Some things I love

I love being conscious of the process of getting to know someone. Noticing how they fulfill certain expectations of who I thought they were and also being surprised by how they unfold to me in unexpected ways. I love the practice it gives me at letting go of my own impressions of who a person is and allowing them to be who they are, practicing not needing to categorize or put in a box. Allowing myself to notice and appreciate they many different sides to a person.

Friday I traveled to Hong Kong island with my sister. She had organized a youth talent show for church. I generally don't mesh well with teenagers. It's an age group I don't identify easily with. Maybe because of my own awkwardness I felt as a teenager. I felt like I didn't understand them when I was one of them and now even though I've grown out of that and become comfortable with who I am, it's not an age group I interact with regularly and so I don't have so many opportunities to grow out of my perceptions of teenagers.

So Friday night at the talent show, one of the young women was in charge of getting the show going. I didn't really pay much attention to her other than that she was just the one up front getting the show started. Saturday night, my sister showed me this video of her on youtube. It was taken as she was recovering from the anesthesia after getting her wisdom teeth out. It's kind of long, but really funny:

Then I went to church with my sister and this girl happened to be the first speaker. The topic of the meeting was Uchtdorf's October 2009 talk called The Love of God. Her talk was by far my favorite. One thing she said was that it doesn't matter whether we are seemingly perfect or have committed a world of sin. God still loves us. More important than what she said though, was the spirit she conveyed. She obviously felt a lot of love, whether it was from God or her parents or others at church. It was obvious she felt it deeply and as a result it helped me feel it too. I love how my perception of her was gradually transformed over the weekend as more and different sides of her unfolded to me.

I also loved seeing Big Buddha on Lantau Island yesterday. It seems to have become overly commercialized and sadly the monastery is kind of an after thought in a back corner of the place, and it almost seemed like a buddhist theme park and a total tourist trap, but I loved it. I kind of loved that G, my 2.5 year old nephew was just as excited to see Buddha as a child going to see Mickey Mouse. Maybe even a little bit more.

I also love not keeping track of time. I love going to bed when I'm tired and waking up when I'm done sleeping. And then reading in a quiet apartment until the others wake up. I love watching G hail a taxi and listening to him tell the taxi he did a good job when we arrive at our destination. I love that Thursday I will have a suit that was tailored to fit my body. I love that today for lunch we are having dim sum. I love making plans and then sometimes not following them.