Dear Eric Whitacre,

HOW did I forget about you? Please, oh please forgive me for this lapse in judgement. I've had With A Lily In Your Hand stuck in my head for the last hour, and I quite suddenly miss being in a high quality choir. SO much. AND it makes me miss analyzing in-depth poetry.



With a lily in your hand
I leave you, o my night love!
Little widow of my single star
I find you.
Tamer of dark butterflies!
I keep along my way.
After a thousand years have gone
you'll see me, o, my night love!
By the blue footpath,
tamer of dark stars,
I'll make my way.
Until the universe can fit inside my heart.

That being said, I would not go back to high school, given the chance. Aspects of it, yes, but it's not worth it to have to relive EVERYTHING.

Excuse me while I look up more poetry and music.

Love, Tanika

Dear Today,

Here are the things I learned from you:

1. It is ALWAYS the better decision to go to church rather than sleep.

2. Those ideas that I get that I'll never be married come from Satan, and I should really stop indulging him.

3. I have some really awesome women in my ward. I can bond with them.

4. I need to stop being so judgmental of the "culture."

5. Things are a lot easer to get done if I don't stop to think about how difficult they are going to be. 

6. Heavenly Father listens to my prayers, even when I don't realize that I'm really asking.

7. I know how to receive revelation, and I shouldn't doubt my most basic instincts and feelings.

8. I need to focus on the REAL reason I go to church, and not so much on the social aspects of it. 

9. I am a light. And it's okay to admit that I do a lot of things right, even when I do some things wrong.

10. By asking to be humbled, I am already on the right path to being humbled. 

11. Nail polish is a good conversation starter.

12. I know things. I should start expressing the things I know regardless of how those I fear will take them.

13. That being said, there ARE people on my side, who understand, and who will listen without looking to argue.

14. It is more important to be honest than to worry about what others think of me. If I am not honest, they probably aren't thinking good things about me anyway.

15. Faith is a usable object, not just an abstract idea. Faith moves mountains, even when physics says it can't. 

16. People who want me to be involved aren't out to get me. They just want me to be involved. 

17. Demeaning myself does wonders at stopping any sort of progress I may want to make. 

18. Waiting around for others to realize I'm drowning will only kill me faster. My salvation is between my Savior and me. 

19. "Fake it 'til you make it" does not mean I am lying until I figure things out. It means I am practicing those things I don't understand until I understand them. It is a leap of faith. 

20. This is my favorite line I've ever said in any show I've ever been in: "Make sure you understand a thing before you try to condemn it." People would learn to love a lot more if they practiced that advice from Hannah Whitefield.

21. I don't have to be surrounded by negative to be a positive influence. I can surround myself with positives, add my energy to theirs, and radiate all our energies combined. 

22. I am a positive. I know other positives. We CHOOSE to be positives. 

23. "For God so LOVED the world that he GAVE his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us so much that they both CHOSE to save us in this way. This was the greatest act of love ever committed. 

So, Today, thank you. I needed you more than I would have guessed when I woke up to you this morning.

Love, Tanika

Dear Facebook "Find your Friend" Picture Tagging Feature,

You just asked me to tag the wheel of my car.



Not the front one. Just that back one.

I love you.

Love, Tanika

P.S. I don't know what that feature thing is really called, because I have my facebook language set to Pirate. It's called "Mark yer Matey" or something like that in my tongue.