Do you remember in high school, especially during big events such as Homecoming, how the student body council would coordinate some big ra-ra spirit week filled with crazy things like tie-dye day, pajama day, toga day, school color day, etc. to get you all pumped for some exciting end of the week celebration? No, they do not have some kind of crazy grad student intiation requiring the wearing of togas across campus, but I have seen a fairly consistent theme running through this past week, significant enough to mention.
The theme revolves around friendship and gratitude and its message was repeated over and over again in my week. My friend Katie quoted (and in the process taught me) from Charles Dickens' book Little Dorrit. One of the chracters in the book has ceased complaining because when she complains she cannot feel gratitude. (That was a very rough translation, but you did inspire me to read the book Katie, I just haven't come to that part yet). Katie has taken up that model and despite some challenges, is choosing to be positive.
My friend Dallin asked me, "What do you have to look forward to in this week?" I appreciate the tone of his question and the paradigm shift it is from just "How is your week looking?" or "What is your plan for the week?" When he asked the question I had to sort of mentally pause and think, "What do I have to look forward to?"
The Relief Society lesson from the Joseph Smith manual was on friendship and the discussion focused on the ideal friend, which included among other things, someone who is encouraging and helps you to see the good in yourself and life in general.
Institute started this week and we are studying The Book of Mormon this semester. Almost immediately two themes emerged within the first two chapters of the book: the mercy of the Lord (and Nephi's gratitude for it) and the persistant temptation of Laman and Lemuel to murmur (and thus fail to see God's mercy and show gratitude).
Finally, another friend, Sara, finishes every blog post with some specific thing that she is grateful for that day. In tribute to her good habit and a summation of this week's theme: I am grateful "for worthy friends" who help life to be so enjoyable. More specifically, I am grateful for my newly found upstairs neighbor from India who I made friends with at the bus stop on Wednesday.
2 comments:
Good friends are hard to find and tough to keep up with. I wish you all the best this year with school.
You have a great outlook on life that just makes sense. I know I need to improve the things that I look forward to in the week besides tacos and gaining even more weight.
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