Gratitude ...

These last few days were simply amazing. This week has been amazing. I have been noticing every little blessing that I get in my life... and I am just SO grateful ... I do not even know how to express the feeling of gratitude ... I love life, it is amazing! Seriously, everything is orchestrated in a perfect manner in my life once I make the right choices ... It is SO simple and so complex at the same time ...
Last week I got to go to California with my friend Gallia. We got to go to her grandma's funeral. It was such a good experience, I loved it. I mean it is sad she is gone, but it was such a positive event. A celebration of her life. Her family shared stories about her and it was just so amazing, it had such a great spirit! And do not get me wrong her family is mourning that she is gone, they are feeling the void and everything. But the Gospel gives you a different perspective. They all know that she is in a better place. It was cute to hear little kids saying how their grandma went to live with Jesus :)
The other thing I thought about a lot was that this life is just a blink. I thought about my life ... I mean I am not that old, but still I have been around for a while. I thought about how I am always waiting for something to happen to make my life better. I remember being a little girl dreaming about going to school, then I could not wait to go to college, then the mission, then jobs, now it is getting done with my degree again, looking forward to marriage, making more money, etc. etc. And I feel like I am missing out on what is happening in my life right now at this very moment ... noticing my little blessing and how loved I am by my family, friends, and most important my Creator ... I forget that I can do things right now instead of waiting for the future to bring something nice to me ... I know those are the things that everyone knows, we often quote that past is a history, future is a mystery, and today is the reality or something like that ... and this is true. We have got to learn to appreciate what we have today in our lives and sometimes we take things for granted. I personally am guilty of it. I love what Gordon B. Hinckley said about gratitude:
“Our society is afflicted by a spirit of thoughtless arrogance unbecoming those who have been so magnificently blessed. How grateful we should be for the bounties we enjoy. Absence of gratitude is the mark of the narrow, uneducated mind. It bespeaks a lack of knowledge and the ignorance of self-sufficiency. It expresses itself in ugly egotism and frequently in wanton mischief. We have seen our beaches, our parks, our forests littered with ugly refuse by those who evidently have no appreciation for their beauty.”This quote is just SO powerful, I love Gordon B. Hinckley, he is one of my favorite prophets. He says it so well, that I cannot even add anything to it. Let's be grateful, I guess.
I learned one other thing over the last few weeks. It is not important how much money we earn, it is not important what car we drive. But it is important what kind of a persons we are and what we bring to the world ... Because in the end once we are gone from this Earth ... we only take our deeds and testimonies with us ... I loooove the Gospel, it is perfect and beautiful!
I also got reminded that if I trust in the Lord I will be safe ... There is one last quote that I want to share with you and then I have to go to bed. It was said by Ezra Taft Benson:
"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace" WOW! This is quite a promise, isn't it? I want those blessings that is why I should stop telling the Lord what I need and start letting him lead me and teach me. And I am a Soviet, so, it is hard for me to be humble at times, but I am working at it, I promise :) And I tell you that once I do what I am supposed to do, I get blessed instantly, it is simply amazing, and once again it makes me grateful ... I am SO SO SO SO grateful I have the testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love my Father in Heaven and even though my life seems to be so hard at times, I am happy cause He is there to "deepen my joys, lift my spirit, multiply my blessings, comfort my sour, pour out peace". How incredible it is!
Let's be grateful for what we have, let's enjoy our blessings, let's serve each other, let's make a difference in this world!
Life is fun, it is tough, but no one promised it was going to be easy. Let's make the best out of it. I am down who is with me? ;))))

Snapping out ....

Today was a normal day, I got up, I went to school, I went to work ... I am feeling a lil bit sick, but other than that everything is the same.

But then I got a missed call from my ex ... nothing special he just needs to add classes that I had added for him before and now we need to coordinate the whole dropping and adding thing. But I got SO nervous when I saw his name on my cell phone ... I don't even know how to express the feelings and thoughts that were rushing through my mind ... It seemed like in seconds I lived though everything that ever happened between us ... it was really odd ... I felt weird and so, I decided not to think about it ... I had a job interview and then I met with my friend and roommie Gallia and we were about to go home when we ran into my ex ... and it felt weird again ... I do not know how to explain it, BUT a good thing about it is that I figured out that I got emotionally detached from him and that makes me really happy. I mean I still miss him and stuff, but my happiness does not depend on him anymore ... and it feels good ...

I understood a lot of things, and ... I was silly ... now I can see things with a different perspective and I am happy =))))))

It reminded me of a quote from a book I read years ago ... I do not even remember its name, but this quote makes SO much sense, I love it!

"Compared to the Earth beyond, Earth can seem as unreal and as disorienting as Dorothy found Oz to be. This is not our natural home. It would be nce to just click our heels together and go to our real home where nothing impedes growth and joy. However, I've learned that there are good reasons for having no easy outs. We must progress here while we are here and - like Dorothy's friends - acquire hearts that love, brains equipped with wisdom and truth, and courage to find and follow our yellow-brick roads. By gaining any measure of these we grow ...

Mistakes can be our best teachers. Some of us, though, have to repeat our mistakes over and over before we finally get things right. And when we do, we say, "DUH!" because what's right is always present - and, therefore, obvious when we finally see it.

The object of life is getting to "DUH!" as quickly and as painlessly as possible. But there is a catch: the short course to "DUH!" is seldom the safe course. The creator never leads us to "DUH!" through unnatural shortcuts. We forge them for ourselves.

Could it be a clue? Are we meant to take long road to the top when it is the safe road? Can our struggles sometimes tell us that we are on the right path??????"

I am glad to finally be able to get to my "DUH!"... I mean it took me a while ... like seven months, but, hey, I got where I am now... so, it all that matters, right? I definitely learned a lot though ... and it was indeed painful for me ... SO glad it is over. I feel like I am a new person and it is exciting.

I am single and free and it makes me VERY VERY happy =))))))

I have so many things to enjoy, it makes me dizzy. I got a sick internship that I am very excited about. It is with OMNI Investor Advisors. I will work as a financial analyst there, but more important they are going to let me manage trading portfolios. And I am crazy about trading. I am SUPER excited. I have also been looking for a different job, I interviewed with a guy from an Employment office at BYU who needs an Assistant. The interview went really well and I think I might be getting a job, we'll see.

Things are getting SO much better in my life. I feel like I get blessed promptly and sometimes it makes me feel uncomfortable cause I feel like I do not really deserve all of it, if you know what I mean :)))))))))

I have also been blessed with amazing friends. I love them all, they make a big difference in my life! Thanks, guys.

Oh, the other week we went to the festival of colors ... this is a Krishna thing ... I do not even know what meaning or significance it has, but all the BYU students go there, I guess. So, we went as well. I went with my rommie Missy, her bf Daniel, my friend Eric, Eric's cousin Dan, and our friend Julio. We had SO much fun painting each other's faces ... I am posting a few pictures so that you can see what we looked like ... it was rad, I loved it... Eric and Dan had a little bit too much fun putting colors on my face and I ended up having too much ... I think, but I did not mind at all. You should have seen people's faces when we went to Subway to eat after the festival .... OMG ... this little girl was looking at me and asking her mom what had happened to "that girl's face", lol. And then I got home and we had some people coming over to see the house because it is being sold ... and they got scared when I opened the door ... Anyway, it was a lot of fun for sure!
Daniel, Missy, Eric, mysef, Julio, Dan =))))

Life is good! You have got to love it =))))))))