Lord, accept our true devotion
Let thy Spirit whisper peace
Swell our hearts with fond emotion,
And our joy in thee increase.
Never leave us, never leave us
Help us, Lord, to win the race.
Never leave us, never leave us
Help us, Lord, to win the race.
Help us all to do thy bidding
And our daily wants supply
Give thy Holy Spirit's guiding
'Til we reach the goal on high.
Ever guard us, ever guard us
'Til we gain the victory.
Ever guard us, ever guard us
'Til we gain the victory.
May we, with the future dawning,
Day by day from sin be free
That on resurrection morning
We may rise at peace with thee.
Ever praising, ever praising
Throughout all eternity.
Ever praising, ever praising
Throughout all eternity.
We sang a beautiful arrangement of this hymn as our audience participation song at the BYU Choir Showcase this weekend. As the house lights went on and the crowd stood up, I could feel power as we all sang together.
If you ever want to feel less alone, sing a song like this. Better yet, sing it with hundreds of other voices echoing yours. After all, we're in it together. We're all running the same race.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
A Pear on a Window Sill
It was nice to get away from the melodramatic. Enjoy!
Love, Kamila Kasparian
Once there was a green pear who lived on a window sill. She was young and hard. She had just been plucked from a great tree just outside of Syracuse. Now, she was in an apartment in Trenton. She knew she would eventually end up in a kitchen rather then living orchard her whole life, but she never could’ve imagined the nasty mustard-yellow peeling paint. The pear could not understand why she was being subjected to live next to such riffraff. After all, she was a perfect green color and the walls were poopy-diaper-yellow-gold. On top of the table below the window she saw a group of bright yellow bananas. They were just as irritating to her as the yellow wall. Of course there are bananas here. Possibly from somewhere like Brazil. How dreadful.
“I am a Pear of New York!” she thought. “I should not be placed in the midst of such unsightly company.”
She rolled her rounded bottom slowly to the edge of the window sill so that she might see something other than her yellowing companions. She could barely see the street from her little spot on the window. It was just as nasty as the wall...covered in brown dirt and gray spider webs. She rocked back and forth against the window until she rubbed the dirt away. Her perfect pear shape was covered in grime.
What she saw when she looked down was a group of girls carrying pink and blue handbags. Each one was wearing a pencil skirt and had boobs so small she couldn’t see them from her window on the third floor. They had no shape. Their ankles looked like small branch she had grown up on. Their legs would probably break as easy as sticks do. She decided to pay no more attention to them. Not one of them had her shape. They were skinny and pale. She pitied them and was grateful she was perfectly pear-shaped.
Early the next morning a man came into the kitchen and poured a bowl of cereal. Then looking as though something was wrong with it, he took the pear off the window sill and gave her a squeeze. She barely budged. He wiped the dirt off her stomach and put her back.
She was shocked. Was she not the most perfect and delicious pear? Sure she was a little unripe, but wasn’t her pale green flesh appealing enough to eat! She always imagined she would be eaten quickly. She had looked forward to the day she would be consumed since she understood what her mission and greatest accomplishment would be! She had a lifelong dream of becoming someone's most delicious snack.
After he left, she scooted back toward the window hoping to see something that would take her mind off her supposed inadequacy. The first thing to pass her window was black and furry with four little legs and a lot of bark. She could hardly hear herself think with all the unnecessary noise! She saw what the little dog was barking at, and was shocked for it was only a red little fire hydrant. What a reason to get his black hair tussled.
Following the dog was just as irritating of a creature. A feline. She seemed to slink along between trash cans searching for food. From one trash can she pulled out a disgusting yellow banana peal and sniffed at it for a while until she turned her prowling eyes to a carton of yogurt. In her efforts to knock it over and devour the inside, the chunks of old yogurt splattered on her back. Good thing such revolting creatures didn’t live in New York. What a travesty that would’ve been.
After it got dark, she had nothing to distract her from the frustration she had felt that morning after being squeezed, handled and then rejected. She could feel and see her flesh and she knew it wasn’t as green or taught as it was that morning. She also noticed before the sun went down that she had more freckles on her stomach than she remembered having.
The same scenario ensued the next morning. She was not appealing to the man she hoped to please with her creamy tart taste. She was still too hard. Over bowl of cereal, the man cut the nasty bananas. He smiled with every bite. She watched his face and she watched the bananas more. They looked too squishy. She could hear them being chewed and pushed between his teeth. They were a pale yellow color on the rim but in the middle they were gray, just like the grime she had managed to get on herself. The man left the house looking quite full, though she hoped he had greatly disliked the bananas. Instead of being eaten like the bananas she was left on the window sill for another day of window watching.
The bright sun shone through her window making her feel hot and uncomfortable. She felt even squishier today...though not quite as squishy as the bananas on the table looked. They had more spots that she did, and they had been eaten before her! She hated this place. They didn’t understand perfection. In the reflection of the window she saw something that horrified her beyond the sickness she felt as the bananas were being eaten. She saw that her freckles had turned into little brown spots and were beginning to cover her entire body. She didn’t feel as green anymore, but on the verge of some other color. She gazed out the window past her changing reflection and saw a woman in a beautiful green dress eating a banana. That was it. She turned away from the window and closed her eyes for the rest of the day.
The next morning, she awoke with a start to being grabbed by the man eating breakfast. She was squeezed firmly and bent under his grip. He pulled out a knife and began to cut her soft flesh. She couldn’t describe the ecstasy that filled her small body when she realized that she was finally going to be eaten. He cut her into perfect bite-sized pieces and draped them over the bowl of granola.
The remaining bananas saw the man take one bite of the pear and granola, wrinkle his face in disgust and throw the whole bowl into the sink.
Love, Kamila Kasparian
Once there was a green pear who lived on a window sill. She was young and hard. She had just been plucked from a great tree just outside of Syracuse. Now, she was in an apartment in Trenton. She knew she would eventually end up in a kitchen rather then living orchard her whole life, but she never could’ve imagined the nasty mustard-yellow peeling paint. The pear could not understand why she was being subjected to live next to such riffraff. After all, she was a perfect green color and the walls were poopy-diaper-yellow-gold. On top of the table below the window she saw a group of bright yellow bananas. They were just as irritating to her as the yellow wall. Of course there are bananas here. Possibly from somewhere like Brazil. How dreadful.
“I am a Pear of New York!” she thought. “I should not be placed in the midst of such unsightly company.”
She rolled her rounded bottom slowly to the edge of the window sill so that she might see something other than her yellowing companions. She could barely see the street from her little spot on the window. It was just as nasty as the wall...covered in brown dirt and gray spider webs. She rocked back and forth against the window until she rubbed the dirt away. Her perfect pear shape was covered in grime.
What she saw when she looked down was a group of girls carrying pink and blue handbags. Each one was wearing a pencil skirt and had boobs so small she couldn’t see them from her window on the third floor. They had no shape. Their ankles looked like small branch she had grown up on. Their legs would probably break as easy as sticks do. She decided to pay no more attention to them. Not one of them had her shape. They were skinny and pale. She pitied them and was grateful she was perfectly pear-shaped.
Early the next morning a man came into the kitchen and poured a bowl of cereal. Then looking as though something was wrong with it, he took the pear off the window sill and gave her a squeeze. She barely budged. He wiped the dirt off her stomach and put her back.
She was shocked. Was she not the most perfect and delicious pear? Sure she was a little unripe, but wasn’t her pale green flesh appealing enough to eat! She always imagined she would be eaten quickly. She had looked forward to the day she would be consumed since she understood what her mission and greatest accomplishment would be! She had a lifelong dream of becoming someone's most delicious snack.
After he left, she scooted back toward the window hoping to see something that would take her mind off her supposed inadequacy. The first thing to pass her window was black and furry with four little legs and a lot of bark. She could hardly hear herself think with all the unnecessary noise! She saw what the little dog was barking at, and was shocked for it was only a red little fire hydrant. What a reason to get his black hair tussled.
Following the dog was just as irritating of a creature. A feline. She seemed to slink along between trash cans searching for food. From one trash can she pulled out a disgusting yellow banana peal and sniffed at it for a while until she turned her prowling eyes to a carton of yogurt. In her efforts to knock it over and devour the inside, the chunks of old yogurt splattered on her back. Good thing such revolting creatures didn’t live in New York. What a travesty that would’ve been.
After it got dark, she had nothing to distract her from the frustration she had felt that morning after being squeezed, handled and then rejected. She could feel and see her flesh and she knew it wasn’t as green or taught as it was that morning. She also noticed before the sun went down that she had more freckles on her stomach than she remembered having.
The same scenario ensued the next morning. She was not appealing to the man she hoped to please with her creamy tart taste. She was still too hard. Over bowl of cereal, the man cut the nasty bananas. He smiled with every bite. She watched his face and she watched the bananas more. They looked too squishy. She could hear them being chewed and pushed between his teeth. They were a pale yellow color on the rim but in the middle they were gray, just like the grime she had managed to get on herself. The man left the house looking quite full, though she hoped he had greatly disliked the bananas. Instead of being eaten like the bananas she was left on the window sill for another day of window watching.
The bright sun shone through her window making her feel hot and uncomfortable. She felt even squishier today...though not quite as squishy as the bananas on the table looked. They had more spots that she did, and they had been eaten before her! She hated this place. They didn’t understand perfection. In the reflection of the window she saw something that horrified her beyond the sickness she felt as the bananas were being eaten. She saw that her freckles had turned into little brown spots and were beginning to cover her entire body. She didn’t feel as green anymore, but on the verge of some other color. She gazed out the window past her changing reflection and saw a woman in a beautiful green dress eating a banana. That was it. She turned away from the window and closed her eyes for the rest of the day.
The next morning, she awoke with a start to being grabbed by the man eating breakfast. She was squeezed firmly and bent under his grip. He pulled out a knife and began to cut her soft flesh. She couldn’t describe the ecstasy that filled her small body when she realized that she was finally going to be eaten. He cut her into perfect bite-sized pieces and draped them over the bowl of granola.
The remaining bananas saw the man take one bite of the pear and granola, wrinkle his face in disgust and throw the whole bowl into the sink.
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