I've been reading a lot of poetry for my Literature classes and some of it is so good. I recently read on by Matthew Arnold called "The Buried Life." It is now one of my current favorites as far as poetry goes. Here is my favorite stanza, ofcourse its not the same effect without reading the whole thing but I loved this

Only-but this is rare-
when a beloved hand is laid in our,
When, jaded with the rush and glare
Of the interminable hours,
Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear
When our world-deafened ear
Is by the tones of a loved voice caressed-
A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast,
And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.
The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain,
And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.
A man becomes aware of his life's flow,
And hears it winding murmur; and he sees,
The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.

I really loved that. I've been thinking a lot about what i want to do with my life and where I want to go. I realized I think about this a ton, but then forget to think about what I want to do with my life now. A lot of people (myself included) forget that even though its good to have dreams for the future it's also important to live in today too. It's so easy to get in that mind set where you are so busy but by the end of the day you are not sure what you even did with your day. I'd like to really start filling my day with more meaningful things rather than just taking life as it comes. Life just becomes one big regret if you take life as it comes and forget to really live. Life and time are priceless and it seems so sad to waste either.
On an entirely different topic I've also been thinking about individual perspectives and how we all live life inside our minds. What i mean is that our individual worlds are essentially limited to our own minds. We only think about what we decide to think about and how we perceive the world is entirely dependent on what we allow enter into our minds. It seems like so often i choose to spend my time thinking about the most superficial surface of thought rather than anything worth my while. I feel like there are three levels of thinking.

level one: thinking about yourself, your needs and your wants.
level two: thinking about others, their needs and their desires
level three: thinking about ideas

we dont often make it past the first level. Its hard to not think all about yourself since that is what we all know the most about. All the levels are good in their own time and place but i think some of the greatest thinkers are those who manage to combine all levels but spend the least amount of time in level 1.

anyways that is just a bunch of vague ideas that have been floating around in my mind and im not sure if they make any sense but hopefully they aren't completely ridiculous.
goodnight!

In The Summer

Grand Canyon Extrodinare

I finally checked one of my life goals off the list
-Go to the Grand Canyon and walk on the sky walk: check
We had so much fun down there celebrating my Moms bday. My mom is so amazing and wonderful so it was a fun way to celebrate her.

look we really do have some friends. . .

When Life Gives You Lemons. . .

When Life Gives You Lemons. . .

Make Really Delicious Lemonade

Britton and Hillary

Britton and Hillary live far off in London, which it ends up is a lovely place to live. Its Hillary's birthday coming up and Ive had them on my mind lately.

I am pretty lucky to have such an amazing older brother. Britton is awesome. If you were to write a test question about his personality it would go something like this:
Britton is _______
a) absolutely brilliant (he goes to the London School of Economics. IE: smart people only)
b) witty and funny ( he makes me laugh so hard)
c) a creative genius ( he comes up with impressively fun games everywhere we go, to keep us all entertained)
d) a strategic mastermind (any game of strategy from risk, capture the flag, etc. . . he will most likely win)
e) a spiritual giant (i really look up to him)
f) a entertaining and incredible speaker
g) kind (always)
h) the ultimate dad (and uncle and brother etc, any kid who meets him instantly falls in love with them, he just knows how to make them happy)
i) ALL of the above.


The answer is all of the above and more. Basically the coolest guy I know.

It would only make sense then that the coolest guy would marry the most amazing girl.
Hillary is my favorite sister-in-law. She is equally as talented and awesome as Britton. I remember when she came skiing with us a loooong time ago when Britton and her were in high school and she was just in town visiting. I remember thinking she was one of the nicest, sweetest and coolest girls I had ever met.
Cool facts about Hillary
1) she is always optimistic and happy
2)she is drop dead gorgeous
3)she has a masters and she is brilliant
4)she is a scuba dive instructor
5)she was in a band. she played the base and she rocked
6)she is adventurous (she is a world traveler)
7)she is an amazing soccer player
8)she is also a spiritual giant
9)she loves shoes
10) she has a great fashion sense (the reason britton's outfits look good is because of hillary)
11)she is very funny
12) she had a pet turtle once. . . but he died
13)she is a really good cook
14) she is a hard core amazing skier
15)she is tied for first (with my sister shanda) for the nicest person i've ever met
okay this list could go on and on and on but i think that's a good place to end it.

anyways they are amazing and i love them!