life in color.

i am in love with fall.

i dont know how else to describe the joy I feel driving through the canyon and seeing the bright colored trees. the cool evening air, meaning it's cardigan weather. the crunch on the leaves under your feet. it's perfect.

last Friday was a perfect fall evening. a football game (you can't get any more fall than that, go cougs) and then it was up the canyon for a moonlight chairlift ride at sundance with a group of friends, something that has been on my provo bucket list for a while now. The chairlift ride was perfect, all that was missing was a cup of hot chocolate and a boy to cuddle with. As I sat there, climbing higher and higher over the beautiful mountains I couldn't help but notice that I was missing all the colors. In the dark of night, with nothing but a full moon the world had literally turned black and white.

how had I gone twenty-two years of my life without realizing this simple fact? without light there is no color. it is simple, and makes complete sense, but it seemed to take over my thoughts at that moment.

the next morning I woke up early for yet another long saturday run. this week in was provo canyon. 16 miles. we drove up past sundance, parked the car, and started the decent (after a 30 minute nap so we could have more light- its amazing how much time you save by staying in provo). We past sundance with the sun starting to illuminate the earth. The mountains looked as if they were on fire. It was absolutely beautiful. They were the same mountains i had seen the night before, however, now the black and white blurrs were replaced with magnificent details.

so as I ran down the windy canyon road i could help but think about how this perfectly parallels the gospel. how often have we heard Christ referred to as the light of the world. He takes seemingly black and white things and makes them beautiful. I look at my life, and how it is full of color, and feel so blessed. As I talked with Jace, the boy who was a saint and ran with me when Mary couldn't, he made the profound comment. He mentioned how if we had only ever seen the world in black and white we would have no idea what we were missing, and then he simply stated, "it makes me wonder what else we don't realize we are missing." what blessings is Heavenly Father just waiting to give us. Where I think my life is wonderful, and at times wonder how it could get any better, he has buckets of blessings just waiting to pour down if I turn to him. it is so amazing. so so amazing.

so, the take home message, live life in color. have light in your life. and it will be magnificent.