! Especially mine. I feel so blessed that I have them, and convinced that I have the best family in the entire world. Thanks guys!!!!

Making Up

So I have been duly chastised for my lack of blogging in the recent months. I apologize to all those avid readers... the two that I have :)




In keeping with the theme...I will chronicle my summer adventures. I was once again working with the efy program as a health counselor. I was assigned to the California team. As a result I also HAD to go to Hawaii, part of which we just had to hang out waiting for our next session to start. As I have been told that a picture is worth a thousand words....I will post pictures. My camera speaks better than I do!


However, it was a fantastic trip. We were able to stay after for a couple days and we rented a little house across the street from the Hukilau beach. It was gorgeous weather, and the perfect break in the middle of the efy press for the summer. We were so lucky to be there. I have decided that it is a far better option to go to BYU Hawaii during the winter months. Too bad there is no nursing program.

Now in an effort to keep this from being overwhelming and boring, I am done. However, I will keep my eye out for the funny stories since i have no more big trips. Hopefully the next post will be more entertaining, but at least I have started again!