Cliche Moments. Deal with it.

For the first time I was actually grateful for my dog.
It's a phenomenon. 
Who knew this day would ever come? (Okay, that's a lie, there was a different time I was more than grateful he was my dog--but that's a different story.)
But he did a great thing for me last night. Fun Fact: one of my favorite things in the whole world is nighttime walks. 

Problem: I'm a girl. Therefore, it's "dangerous" to walk alone at night.

Stupid jerks that kidnap people and make my parents paranoid. (Okay, it's really just because they love and care about me and there are legitimate fears for my safety. It's annoying though...who'd want to kidnap me anyway?)

However, last night my lovely dog and I got permission to go on a walk alone together. Just the two of us. For cute!;) It was so nice! He proved to be quite the listener. I thought he'd chat it up with a bunch of barking--he didn't. Maybe we can be friends after all...maybe. 

Walks have a tendency to help me think through things. 

Lately, I have just been really confused. As I walked, I'm not even sure completely what I thought about. Here are a couple things though:

I am so blessed to live where I live. There are so many people across the world who plan and save up their entire lives to make it to the temple once. I literally live within a few minutes walking distance from one. How is that fair? And why don't I take advantage of that fact? I should be going way more often than I do. 

I don't know people as well as I think I do.

I demean the things I go through. The thing is that I know people who go through ten times worse than I do. So I sit an tell myself how stupid I am for being upset over little things and then everything gets ten times worse. You know what? Yes, I definitely do have it better than so many people. But that doesn't mean the things I go through aren't hard for me. For once, it was good to admit that. In a weird obscure way, I needed to know that. 

My past is tied together in ways I didn't realize. 

I'm not the same person  I used to be. At all.

Nerd moment: I was looking at the temple, and then around at the rest of the world as it sparkled with lights scattered across the city. It just kind of hit me at how symbolic it all was. There are so many lights in our lives. So many pieces of truth. So many moments that relieve us from our darkness. But none of it suffices until we reach the temple and stay there. The Lord can shed light on us like a streetlamp shines down on a road; it helps us have the light we need for the time being. It's enough for whatever we're facing at that moment--but you can't see beyond that, which is okay, because at that instant, you don't need to. And each light lead to another one. It gets scary though, because there are moments when you have to take a step in the dark and you have no idea what you'll face. But, if you choose your path right, it can lead to the temple which shines brighter than all the other lights combined. That's where I want to be. That's my goal. I am not settling for anything less. I can't.