Rebelling against them.

When the Apostle Paul writes the definition for love, his description has sweet nothing to do with a flimsy euphoria that comes and goes. He says,“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 

Paul assumes that moments of impatience, hopelessness, dishonour, self-seeking, and anger will exist in human relationships. Love is not the absence of these things; rather, it is the gut-wrenching act of rebelling against them.

“I don’t know if I love her.” The entire phrase is a misnomer; it’s grounded in a misunderstanding of the essence of love. If you are waiting for a prolonged sense of euphoria, you’re waiting for something other than love. Don’t expect love to mystically appear before you commit — because it won’t. Love exists where it is practiced.

--you can tell the size of a man by the size of the things that bother him--

BDM

“There are as many loves as there are hearts.”

― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Best-Ever Chocolate Quinoa Cake {gluten-free}

http://makingthymeforhealth.com/2013/12/04/best-ever-chocolate-quinoa-cake-gluten-free/

101 THINGS

1. Chocolate is only a temporary fix.

2. A properly-fitting bra is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

3. Your happiness is your happiness and yours alone.

4. How to apply red lipstick.

5. How to wear the crap out of red lipstick.

6. A boyfriend does not validate your existence.

7. Eat the extra slice of pizza.

8. Wear what makes you feel gracefully at ease.

9. Love the world unconditionally.

10. Seek beauty in all things.

11. Buy your friends dinner when you can.

12. Wear sunscreen like it’s your second job.

13. Try with all your might to keep in contact with far-away friends.

14. Make the world feel at ease around you.

15. Walk with your head up.

16. Order a cheeseburger on the first date if you want to.

17. Never, ever bite your nails.

18. Swipe on some lipstick, put on your leather jacket, and sneak into a bar somewhere.

19. Learn from your mistakes that night.

20. Dental hygiene is not multiple choice.

21. Your GPA is not a confession of your character.

22. There is strength in breaking down.

23. You don’t have to like yoga.

24. Pick a tea.

25. Take care of your feet.

26. Pick a perfume.

27. Even if you’re tall, wear the heels anyway.

28. Classy is a relative term.

29. Drink whiskey if you like whiskey.

30. Drink wine if you like wine.

31. Like what you like.

32. Offer no explanation.

33. Advil and Gatorade.

34. You are no less of a woman when you’re in sweats and gym shoes than a woman in stilettos and a pencil skirt.

35. A woman is a woman is a woman.

36. Love your fellow woman with all your heart and soul.

37. Cry, uninhibited, with your friends.

38. Laugh until you can’t breathe with your friends.

39. Tell me everything.

40. Exercise to be strong and healthy. A beautiful soul needs a sturdy vessel.

41. There is no shame in hoping for love.

42. My cooking is the best cooking.

43. Do not take sex lightly.

44. I mean it.

45. Anna Karenina. I’d like it if you read it.

46. The world spins on the principle of inherent tragedy.

47. Do not be blind to it.

48. Men are effectively idiots until the age of 26.

49. Carbohydrates are not the enemy.

50. Involve yourself in an organized activity of your choosing.

51. Listen to classical music occasionally.

52. Take hot baths.

53. Do not use bath salts.

54. You are more than capable.

55. I promise.

56. Don’t smile if you don’t mean it.

57. Mean your anger. Mean your sadness. Mean your pain.

58. I am always, always listening.

59. Travel.

60. Get stuck in a foreign country with $4.67 in your account.

61. Make me furious.

62. Make me worry.

63. Come home smelly, tired, and with a good story.

64. Your story isn’t really yours.

65. You are a compilation of others’ stories.

66. Well-fitting and modest is ALWAYS sexier than too small and tight.

67. Who cares if glitter isn’t tasteful?

68. It’s too much eyeliner if you have to ask.

69. Learn to bake for when you’re sad and I’m not there.

70. Humility and subservience are not synonyms.

71. Wash your face twice per day.

72. Be gentle with your skin.

73. Science is really cool.

74. So is literature.

75. And history.

76. And math.

77. There is no substitute for fresh air.

78. Carry your weight.

79. Make up for it later if you can’t.

80. That salad is not better than pasta and it never will be.

81. You’re fooling no one.

82. Find at least three green vegetables you can tolerate.

83. A smoothie is not a meal.

84. Expect the best from everyone.

85. People will let you down.

86. Bask in the sun (wearing a sunhat and SPF 90).

87. There is a certain kind of man you need to avoid at all costs.

88. You’ll know it when you meet him.

89. What other people say is right doesn’t always feel right.

90. What feels right is where your happiness is.

91. Give thoughtful gifts.

92. Form an opinion.

93. Stick to it.

94. Exfoliation in moderation.

95. Argue with people when you need to.

96. If it’s worth fighting for, fight fiercely.

97. Don’t fight for acceptance.

98. You shouldn’t have to.

99. Take pictures, but not too many.

100. Follow your bliss at all costs. (I’m cutting you off at 22, though).

101. Chocolate ice cream, however, might just be a permanent fix

http://convergemagazine.com/single-wish-lives-away-12330/

So let’s stop. Focus. Learn contentment by looking out the window at the here and now. Let go of expectations. Realize every stage of life is great and full of its own blessings and challenges and no one is better than the other. Water ourselves exactly where God has planted us so we’re useful. And for heaven’s sake, let’s ride the freaking gondola, OK?

You don’t want to look back over your life and see what could have been if you had only stayed the course. “We feel that under other skies, we would succeed,” C.H. Spurgeon once observed. “I may know something about my weakness in the present trial but I cannot know how I might stagger under another. Be wary of changing your trials. To exchange one trial for another is all the relief you will get.”

Not all who wander are lost, but be careful how, and why you wander.

You don’t want to look back over your life and see what could have been if you had only stayed the course. “We feel that under other skies, we would succeed,” C.H. Spurgeon once observed. “I may know something about my weakness in the present trial but I cannot know how I might stagger under another. Be wary of changing your trials. To exchange one trial for another is all the relief you will get.”

Not all who wander are lost, but be careful how, and why you wander.

"Everyone should smile. Life really isn’t that serious. We make it hard. The sun rises. The sun sets. We just tend to complicate the process."

Stood up to live.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods.

– C. S. Lewis

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

-Socrates

Building up a tolerance for discomfort is essential.

Vivien Maier

He embarked on a journey to find the legend who took these beautiful pictures and he quickly discovered her name: Vivien Maier.

Imagine this : perhaps the most important street photographer of the twentieth century was a nanny who kept everything to herself. Nobody had ever seen her work and she was a complete unknown until the time of her death. For decades Vivian’s work hid in the shadows until decades later (in 2007), historical hobbyist John Maloof bought a box full of never developed negatives at a local auction for $380.

John began to develop the negatives and it didn’t take long before he realised that these were no ordinary street snapshots from the 50′s and 60′s — these pictures were a lot more then that. Maier’s work is particularly evocative for those who grew up in the 50′s and 60′s because she seemed to stare deep into the soul of the time and preserve the everyday experience of the people. She ventured outside the comfortable homes and picturesque residential neighborhoods of her employers to document all segments of life in and around the big city.

Elder George Q. Cannon explained: “Where people are pure and chaste in their thoughts and actions, the Spirit of God has such power with them that they readily perceive and comprehend the truth. It is by this means that the best among the children of God are being gathered out from the various nations. Truth cleaves to truth, light to light and purity to purity. The gospel gathers with its influence those who love its principles; and if any should be gathered in who cannot abide its requirements, they pass off and mingle with the elements that are congenial to the spirit they possess.”

Congenial to the spirit they possess.

"Not many people make decisions based on joy."

“The habits you form here will be with you for the rest of your life.”

“Do you think I should go to graduate school or move to Africa?”

I don’t think she was talking to me. In fact, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t. But that didn’t stop me from offering my opinion.

I told her to travel. Hands down. No excuses. Just go.

She sighed, nodding. “Yeah, but…”

I had heard this excuse before, and I didn’t buy it. I knew the “yeah-but” intimately. I had uttered it many times before. The words seem innocuous enough, but are actually quite fatal.

Yeah, but …

… what about debt?

… what about my job?

… what about my boyfriend?

This phrase is lethal. It makes it sound like we have the best of intentions, when really we are just too scared to do what we should. It allows us to be cowards while sounding noble.

Most people I know who waited to travel the world never did it. Conversely, plenty of people who waited for grad school or a steady job still did those things after they traveled.

"Here we were, standing next to a wall on a Nevsky Prospect sidewalk.  Two complete strangers from two very different worlds sharing an intimate and precious moment.  We may not have been able to comprehend each other’s languages, but in that space and time with my dear babushka, I think we both somehow understood each other on a much deeper level."

Why you should travel young link.

Sometimes the awkward moments are the ones we need to experience.

Furthermore, it’s hard to be “the man” in a relationship. It’s hard to be completely faithful in your thoughts and actions. It’s hard to be a spiritual leader. It’s hard to always put her needs before your own. At first, it seems easy, like we can do it naturally. But after time, it takes work: lots of work. Guys need to be told to “be a man.” A good man. We need guidance on what that looks like in a relationship. 

Cover Magazine Link

I didn't even love her when we got married.

Because love isn't an emotion.  That fire I felt, it was simply that: emotional fire.  From the excitement of dating a woman I felt like I could marry.  But it wasn't love.

No, love isn't an emotion or even a noun.  It's a verb.  Better defined as giving.  As putting someone else's needs above your own.

Why wasn't I getting reciprocal lovey-doveyness when we were first married?  Because it wasn't for her.  It was for me.  An emotion I had in my chest.

And even when I let it out of my chest, it wasn't love.

Being sappy isn't love.  Telling someone you love them doesn't mean that you do.

And that's why my wife just gave me that half-smile.  She knew, even if I didn't, what love really is.

-There was no way I could keep that dating fire burning as practicality invaded our lives.

And at first, it drove me nuts.  That emotion meant love!  That excitement was how I knew I cared for her!  But suddenly, life was this grind.  Even when I was with her.  Especiallywhen I was with her.

-I think that might be a big part of the reason the divorce rate is so high in this country.  Imagine a whole nation of people constantly chasing the emotions they had when they were dating.  A country of people trying to live a Disney movie.

That's a recipe for disastrous marriages.

-It's time that we changed the conversation about love.  It's time that we redefine it.

-It took me longer than I care to admit to understand what was happening.

But eventually it became clear.  Through giving, through doing things for my wife, the emotion that I had been so desperately seeking naturally came about.  It wasn't something I could force, just something that would come about as a result of my giving.

In other words, it was in the practicality that I found the love I was looking for.

Religious Freedom

“It is important to become well-educated on this issue and take responsibility to pass on to future generations the religious freedom you now enjoy,”

Identifying and understanding doctrines and principles

Third NephiThe Book of Nephithe Son of Nephi, Who Was the Son of Helaman

Chapter 17

Jesus directs the people to ponder His words and pray for understanding—He heals their sick—He prays for the people, using language that cannot be written—Angels minister to and fire encircles their little ones. AboutA.D. 34.

 1 Behold, now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked round about again on the multitude, and he said unto them: Behold, my ^atime is at hand.

 2 I ^aperceive that ye are weak, that ye cannot ^bunderstand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time.

 3 Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ^aponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and ^bprepare your minds for the ^cmorrow, and I come unto you again.

 4 But now I ^ago unto the Father, and also to ^bshow myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not ^clost unto the Father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them.

SIT TIGHT.

MINDSET.

75 Degree Chocolate.

                     SF, CA

Summer Checkered Board Watermelon, Avocado, Mozzarella, Purple Onion

New Direction in Design

Treasure Island to Hong Kong

SFO

His and Hers

"LIFE IS TO BE ENJOYED, NOT JUST ENDURED." PRES. HINCKLEY

Baker Beach

"Chris doesnt know stuff.

I think its cute.

But then I get mad at him sometimes." -Anisha

M U A oakland.

 Housemates-Baba-Clayson

Me and Jana Rae

 Me and PUP.

 The lighting makes me look like I am a statue.

Weekend Activity.

HEATH CERAMICS tour in Sausalito. Such beautiful work and colors.

Grace Cathedral Yoga around the labyrinth. Live instrumental music why you do your poses.

Stanford HOLI. My hair is still dyed pink from it.

Holi Shoes and Birthday Dinner

  Music/Art/ Tea Bar at Langton Labs with Colton. Bohemian crowd.

Followed Colton crossing wood planks coming out of the wall. I was freaked out of my mind, plus I had on heeled shoes. But we got good people watching seats.

Walk to work day in San Francisco. One hour ten minute walk from Glen Park to my office.

Perfect fog-less morning for our walk. 

Slackline in East Bay

Bay Lights at the Bay Bridge. 25,000 white LED lights programmed to create a display across the bridge.

I think you are neat too.

OPINION

Living With Less. A Lot Less.

Information isn't knowledge. And information that is fast and cheap, like fast, cheap food, isn't nourishing. But it is hyper-stimulating. And so it is, really, terrifying.The bottom line seems to be that we know too much, understand too little and we are way too scared of what we might be missing. 

Intuitively, we know that the best stuff in life isn’t stuff at all, and that relationships, experiences and meaningful work are the staples of a happy life.

I like material things as much as anyone. I studied product design in school. I’m into gadgets, clothing and all kinds of things. But my experiences show that after a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support.

I wouldn’t trade a second spent wandering the streets of Bangkok with Olga for anything I’ve owned. Often, material objects take up mental as well as physical space.