Life keeps on...

We had a wonderful low-key anniversary and enjoyed each others company as should be.  I know 58 sounds like a lot of years and I guess that is because it is a lot of years.  The anniversary I'm really curious about is being married 60 years. Wonder if it will feel any different?

Marriage years are just like everything in life that lingers and time marches on and you march along also.  It seems like yesterday and feels like you just got married and then on the other hand, it feels like you have been married forever.  As the guy in Princess Bride would say...but on the other hand...and it just switches back and forth. We are in a wonderful stage of life and love and marriage.  Very Sweet!!!

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My heart is so sad that Elder Scott is gone.  I know we've not heard from him in a long time but I still hear him when I read his talks and books. He was so willing to share what he'd learned and steps to accomplish spiritual things.   I learned so much from him!  I will miss him so much.

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I read today that this is the first time in 100 years that there have been 3 vacancies in the Quorum of the 12.

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This article is so good. here  About the calling of Elder Maxwell as an Apostle.  I remember reading it in his book and enjoyed it then and enjoyed reading it again today.  He was another Apostle that taught me so much through his talks and books.  Still miss him.

Our Anniversary!!

We met in high school. We fell in love there.

Every year one of us says to the other...can you believe how long we've been married??  Then we banter the same phrases....seems like yesterday...seems like forever...I can't remember when we weren't married- seems like a lifetime....yes.  it feels like a lifetime...it's been almost our entire lifetime ....Can you believe it???

Then we reminisce about all sorts of firsts in our lives and spontaneous exchanges of little vignettes including how much love we began our married life with.  His Rx are making him quite emotional and these last few days he has declared his undying love for me and his gratitude for me and his thankfulness that we got married and stayed married and are still on track.  Over and over.

We talked about how happy and content we were just being with each other.  Silly things like...working at the Anchorage airport and if we could arrange it with our schedules we'd meet upstairs and as people were hugging and kissing goodbye, we'd join in!  Anything to hug and kiss!

He made me feel breathless when he hugged me and kissed me!  It was bliss!  Rather than bonfire moments we now share tender embers that are equally so sweet and tender.

He was on a two step stool and I was balancing him as he reached over his head with a vacuum cleaner hose to pull off the layer of dust of a shelf close to ceiling...lurking in the shadows but dust laden nonetheless.  Why he felt secure with my hand on his back?...Why I felt secure in knowing if he lost balance I would catch him?.... are questions with no answer!  We only knew we had confidence in our team work.  The reality was two oldsters and a sidestep would be in quicksand.

Our lives have changed as our years have added up but matters of the heart never change.

We are two such different people and usually think opposite.  For instance...he decides to surprise me and hang some hooks for a mop and broom outside the back door.  I opened the door and it was on the left.  To me it should have been on the right side.  Maybe it's because he is left-handed?  left-brain thinker?  A male?  That is an important part of marriage... compromising and evaluating situations...figuring out if they are worthy of fussing about.  Is any fuss ever worth the energy spent and the collateral damage ensued?  Not really.

The comfort of living a long time with my honey is indescribable.  There is no pretense.  We really know each other.  And no one cares about us more than we care about each other.

Thank heavens for the Gospel!  and Temples!  and Sealings!  this has been our rock and kept us trudging along holding hands and ever trying to make our marriage last forever!

58 years!!!!  That is a lot of living with the same person!!!  The most handsome man on the planet!  Can't get my photo deal to work but just take my word for it!

The Latest News

My sister called and mentioned the upcoming Blood Moon.  She said that there were people in Idaho/Utah that felt a woman had prophesied it.  I told her I hadn't heard any such thing here.  Besides that.. if scientists know this is happening -then how can someone lay claim to prophesying it???  Some were feeling it was the end of the world.  Others felt to join the Preppers.

I told her I go with what the scriptures say and also what current living apostles said/say.

Then I went to dinner with a friend and she mentioned it being big news where some of her husbands family were and they were getting involved also.  Again she mentioned this woman that had written a book about her dying and her experience and all of the things that she saw for the future.  She ended up writing a book about her "prophesies".  So many LDS members bought into it that the Church came out with cautions to not use it in Seminary....that it is not from the Church etc. etc.

About Blood Moon- happening 27-28th of September...here

story on TV news about not using the book...here

Church cautions Seminary teachers (this is a great one for all to be familiar with false stories circulating. you probably will recognize some of them!) ....here

end of world coming right now????  read what Elder Packer said--  here

Plan B

Change of plans.  I'm home.  Didn't just come home.  I never left home!  Concerned about a side effect of a new Rx for our son so it was decided to cancel the planned go see sister trip.  I was completely packed and ready and had gone to Jones Farms and bought melons and peaches and apples (did you taste the Envy from New Zealand??  Try one next time you go there!).  I had other things also to bring but it just didn't happen.

It just didn't feel right to go.  Strangely enough my sister felt the same way.  I was needed somewhat here but nothing major.  In my life I have learned that I don't need to understand full details of feelings but I just need to do as I feel prompted in things like this.

The fruit will go to our Grandson's family so it will be used and enjoyed.

Do abrupt change of plans bother you?  I'm not one that it usually does.  It's just the flow of life to me and it all comes out in the wash.  Sometimes it's so disappointing but this trip cancellation doesn't mean I won't go later.  Just not right now. 

Of course I'm all hyper about the upcoming General Conference...now that would be very heartbreaking to me if I missed the weekend of all that excitement.  Today I was thinking about the freedom that is mine in the life I lead.  I thought about daily deciding what I will do or want to do and I can shift and change or cancel plans or read or go to a play or whatever enters my mind.  Those General Authorities!!  The First Presidency and The 12 Apostles no longer have that freedom.

Their lives are mapped out as to meetings and travel and airports (with no time for recouping from jet-lag).  Many times...leave the tarmac and head right to venue.  Again...I know I say it over and over but really ...for me...it's what they were willing to give up that has let me know, as the foundation of my testimony of living apostles, that this is real and true and is the restored Gospel and they are true Apostles.

It just seems so amazing to me that someone would, without hardly any warning, willingly turn their back on every thing they had worked for and dreamed of and were enjoying....  Enjoying where they live and how they live and their career.  To leave wealth and in some cases reputations of admiration and fame, of sorts, in some circles.  To leave the enjoyment they have worked for and step away and put themselves out there to be criticized and faulted for stating/defending their religious belief.  For stating their feelings about Jesus Christ.  Learned individuals that will not be lecturing/teaching/demonstrating in their chosen fields of expertise.  From the day of that call, until that last mortal breath, they will speak of Jesus Christ!  They may use their life experience in sharing lessons they have learned and others have learned but always it will circle back to Jesus Christ and His Gospel.  They remind me of Nephi in 2 Nephi 26 when he's talking about the Nephite belief in Christ and he said...we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies... that power is felt when they speak.  (and bless their wives and their children.  all of their lives are changed by that calling.)

We are plowing through October 1972 General Conference.  there is something so powerful in actually seeing these men and hearing them.  This particular Conference is so interesting because Joseph Fielding Smith had died 3 months earlier and this General Conference is a Solemn Assembly.  The spirit just comes through the monitor.  They are so supportive of President Lee and express their testimonies.  This is also the conference that Bruce R. McConkie was sustained as an Apostle.

Do yourself a favor and listen to these four talks.  then teach your children so they are ready for October Conference.  These are 4 incredible amazing discourses.  President Lee's talk will just leave you stunned over the power of his talk!!!  Want a spiritual experience???  listen to these 4!!!! 

Spencer W. Kimball-  We Thank Thee, oh God, for a Prophet   here

Ezra Taft Benson-  Listen to a Prophet's Voice  here

N. Eldon Tanner-  The Priesthood and It's Presidency here

Harold B. Lee- Admonitions for the Priesthood of God    here

Life...amazing!

So all of the ducks are lined up and I'm heading over to spend a few days with Dixie.  Our son will keep an eye on his Dad so that makes me relaxed.  Well, somewhat relaxed!  The Dr.s upped Dixie's oxygen up to a 5.  Wonder how high they can go?  We will have some sister fun and make hay while the sun shines!  We have always gone on a yearly sister trip.  A short Vacation.  This one will be a Staycation.  I'll be the condescending older sister and let her call the shots on what we do.  She is even more bossy than me (although she would argue that fact!) so it's more peaceful to let her just decide what we will do and go along for the ride.  Not sure how far we can go with a mini-tank of hand-carry H2o joining us but we will make the most of it!

there is no accessing my blog from her house so I'll be in touch when I get back.

This meme reminds me of President Hinckley's quote about beef being tough and etc.  I just think this is so creatively true!

Later!!! 

My Porch

My porch is a place that I love.  This year for some reason the weeping birch has really wept and it seems to always leave a persistent layer of dried something or other, everywhere!  If someone drops by I have to shake the cushions from my bricabrac chairs so they can sit on less than dried pods of sort. The glass topped macrame table is usually dusty and needs constant cleaning but usually just gets a swipe occasionally.  The porch needs painting, some mending and that would be after a thorough scrub-down.

I like the old mismatched chairs with their faded unlike cushions.  I like the hidey-hole created by the overhanging leaf-laden overgrown branches.  I love the coziness of it.  Mostly I love it because it is where I spend private time with my friends.  Not a group.  Just one on one.  Or 4.  It's a place of connecting.  of renewing.  of sharing.

The other evening a friend dropped by during an early twilighty evening and we talked until darkness.  We talked of concerns about life and living and challenges and opinions and our individual states of mind.  We shared with trust and hope and encouragement for each of us to stay on the path of the Gospel.

It was renewing and refreshing and enjoyable.  It filled my heart with the soul satisfying emotion of goodness.  Goodness for friends and goodness for life.  It gave buoyancy to my inner self.  Rejuvenating to the core.

I've thought about the pleasantness of that evening and again felt that we are all moving way to fast and we don't take time/make time/have time to enjoy each other except in a super quick text-like fashion.  Abbreviated words.  No clue as to the emotion behind the somewhat cryptic letters.

I see young mothers just pulled so many different ways and even my Laurels.  I have thought and thought about them.  There seems to be no time for staying in your jammies on Saturday morning, curled up in your favorite blanket, eating a bowl of Captain Crunch and watching The Roadrunner and laughing at his antics with Wiley Coyote.  There seems to be no time for relaxing and recovery in their lives.  It's a constant pressure of goGoGOGO!!!  Is anyone every told... Go play outdoors!

This really came home to me last week.  7 days into school and ALL my Laurels are already admittedly exhausted and worn-out and overwhelmed with their schedules!  7 days!

In my own life I see myself scurrying (now that's quite the mental image!), well, maybe slow-bustling along, to various appointments.  Seldom if ever accomplishing all of what I had planned, and dutifully jotted down on my list- in the anticipation of crossing each task off throughout the day.

Even with PorchChat being my favorite thing to do...I don't have the time all the time!!  It's usually arranged around two busy schedules.  It's an occasional occurence not a fixed item on a schedule.

Listening to the horror of the world news and saying my summation, to remind me that God is in charge, I hear myself say...truly these are the last days. It's only going to get worse.  We need to cling to the Gospel. We've been told etc. etc.

In the midst of that thinking/speaking I remembered a scripture in Matthew.  About the horror of the last days of wars and killings and etc. etc.  plus we know about the natural calamities that will befall us.  It's just overwhelming.  But this one verse... Could this be the happenings?  today?  now?

Matthew 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those ^adays shall be shortened.

So...IF these are the last days (and they are!) and IF for our very survival the days are now being shortened (and it sure seems so, doesn't it??) then...it makes sense as we strive to live and do all of the things that we have been used to doing, that we'd find ourselves on overload constantly (wouldn't we??)  as it would seem an impossibility.  It would be impossible to squeeze an hours worth of activity into less than an hours worth of available time!

Maybe that is why we feel to downsize/organize/de-junk and all those sorts of good deeds to gift ourselves with more time?  Maybe our prioritizing is off base?  Maybe matters of the heart never really surface?  Maybe we never get to connect with each other in ways that would strengthen us?  We really don't have the time?  The days are shorter?????

Well, these are just my mulling/pondering thoughts.  Perhaps far out?  I don't know but I do know that my life is more satisfying with real people sitting on my porch and just visiting instead of endlessly cage-running, chasing my list, of perfectionist behavior and accomplishments!

I read this article below, yesterday, and I thought it was excellent.  one of my favorite lines was this...we need to be humans being not humans doing... something along those lines.

The Disease of Being Busy- read article here

Be Careful!!

This is one of the most powerful lessons ever!  Another one for a good FHE and a good reminder for all of us.  Really something to think about.  Heed the warning/counsel and be safe!

George Albert Smith’s grandfather George A. Smith served for many years in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and in the First Presidency as a counselor to Brigham Young. George Albert Smith often repeated the counsel his grandfather used to give to his family: “There is a line of demarcation well defined between the Lord’s territory and the devil’s territory. If you will stay on the Lord’s side of the line you will be under his influence and will have no desire to do wrong; but if you cross to the devil’s side of that line one inch you are in the tempter’s power and if he is successful, you will not be able to think or even reason properly because you will have lost the Spirit of the Lord.”

George Albert Smith said that he used this counsel throughout his life to guide his choices: “When I have been tempted sometimes to do a certain thing, I have asked myself, ‘Which side of the line am I on?’ If I determined to be on the safe side, the Lord’s side, I would do the right thing every time. So when temptation comes think prayerfully about your problem and the influence of the Lord will aid you to decide wisely. There is safety for us only on the Lord’s side of the line.”¹ 

Chapter from George Albert Smith manual--  Stay on the Lord's Side of the Line... here