30 Days in Pictures: Day Sixteen

Day Sixteen – A picture of someone who inspires you



Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney Wells. Mormon. Suffragist. Sister wife. Feminist. Editor of the Women's Exponent. Relief Society President from 1910 to 1921. I plan on naming my first born daughter after her.
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Things have been super crazy recently. I keep waiting for this year to produce less awfulness but the total aggregate suck only seems to be increasing. I have 6 more weeks of a job that slowly eats at my soul, I'm kicking myself for not pursuing EFY counselor contracts, and I'm in the middle of a bunch of baby mama drama with BYU admissions and trying to get the communications department to let me take a class I need and et cetera. HOWEVER each day is one day closer to when I will be in Provo doing things I enjoy, like TAing logic and being a student and not getting yelled at for needing to reschedule patient's appointments to September. Which, beeteedubs, is probably somewhere in between watching kittens drown and having lit bamboo shoots shoved under your toenails on the fun scale. So, yeah, 6 weeks. You can do anything for 6 weeks, right? Right?... At least I love the people I work with.

I've been consciously trying to do things recently that I enjoy and destress me. I've really gotten into taking baths this summer, which is weird because I've never enjoyed taking baths since I was like 9. But I got a ton of stuff from Lush a while back and some bath stuff from Bath and Body. I am now a serious bath advocate.

Reading. I bought a Kindle this summer because my love for fiction has started taking over my life and I really don't need any more books to figure out how to move around. Right now I'm working on the Hunger Games series (in the 3rd book, but taking my time because I've heard it isn't as good at the first 2), and I decided to join the human race and read Harry Potter.

I also discovered that I. love. pedicures. I had my first ever pedicure on my mission of all places and have since become addicted. Spa/mall pedicures are crazy expensive, but yesterday I decided to try out a local beauty school and it was wonderful. She spent an entire hour and it only cost me $13 plus tip.

I've been trying out natural methods to manage my anxiety and overall suckiness, including St. John's Wort, Kava, and private yoga lessons. I notice the Kava making more of a difference than the SJW, and yoga is pretty awesome.

I have a Jeffrey R. Holland quotation written on a piece of paper taped on my desk:

"If we constantly focus only on the stones in our mortal path, we will almost surely miss the beautiful flower or cool stream provided by the loving Father who outlined our journey. Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God's goodness. Joy in the gospel is not something that begins only in the next life. It is our privilege now."

This whole entire year has been pretty much nothing short of awful, but what helps is knowing that skies can't always be gray and so many things are only on their way to getting better.