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."