CELEBRATIONS

At the beginning of the month I plugged my camera battery in overnight so it could charge. When I woke up it still wasn't charged. It's one of those rectangle lithium ion batteries and apparently it finally ran out of juice. It lasted a year so that's pretty good, but when I bought a camera I hadn't planned on having to buy a new battery every year. It was really surprising when I looked on line and found they cost about 50 bucks.

Amazingly, I happened to find a check for $50 in my wallet that I got a few weeks ago for babysitting. I had forgotten to deposit it so as it turned out, I had an extra $50. I finally went to circuit city and bought a new battery. Now I can start taking pictures again, and therefore have more to blog about.

I got stung by a bee today while my friend Jenny and I were hiking in the mountains. To my knowledge I have only been stung one other time in my life. It was kind of exciting to celebrate my 2nd bee sting, and buying a new camera battery in the same day. I felt bad for the bee--isn't it true that if they sting you they die? He was just sitting on my shirt collar and when I lifted my hand to rub my neck I must of landed right on his stinger. It could have all been avoided if he would have just landed somewhere I could see him. I guess I don't feel too bad because they really bug me when they crowd me while I'm trying to eat my lunch.

Lessons from Grass

Today I walked from my apartment to the LDS Temple in Provo. It was kind of a long walk in a dress and heels, but the journey is half the experience right? I'm not complaining because my walk was only about 30 minutes, and there are people who sometimes walk days and spend every cent they own to get to the temple.

The final stretch to the temple is the walk along the missionary field (literally a soccer field for the missionaries in the Missionary Training Center). I saw a stretch of grass between the missionary field and the temple with a sign pressed in it about every 15 feet. As soon as I was close enough to read the sign I laughed: "I'm trying hard to grow, so please don't walk on me"---BYU Grounds. Apparently the grounds crew at BYU is now giving the grass its own voice. Perhaps to appeal to our emotions and keep us off the grass.

The funny thing was I immediately thought of all the times I've wished I could have that very sign placed on my forehead. "I'm trying hard to grow so please don't walk on me." Doesn't it sometimes feel like you're getting walked on from so many different directions? That really puts a damper on things when you're trying so hard to grow stronger, and better. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just put up a sign that says don't walk on me right now? Wouldn't it be so much easier to grow?

Unfortunately even if we did tape a sign to our foreheads it is inevitable that we'll get walked on through our life journey. Then I thought; contrary to grass, the more we get walked on the better, more refined we become. Can you imagine going through life without any struggle, without ever being trampled, picked, stepped on, dug up? Seems like we would never learn from our mistakes, and never be allowed to grow stronger by overcoming the hard times. We would never recognize the need for something or someone of a higher power, more perfect than ourselves to help us through.

I think I would rather have my sign on my heart, not my forehead, with these words: "Father in Heaven, I'm trying hard to grow, so if I must be stepped on please help me to grow anyway."