Thursday, November 1, 2018

Everyday, it's a gettin' closer,

Hi friends. It's been a minute. I started off the year strong and then . . . well, nothing. Nothing for months. I'm sorry about that. I honestly don't have a great excuse - I've just been out of the habit.

I know one challenge is that I don't have a typical schedule. There is almost nothing predictable about my schedule most weeks. Sometimes I have classes or rehearsals, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I have an extra dog to care for. Sometimes I don't. No 9 to 5 job for two years now. Every day is a little different.

I've tried to come up with routines and schedule my days to actually get things done and use all this time and flexibility I have to do as I please and sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I'm a big fan of my life right now and I actually do get a lot of things done and have great adventures, so I don't really regret my inability to consistently do ALL of the things AND keep a good record of it. There is always more I could be doing, sure, but as long as I'm doing something, it's better than nothing.

I really enjoyed a talk from the most recent General Conference of the The Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints titled "Divine Discontent", which outlines the different between divine discontent and paralyzing discouragement. Divine discontent, an inspired feeling of the need to do more, can lead us to action, doing good, and come closer to Christ. Paralyzing discouragement does the opposite - convinces us there is no point to even trying, it won't make a difference and we'll never get any better. I've certainly experienced that kind of discouragement, but I also certainly prefer the divine discontent.

As Gordon B. Hinckley said, we should "go with determination to try a little harder to be a little better." That's what I'm going to do. It's NaBloPoMo season, and I haven't missed one yet, so I'm going to try and get back in the groove. Again. I'll try to talk about current events, adventures of the last year, and life in Japan updates. Life is good!

Malcolm napping today. He's a weirdo.

2 comments:

Giggles said...

Malcolm naps a bit like Iddo. Maybe it's an oldest child thing.

Also...

LET'S DO THIS!!

AmandaStretch said...

Oldest child thing could make sense. I know I slept in weird positions sometimes when I was younger.

We got this!