Rhymes With Laundry: Failure to Update + Festival of Lights

*Re-posting of a previously error-laden post

I sort of took an unintentional break from blogging. You know, just school and life and being home for the holidays and being too busy rolling around in the snow and such. When I started blogging earlier this year, I wanted to use this space as a sort of journal and record of the things going on in my life. I've not always been good at keeping up in a physical journal, and I thought maybe recording snippets of my life here would motivate me to actually update, but well, it looks like I've hit a bit of a slump. But you know what? It's OK. I feel OK about not updating my online life, because I've been too busy living it in real life. :) My online life is just a tiny snapshot of my real-live life, and it's OK to devote more time to other aspects of my big picture world.

One of the reasons journaling has been hard for me in the past is that once I fall behind, I feel obligated to catch up on every last detail of every day I've missed, and then I get overwhelmed and stressed, and keep postponing an update, and then three years later, I finally decided that shooot, I should just start writing from where I am and leave it at that. So... I may post some older pictures, I may decide to just keep going. (But probably, I'll do a little of both, because I love taking photos, and it's fun to have a place to share them. :D)

I DO want to record my Christmas 2012 season, because it really has been lovely. :) I've been blessed to spend time with family and friends, to enjoy beautiful things, and eat delicious foods, and shoot, I was even blessed to be stressed about school. I say "blessed to be stressed," because even when I'm running on almost no sleep and am mentally worn out, I know that I am blessed to be able to pursue higher education. I am keenly aware that not everyone, my parents included, has/will have/has had that opportunity, and I feel blessed that I get to stress out about final projects and such. (I also feel blessed when the breaks from semesters come, but who doesn't? :) Right?)

Anywho (as my brother Jason would say), here are a few photos from my visits to the DC Temple/Visitors' Center's Festival of Lights this year. I LOOOOOVE seeing the Christmas lights at the Visitors' Center! Seeing the lights reminds me of my mission, of being exhausted (in a good way) from working hard, of having my cheeks hurt from smiling so much, of carrying the hope and prayer in my heart that I could help others to feel the love of Christ, and of bearing constant testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ, who is, after all, the reason we celebrate CHRISTmas. These tiny lights remind me of His light, His life, and His love. I hope you've felt a little bit of that this Christmas, and if you haven't, I sure hope you'll feel it now. Mucho amor para todos desde aqui en Utah!

xo,
Y