Midnight Thoughts for a Sunday Evening

I've had lots of thoughts swirling around in my brain recently and I've wanted to get them out. So once again, we engage in list making, though this list may be annotated :)

I got a tattoo recently
It's a small treble clef that's about two inches behind my left ear. I will post a picture as soon as I take a good one. It has personal significance to me as well as to my relationship with God. While I was raised to be very anti-tattoo (and I oddly enough still am anti-tattoo in a vast majority of cases; how's that for hypocritical for you?) I mulled over it for roughly 3 months before I pulled the trigger, and I love it. While reactions have varied and I've allowed myself to feel saddened or guilty because of people's reactions, I've yet to feel guilty about the actual tattoo. Which is good, because it's obviously here to stay.

I'm an extrovert - except when I'm outside
I love being outside in nature. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you'll know that I feel like nature is God's love note to his children, and I never feel closer to him than I do when I'm outside. Also, if you know me at all, you know I LOVE people and am basically your textbook extrovert and dislike do anything by myself. However, the exception to that is being out in nature. I. Love. Nature. And I could spend hours in it by myself, just communing with Heavenly Father.

Modestly has been on my mind the last few weeks
Like, a lot. Again, modesty was a big thing for me while I was growing up. And while my idea of what modesty is has evolved and taken on different connotations, I still feel very strongly about its importance in society and in shaping both young men and women. And don't worry, I will most likely write a blog on this topic in the upcoming future (because I know we're all looking forward to another modesty discussion ;) )

Cutting people out of your life
My sister has spoken with me often about people who are in your "sphere of influence." I think it's something like roughly 10 people who are closest to you and have the power to influence you. I've been wrestling some pretty big spiritual and personal demons lately, and I've contemplated cutting people out of that sphere who cause me to question things that, up until now, I've taken for granted and received comfort from in my life. But I realized that doing so would just be avoiding the problem. If I'm not comfortable questioning things I consider to be truths, then I probably don't believe in them strongly enough to base a life off of.

Taking time off
I committed today to take time off. And not just "I'm shirking responsibilities and going out with friends spontaneously" time off. I'm committing to sit down for at least an hour once a week and read a book, watch a documentary, or just do something during which I am NOT ALLOWED to do anything else. This may sound simple, but seriously, I have the hardest time focusing on one thing and one thing only. Because of this, I find my ability to relax, think things through, and process information is decreasing. I am not okay with this, for reasons I think should be obvious. And actually, I think this is something everyone should strive to do in their lives. Basically just force themselves to stop for a second. We live such hectic lives nowadays, we take on so many projects and want to accomplish so much. What we don't realize is the frenetic pace that we plot can actually be detrimental to our overall productivity and happiness.

For the first time in roughly 5 years, I do not have a long-term life plan
It's stressing me out. Obviously, I haven't really followed any of those long-term plans, but at least I had them then, right?

Nymphadora Tonks
I just took this quiz a little while ago. I got Nymphadora Tonks, which made me unbelievably happy.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Sunday!!

Toodles!

-Jillian