what a day.

and one second your here and he's in a robe and a hat
and gold strings around his neck
and you're oh so happy and lovely and everything is sunny too.
and then you are laughing and taking
pictures and being together and breathing together and so much together.
and then you're excited because it came in the mail
and you squeak and can't breathe and maybe cry a little, too.
maybe.
then you know and you hear and you feel all that, "...what?"
and you laugh and you eat and you
sit next to a cute boy with a drink that is taller than him
and it's orange, too.
and i guess what i'm saying is that's the thing about life,
you run and you jump and there's a lot of spining in there too.
and then sometimes you get confused.
and a little voice inside of you says, "i was nice and cozy in here, you know? i
had the 'best' plan figured out and this isn't what i thought..
why isn't this what i thought?"
but then you look at orange fantas,
and you remember how his eyes lit up when he tried to pronounce that lovely place.
and that's what it's all about anyways,
because Heavenly Father knows more than Laura Cottrell does.
He knows more than you do, too.
and everything is perfect, just how it is.
and i trust Him with everything that i am,
i trust him with my heart and the boy who has it, too.



and man i love brazil.





"consider the lilies of the field, how they grow"
love, laura

like the new look?

me too!
not only is hannah my cutest little friend,
not only is she amazing and wonderful and
makes all of the fuzzies of her heart fall on you and tickle your nose,
she is also my girl when it comes to blog design.
isn't she so talented?
thank you, han, for all that you do :)

wrapped around my fingers.

so what do i say to you now that i'm looking at you
and words don't come out how i want.
i just look at you and feel you breathe and to us that means,
"i love you."
and i love you for who you are today
and who you're going to be tomorrow,
and all the tomorrows after that.
and maybe i won't see all of those tomorrows, you know?
in fact, i know i won't.
but i'll keep on loving the way your lips fit over your teeth
and the way you hug me the moment we get outside
and the way your face lights up when i walk in the room.
i'll keep thinking of days in the sunshine and nights looking up at the sky.
and wind and thunder and storms are for us to watch
to tell us that we are safe when we're together,
but we're still safe when we're apart.
and i think the sun is kissing us because he knows that we want to be warm,
and he knows that you see the sun and i see the sun and i talk to him sometimes, too.
i say, "kiss him today, i love him too much, and i can't keep him warm all the time."
and he says, "i know", and "i promise" and "ill do what i can,
because i take care of lovers that way.
there are lovers in germany and japan and brazil and lovers in russia, too.
there are lovers down your street and lovers by the ocean and
i'm bright enough to warm them all."
and maybe these colors make rainbows in my mind
and i like the way you look at me under street lights,
and maybe it's been a year since my heart started beating outside of myself,
but all these colors and wonders and planets
mean less to me than you do.
and maybe if i could be anywhere right now it would be wherever your heart is
and wherever your life is,
and i'd whisper how i felt ten million and three times. and maybe you'd get that this love feeling is big
and it fills up everything that i see and everything that i have seen,
and everything that i have been,
and everything that i am.
there are no prettier things than moments that you can hold onto in your palm and wrap around your fingers,
and that's what i think of you.
we're the prettiest thing, and we are wrapped around my fingers,
and the only other thing i want wrapped around my fingers is you.







"and the wonder of it all is that you just don't realize
how much i love you."
love, laura

heaven looks

heaven looks a lot like this,
like a moon that's big and lights up the sky.
the kind of bright that is bright enough to make
a grown man's or a young girl's or a
grandmother's eye get caught and say, "hey that's bright!"
and stop breathing and start asking questions
about brightness and moons
and life and God.
heaven looks a lot like this,
like telescopes and stars and you.
and laughing and kissing and smiling too.
it looks like, "it's just how it looks in my books!"
or "you and the moon on the same day" and
"lets go there someday."
but mostly it's the star that's right below mars,
and the crater that makes this like an orange.
heaven looks a lot like this,
like confidence and calm.
like even when its cold outside,
jackets and blankets and warm.
heaven looks like this, you know,
like questions and wonders and love.
heaven looks a lot like this, yes,
heaven must have a sparkle of this.








"look how they shine for you."
love, laura

blue.

my life was full of too many colors
and too many things i don't need.
i was full of doubts and scares and pain
because i was so scared of pain.
it's something like sitting on a power line and waiting to be shocked,
it's like diving into the ocean and waiting for
the salt to sting your eyes,
it's like waiting for your heart to break.
and then i realized that blue was the color of the back of your mind,
and behind all the A's and the sports and the freckles and the dreams,
its blue, like the sky on a perfect day,
and maybe blue is the color of the back of my mind, too.
maybe behind all the fears and the doubts and the B's and the blonde,
is the perfect blue to match with your perfect blue.
and maybe in that we are happy,
and maybe that's why our heads like to touch.
and maybe that's why the sky makes us so happy.
and maybe that's something you don't find every day.
and maybe i only have a few seconds left, and maybe even less than that,
but blue is the color of the back of our minds.









"would you walk to the end of the ocean,
just to fill my jar with sand."
love, laur