Reminders
You know that book you read in 2nd grade (maybe 3rd) called "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst? The one where the boy has literally everything go wrong?
Well that was today. In fact it started because I thought today was Thursday. Yep. Happy Friday! haha
Upon hearing the ringing of my Quebecois man singing about Gaspesie (its my alarm for those of you wondering), I rolled over and pushed snooze. C woke up and told me that he was going to be late if he stayed in bed any longer. I resisted that notion and stayed in bed 5 minutes more. That turned out to be fateful. In return I had to rush through a lukewarm shower (it might have been C or the fact that I spent all of yesterday doing copious amounts of laundry) and sprint through my makeup routine. I raced out the door at 7:54 hoping and praying silently to have a close parking spot so that I wouldn't be more than 5 minutes late. Boy does Heavenly Father answer prayers. I parked about 500 feet away from the Life Sciences Building and raced inside, silently saying "c'mon c'mon" to the elevator to take me to my floor. As I raced into the office at 8:06 I punched into the wrong job. Yep. And I didn't notice it until 5 minutes before my shift ended. What a day. Luckily mistakes like these are small and can easily be remedied.
C texted me during work to remember to send him my written statement saying that I did not file taxes in 2017. I began to worry that the necessary documentation I had sent to the IRS was not filed properly and had to begin the whole process ALL OVER AGAIN. Upon trying to figure out this giant mess, I had a slight scare that I had to begin paying my large amount of student loans like NOW. (don't worry your girl is good). Ultimately this day has been a giant 15 steps backwards.
AND for the biggest of them all: I forgot to put on my rings, you know the one signifying that you are married? Ya those are left in the cute little heart dish in my room. *face palm*.
Now you are probably thinking, Marin, those are such insignificant things that you experienced today. Why are you freaking out? Well, amidst all of the craziness of trying to get ready to leave this morning, I forgot to place upon my slightly pudgy, short ring finger the symbol of my marriage to C. Now I realize that it is something small and there are individuals who are experiencing things that are way worse than me at the current moment, but I couldn't help think about the importance of these small reminders in our lives.
It made me think about one summer back when I was in high school. My mom and my dad spent a whole summer writing letters back and forth to each other on email before they were married. My mom had downloaded this giant file of all of these emails that they sent back and forth but had never transposed them so that they were readable and not in some weird format. So that summer she sat down to complete this tedious task. I remember seeing her sitting at that computer, sometimes for hours and others just for mere minutes as time varied, diligently transposing the letters that tied her and my dad to each other. She would sometimes read the contents to us, remarking on how silly she sounded or of the events going on, but the majority of the time she kept those thoughts and words to herself. At the end of the summer she had finished compiling all of the letters so that she could make it into a book for my dad and her to keep and pass down to us and the generations following. It always struck me that despite having 25 years of marriage between them, they always kept this small reminder of their love story between them.
I think that it is so important to keep those reminders, no matter how small as a part of our daily life. The small reminder the toothbrush leaves to you each day to brush your teeth, or the sticky note on the fridge reminding you to go and buy the specific food item for dinner, the scriptures on your bedside table reminding you that you need to read them today and say your prayers, the picture of Jesus on your wall reminding you to remember Him, the beep on the dryer to alert you to go and fold all of your laundry, and most importantly the ring on your finger reminding you of a time where you didn't have your person in your life. All these reminders are there to help our human brain continue to make these connections as our memory begins to fail us. Reminders to be healthy, diligent, and faithful. Reminders to remember God and His blessings. To recognize the good in everyday. All because when we remember, we recognize that we are not alone in this crazy adventure of life.
So today, despite not having the physical reminder, I remember the time when C was out in Tennessee and I had no idea that he was supposed to be a BIG part of my life. Today I remember the words our sealer spoke to us before we were sealed that made me so grateful for the family I was raised in and the family I get to be a part of now. Today I remember my Savior and His sacrifice that allows me to make mistakes and that allows those mistakes to not be final. Today I remember that I am so grateful that even with terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, I can always laugh and try again tomorrow, because God loves us. What a gift.
xoxo,
M
Upon hearing the ringing of my Quebecois man singing about Gaspesie (its my alarm for those of you wondering), I rolled over and pushed snooze. C woke up and told me that he was going to be late if he stayed in bed any longer. I resisted that notion and stayed in bed 5 minutes more. That turned out to be fateful. In return I had to rush through a lukewarm shower (it might have been C or the fact that I spent all of yesterday doing copious amounts of laundry) and sprint through my makeup routine. I raced out the door at 7:54 hoping and praying silently to have a close parking spot so that I wouldn't be more than 5 minutes late. Boy does Heavenly Father answer prayers. I parked about 500 feet away from the Life Sciences Building and raced inside, silently saying "c'mon c'mon" to the elevator to take me to my floor. As I raced into the office at 8:06 I punched into the wrong job. Yep. And I didn't notice it until 5 minutes before my shift ended. What a day. Luckily mistakes like these are small and can easily be remedied.
C texted me during work to remember to send him my written statement saying that I did not file taxes in 2017. I began to worry that the necessary documentation I had sent to the IRS was not filed properly and had to begin the whole process ALL OVER AGAIN. Upon trying to figure out this giant mess, I had a slight scare that I had to begin paying my large amount of student loans like NOW. (don't worry your girl is good). Ultimately this day has been a giant 15 steps backwards.
AND for the biggest of them all: I forgot to put on my rings, you know the one signifying that you are married? Ya those are left in the cute little heart dish in my room. *face palm*.
Ring Adorned Hand
Hands Sans Ring
It made me think about one summer back when I was in high school. My mom and my dad spent a whole summer writing letters back and forth to each other on email before they were married. My mom had downloaded this giant file of all of these emails that they sent back and forth but had never transposed them so that they were readable and not in some weird format. So that summer she sat down to complete this tedious task. I remember seeing her sitting at that computer, sometimes for hours and others just for mere minutes as time varied, diligently transposing the letters that tied her and my dad to each other. She would sometimes read the contents to us, remarking on how silly she sounded or of the events going on, but the majority of the time she kept those thoughts and words to herself. At the end of the summer she had finished compiling all of the letters so that she could make it into a book for my dad and her to keep and pass down to us and the generations following. It always struck me that despite having 25 years of marriage between them, they always kept this small reminder of their love story between them.
I think that it is so important to keep those reminders, no matter how small as a part of our daily life. The small reminder the toothbrush leaves to you each day to brush your teeth, or the sticky note on the fridge reminding you to go and buy the specific food item for dinner, the scriptures on your bedside table reminding you that you need to read them today and say your prayers, the picture of Jesus on your wall reminding you to remember Him, the beep on the dryer to alert you to go and fold all of your laundry, and most importantly the ring on your finger reminding you of a time where you didn't have your person in your life. All these reminders are there to help our human brain continue to make these connections as our memory begins to fail us. Reminders to be healthy, diligent, and faithful. Reminders to remember God and His blessings. To recognize the good in everyday. All because when we remember, we recognize that we are not alone in this crazy adventure of life.
So today, despite not having the physical reminder, I remember the time when C was out in Tennessee and I had no idea that he was supposed to be a BIG part of my life. Today I remember the words our sealer spoke to us before we were sealed that made me so grateful for the family I was raised in and the family I get to be a part of now. Today I remember my Savior and His sacrifice that allows me to make mistakes and that allows those mistakes to not be final. Today I remember that I am so grateful that even with terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, I can always laugh and try again tomorrow, because God loves us. What a gift.
My Cute Fam minus this missionary sister of mine who didn't get to go to my wedding as she was diligently serving the Lord in Chile
Hermana Z in Chile at the Santiago Chile Temple
My new cute fam that I get to be a part of thanks to marriage (minus J who is marrying O in a month!)
cute C
a no filter picture of me today showing that even when your day kind of sucks you can still take a selfie to prove that you're still smiling
xoxo,
M
Wow! You wrote alot!
ReplyDeleteOh, and are you going to write about the spiders?
ReplyDelete