Itty-Bitty Blessings

Guys, I can't even TELL you all that's happened in the last month. What an incredible time. This blog post will be more personal than most, but I need to explain some more delicate things in order for you to understand why this week was one big, long miracle. (No worries, names have been changed to protect the identities of all involved.) I'm also kind of trusting that the majority of people that read this are the Relief Society sisters from my home ward, soooo... It really began last week, when I had a lunch date with Mr. Assertive. We had a great time and even got to dance together at the ward dance that night. On Sunday, Mr. Assertive came over to chat and have a Sunday music party, and then later in the evening, The Serenader did basically the same thing. The Serenader and I had already been on a couple dates, and I was fairly interested in him, but he just wanted to be friends. And that was totally fine with me! The Serenader, however, caught on to the fact that Mr.

How did those insurance commercials go again? You know, with those cute little kids playing on a bright green lawn, then all of a sudden growing up and needing to buy life insurance for their own sleeping newborn, a corny jingle, and then that all-knowing narrator saying "Life Comes at You Fast". I might volunteer as an extra in one of those; it seems such a fitting life slogan. The first two weeks of the semester have already flown by and I'm trying to get a head-start on homework for the third. Lots of reading, lots of new people, names and homework assignments to remember, but there are also lots of invaluable late-nights talking to Brinley, my roommate, about the unfolding drama of our lives. I swear things happen faster here, leaving hardly enough time to process all of our increasing experiential development. My mind, heart, and soul are EXPLODING in the most positive, exciting and exhausting way possible. After my first day of classes, I had to breathe deeply

Layers. That is what I have been thinking about this past week. Not the "multiple sweatshirts, socks and scarves" kind of cold-weather layers, because I don't think about that as much now that I have a toasty down coat. (Good Christmas present, Mom!) I mean layers of meaning, time, culture. Just the other day, I was driving back from Sandy with my aunt and Grandma from a fun Chinese luncheon, and the freeway took us right by the Lehi Roller Mills. As we zoomed past it on the freeway,  I laughed to myself and thought how ironic it looked: a white, faded flour mill with it's red, old-fashioned script all surrounded by Wendys, Taco Bell, and other fast food restaurants. They serve the same people-feeding purpose, occupy the same basic space, but originate from totally different eras. It was like a sudden snapshot of "Lehi Now and Then", maybe even "Life Now and Then". What immense layers of life surround us all the time!! Though I am living, learni