To Be Everything at Once

One of my favorite people introduced me to a song recently that I've put on replay. The chorus goes like this:

This is happiness,

to be everything at once:

Be unblinded, be unlearned,

be unbridled, and unburned.

{No Parallels - Hands Like Houses}

And as those lyrics stuck on repeat in my mind, I started to contemplate them seriously. It struck me as odd that happiness could be lacking in education. In fact, it confused me that the song would focus on all the negative terms. Why say be “Unblinded” instead of saying something to the effect of having sight? Of course, then the song would say “Be sightful, be ignorant, be free, and raw.” And certainly that isn’t the same thing, but it brings us to another section of the lyrics:

We’re branded and we’re burdened from the moment we are born.

We’re domestic and we’re discontent, and we’re grinding our gums raw.

Forget your feet and where they fall, lift your head and carry on.

Hearing the start of this verse, I felt it to be a bit depressing, but as I got to the end, I understood:

No fear, just faith, no bit, just break the path and let it lead you.

Unknown, unblind, run free, run wild and leave behind what holds you down.

We are all born with burdens on our shoulders. They’re hidden in our DNA, and it’s the load upon each parents shoulders that will someday tumble onto ours. Time will brand us as adults someday; sickness will mark us as invalids along the way; and we will mark ourselves every day of our lives with sorrows, mistakes, regrets, and so many things that scar our hearts.

That’s why they’re “un” words.

We are not capable of living entirely free, constantly at peace, only knowing what we wish to, yet clearly seeing everything around us with a heart full of appreciation, all the while remaining emotionally whole. That was never an option. There will always be burdens. We must always be learning hard truths. Everyone is restrained by things. And we all get hurt.

But we have to take all of those things, and move past them. “Un”do what they have done to us, and be happy in the midst of it all. Happiness isn’t to have a perfect life. Happiness is to be everything at once. Even sad. Even wrong. Even free, when we feel bound. Even faithful, when we are afraid.

Even happy.

Happiness is to be alive and to feel all the burdens and freedoms that come with that, all at once. And that’s life too. So I guess happiness is just life. We just have to be willing to seize it.

Carpe diem, carpe vitam!

The Little Voice that Doesn't Sleep

Incipio Loqui. This is my Latin coming into play; It means, “I begin to speak,” which may seem a bit redundant, but give me a couple paragraphs to explain.

Now, I have to confess that, as much as I love to tell stories, and I love writing, and I love people (seriously, I just adore the human race as a whole. People are incredible!), I had never considered writing a blog. Even when people told me I should, I didn’t really consider blogging. So, imagine my surprise when the Spirit (or as my dad calls it: The Little Voice) told me, Lela, I think you ought to start a blog. The late-night conversation went something like this:

Lela? I think you should write a blog.

What? What was that? I’ve never thought that before...Did I just think that?

Nope. Little Voice here! *waves* Lela, I really think you should write a blog.

What are you saying? Why am I awake? Shhhh. Let’s go to sleep.

But Lela. You’re not listening. I think we should start BLOGGGING!

Do you know what a blog is, Little Voice? That’s on the interwebs and stuff. I didn’t know you cared so much about the interwebs. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to say in a blog. What if I said the wrong things?

Let’s BLOG!!

Aren’t you supposed to go to bed at midnight or something? Let’s sleeeeep.

I’m always awake. And you’re supposed to write a blog.

Why do you keep SAYING that?! Are you serious?

You don’t believe me? Okay then, how bout we drop it for now. But you know what you haven’t done? You haven’t read your scriptures yet tonight. You really ought to do that or you won’t sleep well.

Okay, Little Voice, you got me. Scriptures it is.

Let’s read a General Conference Talk. From October. 2012.

That’s mighty specific of you...are you scheming over there?

“Brethren, We Have Work to Do”

That’s to the men…

THAT’S THE ONE!!!

Okay, Okay, got it. I’m reading.

And that’s when I found this quote:

“Begin to act, and the Lord assures that ‘an effectual door shall be opened for [you]’ (D&C 118:3). Begin to speak, and He promises, ‘You shall not be confounded before men; for it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say’ (D&C 100:5-6).”

{Elder D. Todd Christofferson}

In case you haven’t gotten there yet, because the Spirit wasn’t yelling it in your ear, it says:

Lela, you ought to write a blog. Don’t think about it so much. Just write it. Cause I’m asking you to. And trust that it will mean something to someone, even if it’s just me. But I wouldn’t ask you if it didn’t mean something to me. And who can argue with that?

So here I am, months after that first impression, and I still hadn’t started to write yet. Because I never had just the right idea. Never the perfect message to start with, or the “just right” story. And you know what happens when you don’t make a timeline for the things Heavenly Father asks you to do? He makes one for you. And that’s why He woke me up at five o’clock in the morning.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had four hours of sleep and then woken up entirely refreshed before the sun’s even come out, but it’s really a confusing feeling, and even feeling awake, the first thought that comes is, “I should go back to sleep.” However, another voice was awake, per usual, and He whispered, Nope. You should wake up. I won’t bore you with the conversation, but let’s just say, it’s hard to sleep with someone talking in your ear. His winning argument was this:

When God wakes you up at five in the morning, you get up, because certainly He has to something important to say.

This morning I have learned several things, most of which are going to make the next post (yes, I do intend to post again) about the words: Once Upon a Time. And yes, the ideas were started by Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk “Your Happily Ever After,” which was the first thing I listened to this morning. But here are a couple (Two, guys. Don’t get scared now. You’ve come so far. Just two more things.) of cool things that I wanted to share with the people I love (that’s you!) after a really great morning:

#1. Those days when everything seems really right with the world, or even just those tiny moments (like when someone grabs the door for you and that’s exactly what you needed), that’s how Heavenly Father says that He Loves You.

#2. The only thing better than feeling that Heavenly Father loves you, is to feel that He is proud of you, and you’ll feel that when you are getting to know Him better, when you make and keep promises with Him, when you’re serving his children, and most especially when you listen to the promptings of the Spirit.

And so, it begins: Incipio Loqui.

(And thank you for taking the time to listen.)