A Little Red Problem

So I have to admit I have a new obsession. It's not damaging or addictive it's just something that occupies my mind. Alot.

Now it is a guy and this guy is handsome, smart, thoughtful, and charming. He has and English accent and can speak french with the best of them. Unfortunately he doesn't exist. You see his name is Sir Percy Blakeney. If you are not familiar with that name let's try this one, he is also called The Scarlet Pimpernel. The Scarlet Pimpernel was written by Baroness Orczy and it has been the base of a musical, television shows, and movies.

Now my obsession with The Scarlet Pimpernel starts awhile back when I went to go see the musical again. After that I started to watch the movie. Now after watching the movie and listening to the musical over and over again. I decided to check out the book. And boy was I in for a surprise. I discovered it was completely different from the movie and the musical. You don't even really get to know Percy until the end of the book! So imagine my surprise when I found that Baroness Ozcry wrote more than one book about The Scarlet Pimpernel, so I started reading more and found myself falling more and more for The Scarlet Pimpernel.

I've decided it's time for this to stop. That falling in love with a literary character just can't work, so maybe reading a little bit about Gilbert Blythe will help....

It's Independence Day!

So today is Independence Day, more commonly know as the Fourth of July. Now some people think it's about the fire works....

(My family likes aerial fireworks the best)

Or could it be about the barbecue that seems mandatory on the Fourth of July...

Or it could be about the parade and receiving the candy that is thrown at you...

But shouldn't the fourth be about honoring the founding of this country and the men and women who have died to show the love and devotion that they have for this country. Don't get me wrong the fireworks, barbecues, and parades are all fun and enjoyable. But that shouldn't be what we look forward to on the fourth.

This morning I had the opportunity to play with the concert band I'm in at a sunrise flag ceremony. Now as a rule I'm not a big fan of Fourth of July music. It's all marches and an oboe is personally not a very good instrument for playing the traditional marches that we all know and love. But in any concert that is a patriotic concert you can count on seeing two songs. First is Stars and Stripes by John Phillip Sousa. The second is the Armed Force Salute, which is basically a collaboration of all the military branches melody's. Every time I play this song I like to watch the audience. There are always men and sometimes women that stand up when they hear there branches melody being played. Men from Vietnam and other wars stand up straight and proud with a salute, proud of the service they have given.

Let us remember that Fourth of July is our Independence Day. And that our soldiers have given up their lives to protect our freedom and others freedom as well. Support our troops because they protect everything we hold dear such as our land, families, and liberties.

God Bless America!

Moving is Like Popping a Zit

Well this post was supposed to go up two weeks ago when I actually moved. But since this is me it of course didn't happen. I was packing up all my stuff to move back home for my college experience and as I was packing I kept thinking about all the people that I had met and grown close to and how hard it would be to leave. It was also a time when I was breaking all the rules that the dermatologist and my mother had told me and was popping some zits. Now some might say how is popping a zit really going to be compared to moving? Well I'll tell you.

Sometimes moving is easy and your ready for it and it's not a big deal. That's the zit that's ready to pop. Then there's the emotional move. Where everywhere you look there are memories. You look around campus you see the library that you think you spent to much time in but in reality you know you didn't spend nearly as much time in there as you should have. There's the memory of leaving your apartment and seeing people you know as you walk to class and saying hi becomes part of a daily ritual and then seeing someone you don't know and you text your roommates saying, "I just saw the cutest guy." There's the painful but joyous memory of standing on stage being acknowledged for a solo with the wind ensemble knowing that it's your final concert with many of the people on stage and that there is a very slim chance of playing the oboe with the two girls who have been you partners in crime in the band room for the last two years. There's the memory of finals week when you know you should be studying a little more diligently but instead you and your roommates drag your mattresses to the living room to see how many new movies you can watch with your roommates that you've never seen before. It's making a mess with those same roommates in the kitchen on Sunday just because you haven't learned certain kitchen skills yet. (Example: Hot liquid+ a blender= a mess all over your kitchen). It's looking at people you've worked with for six months and wondering if they'll even remember the difference you've tried to make in their lives. And last but not least it's standing up in the ward that's been your family away from home and looking around at the pulpit knowing that most of the people in the ward you wont see again despite how good of friends you are. These are the kind of memories that make moving seem like a "deep" zit. The kind that you have to push really hard on to get out and it hurts when it does come out. It's the kind of zit that sometimes scabs and scars after it pops.

But there is always the future to look forward too. As Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables would say, the roots of my life have been dug up and transplanted. But I think with being transplanted you learn how much you've really grown and how much more you can grow.

Challenge

It's amazing how life goes. One minute your up, and then the next your down. But what makes feel like that, and how come we can't all be happy in our lives. Goals change, people change, and your outlook changes. You can think someone is weak because you can't see why their struggling with there problems but in reality their moving a mountain that is in their path that we can't see.

We all have different out looks on life but sometime we have to walk a mile in someones shoes before we can know what troubles them. It's a new goal of mine to be able to stand tall and not judge someone because of the trials that there facing. Imagine what would happen in this world if everyone looked at each other and said, "Look how strong he is because he overcame this." or "I wish that I had her courage to stand up for what I believe, even thought everyone might be mocking me."

I know this blog doesn't reach many people but if I could just challenge anyone who reads this to also make the goal of being more understanding of one another. Remember that we don't know what a persons past experiences are but we can always show support to each other instead taking each other down.

Challenge Your Fears

So I was in institute yesterday when something was discussed that really caught my attention. We talked about how the things that scare us most are the things that we need to do to succeed and to change ourselves. As I've been contemplating this subject off and on for the last couple hours I came to the realization that just because I'm scared something doesn't mean that I should let it hold me back from doing what I should do. And when I go back and look on the experience it will make me stronger because I was able to conquer my fears.

A Movie Plus Volleyball

So for Family Home Evening tonight my ward went to the visitors center at the temple and watched the movie Only A Stone Cutter. I had never seen it before and was very impressed by it's message. It is the story of John Rowe Moyle. He was an immigrant from England and came across with one of the very first handcart companies. He was also one of the first people to settle what would become Alpine, Utah. After he arrived in Utah and settled in and started his farm he received a calling to work as a stone mason on the Salt Lake Temple. It was a 22 mile walk from his farm to Salt Lake a walk that he made week after week without fail. Even when he lost a leg due to an accident on his farm he fashioned a leg for himself and kept going to complete his calling. One of the things that stood out to me the most in this movie was that when his wife told him after he lost his leg that there were plenty of stone masons to fulfill the work on the lords house he looked at her and said, "But it is my calling to fulfill not anyone else's."

It's that example that I want to follow in my life. I want to be able to say, "It was my calling to fulfill and I am proud to say I fulfilled it." It has kind of put made me think about what I can do to fulfill any of my callings. Even in adversity I should be putting an effort in to fulfilling my calling completely.

After the movie we went to the Institute building the original plan was to have hot chocolate and socialize but another ward invited us to join them and so we had ice cream and pizza and played volleyball. I think I probably played for ten minutes before I decided that I liked watching more. And not to mention I felt like I was going to fall on my face every couple minutes. It was fun to watch other members of my ward play. They had a pretty good game going that was fun to watch.

I also got to see one of my really good friends at the visitors center that I haven't seen for awhile. It was good to see her and to be able to talk and hang out with her.

Lessons Learned

Happy New Years everyone! (15 days late of course but that's ok!) With a new year I hope to start with a new me. A song has playing around in my song for a couple weeks now and it's called Lessons Learned by Carrie Underwood. Here are the lyrics.

There's some things that I regret,

Some words I wish had gone unsaid,

Some starts,

That had some better endings,

Been some bad times I've been through,

Damage I cannot undo.

Some things,

I wish I could do all all over again,

But it don't really matter,

When life gets that much harder,

It makes you that much stronger,

Oh, some pages turned,

Some bridges burned,

But there were,

Lessons learned.

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,

And everyday I wondered how I'd get through the night,

Every change, life has thrown me,

I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,

I'm grateful, for every scar,

Some pages turned,

Some bridges burned,

But there were lessons learned.

There's mistakes that I have made,

Some chances I just threw away,

Some roads,

I never should have taken,

Been some signs I didn't see,

Hearts that I hurt needlessly,

Some wounds,

That I wish I could have one more chance to mend,

But it don't make no difference,

The past can't be rewritten,

You get the life you're given,

Oh, some pages turned,

Some bridges burned,

But there were,

Lessons learned.

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,

And everyday I wondered how I'd get through the night,

Every change, life has thrown me,

I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,

I'm grateful, for every scar,

Some pages turned,

Some bridges burned,

But there were lessons learned.

And all the things that break you,

Are the things that make you strong!

You can't change the past,

Cause it's gone.

And you just gotta move on,

Because it's all

Lessons learned.

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,

From everyday I wondered how I'd get through the night,

From every change, life has thrown me.

I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,

I'm grateful, for every scar,

Some pages turned,

Some bridges burned,

But there were lessons learned,

Oh, some pages turned,

Some bridges burned,

But there were lessons learned,

Lessons learned.

Lessons learned.

The part that I think of the most is in the chorus when it says, Some pages turned, some bridges burned, but there were lessons learned.

In my life I want to be able to say that through everything I go through I can say I'm thankful for every break in my heart, I'm grateful for every scar. Because I can recognize that there were some pages turned, some bridges burned, but there were lessons learned.

In my blog I would like to record the lessons learned on my journey that we called life. The good, the bad, the happy, the sad. And hopefully these things that I learn can help someone else.