Always a good reminder...

I saw this saying some time ago and it hit home. I think we can all say

that there has been a moment in our lives that we compare our stage in life

with someone else's and feel we've fallen short because we want to be 

in their stage of life. I am no exception. It is something I've done too many times

to care for and at the end of the day I've always come up short. But when I really

start to dissect why I'm feeling this way, I realize the feeling of inadequacy has nothing

to do with the comparison of another person to myself, but everything to do with how

I view myself, my life, my situation.

I can only be my best self, my progress can't be measured with someone else's progress.

Yes I can glean and learn from others' successes and mistakes, but my path is mine and mine alone. 

The fact is no two lives are the same; similar, yes, the same, no. There is peace and comfort in 

that, because living in a time when we are constantly bombarded with social media posts and photo's

it's too easy to get caught up in where we fall short. But the reminder that we're all in different 

chapters, truly put things into perspective for me.

On that happy note I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!

Mosaic...

"What, therefore, may seem now to be mere unconnected pieces 
of tile will someday, when we look back, 
take form and pattern, 

and we will realize that 
God was making a mosaic".

~ Neal A. Maxwell ~

Seuss's Sound Words.

~ Dr. Seuss ~

Image

A funny for your day.

Ps. I'm back, sadly...

coming back from paradise is never easy.

Details and pics from the Caribbean to come soon!

Ms. Monroe

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” 

 ~ Marilyn Monroe ~

Make up your mind to be Happy

Make up your mind to be happy—

even when you don’t have money, 

even when you don’t have a clear complexion, 

even when you don’t have the Nobel Prize. 

Some of the happiest people I know have none of these 

things the world insists are necessary for satisfaction and joy. 

Why are they happy? I suppose it is because they don’t listen very well. 

Or they listen too well—to the things their hearts tell them. 

They glory in the beauty of the earth. 

They glory in the rivers and the canyons 

and the call of the meadowlark. 

They glory in the love of their families,

the stumbling steps of a toddler, 

the wise and tender smile of the elderly.

They glory in honest labor. 

They glory in the scriptures. 

They glory in the presence of the Holy Ghost.

One thing I know for certain: 

the time we have here goes by far too quickly. 

Don’t waste any more time sitting on the bench watching life pass you by.

~Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin~

Hence why i love the stuff...

Found this hilarious pic here and thought it necessary to share
because I'm quite sure most of us ladies couldn't agree more.

I'm ecstatic the weekend has finally arrived! It is general conference weekend
which is always a favorite weekend of mine to get to listen to our leaders, reflect and make changes accordingly.

Also on the agenda:
Watching an Aussie football game with great friends,
a girl's night in while the men are out listening to the good word,
making these for my sis-in-law's birthday dinner,
and hopefully taking a drive on the Alpine loop for some fantastic fall foliage.

Happy weekending!

The Physics of the Quest

In the end, I've come to believe in something I call "The Physics of the Quest."
A force in nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity.
The rule of Quest Physics goes something like this:
If you're brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting,
which can be anything from your house to bitter,
old resentments, and set out on a truth-seeking journey, either externally or internally,
and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue
and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher
and if you are prepared, most of all, to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you.

~Liz Gilbert - Eat, Pray, Love~

I am

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be,

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

~William Ernest Henley~

Wise Maya

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

~Maya Angelou

Twas the Night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.

A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

~Clement Clarke Moore~

One of my very favorite poems for the Christmas season.

I hope everyone has a wonderful & joyous Christmas day with all your loved ones.

Merry Christmas!

Manzanas

Audrey

"I believe in pink.

I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.

I believe in kissing, kissing a lot.

I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.

I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.

I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."

~ Audrey Hepburn

Change.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy;

for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves;

we must die to one life before we can enter another.

~Anatole France~

Perseverance

The heights by great men reached and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.

~James Allen~

{From Poverty to Power}

Wise words to live by.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed

by the things that you didn’t do than by the things you did.

So throw off the bowlines.

Sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover."

-Mark Twain-

Bridget Jones says it best....

In Bridget Jones Diary, the book, there is a paragraph that summarizes how I feel as a woman many times!

Being a woman is worse than being a farmer-there is so much harvesting and crop spraying to be done; legs to be waxed, underarms shaved, eyebrows plucked, feet pumiced, skin exfoliated and moisturized, spots cleansed, roots dyed, eyelashes tinted, nails filed, cellulite massaged, stomach muscles exercised. The whole performance is so highly tuned you only need to neglect it for a few days for the whole thing to go to seed. Sometimes I wonder what I would be like if left to revert to nature-with a full beard and handlebar mustache on each shin, Dennis Healey eyebrows, face a graveyard of dead skin cells, spots erupting, long curly fingernails like Struwwelpeter, blind as bat and stupid runt of species as no contact lenses, flabby body flobbering around. Ugh, ugh. Is it any wonder girls have no confidence?

~Bridget Jones~