Beauty for Ashes

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound...to comfort all that mourn...to give unto them beauty for ashes...that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. - Isaiah 61:1-3

This weekend, I literally had "beauty for ashes."

It was my turn to make Sunday dinner for my roommates, but some friends called me and invited me to hang out with them. I didn't know when I'd be back, so I put my soup on the stove and left a note saying they could go ahead and eat whenever they wanted to.

Unfortunately, I left a plastic spoon in the pot. And unbeknown to me, my only roommate at home was asleep. She woke up a while later to an awful smell and these lovely sights.

This is the remnants of the spoon compared to what the spoon used to look like.

And this is what my roommates were supposed to eat for dinner - a mix of burnt tortilla soup and melted plastic. Not soupy at all.

"Would anybody like some soup? It's not like it's tainted with the poisonous and naseous gases of boiled plastic, or anything. Please dearie, try some."

When I returned from my adventures hours later, we laughed and laughed and laughed.
"This will be a great story to tell your children," they consoled me.
"Oh sure," I agreed. "If I don't kill them with another cooking accident first!"

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Fortunately, my weekend had a lot of beauty too. I:
*Went to the BYU Men's Chorus concert, which was beautiful
*Made new friends
*Howeled at the moon
*Pretended to be a Ninja
*Ate ice cream with an amazing family
*Enjoyed silliness with my favorite people in the world
*Learned how to make a revolving door out of people
*Smiled and laughed until (and well after) my face was sore
*Went on a walk in the sunshine
*Tied with someone 4 TIMES IN A ROW on rock paper scissors
*Toured the industrial design lab
*Rode an electric wheelchair
*Attended a wonderful Stake Conference
*Ate thin mints on the lovesack
*Tried my hand at being a Shaman
*Ate good stew
*Petted a dog
*Took silly pictures
*Watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
*Had some really good conversation
*Got to enjoy many of my favorite people in Provo.




If God decides that my life needs some ashes to counteract the many, many beauties, that's ok with me.

So even though my apartment still smells bad, my roommates are a little annoyed with me, and my clothes smell like smoke, I have many reasons to rejoice.