Looking Forward

I never intended, years ago, to quit writing on this blog. I didn't anticipate as a girl still building fairy houses that the day would come when something like keeping a blog would not be a priority. But I want to end this permanently on a note of reflection and appreciation - so here is my last post on BonBon's Blog, taken from my final Instagram/Facebook post of 2015. I'd say it marks the end of an era.

2015 was the year of my most joyous highs and lowest lows. This year I wrote an album's worth of songs and performed in front of thousands of people. This year I discovered two new talents I didn't know I had, dancing and styling wedding-worthy hair. This year I went on four tours and two incredible vacations with some of my favorite people in the world. This year my heart has been broken at times but right now, it is full. I went this year from struggling with my testimony to knowing, without a flicker of doubt, that there is a loving God in Heaven who is in and aware of every detail of our lives. This was a year of magnificent sunrises and sunsets, of moonlit swimming in the warm ocean, of silence that speaks volumes, of watercolor painting in the mountains, of constant reminders of divine presence in my life. This was the year I got my mission call and performed an endowment session at a different temple every week after receiving my own. This year was filled with surprising accomplishment and occasionally some frustrating failure. This was a year of tears and of laughter, and most of all, of heart-achingly overwhelming love. I never knew I could experience so much love in a day, in a letter, in a hug, in a touch of the hand, in a year.

2016 will bring an already influential stepdad permanently into my life, a move between two houses and then between two countries, a missionary badge, mastery of Spanish, a compassion like I've never known, and some of the most difficult and rewarding experiences of my life. I reflect with gratitude on this year of wonders - and I look forward to this coming year of continued miracles and incredible joy. May we all "let [our] light so shine" wherever we are under this big sky. ‪#‎lookingforward‬