Lovelies!
Hope this one words better audio/visual wise
Hope this one words better audio/visual wise
Here's another Vlog...
I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle--something heroic, or wonderful--that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all someday.
I think it's vital to think about things bigger than yourself--to try and make a difference with what you have while you can.
Sometimes our lives can change so fast that the change out paces our minds and hearts. It's those times I think, when our lives have altered but we still long for the time before everything was altered--that's when we feel the greatest pain. I can tell you, though, from experience, you grow accustomed to it. You learn to live your new life, and you can't imagine, or even really remember, how things were before. You can take this life, or mess, and make it a better life.
In the words of the brilliant poet/wordmaster Tyler Knott Gregson,
"Weary hands and heavy hearts be still
Swollen eyes and stolen breath be still
Shaking skin and soul sick sighs be still
Be still
Be still."
I am strong, lovelies.
I feel overwhelmingly week most of the time, but I know I am strong.
I have a different kind of strength...
I have LOVE.
Did you know that some of the best people who ever lived went through the hardest times?
The harder they tried, the harder it got, but they took heart.
Take heart.
You can be incredible.
It's crazy how one minute of your life can affect the next million.
You are in control of your time.
Make it the best.
Take chances.
Whenever you feel alone just remember you have stars hidden in your skin.
You have me.
I am always here for you.
I hope there are people there for me.
I will always remain good to people. I think that being good to people--you'll never regret that. Maybe you'll get walked all over, maybe you'll get tricked, maybe you'll get fooled, but I think it's so much better to be kind to people and to trust people rather than to have your guard up and say mean things to people. You never want to be the reason that someone else feels bad.
As Tyler Knott says best:
"Be gentle,
always delicate
with every soul
you meet,
for every single morning
you wake up,
there is someone
wishing,
silently,
that they
had not."
I am going to leave you with some quotes (this is McQuote after all) that have had an impact on me lately...
"Life has many ways of testing a person's will--either by having nothing happen at all, or by having everything happen at once."
-Paulo Coelho
"Don't base your decisions on the advice of people who don't have to deal with the consequences."
"Great," I said, feeling terrible.
"I am homesick for a place. I am note sure even exists. One where my soul is understood. Where my heart is full. My body loved."
"It's easy to look at people and make quick judgments about them, their present and their past, but you'd be amazed at the pain and tears a single smile hides. What a person shows to the world is only one tiny facet of the iceburg hidden from sight. And more often than not, it's lined with cracks and scars that go all the way to the foundation of their soul."
"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close."
"Love isn't always going to be perfect. It's not a fairytale, or a storybook. And it doesn't always come easy. Love is overcoming obstacles, facing challenges, fighting to be together, holding on and never letting go. It's a short word; easy to spell, difficult to define, and impossible to live without. Love is accepting all of the complexities and simplicities. Love is work. But most of all, love is realizing every hour, minute, and second was worth it because you did it together."
"It astounds me how great our capacity is for self-inflicted verbal abuse in the realms of our minds. When I step back and consider some of the things that I tell myself on any given day, I'm disgusted because they are mostly things that I would never be cruel enough to say to someone else. But for some reason, it's easy and almost automatic to talk to myself like this."
-Don't Let Yourself Be Defeated By Your Negative Self-Talk
"Men, take care not to make women weep, for God counts their tears."
-President Thomas S. Monson
"You need to see that life is not always perfect. We will not always get what we want. And although it hurts a lot, what should've happened, happened. Who should've left, left, and whatever's thrown you off course will always bring you to where it is you need to be."
"It may be safely assumed that no person has ever lived entirely free of suffering and sorrow, nor has there ever been a period in human history that did not have its full share of turmoil and misery. When the pathway of life takes a cruel turn, there is the temptation to ask the question, 'Why me?' At times there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel, no sunrise to end the night's darkness. We feel encompassed by the disappointment of shattered dreams and the despair of vanished hopes. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. We become impatient for a solution to our problems, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.
The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure. A fundamental question remains to be answered by each of us: Shall I falter, or shall I finish? Some do falter as they find themselves unable to rise above the challenges. To finish involves enduring to the very end of life itself.
Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome.
The history of the Church (and world) in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, is replete with the experiences of those who have struggled and yet who have remained steadfast and of good cheer. The reason? They have made the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of their lives. This is what will pull us through whatever comes our way. We will still experience difficult challenges, but we will meet them head-on, and to emerge victorious.
From the bed of pain, from the pillow wet with tears, we are lifted heavenward by that divine assurance and precious promise: "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Such comfort is priceless.
Our purpose is to persevere and endure. Yes, but also to become more spiritually refined as we make our way through sunshine and sorrow. Were it not for challenges to overcome and problems to solve, we would remain much as we are, with little or no progress toward our goal of eternal life. Only the Master knows the depths of our trials, our pain, and our suffering. He alone offers us eternal peace in times of adversity. He alone touches our tortured souls with His comforting words: "Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, He is with us. He has promised that this will never change."
-President Thomas S. Monson
"Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear."
-The Hunger Games
"When you judge me without knowing me, you do not define me, you define yourself."
"I want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me"
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn't the way they actually are."
-John Green
"I care so much I'm sick."
-Ray Bradbury
"Attract them by the way you live."
-Saint Augustine
"You're not in love with me, not really, you just love the way I always made you feel. Like you were the center of my world. Because you were. I would have done anything for you."
-Abby McDonald.
Lovelies,
the point is
You're sad? I'll cheer you up.
You're upset? I'd love to listen.
All you have to do is come to me, you know I'll be there for you.
Sadness isn't contagious.
Alone people don't seek out help.
If you want to help someone, if you want to be a friend, just do it.
<W/L3
Charley Brooke
"It may be safely assumed that no person has ever lived entirely free of suffering and sorrow, nor has there ever been a period in human history that did not have its full share of turmoil and misery. When the pathway of life takes a cruel turn, there is the temptation to ask the question, 'Why me?' At times there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel, no sunrise to end the night's darkness. We feel encompassed by the disappointment of shattered dreams and the despair of vanished hopes. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. We become impatient for a solution to our problems, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.
The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure. A fundamental question remains to be answered by each of us: Shall I falter, or shall I finish? Some do falter as they find themselves unable to rise above the challenges. To finish involves enduring to the very end of life itself.
Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome.
The history of the Church (and world) in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, is replete with the experiences of those who have struggled and yet who have remained steadfast and of good cheer. The reason? They have made the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of their lives. This is what will pull us through whatever comes our way. We will still experience difficult challenges, but we will meet them head-on, and to emerge victorious.
From the bed of pain, from the pillow wet with tears, we are lifted heavenward by that divine assurance and precious promise: "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Such comfort is priceless.
Our purpose is to persevere and endure. Yes, but also to become more spiritually refined as we make our way through sunshine and sorrow. Were it not for challenges to overcome and problems to solve, we would remain much as we are, with little or no progress toward our goal of eternal life. Only the Master knows the depths of our trials, our pain, and our suffering. He alone offers us eternal peace in times of adversity. He alone touches our tortured souls with His comforting words: "Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, He is with us. He has promised that this will never change."
-President Thomas S. Monson
"Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear."
-The Hunger Games
"When you judge me without knowing me, you do not define me, you define yourself."
"I want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me"
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn't the way they actually are."
-John Green
"I care so much I'm sick."
-Ray Bradbury
"Attract them by the way you live."
-Saint Augustine
"You're not in love with me, not really, you just love the way I always made you feel. Like you were the center of my world. Because you were. I would have done anything for you."
-Abby McDonald.
Lovelies,
the point is
You're sad? I'll cheer you up.
You're upset? I'd love to listen.
All you have to do is come to me, you know I'll be there for you.
Sadness isn't contagious.
Alone people don't seek out help.
If you want to help someone, if you want to be a friend, just do it.
<W/L3
Charley Brooke
