Or Walk By Our Lilac Tree

The other day, I smelt lilac for the first time this year.

That was a good day.

There is a row of lilac bushes that I pass on my way to campus.

Last spring, walking past them daily became one of life's simple pleasures.

And when the cold crawled in and they died, I said to myself,

"The next time I see those bloom,

it will be spring,

and good things will happen."

Truly.

I don't like to walk past them without stopping to inhale.

I feel like I'm wasting a precious chance.

The frailty of spring weighs on me a bit.

More often than most people, probably, I wonder which sense I would give up if I had to give up one.

Usually I say smell because sight and sound are too precious to me.

But I'm glad that I can smell lilac.

I'm glad to live in this beautiful world 

Heavenly Father created for me.

Wet Sandwich.

Sometimes I feel...

different.

I hate television,

and I'm not fond of movies.

And I don't like to read, either.

Well, actually, I do.

But I never do it.

I've realized that I really love to run.

I listen to old people music.

Architecture makes me happy.

And sometimes I make all the photos on my blog posts black and white.

Long words!

I'm glad to be a 90s kid.

When I was little, I somehow learned to say

Slobodan Milosevic.

I guess it was funny to hear a little five-year-old say a name that long.

I remember how weird it was when I later learned who he was.

I had no idea there was a war in Europe going on.

A war in Europe! During my lifetime! 

Neighbors fighting against neighbors,

killing,

destruction,

everything.

Not to mention Africa or the Middle East or any of the other places that have suffered turbulent times in the last twenty years.

In a world that had MTV and cassette tapes,

I just think we should have been able to put wars behind us.

Being from America,

I feel so far removed from war.

Geographically,

temporally.

There was a war affecting millions of people,

and all I knew of it was that that name was fun to say.

I do remember precisely when Princess Diana died.

I was six years old.

I came downstairs one day, and my dad was watching about it on the news.

I think I remember the Clinton impeachment.

I remember the aftermath of the Columbine shootings.

I remember when the internet came out.

It's interesting to live life

and look back and realize that it was history.

But it is waking up and going to bed,

day in and day out,

that eventually fills up the pages of the book.

Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

Stop and think.

I'm really grateful for
the people who load your luggage
onto the airplane.

I love montages.

Look at your life through heaven's eyes.

Greatest Idea Anyone Has Ever Had.

"Let's carve giant presidents' heads into the mountain side!"

I need to go. Real bad.

Road trip, anyone?

Indian Summer.

Yesterday, I decided definitively that the best kind of weather is any

unseasonable warmth.

aka,

Indian Summer.

Or, if it's warmer than usual in Winter, I call it--

drum roll--

Indian Spring.

Yesterday, for instance, was the day before Thanksgiving,

and I wore a t-shirt and flip flops during in the afternoon.

Unseasonable warmth is even better than anticipated warmth.

There's a slight chill on your arms and bare feet

that gives you a bit of nostalgia.

Makes you feel like you should be in love

and go on an adventure.

Indian Summer whispers in your ear,

"Remember summertime, when you ran free?"

Yes, Indian Summer. I remember.