Just don't forget to live...

I've been riding out my week on the spiritual fountain of the LDS General Conference messages. What outstanding advice and counsel was shared to a world wide audience. As I was younger, I certainly loved conference because it meant staying in casual clothes, as I really don't like dresses. My brothers and I loved to fight for the bean bag because you could sort of prop your head up as if you were awake and listening when really you were snoozing. Mom was a good and faithful mother and would quickly catch onto the fact that we were in fact not listening to the talks. Pillows were thrown, the bean bag was kicked and eventually taken away all for the spiritual benefit of our souls. Now I anxiously take notes, soaking in the words of these great leaders who testify of Jesus Christ. While taking in mental notes of all the many things I could be working on, I also sadly heard messages of abuse and coping with such trials and I was grateful to not have had to carry such a burden in my life. We all walk a different path in life and it can be easy to look at others and think they have the better path and we often forget the smooth going our own path is. I was just thumbing through the Ensign this morning and Pres. Monson advised us to learn from the past, look to the future and live in the present. Life is not to be lived regretting the past nor living only in the dream of the future. Life is happening here and now. Now is the only moment in which we have true control and can take action to alter who we were in our past and change to be the person we wish to be in the future. I often find myself dreaming of my future and I totally am missing the moment. The orange blossoms have been in bloom near where I live and I have the pleasure of driving by these orange groves. I know they say take time to smell the roses, but I love the smell of the orange blossoms. This is living in the moment. Spending time with good friends just enjoying them for the small moments that are real and true. Never forget to live now, it's the only way to truly live.