Forget-Me-Nots.

"If we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us" -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

I'm sort of at a loss for words.
My life has been a whirlwind of to-do's and what if's. It's been a tornado of how am I ever's and then what's.

It's always that paper to write or that test to study for. It's a bookload of chapters I haven't read, and a backpack zipped with study guides and highlighting pens I haven't touched.

It' s a watch ticking with if I only had another hour and a bed pressed with unwrinkled sheets.

It's an alarm clock screaming not enough sleep and  a bitter wind threatening cold weather.

It's an empty cupboard begging for a grocery run and a desk full of sticky note reminders.

But today, right now... It's not about any of that.

Today it's about the yellow and orange leaves lining the trees on my street.
It's about Halloween cookies and Hocus Pocus.
It's about new recipes and costume ideas.
It's about crunching the leaves on my way home from school and wrapping a scarf tight around my neck.
It's about cold ears and wind kissed noses.
It's about a phone call with my sister and a late night talk with my roommate.
It's about apple cider and snuggling up on the couch.
Today, it's all about life.

It's been a long time since I've sat on a swing just to swing, surrounded by trees bursting with color.

 ...it felt good.

It's been a long time since I have sat on the driveway eating a popsicle, wrapped in the arms of childhood bliss.

...and I got to share that with this little girl.

It's been a long time since I've laughed so hard my stomach hurt...over and over again.

  

...but that's just what we do.

There's been a lot of those thoughts today. Thoughts about days I spent mashing flowers for my flower-dying business and making mud pancakes by the swingset in my best friends yard across the street.

Was life really that much more simple? Or did I just choose to see it that way? 

I've thought a lot about that question lately.

How much stress, worry, and heartache do we actually experience, and how much do we create for ourselves?

"Some of our worst trials are self inflicted" - Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Life is hard. So why, why do we make it even harder on ourselves? Why do we fill our lives with infinitely long to-do lists and unruly expectations?

I don't know. But I do it. And I think you just might too. Let's be honest, we all do. We get lost in the world. We get lost in that car going 55 in a 65 zone. We get lost in that present we didn't get and those groceries we forgot to add to our list.

We get so lost in the dirty diapers and missed naps that we forget those sweet little laughs and tender bedtime stories.

We get so caught up missing summer and running away from winter that we forget to enjoy fall. 

We remember friends that let us down, and forget those who pick us up.

We look so often at our to-do list and how much we didn't get crossed off, that we forget how much we've become  and succeeded on our to-be list. 

So right now, I'm making a promise. Make it with me?

Let's step back and look at the leaves change before they fall.
Let's make bubble bath beards with our little ones at bath time.
Let's try harder to be than to do.
Let's hold his/her hand a little tighter.
Say I love you a little bit more.
Let's jump in the leaves because we can, instead of bag them up because we should.

Let's take a moment to smell the forget-me-nots, instead of searching for the perfectly bloomed roses.

Because I can promise you, it works.

It has been in those small, inbetween moments that I found the answer to that question.

Life can be just as simple as it was in our bike-riding, tooth-losing, barefoot-running days.

We just have to choose to see it that way. 

I'm off to enjoy that glass of milk with that perfect Oreo cookie (that's on the list right? Oh come on, it's gotta be... I swear I wrote that somewhere....) 

Until the last leaf falls,
R.