I Want to Move to the Mountains.

     I want to move to the mountains.  Why not?  Move to the mountains, get out of cell phone service, away from traffic, away from the craziness that has become our modern western life, be alone with the trees.  Sounds good to me.

     The start of a college semester is always a stressful period of time for me, but for some reason, this time around, I have felt so impressed that so much of the stress I feel is unnecessary stress.  Man-made stress.  I have been looking around me in my classes to see a sea of worried, stressed out faces, watching people walk across campus with their eyes glued to their phones (only when mine aren't glued to mine), talking to people who seem to take pride in the business and craziness that is their life, and I have been wishing to scream, "PLEASE JUST STOP!  SLOW DOWN!" to the entire country.  The chorus of Jack Johnson's "Inaudible Melodies" has been running through my mind on repeat....

Slow down everyone you're moving too fast,
Frames can't catch you when you're moving like that.  

     Today in one of my classes, a girl told me that she is taking 19 credits and working 40 hours a week.   She looked at me with an expecting expression...I could tell she was used to people being impressed by that.  Of course, in a way, I was totally impressed...mostly because I know that I couldn't do that without having a mental break down...but it also made me kind of sad.  How does she have time for anything that really matters?  Work and school are vital, I know, but what about people?  What about spending time meditating on things that matter?  Having a conversation with God that isn't rushed?  Sitting down for dinner with people you love? Going for darn a walk?  I would bet she doesn't even have time to evaluate her life and how she's doing things, she only has time to go, go, go.  Is this the only kind of living we admire?  The only sense of accomplishment we value?  Running ourselves ragged doing a million meaningless things?  I just don't want to live like that.

     Generally, we are all expected to grow up and work a minimum of forty hour work weeks (a culturally established expectation), raise kids, participate in extra curricular activities, and be active members of our community.  To some level, if we want to have a positive impact on the world, we do need to be part of it.  But I just don't think we all need to be taking 19 credit hours and working 40 hours a week.  I just don't think it has to be like that.  In Europe, I've heard, they only work like six months out of the year, or something like that.  I'm not sure if that's true, but I at least know that in many places in Europe, they take a break for nap time in the afternoon.  The way we generally do life here is not the only possible way to do life.  A lot of what we do and what we expect out of ourselves come from culturally established expectations...not necessarily what is right and wrong.

     At some point, if we want to live deliberately and not just passively (by passively I mean that we are allowing the structure of our culture to make our decisions for us), we are going to have to sit down and decide what really matters to us, in spite of what the people around us are doing.  We need to go back to basics and decide which things are non-compromise-able.  To start, we might ask ourselves, what does my soul need in order to thrive?  What do my relationships need in order to thrive?  Some things that come to mind for me are family time, time with friends, family dinner, scripture study, prayer, temple attendance, time to relax, time to be in nature, etc.  In my opinion, if we are succeeding in our non-compromise-ables, we have already gained success....all of the other fluff that our modern busy lives demand of us aren't essential, it's just fluff.

     None of us are perfect.  All of us are learning. In yoga, I like to emphasize the fact that this is a practice...and practices leave room for falling over.  In my mind, so does life.  Life is a practice which we must perform with an eye of faith, believing that tomorrow we will be better than we are today.  We don't need to place the pressure of perfection on our shoulders....only a constant desire for gradual improvement is necessary.  I'm not suggesting that all of us quit our jobs, drop out of school, and move to the mountains.  I believe that we can find a balance between slowing down and living productive, successful lives.  I just hope we can be a little more patient with ourselves, refocus, and find ways to slow down, even if only for a moment.  Maybe a trip to the mountains wouldn't be so bad, either.

Thanks for reading! :)

Namaste,

Kristy
   

I love Gay People: My Thoughts on Same Gender Attraction

Same gender attraction has become such a divisive issue in the last few years. It has become a topic that people love to argue about. I have watched this go on mostly silently because it seemed like there were only two sides to pick from, and both sides seem to be running to opposite ends of the room and throwing rocks at each other. This has made me so sad...it has stirred so many strong emotions inside of me, but I don't want to throw any rocks.

I'm active LDS, and I believe that marriage between a man and a woman is the best and happiest way (in the long run) that anyone could live. But I want to say something else....and I've wanted to say this for a while. I also love gay people.

Ever since I was a young girl I have had a tender place in my heart for people who are gay. Probably because I know what it's like to have experiences that feel dark and that make you feel alone, like you're the only one who could ever understand you.

It seemed so ironic to me that the hashtag #lovewins was all over the Internet the day the Supreme Court made gay marriage legal. Instead of love, it seemed like all I saw on my Fbook feed was so much anger and hate being thrown around from both parties.

As a human family, there are such a vast variety of opinions, philosophies, and religions among us. If we are going to coexist peacefully, we need more tolerance and love among ourselves.  Tolerance doesn't mean that we believe that everybody is right, but tolerance does mean we allow people to live how they will (for or against our own opinions) and allow our hearts to be at peace with them.

My heart aches for people who suffer silently with things because they're so afraid of what others would think of them if they told. I love this website that the church created to try to create a stronger bridge between the gay community and the LDS church. As members of the human family, we need each other. Jesus taught us to love one another.

To anyone struggling silently with anything that they're afraid to share, I just want to say that I'm sending my love your way, and I hope you can find someone safe to share it with. The healing process always starts with honest conversations. #loveoneanother

Sincerely, 

Kristy 

Spiritual Parallels to the Physical World

I originally posted this as a Facebook status...but I realized a blog post version is more appropriate, since it is so long! Just some thoughts...

Physical laws of nature reflect spiritual laws...constant and unchanging.  In the Book of Mormon it says that we are "less than the dust of the earth", because the rocks obey God's will, but we don't. As I studied biology again last summer, I was struck by the order and laws that all the particles of matter seem to follow...it seemed apparent to me that these particles obey the laws of nature...or the laws of God. 

God is God because he follows these laws. We cannot live with Him and become like Him unless, step by step, we begin to conform our lives to His will, to His laws. He cannot change the fact that disobeying Him literally causes our souls to diminish....because His laws cannot change. He wants us to have everlasting life and light, and the only way to do this is to conform to spiritual laws, just as the particles conform to physical laws. 

Jesus Christ is the "life and light of the world". Just like the physical sun allows for photosynthesis, and photosynthesis is at the base of the earths ecosystem, Christ's spiritual light is at the base of our spiritual life, whether or not we acknowledge it. Keep in mind that photosynthesis was going on long before people understood it.

I love that "all things denote there is a God" (Alma 30), and I believe that through Christ, I can walk the path that leads me back to Him, and into life and love that is eternal. I am so grateful for the bible, the Book of Mormon, and words of the living prophets which allow me to come to understand these laws. Prophets are like leading scientists of the spiritual world, and the Spirit of God is our tutor. Walking the path of discipleship may seem daunting at times, but we do not walk alone. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ guide us and enable us with love and mercy as we learn to obey their laws. 

Here is the article that inspired this post:

http://www.everystudent.com/wires/organized.html

Thanks for reading!

Kristy