I Miss You Pluto...

Oh!! It still hurts my heart when I am reminded of Pluto's demoted status in the rank of the planets. I came across Rachel's solar system coloring page from school and...no Pluto!! It has been very surreal until now. I have never had a chance to wrap my mind around the concept because I didn't believe it was real. I didn't believe it was happening. How could it?! Part of me still won't accept it. Dwarf planet indeed. Ha!! I know what Pluto really is. No scientist or astronomer will tell me otherwise!! :P

Nine planets planets was just so right, so complete. "They" have now created a solar system of chaos for me. Mass shmass...I think Pluto is just the right size. How dare they pick on Pluto because he is small. He can't help it!! I am sure he is as big as he can be!! Really, what must the Roman god of the underworld be thinking?? If there are going to be anymore Persephone incidents, I hope he takes it up with the committee for the extrication of planets. That would teach them!! How much more evil does it get?? For these intellectuals to sit around in their huge lecture halls just trying to think of ways to get attention: "let's mess with Pluto...because we CAN!! Mwahh hahhh hahhh!!" I've heard stories.

How do children even remember their planets?? They cannot use "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza's." I suppose they must do without pizza: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nothing?!" I guess that would do it?? No pizza...no Pluto... :'(

There is hope!! I have thought of a remedy to our current planetary crisis. Let's all move to Illinois!! I remember an article from the Scientific American where I read of Illinois' open rebellion. Pluto is still a planet in Illinois, thanks to Senator Blagojevich (don't ask me to say it...it's hard enough to spell!). On second thought...how confusing for the kids, and teachers, and librarians, and tourists, and politicians, and new residents, and...well there are a lot of potentially confused people!!

Happy Belated Discovery Day Pluto!! February 18th 1930...just 80 years ago!! (Planet career: 76 years...Dwarf for four)

I sometimes can't sleep at night knowing that there is one less planet in the sky. What if they decide next that we are simply living on an atmospheric moon??!! Come on, seriously??!! Pluto is a planet. I don't need silly definitions or logic, my heart tells me it is so!! :-) Isn't there something missing in this picture?!

PS--No disrespect intended to the scientific community!!

PPS--I am grateful to the many astronomers, scientists, and the general NASA staff who have fought for Pluto to get its planet status back with bona fide arguments!! :-)

PPPS--Warning: any opinions that are voiced are subject to change whenever the author feels like it!! Nothing said can be used against her!! (mwahhhahhahhh...Take that, CAT!! :P)

Mothers...So Wise.

I was having a difficult day several days ago. A little while after having complained to anyone in the world who would listen to me, I came across a little post-it from my mother with the exact words I needed to hear right when I needed to hear them:

Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.

C. S. Lewis

I just thought I would share. Also, motherhood has been a lot on my mind as I've been talking with Sarah, reading Sarah's blog, helping at home, thinking toward the day when I will have my own home and family. Thank you Sarah for all of your great articles, which I plan on reading when I get the chance, and for being a wonderful example. And thank you mom, if you ever read this, for giving yourself for your children. :-)

Really, I just want to thank all wonderful mothers everywhere. You give life and hope to the future, as well as nurturing and bringing peace to the present. All people have their own agency and must choose who they want to be. But how to choose??

Proverbs 22: 6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

We do choose what we make of ourselves, but our families are such a part of who we are. We all stray a little bit in trying to "discover" who we are...but we come back to our roots. I've come to realize that I didn't so much need to create or discover a new me, but re-discover who was there all the time. It seems that during my periods of self-searching my mother has always stood by me, waiting for me to see myself as she does. I don't think my journey of self-rediscovery is complete, but I am well on my way. And in good company!! :-)

I FINISHED!! :D

I am a musician and composer. Music is the very essence of my soul and life. It flows from me. Yes, I love to be dramatic!! ;P However, there is a catch. Despite my love for music and composition, I hate to write it down. It is a very painful and laborious chore. Music theory is not how I think. I don't think in terms of key signatures, staffs, stanzas...I simply become a part of the music.

So when I had arranged what I thought to be a very nice medley of "Be Still, My Soul" and "Nearer, My God, To Thee" for Stake Conference, which is quickly coming up...I knew I would have to set it down to paper. I will not harrow you with the details, only to say that after the agonizing ordeal, it is done!!! :D Not perfectly how I would wish it, but future transcriptions can come later. I am so glad that my dear sister and cousin (who I believe are the only readers of my little blog) will be home to hear it!!! :D I love you and can't wait to share this with you!!! xoxo

Why does the turtle cross the road??

To climb up on a log!! :-)

For some reason I thought of this scene when reading the Emily Dickinson poem:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

...she just makes me smile!! :-) Perhaps "nobody" is really a turtle??

No Man Is An Island

Today...has been a hard day. In Political Science we discussed genocide. HARD TOPIC!! To make it all the more painful, we watched a documentary. I definitely think that it is important to learn about such horrifying histories, but they really affect me. I tend to internalize things. I'm never quite certain how to find the balance between "learning" about an experience and "living" it. But in the end, I would be more worried were I not affected. I don't EVER want to be desensitized. My professor posed the following question: "Is it the moral responsibility of the US to intervene in situations like Rwanda?" Yes, yes, with all my heart and with no hesitation, YES. WE MUST. There is no alternative that I could live with.

I am reminded of the John Donne poem, "No Man Is an Island":

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Sunrise+Camera+a little Tennyson=

The Flower
Lord Alfred Tennyson

Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.

To and fro they went
Thro' my garden bower,
And muttering discontent
Cursed me and my flower.

Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night.

Sow'd it far and wide
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried,
"Splendid is the flower!"

Read my little fable:
He that runs may read.
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.

And some are pretty enough,
And some are poor indeed;
And now again the people
Call it but a weed.

It's the little things...

Have you ever had days simply set up for disaster?? I do on a regular basis. But somehow, at the very moment that my load is about to crush me, some small thing happens. Some "tender mercy." Some little kindness which pierces you to your core and fills you will gratitude and joy and puts everything in perspective. Just as your heart faints, you are given a new one.

It was one of those days today...and yesterday...and tomorrow...Life is just full of them.

It can almost seem as if "the WORLD revolves around me!!" :D No...as fun as that feeling is, haha!! A rather more accurate description would be a greater sense of your own insignificance and smallness in the universe...and yet, you still mean something. Not just something, that you mean EVERYTHING. You are beloved. You have a place in your Heavenly Father's heart, which is none but yours. The whole purpose of this life becomes clear and all of your petty cares fall away. You remember your Savior who says simply "Come, Follow Me." I love the gentle invitation of our loving Shepherd. I am so grateful for his "tender mercies." These little every day reminders of a love incomprehensible.

We must take care How we put the flowers in our hair...

Otherwise it will just be a MISTAKE!!!

For proof of this, I give you evidence in this picture. I was at the park sitting under a beautiful flowering tree. I was playing with my hair and feeling very whimsical. I thought I would just arrange it as if for May Day or a Spring wedding...romantic, elegant, and simple. I was going to adorn my hair with the beauty of nature. The result? See for yourself:


DISASTER!!! I will next time bring a mirror or...where is Sarah, or Elise, or Angie--my hair muses!! :-)

My new favorite TV show...

Okay, so I like to waste time. It keeps me sane. And what is it that my wonderful despair.com says about procrastination?? "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now." That says it all!! ;P

My latest favorite discovery found in avoiding the inevitable: The It Crowd. SOOOO FUNNY!! Watch it!! My handy-dandy Netflix suggested it to me...and I was glad to comply. :-)

PS--WARNING: BE PREPARED TO LAUGH UNTIL YOUR SIDES ACHE!!!

Have I mentioned how much I love Spring??

I am not one for picking favorites...but if forced to pick a favorite season, I might just pick Spring. The world is so fresh, so new, so green and blue!! :-) Yes, I had to rhyme.

Despite my love of the other seasons, the warm and sleepy (or dreamy) haze that summer brings...along with THE BEACH!! Autumn is so crisp and colorful...and those bouquets of sharpened pencils. Winters pure white snow and sweater weather made perfect by perfect cups of hot cocoa and warm fires. There is still just something about Spring.

The world is alive again. Waking up after its deep sleep. There is still a cool morning, but the day warms gloriously without becoming "hot" (unless you sat in my car today...pre-AC). I love the first bloom, the budding of leaves and delicate flowers...which lasts for such a little time. Ask any mother how long her precious little newborn remains as such. It is but an instant and the infant is grown. Those first few days of Spring are comparable to such a precious gift. There is that same fragile, delicate, pure beauty and innocence as those beings who have just left heaven to be with us.

Spring fills the world with hope. Cleanses us inside and out...we want to start afresh as this season reminds us. This early Spring is the season of Easter. We want to 'wake up and put on [our] beautiful garments.' I want to begin again every day...but what a joy to begin again with Spring and its glorious pastel colors. I feel very much as though I am in the garden of Eden or heaven...