Music Appreciation

In my last blog post, I mentioned that one of the traits I want to regain is an appreciation for music, but not just any kind of music. Sure, I like music that has some emotion behind it and songs whose lyrics really mean something, and many hymns are good for that, but that's not really the kind of music that I need. I need music with energy and pep. I need music that I can dance or jog to. I need music that empowers me and makes me want to get moving.

Now, the lyrics of these songs may or may not mean much, but that's not really the point. For example, my so-far favorite of these peppy, energetic songs is Real Good Feeling by Oh The Larceny. The lyrics actually start out pretty decently:

I woke up feeling like this gon' be my day
I've got that poppin' fire every step I take
Living that wild life, not stopping now, no way
Just seeing green lights, won't ever touch the brakes

Got a real good feeling, got a real good feeling
Like there is lighting deep in my bones
Got a real good feeling, I won't hit no ceiling
I'm going higher than I've ever known
Got a real good feeling

It's optimistic. It's energetic. It's a little bit repetitive (and you don't know the half of it, since I cut a lot of the repetition out), but it's good. The second verse, however, makes it clear that the singer is in some kind of club, where I'm not sure I'd be entirely comfortable:

This place is jumping off, hot as it can get
No, we won't ever stop dancing on the edge
We like it dangerous, we like to see you sweat
Turn up a another notch, you ain't seen nothing yet

Still, the music itself is upbeat, and it's great for a pick-me-up, when I need it. I thought about making it my morning alarm, but the music is a bit too startling to wake up to. I'll have to settle for listening to it a little bit later in the morning.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Sure, it's great that you've found music that uplifts you, but if the lyrics to the opposite, I'm not sure I can fully get behind that." And I agree. That nightclub music? Not really my thing. That's why I'm toying with the idea of "spicing up" regular hymns and primary songs. The "spicing up" process mostly involves increasing the tempo and making the notes more staccato. In layman's terms, I put a little more bounce in it.

Granted, this doesn't work for all hymns or for all verses of all hymns. The third verse of How Great Thou Art and the whole song titled Gethsemane should not be "spiced up" this way. Some hymns are too sacred to turn into dance music. Still, there are many other hymns and other songs that can be modified in this way, and they blend the benefits of good lyrics and upbeat music.

I plan to play around with this more, especially as I travel. I'll tweak lyrics of dance music to give them more or better meaning, and I'll tweak the music of more pleasant songs to give them more energy. Between those two methods, I should soon establish a collection of songs that lift my spirit in more ways than one. Music can be a powerful tool in my life, and I look forward to taking more advantage of it.

An Attainable Goal

The great thing about my current life goal is that I know it's attainable. Often, I set lofty, worthwhile goals, but then I fall short, possibly because I lack the confidence to succeed. This time, I am perfectly confident that I can regain my favorite characteristics because there was once a time when I had them. I'm not trying to become better than I can be; I'm trying to re-become as good as I once was. I know I can do it because I already did. I just need to do it again.

Applying similar logic, I suppose we can just as confidently overcome Satan's temptations and follow God's plan for our salvation and exaltation. We did it before. In theory, we've been doing it for longer than we've been alive. We overcame Satan's temptations before we were born. We can certainly do so now.

Naturally, what I say isn't completely certain to be true. Circumstances change. What was possible at one time under one set of circumstances might become impossible at a different time under different circumstances. I don't know if anything has changed in my life that would prevent me from becoming the same man I once was, but we have all undergone a colossal change since the pre-mortal council. We all have bodies now.

Still, while that change is a drastic one, it doesn't necessarily change the fact that we can, indeed, overcome Satan's temptations. In fact, we've been told by the scriptures and prophets that the power to choose good or evil still lies with us. We had the power to choose good before, and we have the power to choose good again.

Similarly, I believe that I still have the power to be as good as I was a few years ago, and I know how I'm going to do it. More physical activity, especially for fun, or for tasks in which I can find the fun. More spiritual observation, especially with an eye toward finding things to blog about before too late in the evening. And, though I havn't blogged about this yet, more music appreciation, especially the sort of music that has energy and pep in it, the kind that's energizing and easy to dance to, not just pretty or emotional or reverent. I need music that makes me smile and makes me want to move in beat with the music, but I can blog more about that later. For now, I want to take care of the dishes, maybe watch one more Youtube video, and go to bed well before I become desperately tired.

I've set a precedent. I have been a more successful person than I am now, and I can be that good again.

Spiritual Observation

During Elder Bednar's talk this afternoon, he did what I sometimes do (and often used to do) on my blog. He took a situation he observed, pulled several spiritual lessons out of the situation, and shared those lessons with the world. He also openly encouraged us to do the same, to consider the situation with the cheetahs and the topis and see what spiritual lessons we can learn from that situation. That's something that I fully intend to do, and not just with the cheetahs and the topis.

I want to go back to my roots with my blog. I want to blog about situations I've seen and the lessons that can be learned from them. I want to keep my spiritual eyes open and see more of the spiritual messages God scatters along our path. Like the guy I met the other day, who only barely managed to catch the bus. I'm sure there are a few spiritual lessons to be learned from what happened to him. I'd like to find some of them and blog about them. Not only would that help me become a more spiritual person, it would also help me find things to blog about faster, so I won't end up staying up as late as often, which might help me be less cranky and irritable, which is a win for everybody.

This, combined with more physical activity and another one or two suggestions I've picked up from elsewhere, might help me feel more like myself again. I've been in a slump lately. Actually, I don't know how long I've been in it. But getting more physically and spiritually active might help me get back out of it. I've got a real good feeling about this. I've rediscovered several traits I love about the way I used to be. With a little effort, and a lot of diligence, I can regain those traits and become a better person for it. I don't want to count my chickens, but it's possible that I'm on the right path toward rebecoming the best version of me I've ever been. It's encouraging and exhilarating, and I partly have Elder Bednar and his cheetahs to thank for it.

Physical Activity

Yesterday, as part of turning my day around, I jumped across a bench. I am, or at least was, a spry, athletic, young man. Granted, I am not actually an athlete, but I am or was the kind of person who might jump on something or balance across things, just because I can.

At some point, I stopped doing that. Maybe it's just that my pants were too tight, or maybe I just caved and fell in line with the expectations of society, but I stopped running (unless I was late for something), I stopped jumping, and I stopped balancing. That may be part of the reason I've been so out-of-balance - I'm out of practice. I sit too much. I sit when I'm at work, when I'm in a class, and when I'm on a computer. Between those three things, I'm sitting most of the time, and most of my movement is just to get from one seat to another.

In the future, I'd like to change that. I'd like to move more, to run more, to jump and balance more. And if that means that people look at me funny, tough. I need more physical activity in my life to help me balance out all the physical rest I get. I'll invest in looser, more comfortable pants if I have to, but I will find a way to get back to having more physical activity in my life.

I Made a List

This morning, I felt stressed. I felt that I had too much going on, crammed into too little time, and I thought I couldn't handle it. Then, after being a hopeless wreck for a few minutes, I made a list of things I had to take care of, then I mentally sorted the list.

I put on the back burner everything that I couldn't do anything about yet. I considered the deadlines of each task. I identified tasks that could wait. I picked out tasks that I could take care of relatively quickly and easily. I set lower-priority items aside and accepted that, if I didn't have time to do everything, some lower-priority items might not get done on time. In short, I reminded myself that I don't need to worry about everything at once, since I can only ever do one thing at a time anyway.

Then I chose a few of the quickest, simplest, most important, and/or most urgent things, and I did them. And I remembered that self-care tasks should be ranked among the other important tasks.

All in all, it turned out to be a half-decent day. I got several things done, and I'm confident that they were the tasks that most needed to get done today. The others can and will have to wait, perhaps even indefinitely, and I okay with that. I didn't do everything. I can't do everything. But I did the right things.

Fuel and Change

My favorite verse of Smash Mouth's All Star is the last one:

Somebody once asked,
"Could you spare some change for gas?
I need to get myself away from this place."
I said yep, what a concept.
I could use a little fuel myself,

And we could all use a little change.

I like that this verse pulled some blogworthy insights out of a casual conversation with a stranger, and I especially like these particular insights, except that I think the singer got them backwards. We don't need change to buy fuel; we need fuel in order to change.

I think we can accept the fact that we all need to change. None of us is perfect. We all have areas where we can improve. However, changing isn't easy. It takes effort, and it takes energy to make the effort.  The energy that's needed in order to effect change differs from person to person. The "fuel" in this case is whatever "fuels" or motivates you. What's universal is that, since we all need to change, we all need to find out what fuels us and get enough of that fuel to bring about the needed change.

So, that's what I'm going to focus on this General Conference: What sort of fuel to I need and how can I get it? Because, most days, I feel like I've run ought of gas, and I know better than anyone that something has definitely got to change.

Practicing Explaining Conference

Today, I got an opportunity to explain General Conference to a stranger, and I'm glad to say I took it. While I was riding the bus to school, a guy just barely caught the bus I was riding, and we chatted about how much of a close call that was. He was out of breath because he had ha to run to catch the bus, so I offered him some water, and when he refused that, I offered him some breakfast. The Institute building across the street from campus offers free breakfast on Tuesdays, so I extended that offer to my new friend, and he accepted. We chatted on our way to the Institute, and it turned out that he is in a play at school, and he invited me (and everyone else at Institute) to come and see it. However, opening weekend is this weekend, Conference weekend, and thankfully, when I told him that I already had plans for this weekend, he asked me what they were.

I told him that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (I used the forbidden nickname because I didn't want to open another can of worms) believe that God still speaks through prophets and that those prophets regularly relay those messages from God. He asked me how new prophets are chosen, and I stumbled a bit over my answer because I don't know the details, but I eventually answered that the remaining Apostles and Prophets pray about it until they get a name. In hindsight, I probably should have phrased that differently, saying that God chooses the new Apostle and then tells the remaining Apostles who the new guy will be. I think I'll do a better job answering that question next time.

I'm glad that I blogged about explaining Conference before meeting the guy from the bus, because that helped me prepare for that conversation, and I'm glad I had that conversation before tomorrow night, because it was good practice for the next Conference explanation I may have to make. Having had one conversation on that topic should make the next one easier, and I'm looking forward to that.

I wonder if all missionary work might be like that. Previously, I felt that, as a missionary, I had switched into Missionary Mode, where it was normal, natural, and easy to try to share the Gospel as often as possible, but now I think it might have just been practice. Talking about the Gospel didn't become harder because I'm not a missionary anymore; it became harder because I stopped doing it and fell out of practice.

As simple as it sounds, the more anyone practices anything, the easier it becomes for them. This morning, I had an opportunity to practice sharing my beliefs and explaining our traditions. I hope that practice pays off for me tomorrow night.