Harvest

The Harvest

Peaches,

Hanging golden globes;

Pears

Swelling, rosy cheeked;

Tomatoes

Juicy, ripe, begging to be eaten;

Apples

Falling to the ground

With a bounce in their step.

We

Yearning to gather them in,

Savor them. 

Our Father

Providing our bounty,

Yearns to gather us too

In His harvest.

Some of us

Are in a pickle

                                              The  Pickle 

I woke up at 3:30 am and started thinking about pickles.

You take a sweet innocent English cucumber,

And right away it gets into hot water.

Then it gets salt rubbed into its wounds.

Bitter herbs are tossed into the mix.

Days of alternating sweet and sour experiences affect its life.

A short moment of added pressure seals the deal.

And you have a cucumber with character to enrich your life

Ahh August! The Harvest is approaching

Do you enjoy reaping the bounty of your efforts. I guess 2014 was the last year I actually could stand and preserve things with my daughters help. Now I dry my apples. I guess as I get older and wrinkly, my preservation techniques do too! Have a happy Harvest!

Count Your Blessings

 

Two weeks ago, I woke up with this hymn running through my head every morning; just the first and fourth verses. Contemplating the words, I decided my mother must be sending me a message from Heaven.

Count Your Blessings

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

So, amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged; God is over all.
Count your many blessings; angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Text: Johnson Oatman Jr., 1856–1922            Music: Edwin O. Excell, 1851–1921

I have been using my hands for a lot of small muscle work lately; computer, cell phone texting, quilting, crocheting, etc. These things give me pleasure and help me create ways to give my love to others. However, repetitive small muscle movements do put a strain on arthritic wrists and fingers. One morning I couldn’t lift my left arm. I couldn’t wiggle my fingers. My husband had to dress me. It was so depressing and embarrassing! I had things I needed to do!

Following protocol for the situation, I used heat, ice, gentle exercise and rest. I read a lot of books. Visiting my hair stylist for a shorter, easier to handle haircut, I was telling her all the things I couldn’t do. She commiserated with me because of her carpel tunnel syndrome. As I turned to leave, I had a thought and said, “I’ve always put all these things in front of doing a painting. I’m going to paint.” “it’s a blessing!” As they say, when one door closes, open a window.

What do you do when someone or something prevents you or makes it difficult for you to accomplish your goal? Do the dark forces have their eye on you to discourage you from doing a good thing? What’s your backup plan?

In an old conference talk, Attitude of Gratitude, president Thomas S Monson said,

A popular refrain from the 1940s captured the thought:

Accentuate the positive;

Eliminate the negative.

Latch on to the affirmative;

Don’t mess with Mr. In-between

May your week be filled with love and gratitude as you go through your life.

This morning I woke up with my Social Security number running through my head. What do you suppose that means?

Learning! I Can Do It Myself

 

I feel like I’m in the middle of a game of telephone. You remember the game we played when we were young. Everyone sits in a row and the first person whispers something in the next person’s ear. This continues down the line to the last person. He then tells everyone what he heard. We would compare it with what the first person said. It was funny the difference we heard. I always suspected someone changed the message purposely.

Today was irrigation day and my husband was out of town. So, he asked neighbor D to turn it on for me and then I could pass it on. Last night neighbor J1 called after I was in bed and told me my driveway was flooded. Humm, what’s going on? She called neighbor J2 and I called neighbor D who told me that the arrangement had changed around. J2 would go first, I was second and neighbor L was third. This morning I awoke to a flooded yard. When I had my fill, I passed it on to Neighbor L. All is well in my world…. until neighbor J2 called to find out why I hadn’t called him to pass on the water. It was a major communication gap.

First, I wonder about my communication skills and then about his health. Is something going on in his life that confuses his mind?

I need to be more mindful of my neighbors. I tend to hole up in my home and let the rest of the world pass me by, especially when I’m stranded. I need to take action myself instead of letting others make my decisions and tell me about it. Like the telephone game, sometimes the message goes astray.

Now being the political season, we hear things that may or may not be true. Who can you believe? Everyone says “Fake news, Fake news” Who do you trust?

At church we have implemented Home Based learning, supplemented by church-based discussions. In the same way that I need to take responsibility for my own life, I am responsible for my own learning.

Elder David A. Bednar taught: “As learners, you and I are to act and be doers of the word and not simply hearers who are only acted upon. Are you and I agents who act and seek learning by faith, or are we waiting to be taught and acted upon? … A learner exercising agency by acting in accordance with correct principles opens his or her heart to the Holy Ghost and invites His teaching, testifying power, and confirming witness. Learning by faith requires spiritual, mental, and physical exertion and not just passive reception” (“Seek Learning by Faith,” Ensign, Sept. 2007, 64).

What have you always wanted to learn? I use to take a class each year after I graduated from college, just to keep up with continual learning, and stretching my mind. My first class was learning to paint with watercolor. Now I read a myriad of books on different subjects and peruse the computer. I just found out that July is world water color month! And I have a new paintbrush!! Join me in learning something new. Or, it is also National Ice Cream month. If you’d rather.

climate change

May has a lot of  remembrance months to celebrate. One we enjoy is Date your Mate month. Instead of Friday night date nights, we enjoy Monday morning breakfasts. It seems like

many other older people do too as we see a lot of them having breakfast in the same places we go. The restaurants also seem to think we all want to listen to 50’s and 60’s music. Well we do, but still—This month as we were heading home past the senior center, we saw a sign reminding us that May is “Older Americans Month. We had to chuckle. We are older but don’t feel like we have hit the elderly button yet. Most of the time we don’t notice special treatment except for people rushing to open doors, “take your time sweetheart!”

When I was young I always planned to do my Genealogy when I got old well—

I shouldn’t have waited so long because it is actually turning out to be fun! Although now it’s a lot easier because technology has advanced so much. The other day I got a notice on my computer that there was information about an ancestor of mine and I went to see what was happening. My father’s older brother’s grand daughter had added a story.

“The Gardner name stems from the Gordon Clan of Scotland who had the Great Duke of Gordon for its head. I found this from reading about Blane Gardner's grandfathers here on Family Search. My Mother, Ivy Rebecca Gardner, would tell me her Father, Blane Gardner, told her their last name of Gardner came about as a result of their family being Gardeners for kings! I've always thought that amazing! “

I think this is exciting, because we have all felt the call to plant something, wherever we live. Even my black thumbed daughter finally has a place she can dig in the dirt.  My mom always told us that every garden will add oxygen to the air around us and help the CO2 / O2 ratio. So, do your little part to fight climate change. Plant a tree or a pot of tomatoes. Recycle, and get a recyclable bag or two for the grocery store. And,     celebrate with an older American!

Stand and Stare

Alas it is nearly the end of April and I have neglected writing my thoughts to you.

My excuse, weak as it was, I had foot surgery the first of the month and haven’t felt much like doing anything but reading and whining.

April is an interesting month for me first, because my mother’s birthday was last Sunday. She would have been 104 years old, though in the end she wasn’t interested in being that. She was my biggest mentor. I remember that she had a book on the table where she could always reach it—a poem a day. I don’t know if it’s the same one my daughter now has or if it is with my sister.

The second is, April is National Poetry Month. National Poetry Month, a celebration of poetry which takes place each April, was introduced in 1996 and is organized by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.

And I almost missed it. My daughter sent me one of the poems for a day this last week.

LEISURE

What is this life’ if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass

No time to see, in broad daylight

Streams full stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began

A poor life this, if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H. Davies

It reminded her of me she said! Do you supposed that I sit and stare mindlessly sometimes?

Or is she remembering lying side by side in the grass watching cloud pictures forming in the sky, or walking in the evening to watch the sunset? Do you remember doing things like that as a child or with your children? Go spend some time this spring enjoying nature. Stand and stare. Or try writing or reading a poem.

One of my favorites I wrote in May 2005

Snowman

There’s a snowman out my window

And I wish he’d go away

I think it’s just disgusting

 That he’s still here in May

On a Bad Day

On a Bad Day

Seven hundred thousand mornings

Nineteen hundred eighteen years

Twenty seven and one half lifetimes

Roughly nineteen million fears

Overcome the World

Overcome the World

I knelt in the temple 

Praying

Please God

No more hard things

Please, not yet.

I’m not ready again yet

I’ve had enough experience

I murmured pleadingly.

I was determined to have my way.

In that quiet

Holy place

Filled with pensive pondering

I felt peace overcome my spirit

Joy flickered around the corners 

Of my pain.

Thy will be done,

I whispered

I accept

“Rejoice my child

I won’t ask this of you”--

This time