Farewell Stress

Recently I have had many conversations with my friends about the stresses they are facing in university. The countless lab reports, assignments and midterms. Ironically I find myself in a place of stress for the complete opposite reason. I'm sitting at home wishing my professors would come back so I could hand in assignments and write midterms. This weird scenario I find myself in, got me thinking...

Why is it so easy to find someone who is stressed, and so hard to find someone content and happy living in the moment? Why is it that we can find every possible reason to get worked up, upset and stressed, yet if you ask someone to think about their blessings they have difficulty coming up with one? 

The more I thought about this, the more determined I became to NOT let stress rule my life and to make every effort to find beauty in the broken. I think I've spent enough time stressing in my life, so here's to hoping that with God's grace I can remove stress from my day and fill that time wasted with joy unending. 

Here it goes... A list of things that have brought me a lot of joy recently:

The smell of freshly baked cookies

& making muffins at 1 am

The look of a newly painted (and clean) room

Challenging & Inspiring Books

Watching the Winnipeg Jets 

Good conversations with friends

Watching snowflakes fall to the ground 

& Music of the guitar, piano, singing and flute variety 

I'm going to challenge you along with myself, to remove stress from your life, and fill that time with more love and more joy. 

This is Life

Today marks the last day of classes in my second year of university. I still remember being nervous as can be on my first day in Brandon but it didn't take very long before the university became my home and my new friends became my family. Throughout these past couple of years I've had many moments when all I wanted was for time to go by faster. "If only this aural skills studio would be done" ... or " I wish it was Friday already so I could go home" ... or "I can't wait till university is done and it's summer!" I've heard people wish every monday that the week would go by fast and be over soon. And although I understand that it's never fun to go through stressful times, I refuse to live my life just hoping that the day will be over. 

God has blessed us with an amazing life to live. It is our choice to embrace this beautiful thing we call life. We can't allow ourselves to get stuck in the routine of everyday and ordinary. This world is far from ordinary. God has given us wonder, amazement and beauty. Incredible things are taking place all over the world at this very moment. 

When I was the valedictorian I quoted Albert Einstein in my speech: 

"There are two ways to live: 

You can live as if nothing is a miracle, 

or you can live as if everything is a miracle."

I want to challenge you, as well as myself to not just live life, but LOVE life. Each day is a miracle and a gift from a God who loves us. It is now up to us. Will you live a beautiful, adventurous, passionate, faithful, wonderful life or will you fade away amidst wishful thinking for the day to be done? 

Here are a few pictures to document my first two years out here in Brandon: