I feel like today was one of those days that I can just sit back and be so thankful that I was alive to experience it. Really it wasn't much different than most other days, but for some reason I was much more aware of everything that was good. I have a pretty good idea as to why this day was different. It's because I decidedly made it so. I began with a prayer. This is important to me. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a devout follower of Christ. Therefore it is important to me have a strong relationship with Him and with my Heavenly Father.
Anyway, I have also been reading Stephanie Nielson's autobiography Heaven is Here. It was this huge wake up call to me. I have a very capable and healthy body, and I don't treat it at all the way I should. I am definitely more sedentary than I should be. So after finishing this truly inspirational story I got to work. After being gone on vacation for a week (details to come) I had a lot of catching up to do. This is good for me psychologically. It puts me in overdrive, and I work far more efficiently. Usually I listen to music while I work. In my opinion, the music I listen to is pretty darn awesome; Radical Face, Fleetfoxes, Regina Spektor, Noah and the Whale, etc,. Today, however, I started off with some Grieg and Holst, both classical composers, while simultaneously listening to a wonderful talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from the last General Conference. It was nice to switch things up. Even better was heading to Institute right after work. Our stake president's wife has been teaching a series on self-reliance spiritually and physically. It has been amazing, and I learned so much. Sister Mullen brought up an excellent point that me me think. She asked if we had ever been hungry or thirsty for knowledge or if maybe we had been in school so long that we had been blessed not to experience that feeling. I realized that there have been very few times that when I have literally hungered for knowledge regarding a certain subject, and each time I had diligently searched for it it had opened doors that would never have opened had I only been a passive participant in my education. I immediately resolved to always be learning.
Directly after institute I made the impromptu decision to hike the "Y". It's not a long hike and I started soon enough that I made it to the top before it was dark. I sat at the top of the right fork of the "Y" and looked out at Utah Valley. I had forgotten how beautiful it was. The lights blinked and twinkled like a blanket of copper pennies. I looked northward and saw the mountains standing tall, but they weren't imposing or sinister. They stood as sentinels looking down on the valley. I looked westward. Of course there was a range of mountains there, too, and at the foot of these was Utah Lake. By now it was dark enough that the lake, mountains, and sky all met in, what seemed to me, a seamless veil of deep purples, blues, and grays. The lights coming from the houses on the far side of the lake were like the lighting bugs I used to catch in Kansas. At this point it was getting really dark and I needed to start my descent. (I make it sound like a big deal when really it's only 1.2 miles.) I was about to get up when a couple of teenagers appeared on the path and with them started the rapid rattling of the baby rattle snake that was no more than 8 feet away from my left hand, but had failed to see because it was so dark. I had walked right past it. We all waited for it to slither off down the face of the "Y", but it changed it's mind and started back up the mountain instead. I was certainly more observant on my way down than I had been on the way up. In fact, I was quite paranoid. Well, I made it down without any fatal snake bites or cougar attacks, and here I sit, having showered and eaten, watching Nacho Libre and telling myself that I really should be in bed. So I will sign off and reckon that I should make every ordinary day like this one into something to be grateful for.
