My Garden, Part 7

My pumpkins are growing marvelously for the most part, but one of my plants looks like it is dying. I haven't found a reason for that yet.
I have three fruits that are growing now. Here is a picture of the biggest one:

As you can see, it is much bigger than my hand. It is so very beautiful.

My corn is about a foot and a half tall, which concerns me, because my grandmother's corn is much taller.
My corn already has tassels.

 

My beans have grown to their full height and have started producing now.

Qualities For Marriage

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Girls' Camp. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about the theme, which was "Stand For Your Happily Ever After". One lesson that my unit moms gave centered on preparing for marriage, so they gave us a notebook to keep qualities that we would like our future husbands to have and qualities that we need to develop to be worthy of that type of man.
I think this is a great idea, because if we don't know what we want in our eternal companions, we will settle for less than what we want. And if we don't know how to improve ourselves in order to be better people ourselves, we won't be able to love our spouse as fully as we could if we became our best selves.

Here is a list of qualities of future husband that were already written down and a few that I added:
A man who doesn't keep me guessing about his feelings and what he wants.
A man who pursues me.
A man who sees me as the bright spot in his day.
A man who means it when he calls me "baby".
A man who will forget about all the other things in his life, [except the Lord], before he forgets about me.
A man who does what he says he's going to do.
A man who doesn't make me feel [more] anxious, uneasy, or worse by being in a relationship with him than I did being alone.
A man who makes an effort to be a peacemaker and bring harmony to fights and disagreements.
A man who is not afraid of commitment and is proud to call me his.
A man who makes being around him feel natural and easy.
A man who doesn't suppress his feelings to look cool or appear uninvolved.
A man who never keeps me in the dark.
A man who never would do anything to compromise the integrity of our relationship, or get anywhere close.
A man who can respectfully discuss issues without manipulation or losing his temper.
A man who is strong and tough, but not a "bad boy".
A man who does not make me feel ashamed, needy or "unliberated" for wanting marriage and a family.
A man with whom a relationship would bring me closer to my aspirations for the future.
A man who makes me feel comfortable enough to bring up sensitive topics.
A man who doesn't need forever to realize I'm one of the best things that's ever happened to him.
A man who would move mountains to keep me.
A man who genuinely doesn't like to be without me, instead of just not wanting to be alone.
A man who allows me to love freely, without restrictions.
A man who doesn't have to heal in the relationship, but has already taken care of his past.
A man who makes it clear in his everyday actions that my happiness is important to him.
A man who makes a constant attempt to love the people I hold dear, and especially my family.
A man who does not engage in any activity to an extent in which I feel uncomfortable.
A man who understands that there is no reason to yell at anybody, except for safety.
A man who treats me just as perfectly in public and around his friends as he does when we're alone.
A ma who treats me better than I feel I deserve.
A man who never belittles me to feel superior.
A man who goes out of his way to make sure that I know my worth is infinite, that I'm smart, valuable, and deserving of everything I've ever wanted.
A man who hungers for information about me and doesn't spend our time solely talking about himself.
A man who has the ability and desire to provide.
A man who doesn't make me feel like I have to give up anything which I find to be essential for making life enjoyable.
A man who honors the woman I am and have the potential to become.
A man who will always want to protect me from things that frighten me.
A man who is nice to me all the time and who is clearly a good, kind, loving person.
A man who makes me hope that my sisters and best friends can find someone like him.
A man who believes in love the verb, not the noun.
A man who respects my need for space.
A man who makes me want to become better.
A man who will stop conversations to tell me that I'm beautiful.
A man who acknowledges when he is wrong or at fault and is willing to repent.
A man who has a quirky sense of humor.
A man who is intelligent.
A man who is willing to converse about deep subjects.
A man who respects everybody.
A man who loves the Lord more than he loves me.
A man who makes me smile.

Writing

Writing is pouring thoughts, memories, and ideas out of your head, allowing your soul to flow through as symbols. Writing allows these things to communicate past barriers of time, place, and death. It allows us to think in ways other than things that we do all the time, such as speaking or just having thoughts jumbled in our minds. Writing establishes order, creates beauty, and preaches truth, in its best state.

My Garden, Part 6

My corn is doing well. It is keeping up with the beans, and is still green and alive. That's about all it has to do yet.

My beans are growing tall, and each plant has little white flowers budding. I didn't do very thorough research before starting to grow this kind of bean, because it somehow slipped my mind. Anyway, now I did some more research because I was concerned about the fact that they were flowering already, and I found out that they are a bush bean variety, that takes about three months to maturity. This means that my beans will be ready before everything else in my garden, and that I don't need to find a way for my beans to climb. These are very useful things to know.
Since I planted on May 19th, the beans should be grown sometime next month.

My pumpkins are also growing very well. They are much bigger than I anticipated, and are growing rapidly. They pretty much take up my whole box, in addition to growing our onto the lawn. I now know that I was mistaken about having female flowers last post, because the female flowers really are coming out now.
The problem I have, though, is not knowing if any of the flowers are being pollinated. I may have to try hand-pollinating, because at least one has shriveled up and died, due to not being pollinated.

Some things I have been doing for my garden:
Journaling about it
Naming each plant individually or as a group
Having concerts for it
Watering as needed
Weeding as needed
Watching out for slugs and other insects

Enjoyment In Life's Pursuits

The world today is full of uninspired people who simply do what they do as a means to an end. While there are some who love what they do, there are many who don't. What can be more dangerous to the human spirit, than spending their lives in doing things which they are not passionate about, and which they don't even at least find enjoyable?

I know many people who don't enjoy what they do. I have members of my family who don't enjoy what they do. Especially when choosing careers, most people just find what they can do that is more profitable or easier than things that they would do if there were no other considerations.

I firmly believe that everybody should find some reason to go and do things other than that they have to, simply to survive. Whatever you are, whether a cashier, a mother, a student, or anything else, I challenge you to truly love what you do.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy."
-2 Nephi 2:25

Love

A couple of day ago,, I watched the movie of and read the book of The Phantom of the Opera. As always, there was a lot of crying involved. However, this was for a different reason than usual. Usually I'm just upset that the Phantom is all alone. This time, I was upset about all of the people who never showed him any love, and created a monster through their harshness.
This had helped to realize that I need to show more love. In our everyday lives, anger doesn't do any good. I have realized this from the many times I have tried to improve something or somebody through anger, no matter how seemingly reasonable that anger was. It has never worked. What has worked, though, is kindness and love.
This is something which I need to work on, because I still respond to things harshly and angrily, especially to those I love most deeply. Anger doesn't work. The world needs more love, to drive out all of the anger and fault and ugliness that exist.

"What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?"
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Color Code

I just recently finished a class on leadership, which focused heavily on personality tests. Normally I am very wary of personality tests, and think that they are just made up garbage meant to entertain. But these tests that we took made a lot of sense, and I could see how the results were reflected in my own life.
One of these that we took was the test in The Color Code by Taylor Hartman. This book states that there are four basic personalities htat are contained in some measure in everybody. These personalities are Red, Blue, Yellow, and White. To summarize, Red is driven by the need for power, Blue is driven by the need for intimacy, Yellow is driven by the need for fun, and White is driven by the need to avoid conflict.
I myself had a test result stating that I was Red and Blue in equal measures, and I can definitely see this in my own life. The Red is expressed in me by the way that I take lead in class when the teacher is gone, how I can't bear to see people do things in a way that I think is wrong, and how I almost always am organizing some sort of group. The Blue is expressed through my sensitivity, the way I get closely attached to people when I consider them my friends, and how I get upset when people take things flippantly.
White and Yellow were both very low in me, which I can see. I guess Yellow is expressed occasionally in me, with how I enjoy stake dances and such. I have been trying to develop more White qualities, such as being more accepting.

I would encourage you to take this test and read this book, because I believe that it helps each of us to improve ourselves if we gain a better awareness of who we already are. It also helps us to lead others and be a better friend when we know about others, so please share with people who you care about.