Magic

Boy’s Life  by Robert McCammon’s

"You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody else didn’t realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present and into the future. You probably did too; you just don’t recall it. See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.

After you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.

That’s what I believe."

Sometimes

I have posted this before, but it's something that I came across again and need to drill in my head on a weekly basis. I am very guilty of this! I do expect a lot from people, purely because I would be willing to do so much for anyone {not trying to be cocky at all!} I just like to give, not to just receive in return... I truly love to do things for others, it gives me tons of happiness in doing so :) I know though that I expect more from others that are the closest to me. I think I do that just because their love is greater for me than some stranger or acquaintance that hardly knows me. I have learned from experience though not to get my hopes too high for things and when things don't go my way or as I hoped; not to sweat it. Now, I am NOT perfect...so I fail at this at times, but the good thing is that I am aware. Life is WAY too short to let the tiniest things ruin our day, hard at times not too, but I am a work in progress. I think that it is safe to say that at times we are all guilty of this...some more than others {ha} but we do, it's our nature. Honestly, I wouldn't say it is necessary a bad thing its just how we react to it, or how we handle it. 

You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months over analyzing the situation, trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, should've, would've happened; OR you can leave the pieces on the floor and move on. In life and love, you learn that there comes a time to let go and move on. Think how different it would be if you never met the one person who changed everything. Sometimes you only forgive someone because you can't stand not having them in your life. When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. The longer you put off making a decision, the harder it becomes to make.If you have something to say to a loved one, don't wait until tomorrow. Too late comes sooner than later. Most people don't aim to high and miss. They aim to low and hit. Don't make someone a priority if they only make you an option. If you don't have a dream, how can you have a dream come true? Don't give up no matter how hopeless it seems and when you've lost hope, ask yourself if you're gonna wish you gave it one more shot because the best things in life don't come free. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. There are things you don't want to happen but have to accept, things you don't want to know but have to learn, and people you can't live without but have to let go.

As people grow up, they realize it becomes less important to have more friends, and more important to have real ones. To let go isn't to forget, not to think about, or to ignore. It doesn't leave feelings of anger, jealously, or regret. Letting go isn't winning or losing. It's not about pride, and it isn't about not obsessing or dwelling on the past. It's not giving in or giving up. Letting go isn't about loss, and it's not defeat. To let go is to cherish memories, but to overcome them and move on. Letting go is accepting. Letting go is having the courage to accept change and have the strength to keep moving. Letting go is growing up. Missing someone gets easier everyday because even though you are one day further from the last time you saw them, you are one day closer to the next time you will. There's nothing scarier than getting what you want, because that's when you really have something to lose. There's a little truth behind every just kidding, a little curiosity behind every just wondering, a little knowledge behind every I don't know, and a little emotion behind every I don't care.

If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten. It's hard to know you'll never remember the things I'll never forget.Smile big for everyone, even when you know what they've done. I'm not a perfect person. There's many things I wish I didn't do, But I continue learning; I look around at what everyone has And I forget about all I've got; I forgive, but I never forget. A day without smiling is a day wasted. Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. The only people you need in your life are the ones that prove they need you in theirs. Life's not about the people who act true to your face. It's about the people who remain true behind your back. Live for the moments you can't put into words. "Sometimes we expect more from others because we would be willing to do that much more for them."

I'm the kind of girl who doesn't say much, but when i do, it means a lot.

Forgiving

Forgiving Oneself

FBY ELDER D. CHAD RICHARDSON

Area Seventy North America Southwest Area

At a recent stake conference, as the congregation sang the hymn “Praise to the Man,” I thought about the composer, William W. Phelps. I was grateful for his hymns—15 in the current hymnbook—and for his love of the gospel and of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

I recalled how, during the trials of Missouri, he was reprimanded for misuse of Church funds and selling lands contrary to counsel. As a result, he became very bitter in Far West and turned against the Prophet and the Saints. Along with other apostates, W. W. Phelps was involved in an affidavit against the Prophet issued in Richmond, Missouri, in November 1838. After Governor Lilburn W. Boggs’s extermination order, the Saints were driven from Missouri, while the Prophet and his associates were imprisoned for months in the terrible winter dungeon of Liberty Jail.

By 1840 W. W. Phelps had experienced a profound change of heart and wrote to the Prophet pleading for forgiveness. In response, Joseph’s letter concluded with the couplet “Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, / For friends at first, are friends again at last.” ¹ Joseph freely forgave Brother Phelps and took him back into full fellowship.

When Brother Phelps learned that Joseph and Hyrum had been killed by a mob, he was devastated. With great power and inspiration, he expressed his own feelings and those of the entire Church as he penned the hymn “Praise to the Man.”

As we sang that hymn in stake conference, I was deeply moved by one line in the chorus: “Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain.” ² How, I wondered, could Brother Phelps speak of traitors and tyrants fighting the Prophet when he himself had been one? Immediately I realized not only that Brother Phelps was no longer a traitor but also that he must have come to no longer see himself as one. The genuine, complete love and trust he received from Brother Joseph helped make it possible for him not only to forgive himself but also to erase his image of himself as a traitor.

We Must Forgive All

Unfortunately, many Latter-day Saints today continue to carry the burden of past sins because they refuse to forgive themselves. President Howard W. Hunter (1907–95) observed: “It has always struck me as being sad that those among us who would not think of reprimanding our neighbor, much less a total stranger, for mistakes that have been made or weaknesses that might be evident, will nevertheless be cruel and unforgiving to themselves. When the scriptures say to judge righteously, that means with fairness and compassion and charity. That’s how we must judge ourselves. We need to be patient and forgiving of ourselves, just as we must be patient and forgiving of others.” ³

Apparently, many individuals do not understand the importance of self-forgiveness in the process of repentance. The Lord, however, makes no exceptions when He declares, “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:10; emphasis added). This includes forgiving ourselves.

Without doubt, Satan uses this refusal to forgive ourselves as a means of enslaving us by turning past sins into addictions. He tempts some, for example, to believe that if they make themselves suffer enough, they will not return to the sin. This often leads, however, to self-loathing or self-abuse.

Satan tempts others to judge themselves harshly and to believe they don’t deserve to be forgiven, even when the Lord is willing to forgive them. Such individuals continue to dwell on their transgressions and mistakes, remembering the details and thus increasing the danger of repeating them. According to President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Preoccupation with unworthy behavior can lead to unworthy behavior.” ⁴

People trapped in this cycle of sin, self-condemnation, and further sin, tend to become discouraged. Satan also uses discouragement to create addictions. A discouraged individual will be tempted to stop trying or to seek solace in more sin. In contrast, the Savior beckons us forward with the promise that we can become free from the chains of sin as we fully repent and forgive ourselves.

Sorrow for Sin

Sorrow always follows the recognition of sin. The destructive form of this sorrow, which often manifests itself as self-condemnation, is related to what the Apostle Paul called “sorrow of the world,” which “worketh death.” In contrast, he described a positive form of sorrow, “godly sorrow,” which “worketh repentance to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10). A main difference between these two forms of sorrow is their source. Worldly sorrow is promoted by Satan. It is the sorrow of being caught, of not being able to continue sinning, or of turning against oneself with self-loathing or disdain.

Godly sorrow, on the other hand, is sorrow given as a gift from God to those who are willing to receive it. Godly sorrow leads us to a full recognition of the magnitude of our sins but with the knowledge that we can become free of them. It leads us to fully recognize the wrongs we have committed without giving in to the temptation to see ourselves as worthless or beyond God’s love.

There is no room in godly sorrow for self-contempt. Those who refuse to forgive themselves thus bear a double burden of sin, for not only do they carry the sin itself, but they also add to it the sin of self-condemnation and refusing to forgive. Indeed, refusal to forgive is cited in the scriptures as “the greater sin” (D&C 64:9).

We Are Not Alone

Over the years, as I have counseled with members and missionaries, I have found that many wonderful, otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints find it difficult to forgive themselves, even after being told that they must do so. Some have deep-seated patterns of anger and impatience with themselves that are hard to change.

Fortunately, we are not alone. The Savior, through His Atonement, can help us not only to remove the sins but also to forgive ourselves. To receive His help, we need to ask for it. And we need to be willing, given all our mortal limitations and weaknesses, to do all that we can do (see 2 Nephi 25:23).

President Packer taught:

“Save for the exception of the very few who defect to perdition, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no apostasy, no crime exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the Atonement of Christ. …

“… Do not give up if at first you fail. … Do not give up. That brilliant morning will come.” ⁵

Love is a necessary precursor to being able to forgive oneself. As we develop an overpowering love of and gratitude for Jesus for His willingness to forgive us, we earnestly desire to come unto Him—to study His life and teachings and act upon them so that we become more like Him. As we do that, our own capacity to love grows to the point that we can indeed love and forgive ourselves and others.

Forgetting

Forgetting is part of forgiving. But forgiving oneself involves a special kind of forgetting. We don’t forget the sin and its effects; rather, the memory ceases to be part of how we see ourselves. For example, when Alma had been forgiven of his sins, he said, “I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more” (Alma 36:19). The fact that he could describe his repentance to his son Helaman showed that a memory was still there. But through Christ’s Atonement and forgiveness, that memory lost its edge of guilt and self-recrimination.

We must keep sin in its proper perspective. Satan would convince us that we are defined by our sins. He would have had the repentant W. W. Phelps see himself always as a traitor. He would convince someone who has stolen that he is and always will be a thief.

The Savior, in contrast, would have us understand that we have sins that need to be cleansed, but we are much more than those stains. If I spill ketchup on my shirt, I have a stain. Perhaps it is right in front where everyone can see it. But while I have a stain, I am not the stain. I need to recognize that there is a good deal of my shirt that is clean and white. I believe that God sees the white shirt—the goodness in His children—and offers, through Christ, to remove the stains. If we obsess about the stain, however, it will become who we are in our minds and then in our actions.

Many years ago I had an experience that helped me understand the forgetting process. When I was very young, a man with a large, rather startling birthmark on his face moved into our ward. After some time, this man was called as our bishop, and he served during all my Aaronic Priesthood years. He was a wonderful bishop, and the members of our ward learned to love him dearly.

Years later, while I was attending BYU, someone vaguely familiar with the town where I grew up asked me who my bishop was. He didn’t recognize the name I gave and asked for a description. I described his height, his profession, and many other things about him. The individual asked, “Oh, is he the man with the birthmark on his face?” I had to think for a moment and then said, “Yes, I guess he does have a birthmark.” I was surprised at myself, for in my mind the birthmark had disappeared. That simply was not an important part of who he was to me, though I could still remember it if I tried.

Forgiveness Does Not Mean Excusing Sin

Forgiving a sin does not mean excusing it. When we forgive a sin, we neither say it is OK nor that payment will not be required. Rather, forgiveness allows us to turn both the final judgment of guilt and the full payment of the debt over to the Lord. The Lord tells us in Doctrine and Covenants 64:11, “Ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.” Further, in Doctrine and Covenants 82:23, He says, “Leave judgment alone with me, for it is mine and I will repay.”

When we sin or make mistakes, our Heavenly Father wants us to quickly resume our journey home with a new and even stronger grip on the iron rod. The repentance of Alma the Younger illustrates this principle of moving on. A “wicked and an idolatrous man” (Mosiah 27:8), he was brought to a realization of his sins, repented, and experienced a mighty change of heart (see Mosiah 27:11–37). He chose to take the strait and narrow path, filling his mind and his life with good works rather than remaining at the side of the road worrying about his past transgressions. He didn’t have time for that. And neither do we.

The Savior Is Key

When we turn to our Savior, He can heal us not only of the sin but also of the self-recrimination and the constant mental replaying of our sins or obsessing over them. We must turn the sins and the guilt over to the Savior in a process of complete repentance. For serious sins we will need the help of a bishop or another appropriate priesthood leader to complete our repentance. We then must let the Savior judge whether we or He must make final payment for the sin. Finally, we will need the Savior’s help to feel self-acceptance rather than self-contempt.

With the Lord’s help, we will experience a change in how we see ourselves. I believe this is the wonderful change that happened to Brother Phelps. Because of his repentance and his willingness to forgive himself, he was no longer a traitor. He was able to accomplish many great spiritual and civic works following the Prophet’s death. I believe his accomplishments would have been highly unlikely had he not, with the help of the Prophet and the Lord, fully forgiven himself. Let us learn from his example.

think about what you are thinking about

A great interview with can be applied to everyone in life, thought I'd share! :) It is long but worth it to listen too. 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/insights/15

Four things to do...please!

Read this on A Cup of JO and thought it was very good advice and very applicable to me so if anyone wanted to get leavitt and I massages that would be great thanks! :)
Four things to say to a friend after a bad breakup

After graduating from college, I went through a rough breakup...

...I had been dating a guy for almost two years; and, after I moved to New York while he stayed in Michigan, we realized we had grown apart. We both agreed to break up (and now I'm so glad we did!)...but at the time, my heart was in a blender. Thankfully, I still remember what people said and did that really helped, and I try to do the same thing for my friends now going through breakups...

Four things to do for a friend after a breakup:

1. Say two little words. When your heartbroken friend is talking about her worries, she's probably also wondering if she's annoying you. The best thing you can say to someone who's spilling her woes? "What else?" You'll show her that you support her and want her to share all her thoughts--as long as it takes. My friend Colby used to say this when I was upset ("Mmmhmm, I know...what else?"), and I CANNOT tell you how amazing it was. Just those two little words.

2. "You will be happy again." My mom said this to me in the car years ago, when I was crying after breaking up with my college boyfriend. It was incredibly comforting to hear. When you're heartbroken, it's hard to imagine ever feeling differently, and her words made me feel hopeful: I could give myself time to mourn the end of the relationship, but then it would pass.

3. Boost her up. Tell her how smart/funny/beautiful she is! Getting dumped can be a blow to a person's self-esteem, and she might be thinking that she's not pretty enough, not fun enough, not love-able enough. So tell her exactly why you adore her and how wonderful she is. Make a list if you want!

4. Get her a massage. My friend Erin recently told me that she gave her best friend a gift certificate for a professional massage, when she was going through a breakup. Isn't that a brilliant idea? I once read that when you break up with a romantic partner, you often miss thetouch as much as the actual person. Your body can physically miss them. A massage would help her feel touched, relaxed and pampered--and help release endorphins to make her feel happier. What an awesome idea.

What do you say to friends who are going through a breakup? What has helped you when you're in that situation? Have you ever been through a really tough one? Are any of you going through a breakup right now? We've all been there!!

Meeting Ellen..kissing Usher...now on American Idol.

So I met ali shield at a party I threw for a friend and she was so much fun! Before, I knew that she was on Ellen due to a song she sang & wrote and was so jealous! She has an amazing voice and is now on American Idol.  I admire people like ali who go after their dreams and aren't afraid to put themselves out there! She will go far...and really needs to cd because I LOVE her voice and would totally buy it! :)

she's so clever!

I could listen to this song over and over again :)Way to go Ali!

Little things

I have ALWAYS appreciated the little things in life! A simple note left by someone to make you smile, a friend to come cook you dinner when you didn't have a good day, an old friend to remind you they'll always be here for you,a friend that just stops by at just the right time,an i love you text just because <3, GREAT NEWS,  a two year old to say the darndest things to always keep you smiling! The little things truly make life so much better! The smallest things can brighten you're day in the worst kind of mood. I am so grateful to have a job where I can go to work and know without a doubt I will smile, even in the toughest times they always make me laugh and forget about life for a while. 

Its the tiny things that we hold on too in life that bring us SO much joy. Remember that throughout your week and go out and do a tiny thing for someone...brighten up their day because you never know if they were having a bad one. :)

The littlest things in life truly have the HUGEST impact! It's all about the simple things that makes life SO WONDERFUL! :)

Goodnight everyone! Hope tomorrow is a great for you all :)