Think and Be

Just a minute ago I felt myself slowly slipping into a fowl mood. And I thought to myself, "I'd sure like to stay happy, but how do I do that?" when I came across this quote.

As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.

-James Allen

And so in answer to my own questions I simply told myself to be happy, and now I am. The answer to my questions was so simple it's insane. I'm not sure of it myself except it worked and I'm still happy right now. All I had to do is want to be happy, and since that desire was great enough, I am. But I can't claim that all of my good mood is because of myself, I also prayed and I know that that had a huge effect on it too. I just know that thought has a major effect on us. So if you are feeling down, maybe you could just tell yourself that you want to be happy now and ask your Heavenly Father to help you. He will help you. I know He will. And if you don't believe me, ask Him yourself and He'll tell you, in His own way ;)

Hungry? Thirsty?

Do you every have this feeling that you want something but you can't seem to figure out what? I get it all the time. For me, it's a hunger, an intense yearning. But I seem to always have a problem figuring out what it is so I can fix it. I don't realize at first that the yearning is a hunger; I simply begin trying to fill it with anything I can get my hands on. I watch movies. I read books. I eat food. I play the piano! Anything I can think will fix it I do. When I start getting desperate I go for a jog up the road. And there, I finally figure it out. First I need to explain something. Where I live I can walk down the road and look all around me and not see anyone, just sky and fields stretching out forever. It is my secret place where it seems so natural just to talk with God. And that is when the hunger is finally abated. When I reach out to Him, that is when I finally receive relief.

"The story is told of a vessel stranded off the coast of South America whose Captain signalled to a passing ship to share their water with his passengers as they were suffering from thirst. The passing ship signalled back telling him to let down his bucket into the water in which they were floundering, because they were in the mouth of the Amazon River and the water was fresh.
The message of the ages to all people stranded in their sins is that they are in friendly territory and all they need to do is to let down their buckets and have their thirst quenched. The Master is ready always to listen to the cry of a repentant person and let him drink of the fountain of life freely."

-The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball 

Time slips through our hands.

We can't stop it or slow its escape. Although sometimes time won't flow fast enough, I mostly wish it would flow a little slower. Time is a none-renewable resource. It may become renewable when we leave this life but each day we are allotted a certain amount of time. And we can chose to spend  our time anyway we'd like but since we can never retrieve a lost moment and since a wasted hour can never be recycled, the question to be posed is simply, how do we spend our time?  I found this story about time. The author is unknown.

“And in my dreams I came to a beautiful building, somehow like a bank, and yet not a bank because the brass marker said, ‘Time for Sale.’

“I saw a man, breathless and pale, painfully pull himself up the stairs like a sick man. I heard him say: ‘The doctor told me I was five years too late in going to see him. I will buy those five years now—and then he can save my life.’

“Then came another man; also who said to the clerk: ‘When it was too late, I discovered that God had given me great capacities and endowments, and I failed to develop them. Sell me ten years so that I can be the man I would have been.’

“Then came a younger man to say: ‘The company has told me that starting next month I can have a big job if I am prepared to take it. But I am not prepared. Give me two years of time so that I will be prepared to take the job next month.’

“So they came, ill, hopeless, despondent, worried, unhappy—and they left smiling, each man with a look of unutterable pleasure on his face, for he had what he so desperately needed and wanted—time.

“Then I awakened, glad that I had what these men had not, and what they could never buy—time. Time to do so many things I wanted to do, that I must do. If that morning I whistled at my work, it was because a great happiness filled my heart. For I still had time, if I used it well.”

No Place Like Home

Where beauty is none existent to dull eyes

Where sky vibrates at the hum of metal birds

Where land is harsh,

          Constant and endless till it touches the distant sky

Where summers are extra hot and the winters extra cold

          And the wind seldom stops to take a breath

Where apricots are miscarried as blossoms

          And zucchinis grow fat and old on the vine

Where mini cannibalistic pigs that whistle jayrun across highways

Where birds of prey are your nearest neighbours

Where the name itself is a lie

This is my view,  jealous? ;)

People

People. People are what matter. PEOPLE are what matter in life. This life is meant to be a purification process, to change us from dirty lumps of coal to beautiful crystal clear diamonds and people are what help us do that. So when you ask yourself, "why in the world would anyone say that," or "what did they do that for," think to yourself, "Oh! That is for me, to make myself a better, brighter, clearer diamond!" and, grudgingly at first, say "thank you" and remember that people are what matter, PEOPLE :)

The cure to sadness is not some-
thing you can buy at the drug-
store or find on the internet. The
cure is simply choosing to smile
in spite of everything. Because
eventually that smile will be real
and the sadness will be gone and
you, my friend, will be happy.
 -Anna Martin

Books, the Lazy Way to Dream and Feel

The way to occupy your mind with dreams

Without having to invent them yourself.

The lazy way to dream,

To open a book and read!

Dreams enfold with every turn of a page.

The characters' feelings bleed from the pages and stain your hands red.

The story goes with you even after you lay the book down.

Detrimental or advantageous,

You don’t a choice now but to carry them with you.

A Stephen King book could cause more fear to pump through your veins than blood.

A Jane Austen could be as refreshing as a shower after a good, hard work out.

A self-help book could make you feel as if you drank a nasty protein shake, healthy but dissatisfied.

And an Agatha Christie could bring to your remembrance the many flaws in humanity.

But after setting the book down and leaving it untouched,

The easy dreams will eventually begin to fade and die,

The feelings once always with you will start washing away,

And what will be left?

Your feelings,

And your dreams.