monday

on monday, i didn't have to work after working around 51 hours the week before.

so after sleeping in, taking a nap, and lying there, i got online.

and i started looking at pictures that reminded me of how much i love fall.

for me, summer is my favorite. then winter. and spring and fall are tied.

so, i got to thinking how much i love wearing fall clothes, and being out side in the fall.

so i got ready, grabbed a book, and drove up the canyon.

I stopped at a park that I went to this summer. It was so beautiful. And there was hardly a soul there. I wanted to sit close to the river, but there were a few painters nearby with their easels set up. I didn't want to be in their paintings. (That was really cool. When I got up there, their canvases were empty. When I left, they had a magnificent fall scene.)

 Yeah, I took pictures of myself. Maybe around 20. I deleted most. And kept this one. My hair rocked that day.

Pretty.

I took a "panoramic" picture with my camera. I messed up a bit on the left, but it captures the park.

I sat there, reading the book "Heidi" for about 4 hours. It was AMAZING. I would love to do that everyday. (I would have done it today again, but it was SNOWING. crazy.) It started to rain a little bit as I was leaving. PERFECT. I love rain.

And, at one point, a LARGE weird looking thing was on my blanket. I might have freaked out a bit. Then i took a bad picture of it.

On another note, the book "Heidi" is really cute. I grew up watching the movie with my mom and sister all the time. We loved watching it. Recently, my sister and I found it on netflix and re-watched it all. CLASSIC.

The book was different, as books are. It was cute and sweet and full of great lines.

I think the things I got out of it were the cheesy religious things that she would say. Clara's grandmamma taught Heidi about prayer. And so she prayed to God because she couldn't tell anyone else her problems. After a while when she still didn't get what she wanted, she stopped praying. And grandmamma taught her that you can't stop praying. God has his own time table; He'll give us what we need when we need it. She wanted to move back home, but didn't for a while. She later realized that if she got what she wanted when she wanted it, she would have never learned to read or been good friends with Clara, both things that blessed her and others immensely in her life.

She went on to teach and remind other people in her life about prayer. How you have to pray to God and tell him everything, that he'll listen, and give you what you need when you need it. And be grateful.

What a beautiful Monday.

my book on patience

You will be rewarded for your patience and understanding. I read that and smirked. I felt like it would become my motto. I also felt like there were going to be a few things that I would need to learn to understand. And it would take patience to understand those things. How could it be that the fortune in that little cookie could put in to words what I was feeling better than I could?

Months later:
Success will come with patience. I read it and had a little smirk on my face. “Yeah, I know,” I wanted to tell the cookie. I could write a book on patience.

Patience is waiting. But waiting with a purpose. Being anxiously engaged in life without being preoccupied with the desired outcome. Making goals and dreams about said outcome, but not letting it take up all of your time. Patience is letting what will come, come, and not complaining about it. It’s optimism. It’s hope. It’s having a smile on your face even when your life feels emptier than it has ever been. It’s faith that your future will be better than the present and anything that the past had to offer.

It's knowledge that you can't control everything. It's accepting that fact and then doing all you can to control at least some things.
 
It's being 24 years old in Utah and unmarried but convinced that life has never been better. Ever.
It's doing nice things for people who don't really deserve it and waiting for them to realize it.
It's being a friend to someone who isn't a friend back.
It's teaching my mom how to upload pictures onto facebook.
It's understanding that people don't always act the way you want them to but loving them anyway.
It's explaining something ten times without getting angry.
 
I may not know a lot of things but I do know a thing or two about patience. Yes, I may roll my eyes every time I hear someone say that all I need is patience and good things will happen. But deep down, in my optomistic soul, I believe it. Patience will solve all of my problems.
Because I have faith in what God has promised me for my life.
 
So here I am. Patiently waiting for my future to stop being such a mystery, for a friend to act like they are truly my friend, for my prince to come, for the snow to melt, for the semester to end, and for my happily ever after.
 
Yay patience.