Change It Up Challenge

The “Change It Up” Challenge!

St Francis and the Sow
By Galway Kinnell

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing:
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them;
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

I’ve always loved this poem by Kinnell, because it reminds me that sometimes all we need is a fresh perspective so that we can be “retaught our loveliness.” Although in many ways, I feel like I’ve adjusted pretty well since getting back from my mission six months ago, I still feel like a part of me got lost somewhere on the plane ride between El Salvador and Utah–like the warm, familiar part of me just dropped out the belly of the plane and plopped down somewhere in the deserts of Arizona. So I came to a conclusion today while sitting in a mind-numbingly boring class at Logan High School while putting in my clinical hours–I need to get out of my mind rut.

I’ve heard that having change mixed into our lives every now and then is a positive, healthy thing–change stimulates new connections, helps us take on different perspectives, and makes us appreciate the little things that we take for granted. Therefore, I have given myself a challenge: to try something new every single week. It can be something simple, like eating a new fruit or studying my scriptures a different way. Or it could be more drastic, like taking up a new hobby or joining a new club. So there’s my challenge to myself. And since measured and reported results tends to accelerate growth and progress, I’ll be blogging about my journey every week. So stay tuned!!

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