To commemorate 9/11, our neighborhood gathered at the entrance to our beloved trails and removed Russian Thistle (tumble weed) and a nasty weed called Goat Head, which can puncture tires. The rain softened the soil and kept the temperatures comfortable and we were able to clean out a portion of our favorite trail. Now it looks like a sunflower garden, no longer choked by spiky thistles. Can you believe this beautiful area is just a few blocks from our house?
This picture is low resolution but I think you can see what beautiful and amazing women my friends are. If you spent an afternoon with them, you would be even more impressed by their faith and fortitude. Last month, my friend invited this group of women to her cabin for the day. It was an inspired idea, and so much fun. We sat outside in the sun beneath the Aspen trees and took a walk to a dairy and some ponds. It was a rare, maybe once-in-many-years thing for me to do.
I didn’t hear every conversation, but we were not talking about shoes or hair. It was real life stuff. A simple comment someone made about the food sparked an idea for me about something I needed to do to help my health. I saw faith in the way each friend framed her own challenges.
I guess what I want to say today is that women need women. The life wisdom that spilled forth during these hours continues to be a point of reference for me, weeks and weeks later. I write to forge connections with whoever may read, but it isn’t the same as sitting around a picnic table in the mountains, eating salads and beautiful fruits and cheese and talking about what it takes to be alive right now.
Here are a few nice things from my week:
Sunday: I felt added courage to speak in a meeting.
Monday: Tim took me on a long drive in his convertible on a gorgeous early autumn evening.
Tuesday: We had pepperoni rolls, and the recipe remains a family favorite. It’s from a Family Fun magazine from 15 years ago. This magazine gave us several of our favorite no-fail, detailed recipes.
Wednesday: I had energy to do lots of laundry and time to rescue someone when they ran out of gasoline.
Thursday: A straightforward appointment at the international travel office for Tim. No surprises, and a big step forward.
Friday: Feeling inspired by the goodness of Janice K., a Primary president I spent time with today.
I find our 97-year-old prophet’s pace to be really fast. I try to keep up on all the handbook changes and policy updates. I stopped following the church Instagram account because it made me feel overwhelmed sometimes. I keep lists of President Nelson’s invitations to study this and study that. I make efforts to follow him, but the challenge he gave to young adults to study over 2,200 references about Jesus Christ felt especially daunting. Besides, I was not his target audience for this challenge, so it didn’t apply to me, right?
In my stake Primary presidency, we are each working on gaining a testimony of the Children and Youth program, where children make goals in four different areas: Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, and Social. According to my first counselor, Anne, these areas spell “SIPS,” as in sips of living water as we work to hear the Savior’s voice guiding us. I love that idea. So, we are each working on personal goals so we can inspire others to do the same.
One of my goals is to study those 2,200 references of the Savior. So far, I have completed 1/10 of these references. It has already helped me, and this and my other goals are like SIPS of living water. I found this blog post where President Nelson talks about his experience with the 2200 scriptures. He sounds youthful and full of excitement for the gospel. I want to be like this.
The sunflowers now dominate this bed of raspberries and strawberries. Do you remember the story of my wild sunflower (the one with all the branches)?
A single sunflower that we had not planted bloomed the week that Daniel left on his mission. I considered it a gift from God, a comfort to me. A year later, on the anniversary of Daniel’s departure, a single sunflower bloomed in the same place as the year before. The third year, the sunflower had a mishap and was removed. I told Richard that a sunflower in that spot was important to me, and he planted some sunflower seeds in the area so I wouldn’t go without in 2021. But my friends, the wild sunflower, the one that comforted me all those years ago, the one that was removed last year, has come back again this year in its boldest array so far. The other sunflowers delight me, but this wild sunflower bush is special because I believe God makes it blossom just for me, one little missionary mom.
I look at the current collection of photos on the refrigerator and think how much has happened since the last time I replenished this casual little photo gallery. 2021 has been a big year. A milestone year. And now the summer of 2021 is gone. I have so many photos that are refrigerator-worthy this year and it’s a little daunting to decide how to use them all.
Beyond the refrigerator gallery and a few framed photos around the house, I make a photo album each year. In the early days my albums were scrapbooks, but eventually I embraced professionally printed photo books, which are a much better choice for us. I try to label everything with dates and places and people because these are the details of our lives that I don’t want to forget. I have learned to include photos of the mundane things, not just milestones in our photo books.
This Labor Day weekend, I plan to refresh the photos on the refrigerator to embrace the new season, our last season with Tim for a long time. And in a few months, we’ll have photos of scenes from the South Pacific to brighten the space. My refrigerator photo gallery is a reminder of where we have been, and as I update the photos, it reminds me that there are always exciting things ahead to take the place of our current milestones. We are not meant to stay in place.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20, KJV
I read this today in a list of scriptures about the Lord making appearances to people. What stood out to me is what the Lord chooses to do with those who hear him and invite him into their lives: He sups with them. The meal represents the great blessing of having companionship with God and receiving his loving support. I think it conveys feelings of comfort, rest, and fulfillment.
I have been thinking of what the pandemic has brought to us. One blessing is that we have had more time with all of our children. Did I always use the time well? No, I have regrets, but I don’t regret that I elevated Sunday dinners and other meals. Early in the pandemic, I prayed to know how to face the challenge, and one thing that came to my mind was to make the most of family time, and to create celebrations with our meals together.
I have used fine dishes for our Sunday dinners, with cloth napkins, goblets, chargers, good tablecloths, and our best recipes. I started a written record of which children came and what we talked about. I can’t think of a more bonding experience than these meals have been during this challenging time.
We said goodbye to Daniel last weekend as he headed back to college. He doesn’t live far away, but it’s far enough that we won’t see him every day, every week, and maybe miss a month now and then. Knowing there is one less person at the table is one of the hardest parts of saying goodbye each fall.
Tim will leave us soon to begin his mission, and these meals with him mean more and more to me, as I know they are numbered. Tim received the Melchizedek priesthood on Sunday, and I was invited to share my thoughts at the conclusion of his ordination and blessing. I didn’t have to think of something profound, I just reminded him of something we had talked about at last Sunday’s dinner table. This table has become a truly sacred place for our family.
Here are some sound effects to play in the background as we take a scroll through some of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects).
not pictured:
Tim’s missionary list
It doesn’t bother me to have some unfinished things. It just means that good times are ahead as I finish them. The priority is all of the mission stuff for a while.
In a prayer today, I heard myself ask that I could feel, know, and do.
…so I could apologize…
… and follow up on a prompting to talk to someone…
…and feel joy instead of a blankness about some milestones…
I think hearing this song was an answer to one part of that prayer.
We have shell collections at our house, and this week I decided to use some as a canvas for art. Shells are beautiful on their own, but I think the extra pearl shine, decoupage, and gold accents make them something extraordinary. (The birds and leaves were printed on a napkin.) When I work with my hands, I am still enough in my mind to learn from the Spirit. This is one reason I think it’s so good to take time to create. Painting shells is how we celebrated Paige’s birthday. She also made some beautiful designs.