San Francisco

"Hey Whitie, ya wanna come smoke some newspaper with us?"
The beautiful environment was shaken to reality. I may be in one of the most beautiful places in the world, but still I was in San Francisco.
I continued to jog on, ignoring the shaggy bearded middle aged man on his skateboard and his Hippie friends. It was still a beautiful morning.
The sun was rising over the Oakland mountains, and even though the buildings blocked the sunrise, its soft morning light seeped through the buildings illuminating the park and my running path.
I'd gotten up early to run; I like arising before everyone else, putting on my jogging shoes and going out to run. I feel like it clears me out emotionally, it makes me feel powerful and it prepares me to receive inspiration and to think clearer during the day.
There were a lot of people out exercising, but what made me happy was to see that I was the only one in shorts and a t-shirt. Everyone else was wearing jackets. "Yes!" I thought, "the blessings of living in a cold place." To me the morning was perfect.
I would guess it was in the low 50s, warm enough to not need a jacket, but cool enough that I didn't feel hot and clammy as I ran. The morning sun brought deep contrast to the park. Bright green leaves and deep, dark shadows. I love morning light.
San Francisco is the city on a hill, or more accurately the city on many hills. Running around the town is a good way to get the hands on experience(or maybe feet-on experience). One park i circumferenced felt like that optical illusion of the stairs. I don't know if you're familiar with it, imagine a spiral stair case that winds around so that the top stair connects to the bottom stair, like a ring, so that you are forever walking up and up without end. That's what it felt like running around the park, always running uphill, and when you got back to the beginning, you were at exactly the same level.
Running in each city I visit gives me a feel for the city I don't get during the day as I hurry around with my daily activities. I get to see a better look at the city, and I believe with running I get to see a better look at myself.

The Perfect Sufferer

Jesus Christ is our perfect example of how to suffer. He, who descended below all things, overcoming the world, showed us in His most intense moments of suffering, even the Atonement, how we should suffer our gethsemenes and how we should carry our crosses.

Of course, none of our suffering can be comparable to His in any measure, but in our lives we will have times where our souls may feel "exceedingly sorrowful even unto death" and our hearts may feel "very heavy."

But it is in these moments, perhaps, that we are most able to appreciate our Savior's atonement. It is in these moments we can turn to Him, and He can heal us--precisely because He walked the exact same path before, and knows "according to the flesh" what it feels like to have a hard day, a hard week, or even many hard weeks. He can stand by us because He went there before. Even when he was faced with pain so "exquisite" and so "hard to bear", "which suffering caused I, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore and to suffer both body and spirit"--even then, he did not turn away, but "as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." This He did because He so loved us.

He showed us the example.

When life gets hard, and we wish our God would make things easier, simpler, or less painful--instead of murmuring or complaining, or lashing out against God or our neighbor; we, like the Savior, can pray, "nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Day 7(part 1):Easter

What a beautiful Easter Morning; the bright sun shone through the blossoming trees. Yesterday's rains gave the earth a clean, newly washed feeling. Taking a deep breath you could feel the clean scent of washed earth and spring blossoms. New life was all around, how fitting of Easter Morning.
At church, my mind was naturally drawn to the Savior and His atonement. In Sunday School, the teacher made an interesting comment. "The Jews wanted a Messiah who would come to change others" he said, "But Christ came to teach them to change themselves." They wanted God to change their outer surroundings; he wanted to change them. They desired a new situation, He desired to make them new creatures.
I think that encapsulates Easter: Rebirth into new creatures, through the atonement of Christ.
I began to think of how that has worked in my life.
There are many ways I've been blessed, every good thing in my life has come because of the Atonement: forgiveness, hope, mercy, love, comfort, gentility, faith, good relationships, happiness, and healing, only to name a few.
This morning after waking up, I began to read my Mom's book, "Solo", as I remembered those very hard days, weeks, and months following my Dad's death, I was so grateful for the healing power of the Atonement. From the "chasm of grief" the Atonement rescued me and my family.
I remember mornings wondering, "will life ever be normal again?", "will the pain ever go away?"
If I could now, portal through time and sit down on the bed with my 16 year-old self, I think I'd say, "Yes. It will. And not only that, but life will become more beautiful than you can possibly imagine now. It is going to get so good! Hold on! Don't give up! The best is yet to come!"
Because of Christ, my life did get better, and I can have faith that still, "the best is yet to come." The message of Easter is that tears will be wiped away, weaknesses will become strengths, harshness will become beauty, and imperfection will eventually become godhood.
As spring shows new life all around us, I hope we'll find new life in becoming new creatures, applying the atonement in our lives, and becoming more holy, more dedicated, and more faithful children of God.

Day 6: Hallowed Ground

The green, lush Pennsylvania countryside is an impressive view. Rolling hills covered in their emerald robes, sit like silent councilors, overlooking life going on around them. From a good vantage point the hills roll into the distance, as far as the eye can see creating a sea of vibrant, yet immovable life.
In these rolling hills is a place near to my heart, a place I dreamed of seeing ever since I was 14 years old. In this beautiful place, lies the Gettysburg Battlefield.
Gettysburg, a small, unassuming Pensylvanian town, became home to the bloodiest battle of the civil war, where more than 50,000 men would be killed, wounded, or missing on both the Union and the Confederate sides.
These two great armies battled for three days in this beautiful venue, July 1-3, 1863. It seems a pity that such breathtaking beauty would have to be strewn with dead bodies, natural crevasses and streams becoming pools of human blood.
War is an ugly thing. General Lee said, "It is good that war is so terrible, otherwise we would grow too fond of it."
There was one place on this battlefield I wanted to see more than any other: Little Round Top.
On July 2nd, 1863 a spiritual fingerprint was left on that hill that I felt as a 14 year-old boy, and every time that I studied the battle for Little Round Top, and more than ever today as I stood there.
I won't go into all the history of the Battle of Gettysburg, just enough to get my point across.
On this hill, Little Round Top, Captain Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain defended this key position against repeated assaults from a far larger Unit. After running out of ammunition, Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge, running downhill to meet the oncoming rebels. His leadership won him a medal of honor, but it also consecrated that soil.
On July 2nd, that hill was changed forever. Because of what happened there, it will never be the same. Any who learn of the bravery, courage and honor given that day to protect our liberties, cannot help but feel the spiritual fingerprint their blood and sweat left on that hill.
What amazes me is that probably none of the 20th Maine had woken up that morning thinking, "Today I'm going to change history forever." It was just a normal day as a soldier, until the need arose, and they answered the call in stead of shrinking away. They, in fact, "hallowed this ground" acting on their duty in the moment.
That made me think, "can any day be my day to leave a spiritual fingerprint?" "what if today is my July 2nd on Little Round Top, and I decide to take the day off?" Every day is so important, every action has unseen effects. We never know when we'll be called into the front lines of battle and will have to make our finest stand.
In fact, in the battle we fight, often we don't realize we're even in battle. Our loving actions may change someones life without us even knowing it. What to us might just have seemed "the right thing to do", may be just the positive nudge one of out fellow soldiers needs to keep going.
Likewise, our unkind words, cutting remarks, or poor examples, may leave deep wounds that we may never even realized we caused.
The battle is raging all around us, and this day might just be my day, and your day, to make a difference and leave an eternal spiritual fingerprint. This day might be our day on Little Round Top.
P.S. I want to thank my dear Friend, Aubrey, for our conversation while I stood on Little Round Top. None of this would have been pulled together without that talk. Thank you.