Cambridge, MA

So, I've spent most of the past couple of days in Cambridge, MA. I love it. There are so many old houses and buildings and lots of red brick--it's just so pretty and old.

On Monday, I had a lazy morning trying to take care of stuff for Europe (like calling my bank and telling them not to freeze my cards when I start spending money in Dublin), and then met up with my friend Patrick for lunch in Harvard Square.

We went to a sandwich place called Darwin's. (I took a nice picture of myself standing in front of it which I would post if I had access to a computer with an SD card slot.) We both had portobello mushroom, mozzarella, basil sandwiches (so good) and ate them in a little grassy area along Mt. Auburn Ave (Or was it Mt. Auburn Street? I don't know actually). After that, we visited the Mt. Auburn Cemetery where I took pictures of EVERYTHING. Lots of headstone and flower pictures--pictures that no one but me will ever want to look at. Again, I'd post them for you but I don't have a camera USB cord or a computer with an SD card slot.

We spent about two hours wandering around the cemetery. Apparently, it's the first landscaped cemetery in the United States. It was beautiful--peaceful and quiet. There are a lot of famous people buried there, most of whom I'd never heard of. But we did look at the graves of some people whose names I recognized: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science), and Edwin Booth (brother of John Wilkes Booth and one of the most famous Shakespearean actors in 1860s America).

In the middle of the cemetery is a tower that you can climb and see an awesome view of Cambridge and Boston.

After our cemetery-ing, Patrick showed me around Harvard campus and we headed back to Harvard Square where we got dark hot chocolate at Barlick's (YUM) and looked around the Harvard Coop--Harvard's university bookstore that is run by Barnes & Noble (I know, right).

Later, we met up with Patrick's bible study friends, Tom and Courtney, for dinner at a place called India Castle. It was delicious.

Today was rainy and overcast, so we didn't actually go to Walden Pond or Orchard House (that will happen tomorrow!). But Sarah and I did do a session at the Boston Temple (which was really pretty). We also ate at Chipotle (shout out to Gina & Rebecca!), ran errands at Target, and went to J. P. Lick's, an ice cream place in Harvard Square. I had chocolate pretzel ice cream. Again, yum. (I love food.)

Sarah dropped me off at the Harvard Coop where I read poetry while waiting to meet up with my friend Natalie. I came across this amazing poem that I think I'm going to make copies of and pass out to students who ask me if they missed anything important when they were absent from my class.

Natalie and I went to a concert by Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, who I guess were in America for the Japan-U.S. Cherry Blossom Centennial. It was a beautiful concert that took place in beautiful concert hall on campus. The concert hall was in the same building where the Harvard freshman dining hall is located. BYU's Cannon Center has a lot of room for improvement.

After the concert, Natalie and I grabbed dinner at a cool little place on Harvard Square. I can't remember what it was called, but we had hummus and red lentil soup. So good.

And now I'm seriously considering moving to Cambridge.

Epic Vacation Part 1: Boston

Yesterday, I commenced an epically long, solo vacation. I'll never have the time or probably the money to go on a vacation like this again, so I'm trying to take full advantage of the opportunity to go to a lot of places and see a lot of things. I'm going to try to blog about it somewhat regularly, depending on how good my Internet connection in Europe will be. My itinerary? Boston, Massachusetts; Ireland; England; Germany; Austria; and Washington, D.C.

I arrived in Boston yesterday morning after a red-eye flight with a brief stop in the JFK airport. I flew JetBlue, which I had never done before. I recommend it. I had a very nice flight attendant named Victor who said he liked my bag and gave me two cans of tomato juice. (I always drink tomato juice on airplanes but almost never at any other time.) He also bought a movie for the guy next to me to watch. Victor was so great.

After eating a breakfast of toast and jam, the first thing I did in Boston was take a nap. Then, I went to a baby shower for my friend Sarah (I'm staying here in Boston with Sarah and her husband, Michael). After the baby shower, I had another nap. In the evening, we went to dinner at Antojito's, a Mexican/El Salvadorian restaurant. We got a ton of food so I had a bit of everything: papusas, tacos, gorditas, some fish, rice and beans. Yum.

After that, we went grocery shopping. I learned that out here in Boston, they call grocery carts "carriages." We watched about half of Bringing Up Baby (during which I had another nap!) and then went to bed. I was so tired.

This morning, I went to church at the Boston Longfellow Park 2nd Ward with my friend Patrick. It's a ward that's pretty full of graduate students. I enjoyed how many of them tied their different fields of study into what we were talking about in Sunday School. No but really. I did. During the fifth Sunday combined meeting, we also were given chocolate and crayons and we had story time. I loved this ward.  Church was followed by a munch-and-mingle with the Longfellow Park 1st Ward where I saw my friend Natalie. Apples and celery and peanut butter were served. (I'll probably be chronicling the food I eat more than anything else I do while I'm traveling.)

This afternoon, we tried to go to Boston Commons and Boston Public Gardens (where the Make Way for Ducklings statues are!), but we experienced a lot of authentic Boston traffic and we couldn't find parking, so we ended up just kind of driving around for nearly an hour. I enjoyed it though. There are a lot of awesome old houses and old buildings here in Boston. We passed by John Kerry's house and a house that Louisa May Alcott may or may not have lived in.

On the way back, we stopped at the Fenway Stadium and walked around outside of it. It's pretty small, but it's a 100 years old and that's cool. I took some pictures that I'll have to upload when I have access to a computer with a SD card drive.

Long story short, I've been in Boston for two days and have seen mostly nothing. But I'm enjoying myself. Tomorrow, I'm going to Harvard Square, Harvard campus, and the Mt. Auburn's Cemetery where a bunch of famous people are buried. Tuesday is Walden Pond and Orchard House! Should be awesome. I'll keep you all posted.

power, love, and a sound mind

I've been pondering lately on this scripture found in 2 Timothy 1:7: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

I find this scripture comforting because it reminds me that when I'm afraid to move forward in my life or I'm stressed over trials I'm experiencing, the fear I feel can't come from God. God is love and perfect love casteth out all fear.

I'm a worrier. If you know me at all, you've probably picked up on this trait of mine. One of the things I worry most about is figuring out what to do with my life--on a day-to-day, year-to-year, and even decade-to-decade basis. I keep trying to map things out so I know where I'll be, or where I should be, in five or ten years--or at least tomorrow. I'm not an obsessive planner (in fact, although I keep a planner, I often forget to look at it), but I just like to feel secure--to know what's coming--to be able to picture where life is headed.

Unfortunately, I've long been in a stage of life where you can't really count on how things will go. I still try, however. This often leads me to pray and ponder about the next step in my life and frequently second guess whether my impressions are from the Spirit or from my own head. I'm afraid of missteps and mistakes. But God in recent months has been trying to teach me to be more flexible and more trusting.

This scripture reminds me that my fear and my worry can't have their source in God, so what I imagine are spiritual warnings and premonitions about what will go wrong are really my own worries demanding to be front and center. In contrast to this, God works through power, love, and a sound mind. And I find these things come more plentifully into my life when I stop trying to see ahead--when I allow one step to be enough for me.

Power, love, and a sound mind are most available in present moments. God isn't always willing to tell me whether or not I'll get into PhD programs or when I'll have a family, but He is always willing to tell me what to do with this moment--how to act in the next hour, or the next minute. Of course He wants me to act for myself and He mercifully doesn't direct every action and every decision (how would we learn to act for ourselves and not be acted upon?), but He will, if I let Him, guide me to where I need to be when I need to be there. He'll give me the strength to teach one class, the ability to help one student, and the love to be patient and listening when I want to be selfish and talking. He'll always help me know that I can do for people around me, even if the direction of my own life isn't yet clear. He's willing to give me the power, love, and soundness of mind to act in His service and to become a little more like Him.

And that's enough to take the fear and worry away in the present.

a blue true dream of sky

i thank You God for most this amazing 
by e. e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)


This poem makes me so happy. I've just about memorized it simply from reading it over and over again in the past few weeks. It's the perfect poem for all this spring weather, and it reminds me of how lovely things really are. Enjoy.

new year's resolutions

Like most people, I write about ten resolutions every New Year's and then fulfill two of them.

I can't find my list from last year, so that tells you how seriously I took those resolutions. But I do remember writing "finish master's degree" on there, and I think I wrote "find a job" as well. So, there you go, two resolutions completed! Go me!

Resolutions matter a little more to me now, though, as I contemplate 2012. I'm not in school anymore, after so many years of no break, so I don't have those regular deadlines and expectations to keep me accomplishing things. I've got to figure out my own way to keep progressing. 2012 also marks the end of the world, so it seems like a good year to try to keep your resolutions.

I don't want to start too big, however, because that's setting myself up for failure. Instead of writing ten resolutions, then, I'm going to write just five. It increases each goal's odds of landing in one of the two elite goals-that-will-actually-be-accomplished spots. So, without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2012:

1. Read my scriptures in the morning.
2. Read two books a month just for fun.
3. Write something creative everyday.
4. Exercise three or four times a week.
5. Go to Europe!

I feel strongly that Europe will make it to the top two. Exclamation points are so motivating.