Monday, October 10, 2011

Nature Walk

I went for a walk in the canyon today, and the view was too lovely not to share.

The colors are breathtaking this time of year.  No matter how many photos I snapped, I could just not quite do justice to the real thing…

sky

…Not that it stopped me from trying. 

And I got to thinking about my favorite talk from conference, by Elder Cook, “It Is Better To Look Up.”  I loved that talk.  So much.  I love the concept of up.  I love that things can look up, people can cheer up, and hopes can rise up. 

When I was walking through the canyon with my eyes downcast this was all I could see:

023

Not much of a view is it?  When I was looking down all I could focus on was the shadows.  And look what I would have missed out on if I wouldn’t have looked up:

up1up2up3up4

My walk caused me to come to the following realization: when I’m feeling downcast and only focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, I totally miss out on the beauty of the world (and even more importantly, the people) around me.  Looking down leads to self absorption.  How many opportunities I miss to reach out to those around me when I’m too busy looking at my feet. 

It really is better to look up. 

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8 comments:

  1. Katie LewisOctober 10, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    This is so well put, Whitney. I think it was your photos that especially made it click for me.

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  2. Katie LewisOctober 10, 2011 at 8:45 PM

    P.S. Your shoes are really cute. As usual.

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  3. JewlsOctober 10, 2011 at 9:10 PM

    What a great reminder! And I love the picture of the waterfall...wow!

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  4. Lynley JillOctober 10, 2011 at 9:35 PM

    I LOVED this talk too!! I thought of you! I thought of those hard days when we talked about things looking up and took happy balloon pictures to cheer up! I thought of hot air balloons and fluffy clouds too! I love your BEAUTIFUL visual representations of this talk! Such a great reminder! Thanks for the beautiful and UPlifting post!

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  5. Brenton and Adree JensenOctober 11, 2011 at 2:13 PM

    Oh Whitney! Thank you for sharing this! I needed it today! I love the reminder of looking up. I loved this talk too, it was great!

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  6. EmilyOctober 11, 2011 at 3:18 PM

    I loved this talk too. In fact, I just barely listened to it again. And this post is just as beautifully written. I love things that are "UP" too - especially you! :) And you take absolutely beautiful photographs!

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  7. RachelOctober 14, 2011 at 11:30 PM

    Love this.

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  8. LaRaeOctober 19, 2011 at 4:07 PM

    You take such beautiful photos! It was so fun to be with you and Spencer and have such an UP vacation! (You even know how to hide UP!)

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