The Song of Purple Summer

One of my favorite books as a kid was the Lois Lowry novel Attaboy Sam! A chapter book about a 4 year old boy seems an unlikely favorite for a pre-teen girl, but there you have it. At one point in the story, Sam's mother gives herself a buzz cut, for no other reason than to do something a little crazy. She suggests that to get oneself out of a sadness or a funk, they should do something a little out of the ordinary to shake things up and help them feel better.

For the last week or so, I've been in such a mood. Now, I didn't buzz my head (I have to be SERIOUSLY sad to consider that), but I did color it purple.

 And I'm in love, and I even feel a little better because of it. Purple victory rolls? Yes, please!

 What do you do to pick yourself up?

Families Can Be Together Forever

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons. Each Sunday, I discuss some things related to my faith and what I believe. Regardless of your own beliefs, I hope this gives you a chance to get to know me and my religion a little better. For previous installments, click here.

Happy Father's Day!

I was all set to talk about God as our Eternal Father, but it seems I already did that in February. So! Today I'll be discussing another of my favorite doctrines - eternal families.

We believe that when married by the proper Priesthood authority in the proper place (the temple), a husband and wife and all children born to them can be together forever in this life and in the eternities to come as long as they are worthy. This ordinance is called a sealing. In some countries, this counts as a legal ceremony, though in others the couple is wed civilly before their sealing. A sealing can also performed after an already married couple joins the church or when an adopted child joins the family.

I actually discussed this, briefly, once before, but that's just how much this means to me. The blessing of being with my current family and any family and husband that are yet to be is such a wonderful promise, full of hope and good things to come.

Does this mean that we're going to be living in one big house together, sharing bathrooms and space for always? Or what about those who don't have as wonderful an immediate family as I do? I'm not entirely sure. Sometimes, I think that it means we'll be living with our spouse, who is a person of our choosing, wherever it is we live after this life, but have access to our family any time we'd like.

It certainly sounds good to me.

You Know What It Is

One New Yorker recently polled his fellow urbanites about what they were listening to, which I found fascinating. Some of the answers are surprising, some are not.



Tracklist:

1 The Bee Gees: More Than A Woman
2 Fenix TX: Abba Zabba
3 Eminem: Not Afraid
4 Keni Burke: Keep Rising to the Top
5 Beyonce: Smash Into You
6 LCD Soundsystem: Dance Yrself Clean
7 The Black Keys: Too Afraid To Love You
8 Kanye West: Blame Game
9 Kinky: Mas
10 Lil Wayne: Lollipop
11 Oasis: What's the Story Morning Glory
12 Frank Sinatra: The Best Is Yet To Come
13 Korn: Counting on Me1
14 Britney Spears: How I Roll
15 Panic! At the Disco: From A Mountain In The Middle Of The Cabins
16 Kid Cudi: Day 'n' Night
17 Bob Marley: Buffalo Solider
18 Wiz Khalifa: Black & Yellow
19 Big Punisher: Still Not A Player
20 NPR2
21 Tub Ring: No One Wants To Play
22 Lady Gaga: Just Dance

So, now I turn it to you - what are you listening to?

Sidenote: The title of today's post comes from #18, Wiz Khalifa's Black and Yellow. I'm not ashamed to admit that no, I don't know what it is, but I still like that song.

Sidenote on the sidenote: This probably means that IT is probably something I don't actually want to know, doesn't it?

Oh, and I'm currently listening to Good Life by OneRepublic.

Millions shall know Brother Joseph again

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons. Each Sunday, I discuss some things related to my faith and what I believe. Regardless of your own beliefs, I hope this gives you a chance to get to know me and my religion a little better. For previous installments, click here


We believe that the church established during the time of Christ was restored to earth in our days through the prophet Joseph Smith, who had prayed to God to ask which of the churches at his time were true. In response, both Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith to tell him that none contained the fullness of the gospel, and thus began the process of the restoration of the gospel.

The story of Joseph Smith and his part in establishing The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints is told in a beautiful film that was recently made available online.  I invite you to watch it by following the links below and learn more about the early days of this church.

Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration

LDS Church News article about the film

As a fun little side note, since I was a theatre student at BYU at the time this was being filmed, I know several of the actors involved in this production. The muddy fight scene, in particular, canceled class for me for a day since our teacher, TA, and a couple of students were involved in filming it. The class? Stage Combat.