The rate of Change

Humans can change. That I acknowledge as fact. It does lead me to wonder though, is there a rate for this change? Is there a limit to how fast we can change, how fast we can become a new or different person? It is said that a man can't change overnight implying that change cannot be instantaneous. Is that true? What about a moment's decision that can change our entire life? Does this not qualify as instantaneous change? If we say that change is not instantaneous can we then set a minimum amount of time that is required in order for a person to change? If we cannot, then how can we rule out the possibility of instantaneous change? What do you think? Is it possible for a person to change in a moment or does it take longer than this? How long?

The Best

So question: When you think of "the best of something" what do you think of? What makes it "the best". This was prompted by the term, "best of books" but I also thought of many other bests while trying to answer this question for myself; best friend, best song, best man, best place, best day.  I came up with the following criteria:
1: High quality- Something that stands out amongst others of its kind in terms of accomplishing its function.
2: Stirring/Inspiring- something that resonates with our soul and makes us think, feel, or act in a way that is improved from how we were before we came across it.
3: Support-something that offers us support and encourgment. A feeling of warmth or of being at home.

Can you think of any other criteria for the "best" of something? What do you think the "best of books" means when referred to in addition to the scriptures ( or in other words they are books other than the scriptures).

Love Mercy

Brother Norton shared this scripture with us in institute last wednesday-

Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

So what does it mean to love when put in the context of loving a trait, attribute, or virtue? Someone in institute said that maybe to love mercy is to be grateful for mercy so then is being grateful for a virtue all that is required to be said to "love" the virtue? I thought perhaps it is like when you love an item or an action such as loving to whistle.When you love to do something you enjoy it and you want to do it a lot. So following that train of thought if I love mercy than I want it to be put in action a lot, both on my behalf and on the behalf of others. I would say that loving mercy is not only being willing but eager to find forgivness and to extend it to others. It means to be eager to extend the hand of help to those who need it, to lift up the hands that hang down, and to strengthen feeble knees. But for that matter, what exactly is mercy? Is it forgivness or charity? But then why does it need a spereate word? Is it possible to love a virtue you do not understand completely like it is to love a person you do not completely understand? How do we learn to love mercy? How to we improve our love and understand of it or any other virtue? Any thoughts?

Names

Why are names so important? Why is it that we feel the need to know the names of others or to have them know ours? Romeo would have us believe perhaps that they are not all that important after all " that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" ( not an exact quote but I think I got the general gist of what he says). Yet often when another does not know our name we feel snubbed or unwanted. If we forget anothers' name we feel embarrassed or ashamed. Why is that? Do our names define us? Any thoughts?

Love

Today in Sacrament meeting I was pondering what it means to love, what is love and why do we love? The Bishop said in a recent conversation I had with him that we love others because of what they have done for us, that I love my mom because of what she has done for me. I do not mean to say he is wrong, I believe that that is a part of what love is but I think that it is just a surface glance of what love is. So then what is love? I thought that if I could not answer this question, at least in part, then I cannot say why I love anyone, why they love me, or why God loves everyone. I thought about this for a long time, if we only love because of what someone has done or will do for us then God wouldn’t love any of us. and we wouldn’t love those who commit crimes or who wrong us. This couldn’t be right. The purest of love transcends this definition of love. But there did seem to be a nugget of truth within this statement. After all most of the time that we love it is people we get along well with. Curiously enough I thought of the saying “misery loves company” to come up with the beginning of my definition of love. I thought that maybe this is also true of love, maybe it is it’s very essence. After all if God is love and His purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, than loves purpose is to bring more people to it. So I think that love is that light/goodness that calls to the light/goodness in others. It seeks after the potential growth of that light/goodness in others, however minuscule that light may be at the moment. As long as we can sense so much as a hope or potential or possibility of that light we will love them because the light in us reaches out to that potential. Since everyone has at least a hope of that light somewhere within the recesses of their soul this makes it possible for God who is light/goodness incarnate to love them. I think the greater the light we have the easier it is to find traces of the light in others and as long as we can find it in others we can build it so that both our light and their grows. I think then that service is the tool which we use to reach out to that light in others, to build it, strengthen it, foster its growth and encourage it. Another thought, perhaps this is why the Lord cautions us so much against judging other, because when we judge others we blind ourselves to the light that is in them and focus only on the darkness. Nothing could be so tragic because it cuts both ways, by judging you are hurting your own potential growth as much as if not more than you are hurting the other person. We would never physically blind ourselves on purpose so why do we do it so frequently spiritually?

Fun in the Sun!

I love the 7 week possy group! Somebody asked if anyone knew of any FHEs that were happening. Since neither me nor my roommates can actually figure out who our FHE group is (Rexburg is really disorganized in the summer), I was really interested in the answer, esp. when someone posted that their Stake was going tubing down the river! My roommate Kara and I went and we had a blast( though we did freeze in the icey water)! Then after the river there was a barbecue and a bonfire. The guys chopped down some trees and threw them in the fire and we got to watch carpenter ants scrambling trying to save the larva and themselves from the flames. I am so glad that my roommate found this 7 week possy group! :) :) :)

LOL

Sometimes people at BYU Idaho really crack make me laugh. I joined a group called Seven Week Possy that posts different activities going on so that everyone can participate (this is where my roommate found out about the group going to the BMX competition that I went to on Saturday, it was awesome for those of you who are wondering! I got to see someone do a backflip on their bike out of the pool! ). Anywho back to what makes me laugh, you would not believe the number of people posting a responding to blind dates! It is so funny! They actually got so many that they have now created a separate group specifically for that purpose! Some of the comments on them are pretty funny too. For instance one had an argument going about whether a girl can help pay for a date or not, with the guys arguing against and the girls arguing for. One guy said no because it was emasculating. I like to read all the posts just because they provide some good laughs! :)

Be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there

I really learned this lesson in the shower today. I let my head wander off somewhere in la-la land. Now some of you may be thinking, what is the problem with that, of all places to let your mind wander surely the shower is one of the safest? Not so! You see my body wash was positioned right next to my conditioner, so when I reached for my conditioner my preoccupied mind failed to inform me that what I had in fact grabbed was not conditioner at all but body wash. Having been using a two in one solution for the last week and a half that has dried out my hair a bit I poured a generous serving of conditioner (body wash) onto my hand and plopped it onto my poor unsuspecting hair. No sooner did it hit my hair then my absentee mind decided it was really about time to start doing its job and informed me to my horror that I had just put a lot of body wash onto my head. I frantically scrapped as much as I could off then turned to try to wash the rest out. Guess what- body wash takes a whole lot of time to come out of hair. Moral of the story: be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there or in other words don't let your mind wander. :)

Pictures

Hey everyone,

thought you all might want to know that I just discovered that there are pictures of my filedtrip up on the hort. department website. http://byuihorticulture.weebly.com/index.html Thought you guys might be interested. Love you all! :)

T-ray

Prayer

Dear everyone,

I would appreciate it if you would all include my religion professor Brother Chris Allison in your prayers. He broke a rib and another bone this weekend in a cave and then had to hike another couple miles to get out. Given all that he still sucked it up and came to teach us today, all without taking any pain medication for the last two days because he didn't want to be foggy for our class. I am amazed at the wonderful and loving example of service he provides in my life. Please ask Heavenly Father to comfort him, and to provide a blessing of healing for this amazing man.

Love you all

T-ray

Hey everyone,

just thought I would share some of my favorite photos from my recent powerpoint project

This was in the English Garden
This was to show human comfort, don't worry I got permission to take the photo of anyone in my photos
In the green house to show movement
From the bridge in the greenhouse to show perspective
This was at the place I went with Bri, Kristi, and Grant. It was to show sound but I just love the look of the rocks
Kristi threws food to the duck to get him to come so close. It led to a priceless photo. Later he actually ate out of my hand! :)
This was to show complementary colors. It was in Kristi's yard.
I love the lighting in this one though it was to show ecology or wildlife
These were both to show lighting. It love the way the garden glowed at sunset!

1) Less than 24 hours till I leave for Provo! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):) :)

2) I had an absolutely wonderful wednesday! I got to attend a gardener's convention that was hosted by BYU Idaho! It was awesome and I learned a lot. Now I actually have a chance of getting mom and dads fruit trees to grow the way they want them to (espalier for those of you who are wondering). As a result of the convention in which most of my teachers were teaching a class, many of my regular classes were cancelled so I got to spend the day choosing what to learn. There is nothing better than that! :)

3) The beautiful weather continues and increases. We have been in the 90s for much of this week.

4) There is a third book in a series that I recently borrowed from Page (about Michael and Emily) called Now and Forever that my lab partner owns and is going to let me borrow.

5) The fourth of July is this weekend! That is just a very happy thought! :)

6) I know a usually only do 5 but I figure since it has been so long I ought to do at least one more. I get to go to Bear Lake this weekend!!!!!!! :) :) :)

Been to long

I named this post been to long for a couple reasons.

#1- It has been to long since I have posted. :( I should have been keeping up better. oh well guess it gives me something to work towards.

#2- Even though it has only been a couple weeks since I last saw my sisters I already feel like it has been to long since I have seen them. I can't wait till tomorrow when I get to see them again! We are going to have so much fun this weekend! :)

Sunshine!

As you can probably guess by the post tittle the thing that tops the list on my happy things today is

1) The BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE that has been shinning down all of today and yesterday, save for a brief afternoon shower yesterday. It is absolutely wonderful! It got so hot here yesterday that I didn't even bother with pants, just wore a skirt!

2) My religion class started back up again! After two and a half weeks I was more then ready for it to! I love the spirit that fills the classroom! While I loved the talks Bro. Allison assigned in his absence there is just nothing like the spiritual feast I get when I attend that class! I am so happy to have it back! :)

3)I had a wonderful editing experience with my miracle working family! I thought it was impossible but thanks to you guys I actually had fun editing a paper! Thanks for all the help! :)

4) We are reading King Benjamin's sermon in the book of mormon this week! This is my favorite part of the whole book of mormon. I feel a very personal connection to it because of how closely it relates to much of my patriarchal blessing.

5) I am actually on top of all my school work for now! It is nice to have room to breath for a minute or two before the next mad dash starts! :)

Thought I would post some of my pictures because Kristi was admiring them while I was up there. Enjoy!


I actually have a better one of this view from the view point that I edited but I can't put photoshop documents on here and I can't figure out how to convert it without Photoshop. So I will have to make due with this one! :)

My Jade plant that Rachael gave me before I left for school. It is growing really fast. I am scared that it will grow too fast for me while I am at school. Eventually it grows to be 3ft. by 3ft.
My Jacob's ladder is blooming! This is the plant that the nursery I visited on my field trip gave me for free. It is hardy to -33 degrees F. I absolutely love it!

Great Beginings

I have had a wonderful beginning of the week.

1) My math teacher cracked us all up on monday. Someone asking him about his degree asked "so are you a doctor?" My teacher said "no, not yet" then got this sly grin on his face and said "I am a master... I like that title better anyway." It was so funny.

2) We went to a music thing for FHE where people get up and sing or play an instrument or whatever they want that is musical. It was a lot of fun. Turns out there is one every monday night. I think I will make it a tradition. It doesn't start till 8:45 so usually FHE is over by then.

3) I FINISHED my paper! or at least the rough draft. Can't tell you how glad I am about that. I don't think there is anything out there so boring to research than biofuels. It did go a lot better after I talked to some class mates about how to find sources though.

4) I have no landscaping class and no plant culture class tomorrow so I should be able to finish all the homework for this week up tomorrow and then spend the rest of the week doing next weeks homework so that I can make sure I have absolutely no homework the weekend of the fourth! YEA!

5) We had a wonderful devotional today on the Love of God for all of His children and on service. I absolutely loved it! I also met a really nice girl who told me I had a "kind countenance" I thought she was really sweet and very easy to talk to.

Time flies by

oh dear, I let the time get away with me! Haven't posted good things since thursday! :)

Oh well I will just sum up the weekend I guess

1) On friday night I got to go see Jane Eyre with some friends of mine. I had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the movie. It was nice to get out and do something other than school work.

2) My wonderful family has agreed to edit my paper so I am certain my spelling and grammatical errors will be caught (this is good because more than 5 and I fail the paper)....if I ever manage to get it to 5 pages like it is supposed to be...unfortunately it is currently only 2 pages long and I am finding that nothing bores me quiet like biofuels do. I am just not sure how on earth to get 5 pages out of biofuels. Oh well that is mondays and possibly tuesdays challenge. Would you guys still be able to edit it by thursday night if I didn't get it to you till tuesday night?

3) I was able to cook some delicious turkey spinach meatloaf. It turned out great esp. for my first time making it and I have been surviving on the leftovers for a couple days now because I haven't had time to cook anything else.

4) I got to talk to my daddy for father's day! We talked for about an hour but the time flew by to quickly and before I knew it he had to go. :( I miss you a lot daddy!

5) I actually had an assignment in my math class on friday where I had to call someone while in class! I thought that it was the most awesome assignment a math teacher had ever given me! :)

Being of Service and being Served

1) I have some people in my science study group who are very good at guessing at answers and I am half way decent at it myself. This was a good thing because the homework for my science class required a lot of math that the book did not explain very well and my teacher did not explain at all. We are going to have to talk to him about this on tuesday when we see him next.

2) I went grocery shopping and have lots of wonderful food in the house now! YEA!!!

3)I got to sleep in today! This certainly is helping me combat the cold that seems determined to occupy my body. :)

4) I ran into a friend from Washington (Laura Halgren) and was able to put her in touch with my roommate who can answer some questions she has about an up coming surgery. I love it when the Lord lets me be of help to people.

5) I had two roommates express willingness to take me to the store whenever I need to go today. Something that greatly eases my peace of mind. No more worrying about whether I will be able to get to the store to get food. I think I just wasn't making myself very clear about when I really needed to go. I shall have to work on my communication skills. :)

Yesterday's good things

1)I got to eat cupcakes!!! Nothing is wrong in the world so long as you can sit down and have a cupcake! We decorated them for a Relief Society activity

2) My plant lab got out early so I had time to work on the HW that my math teacher wanted partially done before class. He sent us an e-mail informing us of that the morning before but I didn't get it till late the night before! I was so grateful to have the chance to work on it before class. I really did help me to understand the things we discussed a great deal more!

3) My visiting teacher agreed to take me grocery shopping thursday night! This is a big relief since I am pretty much out of food.

4) I had very little homework...something that in itself is a miracle but was particularly nice because I was feeling really crappy yesterday and just wanted to lay around and sleep...you know you know those days we all have them. :)

5) I had lots of fun building a garden box in lab yesterday. I got to work the drill and never had to touch the saw which I think was absolutely marvelous. The guys who had previous experience with such tools were not allowed to touch anything so we actually had to learn to use them for ourselves. I think it was rather awesome! Though I know at some point I am going to have to confront the saws. There is no way my profs. are going to let me graduate otherwise! :)