Be Still and Know

    It has been a second since I've shared anything on here. I just couldn't find my voice for so many things I want to say. There is always something that I can't quite articulate, but I found one thing that I have enough words for that I hope will have meaning to someone else.      I took this picture a year and a half ago in Northern California. The sea has always been fascinating to me and I love the beach. The sound of the waves and the sand in my toes, there is just nothing like it. As I was looking back on my social media in my pictures I came across it and started thinking. The water is so different up by the rocks where it isn't as deep. Further out past the shore it is smooth and endless. As much as I love the ocean, I am often terrified of the immensity and vastness of it. The unknown is scary and as much as I love the water, I am too scared to explore it much further than this. At this particular beach, getting into the water would be dangerous and s...

During the road trip I was just on with some friends we visited Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. We didn't have a lot of time there before it got dark and I wanted to find some shells to take home. There were shells everywhere, but most of them were pretty broken. A lot of them looked perfect, but once I picked them up I realized that they were broken and the sand had hidden their damaged edges. Growing up, when we would find shells on the beach we never kept the broken ones so I kept tossing those back into the sand, searching for the perfect one. My friend asked why I did that and then she said "it's okay if it's a little broken. Most of them are." Almost immediately I heard very clearly in my mind the words "I created them just as I created you."  I was reminded of a book that my mom loved to read to us when I was little called "You Are Special" by Max Lucado. It's a story of Punchinello and the wooden Wemmicks who either stick gold stars...

This is me. This is happy. This is a daughter, a friend, a sister. This is a student. This is a white, American female. This is a reader, an artist, a singer. This is a yogi, a lover of the outdoors, a seeker of adventure. This is a Child of God. This is also me. This is depression. This is anxiety. This is an eating disorder. This is wishing I could sleep through life sometimes. This is a struggling self-image, a horrible personal critic, a professional self-doubter. This is also a Child of God. This is both. We can be both. I am confident in saying that most people reading this are both in some way. But where does that last part get lost? Where do we stop seeing that we are all Children of God? It makes me sad seeing the generalizations people make towards others based on skin color, economic status, career, etc. I'll be honest and say that I have been guilty of it before. It's so easy to only see one side of the dichotomy that is the human existence. We are co...

Do you ever think about the kinds of things you would tell your younger self if you had the chance? What would you feel is the most important for them to know? What wouldn't matter? Today is International No Diet Day. I know there are a lot of people who are going to scroll right past this, but as a woman living in this culture we have created, I think this is one of the most important things you'll read all day. We live in a time of extreme dieting and exercise regimens, disordered eating being more common than anybody realizes, and ridiculous amounts of "fatphobia." Fatphobia: Fear and dislike of obese people and/or obesity; Fear or obsessive avoidance of consuming fat. What does fatphobia look like? It can take many forms. Some common ones are having constant fear of what the food you're putting in your mouth is going to do to your body, looking at other people's bodies and comparing them to your own, restricting your favorite foods just because th...

What a strange time we are living in. Living room sacrament meetings, toilet paper shortages, no live sporting events, and a world deprived of social interaction. I have seen so many posts over this time of people feeling upset, frustrated, angry, etc. I have also seen a lot of positivity. Service is being rendered to neighbors and friends. Care packages and support groups and family video calls are being shared. Quite a few friends of mine were affected by the mission changes due to the virus and many had to return home before they planned to. Their initial feelings of sadness were understandable, but the more we talked, the more I started to understand a characteristic of God the Father that can be so easily overlooked when we are faced with disappointment or change. I remember when I first got home from my own mission feeling pretty discouraged. I had a hard time accepting and understanding what Heavenly Father really had planned for me and how this could possibly be part of i...

HOLY WOW General Conference was, yet again, the best yet. I seem to say that every time it comes around, but it never ceases to be true. Amid all of this confusion and craziness that a global pandemic has brought us, I felt so much peace listening to the words of our leaders and especially our prophet. The first round of the worldwide fast was powerful, but I'm excited to witness miracles as we participate in yet another worldwide fast on Good Friday "that the present pandemic may be controlled, caregivers protected, the economy strengthened, and life normalized," as the Prophet explained. I think an even more important part of his invitation was this: "F or all whose health may permit, let us fast, pray, and unite our faith once again." For all whose health may permit.  What really is the purpose behind fasting? Doctrinally, we are taught that fasting is included in what is called the Law of Sacrifice.  President Ballard taught that "The law of sacri...