Reflections on Life

***Warning cheesy, deep, long, arguably boring post***

I've been thinking a lot about life lately. 

The purpose of life, and what it means to live a full life. 

How do you enjoy life to its fullest, and be proud of the life you've made for yourself.

Do you want people to remember the great life you had, or just have your life be enough for you?

We know that our Savor, Jesus Christ, ultimately lived the perfect life. 

We are to emulate Him and our goal is to become perfect like Him.

But how exactly does one go about that?

How do I be like Christ, while at the same time developing my own self and my own personality?

I've decided that our dreams define us. 

What we imagine, hope for, work towards, and dedicate our lives to is ultimately what we become.

My dream is to be a wife, a mother, a sister, and a friend. 

To raise a righteous family.

My dream is to buy a house by the sea

{The cold northern sea i.e. Oregon or Maryland}

and fix it up - preferably it being an old lighthouse.

I want to go on adventures with my kids, and take pictures of them exploring and learning about life.  

I want to teach them to find beauty all around them, and make the best of whatever comes their way.

At the same time, I'm scared.  Scared that I'll keep dreaming, and never start doing, and that soon something will come and take those dreams away.

I've never really thought about death, and while I don't want to start getting myself paranoid, its definitely something that is somewhere in my future.

I don't know when I'll leave this earth, but when I do, I want to know that I've done all I can on this earth, and enjoyed every minute.  

Its hard to imagine that there's a place better and more glorious than this, but I do believe that there is.

Henry James said, "Its time to start living the life you've always imagined." 

So I guess I'm trying to tell myself to get off my butt and start being healthy, and fit, and start enjoying each day rather than dragging my butt out of bed each morning. 

In high school I had a favorite saying that says, "Embrace each day with an enthusiastic welcome."

It really made my day better when I woke up happy, and embraced all that was coming my way. 

I think I need to do that again.  

 I just want to be happy - you know? 

Not that I'm not, but I want to really live a life that I can be proud I led.  

Today my Book of Mormon Professor told us that if we want a better life, and to enjoy our relationships more then we need to add more of the spirit into our lives - and I believe him.

So here's to my little experiment:

For the next three weeks I'm going to be happy. 

I'm going to embrace the day, and love the world around me.

I'm going to add more of the spirit to my life.  

Immerse myself in the scriptures and listen to a Conference talk each and every day.  

I'm going to go to the temple once a week and work hard to learn of the Lord's will for me.

I'm going to work hard on my relationships with family, and friends, and especially with my beloved husband, Jeremy.  If I profess to love all these people and things, then I should be showing it. 

I just realized that Easter is in three weeks.  So On Easter, I'll re-evaltuate myself and see how far I've come. If I'm successful {which I'm sure will depend on my actually doing these things} I'll continue to do it!  And if I'm not successful, I'll keep doing it til I am. 

Sorry for boring the crap out of you.

ttfn