Perfect Hope

When I was in high school, I was inspired by artsy bloggers who made websites their space to better the world. One of my favorites, Christine Castro, began a semi-weekly / monthly e-mail list where the only sendout was a list of Good Things. It inspired me! There was so much out there to enjoy and love if only we'd sit up and take note.

So in making this my own, I began crafting notes and collages to friends and boyfriends across the years, filled with my own kind of positivity: a list (visual or verbal or both) of good things. The above is one I made my junior year in high school to my first love.

There is such a power in this: gratitude and positivity allow you to stand up above your current situation, however trite, mundane, or aggravating it may appear to be, and choose the good. So along those lines, here are the things I've learned and experienced on Humanities Council for which I'm thankful:

1. Friendships with some pretty great people
2. Experiencing different leadership styles
3. That feeling of Getting Things Done
4. A deeper knowledge of the ins and outs of the University and College
5. Info on scholarships, internships, alumni connections, and enriching events
6. Developing power point presentation skills
7. Developing presentation skills, period
8. A great collared shirt...

This may be a little random, but I'd like to end with one of my favorite poems on gratitude by e. e. cummings:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings; and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any – lifted from the no
of all nothing – human merely being
doubt imaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake
and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Court's Post

Simplicity

I don't want to dress this one up. I'm going to keep it specific to Humanities or this could get long...

I am thankful that I stuck with the second half of Comparative Literature after a--humbling--freshman year experience with it.

I am thank for Dr. Peer opening my eyes to the connections between the arts and history. I'm thankful that I didn't try to look up every new vocab word he used.

I am thankful for Dr. Hague's usage of philosophy in translation classes. Especially when it pointed out the many logical fallacies of Rush Limbaugh, atheists, and people in general.

I am thankful for the labyrinths of Jorge Luis Borges, the odes of Pablo Neruda, and deaths of Horacio Quiroga.

I am thankful to Maridee, the Clubs committee members (past and present), and the rest of the HCSC for putting up with me.

I am thankful for the opportunity to think deeply about leadership.

I am thankful for failures and successes, each with their own lessons.

I am thankful for 한국어.

I am thankful that I can put silly images on this blog.


I am thankful.

I am Gratful for Second Chances

The Tender Mercies of the Lord

Gratitude!

Gratitude helps us be happier with life. It's the idea of counting blessings. If we forget to do that, it's really hard to realize just how blessed we are and how much reason we have to be happy with life.Life is beautiful, but we must remember to look for the beauty in life. It's our choice whether to be happy or miserable. In the movie "Life is Beautiful", the father finds ways to help his son be happy in the middle of a concentration camp. It's one of the most inspiring movies I've seen and it reminds me that I can be happy throughout my own, much smaller trials.

My Favorite Things

The Little Things...

Alright, alright...So I know it's not Thanksgiving, but I love this video! I remember the first time I saw it I couldn't help but email it to all of my family and friends. Each person in the video has a unique circumstance in life, yet each is specifically grateful for a variety of blessings. Some seem to be of larger importance, miracles even, while others are day to day occurances, yet they all merit gratitude.

Isn't it inspiring to see how some of these New Yorkers recognize even the simplest of their blessings each day! -- Muffins, donuts, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, when the MTA works and I get to class on time, when someone doesn't get in a fight on the train, when you're skating down the street and a taxi driver sticks his head out of the window and says "get off the street" yah I'm grateful when that doesn't happen... :) -- Often times I thing we take such simple things for granted, and even fail to recognize them as blessings until they are taken away from us.

May we take time to recognize the simple yet sweet blessings that we often take for granted!

"Let us give thanks for what we are and for the circumstances God has given us for our personal journey through mortality."

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

The Most Irreplaceable Goes to...

There are over 2000 students in the College of Humanities: it has been rewarding working with the handful chosen to be apart of the council this last year.
People are irreplaceable. I could go to any other university in the world and still read the great works of literature. Some schools would do a better job than BYU of teaching the topics I am studying, while some schools would not. I could go to many other schools and find winning sports programs that are fun to follow (probably with a basketball team that has made it out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in the last decade...). The one thing that is completely irreplaceable about my experience at BYU is the student body. You are all irreplaceable.
In a large way I am who I am as a result of rubbing shoulders with each of you. Whether it is discussing life while cutting fabric, or crusading in the cold for Angels Aiding Angels, each of those moments is irreplaceable. I could do all of those same activities at other universities, but not with the same people (since they are all here at BYU).
Some students end up at the Y because it is the only school their parents will pay for. Others end up here because it is the only school they can afford to pay for on their own. For whatever reason the students on our council have come to BYU, it feels like they are using this council as a place to affect the world around them. If all they were after was a GPA it would be much more efficient to avoid experiences like the student council. I love coming to class because it is a handful of students who are after more than a GPA. I am grateful to be part of that kind of a group. Every presentation affects me. Every conversation leaves me a better person. With both of the councils I have worked with I have seen how many different ways we all have of approaching the same need. I have loved learning from the different styles and approaches that have been presented. The combination of approaches that I have seen up to this point could not be replicated anywhere else. I love to think about that.
It isn't that interaction with other people in other places wouldn't change me as well. But it would not change me in the way that all of you have changed me. And thus far I like the change!
Thanks everyone for the energy you bring to the council.

Holy Ghost Wordle

Wordle is an Internet application that takes a block of text that one inserts, and compares it against what is essentially a frequency corpus. The larger the font of a word, the less frequent it is, compared to so called "normal speech." The text I chose to use comes from one of President Monson's talks from last October's General Conference. This Wordle captures the importance of the Spirit in a couple of significant ways. First, it emphasizes the fact that understanding and responding to the Spirit is not common, but requires stepping away from the norm. Also, I think it captures the importance the Holy Ghost should play in one's life. And it does so in a dramatic way. My wife created a few Wordles based on "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" that are also very useful in identifying key terms and important aspects. I would recommend playing around with Wordle. It is pretty interesting.

Teachings from Tie-Dye

Being Grateful

Complaints vs. Gratitude

I think that it is much easier to complain than be grateful. At least that's true for me every time I get behind the wheel. For example, I was driving home last weekend and saw someone in my rear-view mirror tailgating me in an SUV. Cue internal dialogue: "What the heck! Moron! Oh, oh yeah... UTAH plates, didn't see that one coming, guess laws don't apply on Sunday, oh no, be my guest, rev up and fly past me, GLADLY, FINE-- OH NO you did NOT just cut me off THAT DOES IT (I floor the pedal here) HA HA, WHO'S IN FRONT NOW YEAH-- WHAT THE HECK WHO ARE YOU GET AWAY FROM ME!"

It was at this point, the SUV and I racing down the hill past the Hinckley Visitor's Center, that the rear passenger window rolled down to reveal my old mission companion, Elder Lyman.

"Hey, Elder Wilson!"
"Elder Lyman!?"
"Hey, this is my brother." The front passenger window rolled down, revealing a strapping young man glowing with the spirit. Their mother was driving. "He just got back from South Africa."
"Oh, uh... congratulations!"
"Lunch sometime?"
"Uh. Yeah. Sorry about that, I was late to work, no school... I mean Church."
"Oh, okay. See you later!"

And the SUV took a left turn and disappeared.

That experience taught me the hard lesson that choosing complaints over gratitude not only robs others of the emotional buoying up that everyone needs in this turbulent world, but it also pulls down the complainer. Learning to be grateful and to express it is like being a superhero. Not only do you save others from bad days, but you can fly. And flying is awesome.

So let's avoid painting others in a hue of black and instead find what's good about them. Check out the man below, and imagine if he was on our council. Now we could either complain about his monster mullet and stone cold stare distracting us, or we could express praise and gratitude for his example of hard work ethics and sincerity.

Let's be grateful for those we work with. Doing so not only lifts them, but it also lifts ourselves.

Gratitude