January 2008

Happy 2008! It’s hard to believe I’ve lived in Virginia for two years now. It’s beginning to grow on me. I love the milder weather and the longer growing season. And we are beginning to explore the East further a field. In the last three months we’ve explored Wisconsin, West Virginia, and North Carolina.

I was talking to my 93 year old dad yesterday about his not having to shovel the snow anymore. A neighbor with a snow blower comes around occasionally and clears his walks for him. However this week my dad took his electric chair into the back yard to haul the recycling and trash bins back from the street. He got stuck in the snow and while trying to pull it out of the rut; slipped and fell. He couldn’t get up and no one drove by to see him. Luckily after thirty minutes he was able to stand up. Using a shovel and a fence post he got the chair unstuck and made it back into the house. When the mail-man came he pulled the trash cans back up to the house. I don’t know what I would have done. I think of my dad as MacGyver sometimes-- watching how he fixes things with rubber bands, shoelaces and a 9 volt battery. I guess it’s his living through the depression era, where people learned to make do. Or maybe it’s his creative, scientific mind.

While reading the Book of Mormon last week, I came across this scripture.
Mosiah 24:15
“And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.”
This is something my dad has learned in his life. He has struggled with many burdens, but did it cheerfully and with patience, while looking for solutions. He taught me to sit in the snow and contemplate my options. What do you do when you find a big spider sitting on your pillow the night before your wedding? Or a mouse running around your living room when all the guys are gone? What do you do when you are left a young widow with babies, a long way from home; or are facing brain surgery that may help you or kill you?
You submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord. You contemplate quietly and prayerfully your options. Then you get back on your feet and as one of our Prophets loved to say, “Do it!”
Now I’m expected to be the wise old woman to my children. “What kind of glue works on rubber and metal?” “What can you put in a recipe if you don’t like orange juice?” “ How can you pay for your husbands surgery if you can’t get insurance?”
We think about it. We contemplate the options
We use our creative minds.
We check the internet.
We ask our experts.
We ask for help.

Peace
Peace flowing
Like a river through the canyons
Of my existence
Reaches up
Catches my attention—

Willing me to flee
Tension.
Fear.
Pain.
Bringing me
Home
To God
Again.

Wishing you a happy, creative ,productive,
Peaceful New Year!
Wendy