I'm stupidly happy, like the words to that song

I'm kind of in love with my life right now, and it seems to just keep getting better.  And even though there are parts that don't seem to be getting any better, I feel like I am getting better.  I feel like making a list of all the great things that are happening.

First, church.  I love church.  I love it.  For the last couple of months I've felt like the only thing going well in my life was church, which has never happened before, and which made all the other crappy things that were happening feel less crappy.  I have two callings, Sunday School Teacher and Volunteer Temple Worker, and they have kind of changed my life. We're studying the New Testament this year, which is my favorite book of scripture, and I love being able to study it closely and teach about it.  I love reading about the life of Christ, the things he taught and did, and I am
SO excited to get into Paul's Epistles, because let's face it, Paul was a little crazy, and a little bit genius. I can't wait. This week I taught about parables and why it was important for Christ to use metaphor, narrative, and other poetic devises to teach. It was so much fun! I also love working in the temple.  I work in the baptistry a couple of Saturdays a month, and there is just nothing like working up a sweat in the temple.  I love how exhausted I get.  There's so much to be done, so much organizing and running up and down stairs, and talking to lovely little British ladies who tell stories about their cousin's dogs.

I've also had the opportunity to go teach with the missionaries and to see some people baptized into the ward, which growing up in Utah and living in Provo I've never really experienced before.  The faith of these new members is astounding to me, and I've recently witnessed a miracle that has increased my own faith.  The church has never been the best place for me socially, but I always do seem to make friends with the most awesome people, and I'm doing it again here.  I don't mind going to activities as much as I used to, and I feel like I'm part of a family, which I have never felt in a ward.

With all of these good church experiences I've been learning a few lessons.  First, the little things that are part of living in the world, the constant entropy that we're always fighting against, the annoying things that never stop happening, they don't matter.  I used to let them rule my life, define who I am and what I want.  But it doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter if I make mistakes, or if someone doesn't like me, if I get a bad grade.  You know what else doesn't matter?  The opposite side of that coin.  It doesn't matter if the world loves me, if academia approves of me, if I can make a lot of money, if I go on lots of dates (or any dates for that matter), or have a lot of friends on facebook or twitter. In a nutshell, I cannot define who I am based on what the world thinks of me or does to me, good or bad.   I know who I am and I know what matters, and that is based on the fact that I know God loves me.  I don't care if that sounds naive or ridiculous, because it is a realization that has taken years of work to get to, and has been solidified in the most beautiful ways in the last couple of months.  It is a realization that has helped me love better, be kinder, be less selfish, work harder, and be happier.  So, I think I'll stick with this whole church thing. It seems to be working out for me.

As this part of my life falls into place and I feel more grounded and happy, other things seem to be working out ideally.  I've just strengthened a friendship that I thought was completely lost, and I finally feel like I'm actually in a position to help this friend.  My family relationships are stronger, and my sister and I have been working really well together building our Arch Editing empire.   I am completely excited about this.  I'll have to write another blog outlining all of our progress, but it really is moving along quite nicely.  Yesterday we had over 250 hits to our website.  What exactly is the point of this website?  Well, we're building a resource for writers, for every writer no matter what style or genre.  We blog every day, incorporating writing tips, grammar and editing help, book reviews, and cultural lessons aimed at inspiring writers.  We are also an editing service, and we edit anything and everything.  Oh yeah, Haley also wrote a book.  It's a writing guide for college essays, a supplemental book designed for classes that don't have time to teach or remind students how to write papers, like most courses in most Humanities colleges.  It's a really great book, and it'll be part of a series that will be in print in August.

Oh. And we have interns.  That's right, interns. Do you have an intern? I think not. /brag. We realized that we have so many plans and Haley and I are just not capable of doing everything ourselves, so we've enlisted help.  We're still looking for someone to write SEO content for us, if any of you are interested?  AND we need guest bloggers, for anyone who'd be interested in sharing your talents. :)

oh dear, it's all too much. I'm so excited about all of this. I'm going to the library today and write blog posts for our blog and do research and read awesome books and be happy. Oh, and I will also blog about my latest trip to Oxford, don't worry.