Autumn Day

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Funny day

Stormy day

Autumn

Soon the winter snows will crest the mountaintops

Blue skies

Green leaves

Summer

Is on the wane again.

I dread the winter cold

Beautiful as it is.

Ice growing on trees and roofs

Sparkling on the branches

But-

I love spring, flowers budding, growing, pledging a sunny summer.

I adore summer, clouds building promising the soaking monsoon rains

Promising a glorious, colorful fall.

And fall, is falling, falling, the old year passing into a gloom

Dying chilling, freezing death. The year is ending

I am autumn. My life is reaching closing in, aging towards

my winter.

But then,

Oh!

The

Spring!

Self Reliance

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September is National Preparedness Month

 

Would you be ready if there were an emergency? Be prepared: throughout September there will be activities across the country to promote emergency preparedness.

My brother’s well pump stopped working this week.

He and his family are spending several days drinking and cooking with water he had stored, and taking sponge baths. This week he will be digging a new line.

The yard workers we hired this weekend cut the line for the air conditioner. Its hot and muggy and a long weekend

This new adventure of living in the country is taking some adjustments.

I know I’m not prepared after living in a metropolitan city for seven years. Even though I felt I was self-reliant ten years ago, I have gotten lazy. I need to relearn and recommit to being prepared. I have several water containers for storing water because we have a well system and a drought. They are ready, and safe and EMPTY in the garage.

As we learn and apply the principles of self-reliance in our homes and communities, we have opportunities to care for the poor and needy and to help others become self-reliant spiritually and temporally.

Elder Robert B. Hales counseled us to become self-reliant temporally, “which includes getting a postsecondary education or vocational training, learning to work, and living within our means. By avoiding debt and saving money now, we are prepared for full-time Church service in the years to come. The purpose of both temporal and spiritual self-reliance is to get ourselves on higher ground so that we can lift others in need.”

From Our History

After the Latter-day Saints had gathered in the Salt Lake Valley, which was an isolated desert, President Brigham Young wanted them to flourish and establish permanent homes. This meant the Saints needed to learn skills that would allow them to become self-sufficient. In this effort, President Young had great trust in the capacities, talents, faithfulness, and willingness of the women, and he encouraged them in specific temporal duties. While the specific duties of Relief Society sisters are often different today, the principles remain constant:

1. Learn to love work and avoid idleness.

2. Acquire a spirit of self-sacrifice.

3. Accept personal responsibility for spiritual strength, health, education, employment, finances, food, and other life-sustaining necessities.

4. Pray for faith and courage to meet challenges.

5. Strengthen others who need assistance.

Choose something this month that will help you feel more self-reliant. I'm making pickles

Then help your neighbors.

Al's words

The sum of my existence is a cat that loves to hide

Spare keys and nails and old golf tees

In shoes I’ve put aside

For hiking in the mountains

Behind my Grandpa’s home.

Beside the garage the old grey truck

Hood up and tire flat

Provides a sunny sleeping space

For his old ornery cat.

I sat there too, to contemplate

The memories of that man

Who sat me down upon his knee

And taught me of the land,

Of God and love and growing corn

Of being kind and good.

Of helping those he sees in need

And why we always should.

Faith Hope and Charity

 

Many years ago my mother asked me to make an Amish doll for my aunt, her sister.

Roberta, an elderly single woman, said she felt hopeless. I made three Amish dolls, Faith, Hope and Charity.

 I sent Hope to my aunt so she wouldn’t be hopeless.

A few weeks later my mom, depressed over her health said she was lacking in faith.

I took Faith to her, a symbol of love.

I never finished Charity. She sits naked in my closet. She reminds me that we should never be finished with Charity.

Moroni 7:46,47

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.  Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

What have you done lately to increase you hope, your faith, and your charity? I just got a new book called “All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir” by  Emma L. Thane  and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Reading about the lives of these two Mormon friends has made me think about what I am doing with my life. I want to be more, do more, experience more. I have been a drone for a few months now as I get used to a new community, and sort through the memories of the last forty years.

Another example of charity was posted on the Yahoo news page today

  

‘Lance Cpl. Myles Kerr may have lost the Jeff Drenth Memorial 5K footrace in Charlevoix, Michigan, last weekend, but he won the hearts of hundreds of thousands of admirers.

On Saturday, the 19-year-old Marine noticed 9-year-old Boden Fuchs struggling to complete the race. The boy had become separated from his group. According to the Facebook page, Seal of Honor, which posted a photograph of the pair running together, Boden asked Kerr, "Sir, will you please run with me?" Kerr, wearing boots and fatigues, and carrying a full backpack, stuck with the boy, encouraged him to complete the race, and helped him reunite with his party at the end of the course—even though Kerr was dead last in his age group, clocking in at 35:43 minutes (five seconds behind Boden). He came in so much later than his Marine buddies, in fact, that they were concerned he had been injured.

 The Seal of Honor page—which was established in the memory of Lt. Michael Murphy, who served as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan—went on to praise the young man: "By his unwavering commitment to help those in need through his ability to inspire others by his unequivocal level of motivation, Lcpl Kerr reflected great credit upon himself and was keeping in the highest traditions of the United States Marine Corps."

Look for small acts of charity this month.

Add opportunities to increase your faith

Live your life with a hopeful outlook.

TOMORROW

I saw the stars in your eyes

this morning

Remembering yesterday.

I saw the way that you felt

As your dreams

Became your reality.

That’s all I ever wanted

For you.

Life

So uncertain,

So curious

So unforgiving

Held your joy

For one long moment.

Tomorrow

And tomorrow

And tomorrow

Time undulating

Rolling

Swelling

Heaving

Into the vast wonder

Of what we might

Become 

Should we try

July 2013

 

I didn’t expect to be in the middle of the war.

We sat out on the deck in our rocking chairs enjoying the warm summer evening with fudgesicles in hand. In the background we could hear the dogs calling to their masters, the children playing with friends. Behind the trees an eerie soft glow lit up the sky, momentarily.

To the south we heard the guns sounding, dull thuds as fire lit the sky. Streams of red and gold streaked into the atmosphere, stars twinkling as they fell towards the ground. The dogs sang their mournful, painful cry.

On the left branches of light bounced off the clouds to the dull thunderous roar. The war had begun.

Warm drops ran down our faces and splattered to the deck. We had been hit.

Fascinated, we couldn’t pull ourselves away from the sight. Green shards of light shot through the edges of red, gold, and blue. Sickles spun through the night, pop, pop, pop! With each explosion an answering roar came from the left, light dancing closer and closer to the crowd.

Finely silence! It was over.

The 4^th of July celebrated.

Nature won.

Cleansing rain drenched

The earth.

VIRTUE

 

 

How do you teach?

How do you learn?

Who do you reach?

 What’s your concern

I was listening to a talk show recently. The discussion was about parenting styles.

Are you an authoritarian parent? A permissive parent? An attached parent? An absentee parent? Do you want things done perfectly so you’d rather do them yourself? Do you instill your religious values on your children or let them grow up and form their own values? Parenthood is filled with pitfalls. Most of us get on the job training for parenthood and don’t know what the results will be till the children grow up.

My  mother heard of a book by William J. Bennett  called THE BOOK OF VIRTUES. I remember her saying that they should be taught in the home, schools and used by politicians. If we all followed them, the world would be a better place.

These virtues are:

Virtues of self control

• Temperance - self-control regarding pleasure
• Good temper - self-control regarding anger
• Ambition - self-control regarding one's goals
• Curiosity - self-control regarding knowledge
• Frugality (also Thrift) - self-control regarding the material lifestyle
• Industry - self-control regarding play, recreation and entertainment
• Contentment - self-control regarding one's possessions and the possessions of others; acknowledgement and satisfaction of reaching capacity.
• Continence - self-control regarding bodily functions

Virtues of self-efficacy

• Courage - willingness to do the right thing in the face of danger, pain, significant harm or risk
• Patience - ability to delay or wait for what is desired
• Perseverance - courageous patience, integrity
• Persistence - ability to achieve objective regardless of obstacles

Virtues of regard

• Fair-mindedness - concern that all get their due (including oneself) in cooperative arrangements of mutual benefit
• Tolerance - willingness to allow others to lead a life based on a certain set of beliefs differing from ones own
• Truthfulness/Honesty - telling someone what you believe to be true in the context of a direct inquiry

Virtues of respect

• Respect - regard for the worth of others
• Self respect - regard for the worth of oneself.
• Temperance - self-control regarding pleasure
• Good temper - self-control regarding anger
• Ambition - self-control regarding one's goals
• Curiosity - self-control regarding knowledge
• Frugality (also Thrift) - self-control regarding the material lifestyle
• Industry - self-control regarding play, recreation and entertainment
• Contentment - self-control regarding one's possessions and the possessions of others; acknowledgement and satisfaction of reaching capacity.
• Continence - self-control regarding bodily functions

Virtues of respect

• Respect - regard for the worth of others
• Self respect - regard for the worth of oneself.
• Social virtues: Politeness, Charisma, Unpretentiousness, Friendliness, Sportsmanship, Cleanliness

Virtues of kindness

• Kindness - Regard for those who are within an individuals ability to help.
• Generosity - Giving to those in need.
• Forgiveness - Willingness to overlook transgressions made against you.
• Compassion - Empathy and understanding for the suffering of other

I think, that in the world we live in today, we are missing many of these virtues. I don’t think people, as a whole would be willing to give up their own wants. They haven’t been taught to be polite, have respect, be kind, and forgive.

So how do we teach our families, students, friends, companion, and strangers?

I can only hope, by example.

Choose a virtue this month and entrench it into your life. Live it. Be an example. Be a teacher