It's Better to Look Up

Last night, I decided to take the bus home, because I like being able to actually see the city as I travel rather than just being underground or buried in an office all day. I usually take the train to work in the morning because it saves me lots of time and gives me a few more minutes of precious sleep each day.

For some reason, I came out the back door of the church last night and must’ve been unconsciously disoriented by this because I totally ended up on the right bus #, wrong direction. I was reading an email while waiting for the bus, saw my number and hopped right on, and kept reading my email. I kept staring at my phone…defeats the purpose of taking the bus to see the city right? It took me 46 blocks before I realized that I was now on the opposite end of where I was supposed to be going, at 8^th street instead of heading uptown to 110^th ….which was ok. I did have a cooking class that I was going to at 7:30 after work, but I had some time to spare so I hopped off the bus, smack in the middle of East Village, which I had never explored before, and I loved it!!!!!!! The spot I found myself was surrounded by tattoo parlors, psychics and astrologists, cheesy souvenir street vendors, $0.99 Pizza Slices and lots of neon lights. It was awesome!!!

I walked around several blocks, just taking in the ambiance, the vibe, the scenery, the crowd of people that is oh so different from my corporate midtown location. I saw lots of sketchy but delicious looking restaurants and bakery’s that I had to resist, due to the cooking class, and determined to bring myself back soon to partake of the goodness.  

Amidst the middle of all of the tattoo shops and cat-calling I was receiving (this is nothing new when I am surrounded by people non-Caucasian…and it’s done wonders for my self-esteem), I had this wonderful little moment of teaching from the Lord…………..

“It’s better to look up.”

You remember that talk from conference I’m sure? Well, not only did He remind me that is certainly is better to look up, but also that when we don’t look up and sometimes get a bit sidetracked, to still enjoy the adventure and love whatever comes your way. Rather than being so focused on the fact that something happened that you didn’t expect, even though it may be totally your own fault, be accountable and love it and live life! That is probably the biggest lesson I learned from it…in my “turn everything into a gospel analogy” mind (which I’m pretty sure comes from being a missionary and teaching at the MTC for a couple of years) – the lesson that life doesn’t always play out the way we want or plan or expect it to, and that’s OKAY! 

The Lord’s plan for each one of us is different than our own plan, and that when things do get sidetracked or go different to OUR plan, it’s best to just love the adventure of it and remember that it’s better to look up! It’s better to look up and see the incredible buildings surrounding you and realize that maybe it wasn’t really a mistake. Maybe the Lord wanted you to have some new experience that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. Maybe when our lives end up on the wrong bus route, it’s really for something great that the Lord has in store for us.

And I forget that all the time.

Now, none of that would have happened in the first place if I had been looking up and paying attention in the first place, but it happened, as life does, and the views and experiences and lessons made me better in the end. It also was just such a sweet reminder of how much the Lord really does love me, day in and day out.  :)

So, last night as I was standing outside some rather red-light district parts of town, on the wrong end of Manhattan from where I was supposed to be headed, the Lord taught me a great lesson, showed me some fun and beautiful things, and then, I found the right transportation and made it along my way just fine, and still got to my destination on time, in one piece, and having had some incredible moments getting there!