everything in its right place.

Have you ever had those moments in your life where everything just seems to fit perfectly together? The setting you’re in, the way you’re feeling, the music you’re listening to, everything has been tailored to match that exact moment in your life?

Well, if you haven’t, I’m sorry, because it feels amazing.

I felt like this walking home from the library tonight. I’d just spent 4+ hours slaving away on various homework items, and I was ready to be free. As I was striding to the entrance of the library, I pushed play on my ipod and “Flux and Flow” by Lights began playing through my headphones, making me smile with its sweet electronic melodies.

As I pushed through the doors and out into the night, I was met by a gust of cool, crisp, autumn air that just filled me with joy. Usually I hate being cold, but for some reason I am just welcoming it this year. I am really really excited for it to get cold. I’ll probably regret saying that as soon as it actually does get cold, but for now I’m excited. I like feeling cozy and warm inside while its really cold outside.

Anyway, my walk home was just fantastic. The song I was listening to made me feel invincible, and since there was no one around, I was singing and dancing openly to it all the way home. That was another thing that made me feel free, I was the only one on campus in every direction that I could see. It was eerie, but also amazing. It was such a contrast from the usually bustling and crowded walkways that I see during the day.

I guess I just embraced this feeling tonight because I usually feel so stifled in my everyday life. When I’m just going about my business on campus or wherever else, I feel like I’m constantly being stared at and scrutinized looked over and it really just wears on me. I want to be free more often in my everyday life. I wish I could sing and dance openly like I did tonight on a regular school day, with people all around. Alas, that would not be socially acceptable. Dang.

I don’t think I’m explaining my feeling of freedom very well, so I apologize for that. I just felt like everything that was happening right then was perfect and made for that exact moment. I felt very free and full of life and like anything was possible.

And then when I got home, I threw down my backpack, changed into more comfortable clothes, and proceeded to make some amazing hot chocolate with my Stephen’s Mint Truffle Hot Chocolate mix. Which I am now drinking. Out of an awesome mug. And it is filling me with joy.

This idea reminds me of a quote from a book I read my freshman year called “Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You” by Peter Cameron. It’s basically about a teenage boy who feels different from most of the people around him and doesn’t understand why people do the things that they do. He expresses his opinions in a witty and sarcastic manner that I really enjoyed. Anyway, there’s a point in the story where he is in a session with his therapist and he makes this comment: 

“I don’t know why, but it was a nice moment. One of those moments when everything seems to be in its place. The pencils in the Guggenheim Museum mug on her desk, how they fell away from each other at varying angles and directions, like those apparently casual beautiful flower arrangements that are actually the result of much artful expertise—I had a notion of them being the center of the universe and everything spreading out around them, all the other items on the desk, the office, the building, the block, the city, and the world beyond. ‘I feel very good about where everything is,’ I said.”

I love that.

I love the moments when everything feels like it’s in its right place.

And now for the song that inspired the title of and goes along perfectly with this post.

(you should listen to it really loudly, it sounds way better) 

it's the most... conference-y time of the year.

So it’s that time of the year again. All of us Mormons gather around the TV, eat until we’re sick, and then take 5 naps over a 2-day period. Haha not really.

But kind of.

But for seriously, I just really want to express how much I love General Conference. It’s such a reassurance to me that the church is true. The brethren are so kind and sincere and genuine, and their messages call you to action without being too harsh. It is obvious to me that they’re speaking to us what the Lord would have us hear. I love that the brethren check up on us every 6 months to make sure we remember what we’re supposed to be doing. I know I’d definitely forget if I didn’t have that reminder bi-annually. So yeah, I basically just think conference is pretty great.

One of the talks that stood out to me was the one that Matthew O. Richardson gave. I thought it was interesting that he is the 2^nd counselor in the General Sunday School presidency of the Church. I really liked how his talk was easy to follow; it was easy for me to focus on what he was saying. He started off with a short anecdote about a little girl he’d met when he was in the MTC. The little girl had asked him if he was a “real” missionary. He used the word “real” throughout the rest of his talk to make certain points. For example, he told another anecdote about how he climbed a high mountain in Oregon with his kids. When they all got to the top, he exclaimed to his daughter that she was a “real” hiker.

He kept using the repetition of “real” to discuss his point about learning by the Spirit. He urged us to become “real” learners, learners that utilize the Spirit to help receive personal revelation. Because he kept revisiting his main ideas of being “real,” the audience felt like they could become "real" as well. I’d say this technique was very effective.

Another technique he used was parallelism in sentence structure. He used a lot of verb phrases in list form. One in particular that stood out to me was “It [the Spirit] cannot learn for us, feel for us, or act for us.” This is just one of many examples of this type of sentence structure. This technique keeps the audience’s attention for the whole sentence, because they’re waiting to see how it will finish. Another example is the phrase, “real life, real learning, real teaching.” There’s that word “real” again. Here Elder Richardson combined his explosive “real” technique with the sentence structure. And he came up with one smashing phrase.

All in all, I found Elder Richardson to be an interesting and skilled orator and I greatly enjoyed his talk. 

I definitely didn’t take a nap during this part of conference.