Bittersweet

I don't have any great insights today or any astounding travel stories to share. I just feel the need to write something on here. So. Cue the ramble. (But it will be a nicely organized ramble - with bullet points. chya)

1- If you hadn't notice, this here blog went & got itself a new face. Okay, so actually, I gave it a makeover. The blog just passed its first birthday & I felt like it was time for a slightly more mature color scheme. Incidentally, the photograph is one of my own, from a lovely Sunday afternoon spent in the park.

2- I should be writing a grammar paper right now, but I'm still looking for a thrilling topic. (not likely) Yes, these are real issues, courtesy of Quirk's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language.

• The intensifying use of coordination- Just gets more and more boring. blah.
• Adjective and adverb homomorphis- What the heck!? Are the adjectives unhappy with their gender? What's next- surgery?
• Complex transitive complementation- For some reason, all I can think of here is that awkward fumble for the right words when you basically want to tell someone that they look hot, but you want to say it discretely, cause you wouldn't want them to think you're too forward. But then, you want them to know you're not just BSing either, so you have to be genuine with your compliments. See what I mean? Complex complementation.
• The relation between focus and new information - Now this could be useful - a study of why I zone out in class once they start talking about the same things again. Unfortunately, this has something to do with sentence structure & adverbials.

3- My capacity for wit is obviously somewhat deminished today. I guess I'm just a bit mopey. Recently, I've been on an awesome streak of destruction. I've hurt a lot of the people who mean the very most to me. Hence the slightly melancholy undertones in the recently re-shuffled blog playlist.

4- I miss simplicity. I want it back. I miss the pre-school bliss where right was right & wrong was wrong. But it doesn't work that way. It seems like anything worthwhile comes with some challenge. But maybe sometimes you have to take a dose of the bitter so you can appreciate the sweet. (see vs 20-21) Maybe you have to let go of something and wait for it to come back to you. If it doesn't come back, then you deal with that, let yourself hurt & heal, then just let it go.

5- One last thought - The idea of forgiveness has been on my mind a lot lately. I think this is one of the most difficult things we are asked to do - it requires compassion, empathy, & humility - none of which are always easy to come by. In LDS General Conference a few weeks ago, one of my favorite messages was from Dieter Uchtdorf of Germany, who spoke about love, healing, forgiveness, & following our Savior.

You can watch the talk or the entire conference HERE at LDS.org.

Or in parts one and two on youtube. Yay, internet.

My dear readers - thanks for listening.
Have a great day.
Enjoy the final flings of the fall foliage.
(I think I just scored 500 bonus points for alliteration. bam)