Proof I'm Still Here

It's been a while, but in my defense my day to day life has not been interesting enough to merit much interest from anyone besides myself. That being said, there were a few highlights.

• My first kitchen fire! I was making a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner and trying to watch something on TV at the same time. In my defense, that had nothing to do with the fire starting, it merely made me a little slower on the uptake. There was something under the stove, but my roommate, a professional had not seemed to concerned when she cooked on it a day or so before. One of the times I looked back at the sandwich to check on it I noticed that the stove flames were getting a little high, especially considering that our stove is electric.
• Voice lessons have started. I'm doing all right, and I'm having fun in the process. The audition may go better than I had planned.
• My apartment will have two new roommates next semester and I am so excited to live with those girls. We sign the lease tomorrow. It will be a blast!
• Trev's birthday was yesterday and my whole family came up and we went to the temple together and then we hung out at my place. I owe my parents (literally) for getting me little knick knacks to make the place a little more luxurious (such as a shower curtain and light bulbs.)
• Today I got to teach in church for the first time since I moved here. It is always a little scary to be up front, but I was glad to have the opportunity.

Other than that I go to school, practice, read and eat. All is going well. Thanks for reading!

The Secret Garden

Okay so I will admit that I read a lot. I will also admit that many of the things I read don't rank to high on the "literature scale." Star Trek novels and the like are really easy ways to fill time while I am waiting for Trevor to get off work or waiting for a class to start. That being said, there are many books that I think have shaped me as a person. Most of them I read when I was young, and I want to discuss the most edifying piece of fiction I have ever found. Guess what book it is! (Hint: Look to the right.)

So many times I have found that book in thrift stores and many times I have felt I needed to buy it for battered women's shelters or mental hospitals. The parallelism in that story always makes me think. The garden was locked up for 10 years, Colin and Mary were hidden away for the same amount of time. When the garden let them in they let others in their hearts.

One of the quotes in the front of my scripures comes from that book. "Where you tend a rose a thistle cannot grow." I have a testimony this is true. When we work hard to tend roses in our lives we will do a lot of weeding. My favorite thing about this analogy is that it can be applied to almost any good thing. When I spend my time with good music bad music will not find its' way in. When I fill my stomache with good, nutritious food junk food will cease to be on my menu. I also testify that when we fill our lives with light darkness will leave us.

This is also a good metaphor beause, as any gardener can attest, the minute you stop tending the rose the thistles will sprout. It is all well and good to have a healthy breakfast, but it does not give me leeway to skip lunch. One Mormon Tabernacle Choir cd does not mean I am set for life. Most importantly when we pray we have light, but the moment we stop praying Satan launches his attack. This is a constant effort, but just like Mary we have our own Dikens and Ben Wetherstaffs and Marthas to guide us and help us correct mistakes and console us when life is hard. Most importantly we have a master gardner who knows what our "bit of earth" aka our lives could be and will do everything to nurture the roses He Himself has given us.