People are Awesome!

I love the story of  'The Starfish'
Once upon a time, a wise man used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day while walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself while thinking of of someone dancing to the day, and walked faster to catch up. As he got closer, he noticed the figure of a young man, and that what he didn’t dance at all. The young man would reach down to the shore, pick up small object, and throw it into the ocean.

The wise mad came closer to the young man and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?" The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean." "I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man. To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!" At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one." -Loren Eiseley

Everyone matters
I love knowing that while I can't make a difference to everyone I can make a difference to someone. The thought of me affecting one person's life gives me great joy. Every single person is important and matters a lot; and my best effort goes to helping them.

I love people and want to see them happy
Isn't it ironic that I laugh or cry when seeing someone do the same? In a way, my emotions are tied to theirs. When someone smiles the first instinct is to smile back; in a way, everyone's emotions are tied to everyone else's. Knowing 'in a way I'm tied to them' makes me want to lift and inspire them to reach for the stars.

It's Not What I Wanted to Hear but It Helped

Recently, I felt offended and a little insulted. It caused me to never want to see that person again. I thought about it and my rational mind said, "It's your pride and ego that hurt. Swallow your pride and show love because that's how you are". Part of me felt like a little girl who clenches her fist, straightens her arm and stubbornly says, "I don't want to", but the loving part of me said, "Okay, I will".

It's hard to swallow my pride and show love to someone who didn't show love to me but loving is how I am and therefore I show love even when others don't. (I say it's how I am because it's how I want to be. If I just say I want to be it, I'll never be but only wish. I say 'I am' but sometimes (out of instinct) 'I am not'-just keepin' it real :)

I could quote the scripture about loving your enemies but I won't. Instead I'll just say that I'm trying with the hope that one day I'll be.

Being a Good Person

Enoch

Overcoming the world means gravitating to good people. I won't focus on the world's problems but on being the kind of person to withstand God's presence. I won't say, "This or that is unfair" but instead say, "Let's be the kind of people to live in Zion." I'd rather rally the troops to be righteous than point out worldliness. Worldliness is the inevitable - it's the direction of the world, but I won't be one of the millions that follow the world. Instead I'll follow my Savior.

A Beautiful Day

I made these playlists on YouTube (in addition to my favorites) so I could hear and watch good things:

My new playlists on YouTube
Inspirational
Religious / LDS
Empowering



I love the inspirational words to You'll Never Walk Alone and wanted to share them today :)

You'll Never Walk Alone
When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Truly, there are blue skies and sunshine above the clouds.

Does It Really Matter?

Every year (for the past few years) I've written a letter to "my girls". The girls who were Laurels (16-17) when I was Young Women's President. I've never forgotten about them and the joy they brought into my life. They are 22 or older now. Most are married and some have kids. Whatever they are doing is great.

In my opinion, you're never too old to hear an encouraging word. It's true that when a girl leaves the YW program she is welcomed into Relief Society and watched over by them (truly, a person in my church is never alone), but the fact is that all of my girls aren't going to stay in my church. Whatever they do, I want them to know that I love them.

As much as I want my life to be perfect, it isn't. It's a fact that life makes people face hard things. (Hopefully, those hard things make them stronger, but nobody likes or wishes for them.) It's a fact also that people face good things; things that bring joy and happiness.

What I want to point out is that when I don't see the good I miss out on the good things.

Last night I told Per that every time I walk into the guest bathroom I see the Christmas decoration that's in there and my attention is drawn to the antler that is broken on one of the reindeer. There are many good things about that decoration but I look at the one flaw. He said, "I've looked at that thing many times, and an antler is broken?" Then he told me that every time he goes in that bathroom he looks at the floor that he tiled and notices the chipped tile. I said, "One of the tiles is chipped?" 

How many times do I look at the flaw instead of the masterpiece? Maybe because I'm a perfectionist I notice the flaw when I want perfection. I will always be a perfectionist who wants perfection, but I also know that flaws don't = bad. 

No one wants to acknowledge that sometimes they see flaws. But no one is perfect or positive all the time. (Some things make me mad and I'm not positive about them.) It takes choosing to see the good instead of the bad; I hope to always see the good and I strive for it, but I know that always = someday. Instead, I'll try for as long as I can to see the good.

Good Versus Evil

In America, the 1960's had two kinds of people - those for the Vietnam war and those against it. American's for the war believed in freedom from oppression, and American exceptionalism. American's against the war believed in free love, and an unrealistic ideal (that if they believed in peace real hard, the unpeaceful would become peaceful. Reality says that no matter a person's thinking, there are evil people in the world who want to kill them and unless they defend themselves, they will die.)

The hippies didn't go away, they just got older. In the 1980's they just changed their words to make them more appealing, but their message remained the same "make love, not war." They founded organizations that promoted social programs like political correctness (be nice,) and environmental awareness (take care of the earth.) The programs became ways to control people - how they talk, and what they believe.

There's a difference between being nice and being forced to be nice. It's nice to women not to call them "sugar" and "babe". It's nice to blacks not to call them "niggers". But you can't regulate what people say because they'll say what they want. People still call others retards, idiots, faggots, blondes, stupid, fat, ugly, and many other mean things. All political correctness has done is point out that it's not nice.

I think environmental awareness truly started out as a good thing. Don't throw trash on the ground, but in the trash can. Recycle and reuse.  Save animals from getting caught in plastic bags and soda pop rings by throwing those things away or not using them. Don't kill endangered animals, they'll become extinct. Many programs had good intentions but got corrupted as they evolved. Now, some people say that animals are as important as humans, and the EPA prevents things from getting built to preserve an animal's natural habitat.

In the 80's a lot of talk mentioned the rain forests getting demolished and how it affected the weather. Now we have climate change (once global warming,) and people say we need to protect the earth (polar bears, rain forests, the arctic circle) from evil capitalists who want to change our environment to make a buck. 

In other parts of the world, the word "communism" became derogatory so they changed their name to "green". The word green became synonymous with environment. The "greenies" took over good programs and tricked people with their words. Then they implemented radical ideas.

When I look at this situation I see that it's just good vs. evil masked by choice and control. And, I see that people are getting tricked into conforming because they aren't aware of the truth that good is being used to cause a person to do or believe in bad.

Some programs say things like this: "The environment is good and money is bad because money causes greed" (Not true. Money doesn't cause greed, people do - both rich and poor;) "Animals are good and capitalism is bad because capitalists kill animals" (Not true;) "Peace is good and war is bad because war takes loved ones away" (War does take loved ones away, but it's better to defend ourselves than to be sitting ducks;) "Saying nice things is good and saying mean things is bad because mean words hurt people's feelings" (It's not nice to hurt people's feelings, and it's worse to be forced to say nice things;) "It's better to think of happy things (like rainbows and unicorns) because the truth is just depressing" (It's better to be informed than in the clouds and led somewhere I don't want to go.)

Most American's believe in what they think is good. Unfortunately, in my opinion, America is no longer strong and most American's have become wimpy. So what are American's to do to be strong? Become aware of the tricks and stand for what's right.

Choosing to Focus On the Good

My goal in 2012 is to be nicer. Since I've been sick I say whatever I think (I call it having no filter.) I realize now that I could have held my tongue and spared some feelings but it was really important to me to speak the truth.

For as long as I can remember it was important to me to be liked. So much so that even though I recognized bad behavior I would never say it because I didn't want people not to like me.

Now I still want people to like me (if they want) but it won't crush me if they don't.

It's strange to think that my illness has given me better self-esteem, but it's true. I care enough not to turn my head when someone does wrong. However, I don't need to point out their err. I'll just make a mental note and move on. No one is perfect - we all err.

This year my goal is to give people the benefit of the doubt; to look on the bright side; and to acknowledge good qualities. I may know about bad qualities but I choose to focus on the good.

Be a Good Person

Becoming corrupt is a choice between good and evil. Whatever a person chooses is a decision. Every decision has either rewards or consequences and some people's decisions affect me. I also choose to be a good or evil person. No matter what people do to me they can't dictate my heart and in my heart I choose to be good.