Take Chances, Make Mistakes, and Get Messy!

Sometimes things happen that you never foresaw happening.  Sometimes, these things are wonderful and surpass what you had envisioned for your own life.  And sometimes, you change everything for something or someone and it all comes crashing down.
I'm living in the after math of the crash right now.
Now would be the time that it would be really easy to hold company with Coulda, Woulda, and Shoulda.  I could have stayed in Cedar City.  I wouldn't have been so hasty to change all my plans.  I should have weighed the consequences of things not working out when I decided to move yet again.  I guess that's why hindsight is perfect.  If I could go back, maybe I would have done things differently.  
I don't have a TARDIS though, so I'm trying to look at the bright side.  I've gone from having a (fairly) solid short-term life plan to well, not having much of one.  I'm trying to decide right now just what it is I want to do.  I want to go back to college, but where?  I could go back to Utah, or move to Columbus for my own reasons.  The world is my playground.  I can go anywhere.
I have heard from multiple people over the past year that I have talent.  That I'm going to go places with the gifts I have been given.  I'm looking at this mishap as a clean slate to chase after those talents and dreams unhindered by thoughts of how they will effect others (or specifically, one other person).
I look forward to whatever life is going to throw at me next.  I know it won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is.    

They Like Me!: An Announcement (With an UPDATE)

Let it be known throughout the land that Chelsea L. Conner's photo "Let's Set the World On Fire" taken from the top of the Empire State Building, is now on display in the building's highly trafficked Fifth Avenue Lobby.  Hers was one of 50 selected out of the top 100 voted on by the public.

Bottom left!

  This has combined two of my passions: photography and the city that stole my heart.  To have my work hung beside other amazing photographs has been a dream come true.

UPDATE 4/21/13:

This week that picture was the Empire State Building's profile picture.  As of this update, two people have commented on it, 13 people shared it, 24 people 'like' it, and who knows how many have seen it!  What is my life?

Entertaining the Monsters

I've been entertaining
the monsters again.
I know I shouldn't
but they feel just like old friends.

They can be vicious and cruel,
but they're old and familiar.
And maybe they bite,
but its nothing I can't handle.

The Gift of Trial

I was looking through some writing of mine and stumbled upon this.  Just thought I would share.

Oft times, the bitterest of trials

are but blessings in disguise.

For a time they drag us down

to unspeakable depths of pain

but can be a light unto us when reflected upon.

Lessons taught but unlearned

are brought to the forefront

of our memories.

Terrible occurrences

seemingly curse our lives,

bestow wondrous insight,

not to be gained otherwise.

And sometimes we realize

these seemingly impossible trials

are only for our good. 

Everything falls apart

for our own benefit. 

This is a gift

 from a loving Heavenly Father

who only wants our ultimate happiness.

It is his divine intervention

that puts the hard times on our path

so we are forced to travel through a refiner’s fire. 

But just as silver is made pure in such a fire

our trials teach us the ways of Christ

and we are made pure

by His love and mercy.