The Endless Beauty of Hope and Sunshine!

This week I've been thinking a lot about feel-good music. I love Adele right now but the songs are all pretty depressing lyrically... so here's a list of some of my favourite feel-good songs- the ones I get caught at traffic lights singing along to with the windows down!:

1) Train - If It's Love
2) Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine
3) Amy Studt - Misfit
4) Natalie Imbruglia - Starting Today
5) Bowling for Soup - Punk Rock 101
6) Ace of Bass - Life is a Flower
7) Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
8) Sixpence None the Richer - Kiss Me

I've been so blessed in my life just recently. Well- that statement is wrong. I'm always way too blessed for words and I realise that the source of those blessings is a Heavenly Father who knows and loves me just the way I am and then gives me a hand so I can make the step up to be just a little more.

I've had the opportunity recently to start doing some indexing. This sounds so boring but it really isn't... basically indexing is the transfer of data from census records that have been scanned into the computer to a typed form so that they are now stored in that format and can be accessed and used. It's been really great to get involved in this. It's improving my geography and making me think about the world in which people lived- where there were jobs like being a 'salt boiler'. I like where the world is now. I like the fact that as a woman I'm able to access all the education I wish to acquire.

Freedom is very important to me. I want to use that freedom well. That, for me, means getting my priorities right. Above all, it means balance. It means striving towards the ideal of having a family one day; It means maximising the talents that God has given me (whether great or small); It means being very very busy!

I've had the song from Wicked in my head all day today:

"I couldn't be happier, Simply couldn't be happier. Well, not simply... 'Cause getting your dreams it's strange, but it seems a little, well, complicated. There's a kind of a sort of... cost... there's a couple of things get lost. There are bridges you cross you didn't know you'd crossed until you've crossed." 

I seem pretty much incapable of choosing the easy route through life. I feel like there have been moments that rather than taking the well-marked path I've been stumbling through brambles and thorns. I've emerged a little bit worse for the wear at times but with a stoic determination and a love for life. Right now, it seems like there is a wonderful view in front of me. Life is (simply) wonderful. 

I'm looking forward to Christmas. I'm looking forward to focusing on Christ in this season. I'm looking forward to having time to talk to friends I haven't seen for a while, to think, to read... to just enjoy this place that I'm at in life. Things are just so sweet right now.

I've got a long way to go but I am facing the future with a real hope. As I got out of medical school today the December sun was beating down and it just renewed my enthusiasm. 

Tonight I'm going to see my sister's choreography at her university show. Life is about supporting each other, learning from each other and getting to embrace everything that's good because of the people around you. Without Becky I wouldn't see a lot of dance, I don't imagine, and though I don't have as much enthusiasm for it as she does I have really enjoyed the things I've been able to experience because of her. That's just one example of the joy others bring to my life. We can all grow so much because of each other!