Best Sunday Ever

One of today's talks during Sacrament meeting was delivered by an adorable white-haired woman with an unidentifiable European accent. It was about life. It was charming and witty and poignant. In summary: we so often spend every moment of our lives wishing it were later.

"When I grow up, no one will boss me around."

"I can't have fun until college applications are done."

"Wouldn't it be nice if we were older, then we wouldn't have to wait so long."

"Life will be fantastic when we're not poor students and we can finally make money."

"I can't wait until you get a week off of work, then we'll enjoy ourselves."

"When will we ever have kids?"

"I wish the kids would grow up and stop nagging me."

"I can't wait until I retire."

And so on, and so forth. She compared this to a story of a woman who was given a beautiful shawl from her lover who had to leave for a long time. She swore she would never wear it until his return. At first she admired it daily, imagining how happy she would be to see him and how beautiful she would look in it. Then as the months wore on, she only looked at it occasionally. After awhile, she left it in a chest and never looked at it, though she thought about it from time to time. Finally, one day she recognized her lover coming down the path to her house, and she ran inside to put on the beautiful shawl. She found it in the chest where she had left it, but was horrified to discover that it had become yellowed and moth-eaten. She was sad to know that she had wasted the gift that she was given and even more upset to know that the giver would not have approved of how she had taken care of it.

Enjoy the life you have now, she chastised.

So, we started right away--Logan and I left church right after the meeting. And it has been a fantastic afternoon.