Something Worth Blogging About?

So, Nadia gave me this little zen garden for my birthday, and I've not used it until today, but it's pretty awesome.

According to Zen and Feng Shui beliefs, every corner of one’s environment is important and deserves respect.

Your Zen garden can be the beginning of a lifelong adventure of seeing things in a new way. This garden may enable you to enter into a tradition that goes as far back as 3000 B.C. and is as near to you in time as your next thought or your next perception. In the inner appreciation of the simplicity of a miniature garden one has the ability to reduce all complexities to a matter of sand and rocks.

To appreciate Zen gardens it is important to understand why and how the elements used in them came to be of importance to the Japanese.

They believe that not only was it beneficial to live in a harmonious or well balanced environment, it also promotes longevity.

Japanese miniature rock gardens make the stress levels slip away - promoting better health and well-being.

It came with a CD of soothing meditation music, and I love it. I'm just chilling.

General Conference was amazing! The big messages this time were peace, unity, and hope. Lots of the talks were on how, even though the world around us in tumultuous, we can still find peace within ourselves by realizing we are doing the right thing. Another one I really liked talked about how Christ was the victim of lots of slandering and hatred, but he never retaliated... He always responded with love and patience. I think I needed that one a lot. After going to that convention in DC where there was so much bitterness and open hostility for anyone who didn't believe exactly as the people there, it was good to be able to reflect on the truth.
So many people at that convention used religion and God as a shield, as a prompter for what they were doing. They'd use Bible verses to back up their hatred and viciousness, and it just made my stomach turn.
Christ's whole mission in life was to teach peace, tolerance, and understanding. One of the biggest principles that our church teaches is that everyone is a child of God, even if they don't believe or agree with what we have to say. It's not our place as imperfect beings to judge anyone else. I'm trying really hard to be better at this, to not just assume I know all factors in a situation and am qualified to pass judgment on anyone or anything.

One of my friends recently went through an experience where someone she deeply cared about fought with her and rejected her because of her political beliefs. Their friendship has been deeply affected by this, and at this point they're not even speaking.
How ridiculous! Especially since the other person was LDS. The whole point of our country is that everyone is allowed to have their own opinion and not be thought less of or treated differently because of it. Especially someone who's religion preaches love to all mankind. It makes me so sad to see people who profess charity towards all men to be rude or intolerant of anyone who doesn't absolutely agree with them.

I think that will be my goal for the week; To try to be kinder and more understanding to those who are different from me.