trees and white blossoms

so today i learned something new. :) i was walking around outside enjoying the Beautiful weather! and then i saw this tree with pretty white blossoms hanging over the fence right toward me. i thought the flowers would look pretty in my hair so i decided to break a few off. i kept walking and i was reading a new book at the same time (side note--this is really an incredible book. it is called "gift of the sea" and it is written by ann morrow lindberg. she has a beautiful style of writing that i love because she is able to express things in a clean, unique, and wonderful way.) 

anyway, so i was walking, still holding the little flowers and i noticed after a while that they were now really wilted. and it had only been maybe 15 or 20 minutes. by the time i made it home they were all shriveled up. it made me think about unity again (i was on this unity kick last year). i'm still learning a lot about unity, even though i'm not as focused on it, but one thing i thought of was how little time it took these flowers to become wilted once they were detached from the tree. while walking i think what happened is my hand kept swaying and moving, so maybe the wind had something to do with the wilting of the flowers, but then i thought about how the wind must surely blow the flowers while they're still attached to the tree, but it doesn't seem to have the same effect (they don't seem to get wilted that way or that fast i guess), and i felt like the reason is because of the tree's unity and what it offers to each individual flower so that it is stronger as a whole unit than in smaller/separate pieces. i feel that is a true principle that relates to so many things. 

it also made me think of something that our stake president's wife sister todd said once during a lesson. she was talking about finding balance in her life and how she used to imagine a wheel and that she would separate her life into all of these little triangles so that the wheel would be complete and roll smoothly. but then she realized her life was not a wheel, but more like a tree. she said her life was like a tree because she found balance and peace from being deeply rooted in the gospel, and that everything else extended from her testimony of christ and of knowing who she was. 

anyway, that is something i learned today. i love learning from nature and i love beautiful days!

a little bit of poetry :)

tonight i was at a friend's house for a music night and part of it involved ppl sharing poems. i shared two poems that i really love that one of my best friends sent me while i was on my mission. it was one of the best gifts i received because they just ended up meaning a lot to me. so i wanted to share one of them because it seems fitting with the wonderful weather we've been having lately that magnifies how beautiful everything is (sun = able to see more beauty). 

i also wanted to share another poem that i hadn't heard before but that i also liked. it is about someone named "hokusai" who says wise things. :)

God's Grandeur

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The world is charged with the grandeur of God. 

It will flame out, like shining oil from shook foil; 

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Hokusai says

by Roger Keyes

Hokusai says Look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing.

He says Look Forward to getting old.

He says keep changing,

you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself

as long as it's interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child,

every one of us is ancient,

every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive--

shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees.

Wood is alive.

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn't matter if you draw, or write books.

It doesn't matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn't matter if you sit at home

and stare at the ants on your verandah or the shadows of the trees

It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength 

are life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.

He says don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

it's my final final! yaaaaay!

it is early morning, the morning of my last final as a 1L!! woohoo!

i feel so much peace right now. i'm listening to a song by steven sharp nelson. it's called "homeward bound" and it's him playing the cello. i love the cello! sunday night i went to a fireside and a girl played "come thou fount" on the cello and it was so amazing. something i've now added to my summer list is I want to play the cello! relatedly, in doing a little reflecting i just want to say to all of the world and before the lord that i am so grateful to him. god has blessed me in so many ways. he is good. he is kind, he is patient, loving, and forgiving. all i want to do is serve him!

happy happy wednesday! :D

5 more days..

FIVE more days until i am officially done with my first year of law school!! no big deal ;)

Today's Stand a little taller quote..

Happy in the work

"Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion" -Ecclesiastes 3:22

Love the work.

Don't do it grudgingly.

Smile about it.

Be happy doing your duty.

Shape up and say your prayers.

Everything will be alright.

-Pres Gordon B. Hinckley