The Good Life

I was very much inspired by President Monson's talk on Gratitude.  I loved the story about lil' "Gordon's" family on that Thanksgiving where all they had to eat was a jackrabbit and some turnips.  When the children refused to eat the food, the dad, instead of chastening them for being ungrateful, went into the attick and grabbed an oil lamp.  He told them to turn out the electric lights, and all of a sudden the children remembered what it was like to live off of the oil lamps.  It seemed so dim. 

Let us all take this time to realize the blessings that we have, even if we don't have as much as our neighbors next door.  Everyone goes through their hard times, and if we live within our means, our hard times won't last so long.

I'm grateful for:

• First, the Gospel in my life.  The love my Heavenly Father continuously pours into the lives of me and my family.  The everlasting atonement of Jesus Christ.
• My new family.  My darling husband.  How lucky I got when I found him and was able to keep him forever.
• A roof over my head.  A bed to sleep on.  Food in my refrigerator.  ENOUGH food.
• Good health (so far.)  A good body that does what I want it to when I want it to.
• A good opportunity for an education at BYU.
• My musical talent.  An opportunity to continue cultivating it.
• Loving friends and family.

The list goes on and on.  One of my first music teachers taught me to keep a "gratitude journal" for when those times just seemed too stressful to cope with.  At the time of utmost stress, the LAST thing you want to do is write down all the things that you love about yourself and what you're grateful for.  But it's kind of like praying for your enemies.  The second you do, you start to dislike them a little less.

I don't have a WHOLE lot of time today, so I'll write down my recent activities.

• The usual practicing my rear-end off every SINGLE day.
• Instrumental Showcase went quite well.  I was surprised at how much better I am at not getting nervous in orchestral concerts; particularly in the sections where I am unsure about the technique and if my muscle memory will pull through.  But most importantly, I enjoyed it and was inspired and uplifted by the music.
• Working out!  I'm doing free-weights, and apart from EMBARRASSING myself next to all of these roiders who look like they walked out of a body building magazine, I am progressively improving my strength.  My cardio is getting better, too.  Who knows?  Maybe one day I'll make myself do a race.  AFTER competition though.  I'm not THAT crazy.  Goodness.  I will say though, that I'm really liking these muscles that are sprouting up so quickly.  My husband occasionally points out how lucky I am.  Apparently my body responds VERY well to training, and I see results a lot more quickly than most people do.  I guess that's something that I can add to my gratitude list.  Who would of thought?  The soft-bellied musician is getting ABS!  Watch out body builders!
• I am slowly but surely getting used to driving Matt's car.  Don't get me wrong, it's a good car.  But I am the biggest fraidy cat on the road you'll ever see.  I see this as an improvement.  I just have to remember to turn the headlights on when it gets dark.  I didn't have to do that on my old car...eheh.  Yeah I can be dangerous sometimes.  Watch out for me on 9th.
• Cooking!  I don't have a WHOLE lot of time to do it, but I am successfully cooking just about every day for dinner.  I find that we eat more healthily and we get more nutrients that we need!

Goodnight y'all.  I'm off to bed so that I can wake up at 4.  Yee-haw!