The Moon is Following Me.

Remember when you were a kid, buckled up all snug and safe in the backseat of Mom's minivan during a nighttime car ride? You'd rest your forehead against the cool window and watch as each breath fogged up the glass for a few seconds before fading away. Every so often, your eyes would flick up to the night sky and marvel that the moon was always right there, following you. It could be seconds, minutes, or hours between glances and it would still be there. Solid. Steady. Unchanging.

I went for a spur of the moment run tonight in an attempt to snap myself out of a foul mood. I felt lost for the first half of my run (figuratively...I run the same route every time to combat my terrible sense of direction), unable to shake a feeling of utter insignificance and loneliness. Remembering those moments of childhood wonder, I searched for the moon to ground myself, but clouds concealed it from my view. After reaching my halfway point and heading back towards home, I was distracted by the dark, haziness of the lower half of the sky. I took a moment to remind myself that, no, the sky is not two-toned in Utah, it's just the mountains in the distance. [Side Note: I still have to do that. A lot. I haven't quite gotten used to this whole mountain thing just yet.] That's when I saw it, glowing like a beacon below the snowy tips of the Rockies: The Y.

The Y became my moon. At any moment, I could look to the east and it would be there--solid, steady, unchanging--acting as constant reminder of who I am. I am a student at Brigham Young University. I am more than happy to spend my Friday nights watching Harry Potter and a children's show about an aardvark with a pet dog. I bake often, clean up sometimes, and survive off of more than Ramen noodles and mac 'n cheese thankyouverymuch. I stay up way too late, sometimes studying and doing homework and sometimes laughing for hours about things that probably aren't even that funny. I make mistakes, learn from them, and then sometimes have to make them again to really get the message across. I seek advice from friends and family who often know what I think and how I feel better than I do. I am, in the eyes of the university, insignificant. I am just one of thousands, trying to figure out who to be and what to do with the rest of my life. But, in the eyes of God, I am not insignificant. I am somebody to Him. I am His daughter. That's who I am.

And yes, I got all of this from a couple hundred gallons of white paint slapped on the side of a mountain.

God is the moon. He's the Y. Every time I look, He's there. Even when I forget to look, He's there.  He'll be there every time you look, too. I know that. He's solid, steady, and unchanging. Next time you feel lost, unimportant, or alone, look at the moon or (if you're in Provo) at the Y. Remember that you CAN receive guidance. You ARE important. And you're NEVER alone.