Learning to Dance in the Rain

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Microsoft flew me up for a second round of interviews last week.  I interviewed with the Sparkle team and the .NET Compact Framework team.  Tonight I received an email from my recruiter congratulating me on an offer from the .NET Compact Framework team.  How exciting!

Details pending a phone call next Monday.

These are some thoughts from the talk “The Doer of our Deeds and the Speaker of our Words” by M. Catherine Thomas.

“Is
it not obvious that we, created out of the very stuff of truth and
permeated by his power, cannot live against our own natures of light
and truth and intelligence without setting up conflict and spiritual
dis-ease within ourselves? The quality of our emotional and spiritual
existence is absolutely governed by divine law, and whether or not we
know about these laws, or observe them, we are continually and
profoundly affected by them. I suggest that at the base of much low
self-esteem lies not only spiritual conflict but a deep
selfdisapproval, whether conscious or not, over neglect of the
spiritual laws that govern happiness and freedom.”

True
true. We are at the core spiritual beings who rejoiced when Heavenly
Father presented this plan to us for coming to earth.

“Often
doors have closed before us that seemed to lead to the opportunities we
thought we had to have. We assumed that the closed door was a
reflection of some inadequacy in ourselves. But perhaps the closed door
had nothing to do with whether we were good or bad or capable or
incompetent. Rather, a loving Father shapes, even now, our path
according to a prearranged, premortal covenant.”

As a
missionary I was twice in a situation where I was a zone leader and
“demoted” to a district leader. Both times I partly resented the
change. Both times I later saw the wisdom behind the assignment.

I have become aware of how demanding of attention the self is. What a lot of prayer
and deliberate living it will take for me to remove my self as the force in my life. I
have
become aware that all my sins rise out of the self-absorption of my
heart—impulses rising like the ticking of a clock in their persistent
quest for self-promotion, self-defense, and self-gratification. It
seems as though a change is needed at the very fountain of my heart out
of which all thought and emotion rise. Could I actually come to the
point where I could act without calculating my own self-interest all
the time? Could I really live my daily life so that I was constantly
searching out the Lord’s will and drawing down his grace to accomplish
it?

This is the changing of our motive, that is so desireable.

Here are some of my own Aesop-style fables, that I wrote for a class:

The Stalemate Date

A boy and a girl went on a date. The boy wanted to please the girl by taking her anywhere she wanted to go. The girl liked the boy and wanted to appear cooperative and carefree to please him. When the boy asked the girl where she would like to go, she knew exactly where, but only said “I don’t care. Where would you like to go?” The boy insisted that he would like to go wherever she wanted to, but the girl never revealed her desire for fear the boy would not like it. In the end, the date ended with both upset that they could not please the other, and with neither’s wishes fulfilled.

Moral: A girl afraid to share her wish may not have it granted.

The Other Side

A father drove his daughter through a field they had not crossed before. The daughter looked out her window and exclaimed, “Look at the cows!” “Silly girl, those are not cows, those are antelope” the father corrected. Defensively, the daughter responded, “I know what cows are! Those are cows! How can you think they are antelope?” “They are antelope! Look at the way they are jumping!” “Jumping!? They are barely moving!” Frustrated with each other, each turned to look the other way, and discovered that the other was looking on the other side of the road.

Moral: Arguments with loved ones are usually based on misunderstandings.

The Violin

A well meaning child came home from a classical music concert and announced that he wanted very much to play the violin. He had seen a violinist play beautifully and simply, and the boy was confident that he could learn it and perform for others quickly. By assuring his parents that he would study hard, he convinced his parents to purchase the expensive violin and lessons. Very soon the boy tired of the lessons. They took longer than he thought, and he was not yet as good as the violinist he had seen. He stopped practicing, and his parents stopped giving him lessons. The violin went into a closet, right next to a dusty flute, trumpet and saxophone.

Moral: One who gives up too soon will never achieve one’s dreams.

The Movie

Once a boy walked up to a theater with his friends to look for a movie to watch. “Let’s watch that one!” cried one of the friends. The boy looked up at the listing. He knew he should not watch movies with that rating, but he so much wanted to be accepted by the others that he watched it with them anyway. The movie was much worse than he hoped it would be, and he felt awful through the whole movie.

Moral: Base your decisions on principles – not situations.

The Woodpecker and the Duck

A duck waddled through a field one day, when he heard a woodpecker approach him. “A duck is a waste of feathers,” said the woodpecker to the duck. He continued, “You are a bird, but you can’t fly, like me. I can fly high and fast, and I can make such a noise with my beak that people all around can hear me.” The duck made no response, but walked on and had a great day anyway.

Moral: Don’t sweat what you can’t control.

Idiot is a greek word for describing someone who wouldn’t vote because he was too preoccupied with private matters.

[Update 1/1/07] A humorous jibe at non-voters which I heard a while back.  But I just did a Google Search on it and found that it’s probably not all true.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
I am the second counselor in the elders quorum in my ward.

Alright! So I read in a news article online somewhere that active
Bloggers get special favors in getting Gmail invites. Hmmm… I’ve
blogged a few times. I wonder… So I visited Blogger.com again and
signed in. What do you know? There’s this link on the right-side of my
screen that offers me a Gmail account. Yay! This is great! So I sign
up, and now I have the email address: … wait, this diary is public. I
won’t tell you my email address here. Can’t have spam and all that. But
that’s not important to the story anyway.

The important part is, I have Gmail. Yay!

A true love for and trust in Jesus Christ sustains in all kinds of
trial. It can make the rainiest, bleakest day become clear and bright.

RELATionship Evaluation

How do you know when you love a person? When you think about them constantly? That’s called infatuation, or obsession. When you bring out the best in each other? That’s definitely a good thing. But at what point does a crush turn to love?

…Perhaps
when your motivation for visiting changes from selfish interest to
selfless caring for the other person. When you would stop seeing them
if they didn’t want to see you, not because you were offended, but
because you wanted that person to be happy.

Blind dates? I think I like them. I haven’t been on more than a couple.
But I think it’s fun to try to match my roommate up with a girl I used
to have a crush on (for the majority of my adolescent years). Heh heh.