Let's Write

Dear Family,

I need to write. Do you need to write? How do you deal with all the experiences that you have? For me they crash into each other at the gate of not being recorded, each experience hitting the one ahead in a little smashed pile.

Upon reflection about the last 24 hours, for example, I feel I need to write about what I'm learning about the chakras with Carol Tuttle. (It's so easy to watch YouTube when you're dressing, etc.) What about going to Decker Lake Detention Center with Hannah for Abdi's high school graduation--the gates, leaving all but the key in the car, successive doors unlocking, then quickly re-locking, Abdi's powerpoint and frequent eye-wiping ("I'm just sweating!"), the collection of lost boys with shaved heads transported from a Dickens novel, sports hero images readily employed. This photo shows Abdi three years ago, close to his first encounters with the law. He had three separate extended stays at Decker Lake.
I would write about the glorious onrush of Salt Lakers into our new shopping haven City Creek yesterday in seventy degree sunshine. Estimates say there were over 50,000 of us laughing, gawking visitors there for opening day. We jostled with celebrities and musicians, helpful guides and walking potted plants to see the creek flow in a fantasy land of retail. Poor Gateway! The Macy's clerk failed to give me credit for my gift card. I guess that's gone for good. But I got a great skirt.
I would like to write about greeting Sister Dibb at the Relief Society building, the letter I received from her yesterday, and the Young Women's general offices being in a beautiful bustle in preparation for Saturday's meeting. A mother and her 15 year old daughter from Glendale Arizona walked into the Resource Room trailing their love for each other, their faithfulness and happiness.

What about temple knowledge? Insights are flowing now that I am always preparing for a temple preparation class. The spirit is sending and validating ideas quickly.

Twenty-one ward members gathered in our ward temple night last night. One segment in particular was impactful for Craig, me and others. The spirit prompted me to study the temple weekly after the class is finished. It will be rich and fruitful, I'm sure.

Last night and this morning, I'm thinking again about the correlation between body and spirit, and seeing that I have some third chakra (digestional) issues. I don't know if they are multi-generational, but they probably are in part. I need to listen, release negative patterns, repent, forgive, and keep eating vegetables! Bodies are weather vanes.

I would like to understand much more about our essential oils.

I think about Hannah. And Dad, the wonder bike-riding bishop. What about Fei Fei's ticket last night? That was a new cultural experience for her, and she learned a lot. I could learn more if I wrote about revelation and knowledge after listening to the interview with Arthur Zajonc in this On Being podcast http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2010/holding-life-consciously/while shuffling through the neighborhood this morning with Morgie.
Today the spirit seemed to suggest that I will find a better yin yang energy if I write more of my experiences and insights to show the Lord that I appreciate his tutoring, to cement lessons within me, to share, and to cherish life. Not all days are as wonderful as the last 24 hours, but all days are full of wonder.

This is a start. I need to write. Do you?

The Power of His Pure Love

Being married to a new bishop, I learn that so many struggle with marriage. Dad has been really concerned about this, and one morning after a late night talk, I got up and wrote a list of scriptural principles I thought applied to marriage.

What would you add or change?

Our favorite talk on marriage is The Power of His Pure Love, by David Warner from BYU Women's conference a few years ago.

I love you all, and I REALLY love Craig. Praise to the Lord for teaching us the principles of love.

Scriptural Principles for Marriage

1. The work of life is learning to love.

a. Matt 22: 36-40

b. 1 Cor. 13

c. Mor. 7:45-47

2. Christ is the teacher of love.

a. John 13:34-35

b. John 15:12

3. We are accountable only for ourselves.

a. Matt 7:1-5

b. Luke 15: 25-32

c. Matt 20: 1-16

d. Mos. 3:24

4. Because of the atonement, we have no claim on anyone else for anything.

a. Alma 7:11-14

b. Matt 18:22

c. Matt 7:1-5

d. Rom 3:9-12

e. D&C 64:10

f. Alma 34:32

5. Wherever we find ourselves, that is the perfect place for us to learn what we most need to learn. Our life situation is not accidental.

a. 1 N 9:6

b. Acts 17:26

c. Alma 34:31-34

d. John 9:4

6. Love is a spiritual gift, obtained through faith and prayer.

a. Moro. 7:48

b. D&C 88:125/Col 3:14

7. The world does not have the answers. The scriptures teach true principles of relationships.

a. 2 N 31:12

b. 2 N 9:28

c. Is. 55:8-9

d. D&C 76:9

8. Christ is always the way of salvation, including the salvation of a marriage.

a. Mos. 3:17

b. 3 N 9:13

9. Only God knows what He can make of each of us, including of our companion.

a. 1 Cor. 2:9

b. 1 Cor. 13: 12

c. Rev. 9-17

10. We are commanded to be unified.

a. Gen. 2:24

b. D&C 38:27

c. Mark 10: 7-10

11. In this world we shall have tribulation

a. John 16: 33

b. Heb. 12:6

c. D&C 95: 1-2

12. We must endure to the end. Lessons in love are not wasted.

a. 2 N 31:20

b. D&C 121:7-8

c. Ps. 30:5

13. The only true fresh start is our own changed heart.

a. Mos. 5:2

b. Mos. 27:29

14. The worth of a soul (ours and our companion’s) is great.

a. D&C 18:10, 13

b. Luke 15

c. Matt 10: 29-31

15. Our companion does not hold the key to our happiness.

a. Morm. 9:14

b. Alma 36:20

16. Happiness is found in loving, not in seeking love.

a. Matt 10:39, Matt 16:25

b. 3 N 27:2

c. 3 N 18:24

17. The end of faithfulness to our covenants is joy.

a. 1 Cor. 2:9

b. Ps. 23

c. 3 N 10:5-6

d. Matt 11:28-30

The Lord's Question

We are reading a beautiful book for part of scripture study. Here are a few excerpts from today’s reading:

[A] tradition . . . . asserts that man is born into the world with a question and that he lives his life with a question, but it is not man’s question. On this view man is not primarily a being who questions but a being who is questioned. The question addressed to man persists, harder than stone, softer than snow, more insistent than the warmth of the sun. “Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9).

Deeper than the desire to know is the desire to be known. Man’s fundamental need is not to ask a question but to respond to one.

Not until a Father’s voice calls do I wonder where I am. How shall I answer? I am here? But where is here? So helpless am I that I cannot say. But deep within I hear his voice and tremble, for finally there are just two places, with him or without him, and just two ways, toward him or not toward him.

To the Lord’s question man must be an answer. From man God does not need information. Man’s response must be man’s own self.

Once a man named Zusia taught this lesson. When, he said, the Lord calls me to be judged, perhaps he will ask, “Zusia, why were you not like my servant Abraham?” And I will answer, “Lord, Abraham was the father of nations, the receiver of thy great promises. But I am only Zusia.” Perhaps he will ask, “Zusia, why were you not like my servant Moses?” And I will say, “Lord, thy servant Moses led thy people from Egypt; he received thy law upon the mount. But I am only Zusia.” But what shall I answer when he asks, “Zusia why were you not like my servant Zusia?”

The Lord’s Question by Dennis Rasmussen, p. 3, 4, 7

Photo by Hannah Rose

Bounty

Dear Family,

I've been listening to the birthday CD you all made for me two years ago, and enjoying it so very much. I feel overwhelmed by each of you and the love and beauty you bring to me and the rest of the family. Thank you all!

Do you feel amazed by all you are learning, especially of God's love and ways? On our hike last week, my good friend Jennie Lloyd shared this quote that I thought you would like to hear:

"Astonishingly, to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and Son are giving away the secrets of the universe! If only you and I can avoid being offended by their generosity."

--Neal Maxwell, "Meek and Lowly", at a BYU Devotional (21 October 1986).

Let's keep our spiritual eyes and ears alert to the Lord's gifts of wisdom, strength and understanding.

PS Dad was the highest rated of 23 speakers from the Denver NEPA conference, scoring 3.8 out of 4.0! Here are the comments that were recorded:

-Great!

-The best, great speaker & info

-“Sing-songy” delivery made him hard

to listen to and follow

-Mr. Galli was exceptionally good

-Very good

-Fabulous speaker. Right on

-Outstanding and great paper

-Outstanding

-Great timely information

-Awesome! Bring him back!

As for the "sing-songy delivery," ain't that person ever met a REAL Italian??

I will always come back

Last night I was watching the Utah Education Network (I think for the first time) while I was cleaning. There was a half hour show on marriage that had some useful tips. If anyone is interested, I can do a follow up post on what I learned about gender differences :). On the show, they discussed 4 messages you should constantly be giving your spouse, and the last one was "I will keep coming back to you." One common piece of advice for a healthy marriage is for one person to go on a walk when a discussion becomes heated. Sometimes we may need a little time apart from our family. However, they need to know that regardless of any tension or disagreement we may have, and even in the heat of the moment, we want to and will come back.

This idea first hit home to me a little less than a year ago when I left our apartment on the pretense of getting gas. I actually intended to stop at Hobby Lobby, by the gas station, to frame a picture for Micah for his birthday. Micah called me while I was in Hobby Lobby to ask if I was coming back. I explained that there was a sale there (true) and I had wanted to check it out. It took quite the comedy of errors to get the picture framed, and Micah called me a few more times to ask, "Are you coming back?" I knew he was in a hurry to complete the homework he was then working on, and wondered why he was eager for me to come home. Then a song I hadn't thought of in many years came to mind: "My Mommy Comes Back" from Baby Songs. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj-G5k9Pb7g&feature=related . This is the chorus: “My mommy comes back, she always comes back, she always comes back to get me. My mommy comes back, she always comes back; she never would forget me.” I remembered how scared I was in Kindergarten that Mom would leave me at school and never come to pick me up, because of the Madeline books about a boarding school. My teacher would read notes to me every day that went something like this: "Dear Rachel, I love you. I hope you have a good day at school. I will come at 3:00 to pick you up. Love, Mom." I realized that even though Micah didn’t need me home while I was at Hobby Lobby, that we never outgrow the desire for constant affirmation that the people we love are coming back soon, and that they will always come back.

This exchange with Micah gave me an understanding that the promise to return is at the core of the gospel. While we were going through the Oquirr Mountain Temple open house with Malas' family, Magalai asked several questions about the Savior. After he gained a basic understand of who He was and of His atonement, Magalai asked, "Is Jesus coming back?" I assured him that the Savior would come again. Our hope and faith rest in this promise. The recount of Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden of Eden leads me to consider how difficult it must have been for us to leave the presence of God, and the Lord surely promised us as He did Adam and Eve that He would not leave us alone. He provided a means whereby we could come back to His presence, and in the meantime, sent the first and second comforters to abide with us. We need the constant assurance of the Spirit that the Lord is still with us, that He will never forget us. We in turn recommit each Sunday that we will always remember Him, and our love for Him and desire to return is the only motive that can lead us back into His presence. To repent is to turn away from our own path and desires and turn back towards the Lord, allowing Him to lead us home.

We all feel the call in our hearts to come back to our loved ones in this life and beyond the grave. Here are some words from two songs on BYU's Road Home CD; I have several other favorite songs on the CD pertinent to the subject that I'll refrain from copying, so if you have time to listen to the whole thing, do!

Homeward Bound:

"Bind me not to the pasture, chain me not to the plow.

Set me free to find my calling and I’ll return to you somehow.

If you find it’s me you're missing, if you’re hoping I’ll return.
To your thoughts I’ll soon be list’ning, and in the road I’ll stop and turn.
Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears its end.

And the path I’ll be retracing when I’m homeward bound again."

Words by Michael Dennis Brown:

Tell me where is the road I can call my own,
That I left, that I lost, so long ago?
All these years I have wandered, oh, when will I know
There's a way, there's a road that will lead me home.

After wind, after rain, when the dark is done,
As I wake from a dream in the gold of day,
Through the air there's a calling from far away,
There's a voice I can hear that will lead me home.

"Rise up, follow me, come away," is the call,
With the love in your heart as the only song;
There is no such beauty as where you belong,
Rise up, follow me, I will lead you home.

Choose This Day

Rachel shared some inspired thoughts with me as we spoke on the phone this week. She referenced a youtube film based on a recent conference talk by President Eyring that you probably remember which is front and center on lds.org today, titled "Choose This Day." Rachel says that she has been focusing every day on the prayer in the quote that follows from that film. That's how she stays lovely. That's how I wish to live.

"It is hard to know when we have done enough for the atonement to change our natures and so qualify us for eternal life. And we don’t know how many days we will have to give the service necessary for that mighty change to come.

In the hardest trials, as long as you have the power to pray, you can ask a loving God, 'Please, let me serve this day. It doesn’t matter to me how few things I may be able to do. Just let me know what I can do. I will obey this day. I know that I can, with thy help.'”

P.S. Happy Birthday Laurelina!

The Book of Mormon

Dear Family,

As Elder Holland spoke with a force that pierced our hearts yesterday about the beloved Book of Mormon, I wept because of the deep truth of his words, and my recognition of how much of the fabric of my life the Book of Mormon has become. Its true principles have distilled upon my soul since I was Laurel's age, but unlike her, much more insecure in my life. It was then that I realized from my seminary teacher that I was supposed to read the Book of Mormon every day.

I knew almost nothing about it, except that Nephi and Lehi had left the Old World for the new, and that Nephi's brothers were really bad guys you would never want in your family. I knew it talked about Jesus's visit to the Americas. I had probably heard of Alma the Younger. And that was about all.

Though I berated myself very heavily for not reading every day, I read the Book of Mormon often, and my eyes and heart were always opened when I did. The spirit filled that little basement bedroom with my painted footprints on the floor, the taco candle, the door made-into-a-desk, and the giant hamburger poster!

In my pretty extreme loneliness, I heard the voice of the Lord through the Book of Mormon, and for the first time learned details of the atonement that I had never known. I learned that wickedness never was happiness. I learned that it was the evil spirit that taught me not to pray. I learned that the atonement was infinite.

It was clear as anything in my life that the book was true. I knew it then through no great manifestation, but through the many whisperings of the still small voice to a lanky, insecure Lark Evans. I could never deny that testimony, then or now. It came from the Spirit of Truth, and it gave me when I needed it very much a knowledge of where I needed to go, and how I should get there. It gave me hope for my life, and a deep desire to live so that I would always have that spirit, that intelligence and light.

Since then the book and its Author have been best friends and true companions to me. The Lord has gently held my hand to the rod, and beckoned me to follow, to partake of the fruit of that beautiful tree of light! I have so many favorite scriptures, as we all do. Early favorites were Helaman 5:12 and 2 Nephi 32:8-9.

A favorite less-quoted scripture comes from Jacob 3:2 "O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever."

This is my testimony of the Book of Mormon. But like Elder Holland's, my testimony is made of a thousand facets and many times that experiences with the Spirit and the book. It touches me every day now as it did in my little basement room around 1973. It is true!

What is your testimony of the Book of Mormon? What are your favorite scriptures?

With Love,

Mom

Be Thou Humble

Dear Family,

I was very affected by this editorial yesterday, and considered whether to read it during scriptures. When I read Alma 4 today, the deal was clinched.

Our curious journey from V-J Day humility to today's huge, empty egos

By David Brooks

The New York Times

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:09/15/2009 05:12:09 PM MDT


On Sunday evenings, my local NPR station airs old radio programs. A few weeks ago it broadcast the episode of the show "Command Performance" that aired the day World War II ended. "Command Performance" was a variety show that went out to the troops around the world.

On V-J Day, Frank Sinatra appeared, along with Marlene Dietrich, Jimmy Durante, Dinah Shore, Bette Davis, Lionel Barrymore, Cary Grant and many others. But the most striking feature of the show was its tone of self-effacement and humility. The allies had, on that very day, completed one of the noblest military victories in the history of humanity. And yet there was no chest-beating. Nobody was erecting triumphal arches.

"All anybody can do is thank God it's over," Bing Crosby, the show's host, said. "Today our deep down feeling is one of humility," he added.

Burgess Meredith came out to read a passage from Ernie Pyle, the famous war correspondent. Pyle had been killed just a few months before, but he had written an article anticipating what a victory would mean:

"We won this war because our men are brave and because of many things -- because of Russia, England and China and the passage of time and the gift of nature's material. We did not win it because destiny created us better than all other peoples. I hope that in victory we are more grateful than we are proud."

This subdued sentiment seems to have been widespread during that season of triumph. On the day the Nazi regime fell, Hal Boyle of The Associated Press reported from the front lines, "The victory over Germany finds the average American soldier curiously unexcited. There is little exuberance, little enthusiasm and almost none of the whoop-it-up spirit with which hundreds of thousands of men looked forward to this event a year ago."

The Dallas Morning News editorialized, "President Truman calls upon us to treat the event as a solemn occasion. Its momentousness and its gravity are past human comprehension."

When you glimpse back on those days you see a people -- even the rich and famous celebrities -- who were overawed by the scope of the events around them. The war produced such monumental effects, and such rivers of blood, that the individual ego seemed petty in comparison. The problems of one or two little people, as the movie line had it, didn't amount to a hill of beans.

You also hear a cultural reaction. As The Times of London pointed out on the day of victory, fascism had stood for grandiosity, pomposity, boasting and zeal. The allied propaganda mills had also produced their fair share of polemical excess. By 1945, everybody was sick of that. There was a mass hunger for a public style that was understated, self-abnegating, modest and spare. Bing Crosby expressed it perfectly on "Command Performance," as Gregory Peck, Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall would come to express it in public life.

And there was something else. When you look from today back to 1945, you are looking into a different cultural epoch, across a sort of narcissism line. Humility, the sense that nobody is that different from anybody else, was a large part of the culture then.

But that humility came under attack in the ensuing decades. Self-effacement became identified with conformity and self-repression. A different ethos came to the fore, which the sociologists call "expressive individualism." Instead of being humble before God and history, moral salvation could be found through intimate contact with oneself and by exposing the beauty, the power and the divinity within.

Everything that starts out as a cultural revolution ends up as capitalist routine. Before long, self-exposure and self-love became ways to win shares in the competition for attention. Muhammad Ali would tell all cameras that he was the greatest of all time. Norman Mailer wrote a book called Advertisements for Myself.

Today, immodesty is as ubiquitous as advertising, and for the same reasons. To scoop up just a few examples of self-indulgent expression from the past few days, there is Joe Wilson using the House floor as his own private "Crossfire"; there is Kanye West grabbing the microphone from Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards to give us his opinion that the wrong person won; there is Michael Jordan's egomaniacal and self-indulgent Hall of Fame speech. Baseball and football games are now so routinely interrupted by self-celebration that you don't even notice it anymore.

This isn't the death of civilization. It's just the culture in which we live. And from this vantage point, a display of mass modesty, like the kind represented on the V-J Day "Command Performance," comes as something of a refreshing shock, a glimpse into another world. It's funny how the nation's mood was at its most humble when its actual achievements were at their most extraordinary.

_______________________

Along these lines, I've been troubled recently by what I consider brash, sweeping statements about complex political and social issues from fellow members of the church; issues including health care reform, illegal immigration and homosexuality. I have heard rude, gratuitous comments about President Obama from friends whom I love and revere. No doubt I am more sensitive to attacks coming from a different perspective than mine, but it is the tone which most troubles me, and which I think we must all watch for in ourselves. To my ear it rings with an arrogance that suggests that we are above the fray, above the need to recognize how many people are suffering through the complexities of these and other concerns; people within our own families and in our neighborhoods. I worry for our well-being as a church culture. Our behavior should reflect our Master, who found no takers when he invited us all to cast the first stone. I'm grateful to David Brooks for reminding us about humility.

Alma 4:8 For they saw and beheld with great sorrow that the people of the church began to be lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and to set their hearts upon riches and upon the vain things of the world, that they began to be scornful, one towards another, and they began to persecute those that did not believe according to their own will and pleasure.
9 And thus, in this eighth year of the reign of the judges, there began to be great contentions among the people of the church; yea, there were envyings, and strife, and malice, and persecutions, and pride, even to exceed the pride of those who did not belong to the church of God.
10 And thus ended the eighth year of the reign of the judges; and the wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to those who did not belong to the church; and thus the church began to fail in its progress.

A little Thought

A little thought has been traveling in my mind today. I read it in Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth quite a while ago, and it has stuck: "Whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that's the ego in you." We could substitute "pride" fairly well for ego, I think. What do you think?

Every Good Thing

Dear Girlsies and Guys,

I had one of those serendipitous scripture study sessions, as we do--with every book I took into my hands proclaiming the omni-presence of goodness and spirit in the world. I studied the phrase "every good thing," repeated six times in Moroni 7, and pondered on the power of the idea that we CAN lay hold on and cleave unto every good thing through Christ. Then in Catherine Thomas' book, I saw this from Brigham Young: "The Elders of Israel, though the great majority of them are moral men, and as clear of spot and blemish as men well can be, live beneath their privilege; they live continually without enjoying the power of God. I want to see men and women breathe the Holy Ghost in every breath of their lives, living constantly in the light of God's countenance." This is such a challenge, but the very notion that in this telestial sphere we can attain such a level of awareness is so joyful! Believing is seeing. Micah and Rachel--give our love to Grandma, Reed, Mary Ann and Stacey! Andrew and Ariel, take good care of our sick little boy.
PHOTO Credit: Hannah Galli, inneri

Remember Adida

Gals and Guys, Please remember to keep praying for the the safe and soon return of our cousin-friend Adida. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Vella

After seventy-five years on earth, our mother Vella has been revealed as a diamond. Following are seventy-five of thousands of acts of love through which she has shared God's light with me:
1. She survived a birth that took her home and mother away
2. She excelled in school
3. She learned to play the piano beautifully
4. She loved her grandparents and Aunt Lizzie
5. She endured the imperfections and demands of others
6. She rejected all other beaus for a tall, sweet young man with a little Cannon blood who married her in the Salt Lake Temple on August 30, 1956
7. She welcomed a baby girl on December 25th, 1957 with great love
8. She put that little girl in a nursery she had painted like a circus!
9. She even had clown paintings and handmade stuffed animals!
10. She gave birth to a beautiful blue-eyed baby girl on February 16, 1960
11. She made a home at 1029 South 12th East in Salt Lake City
12. She borrowed prints of paintings from the library to hang in her home
13. She dished out pinworm medicine in the basement so when we spit it out, it wouldn’t stain anything
14. She called her brother-in-law up the street to administer penicillin shots as needed, sometimes giving us time to hide in the closet
15. She wrapped a warm wash-cloth (covered with plastic) around our sore throats
16. She made beautiful Easter dresses, which sometimes had matching hats and gloves
17. She washed our hair in the sink on Saturday nights, then let us watch The Lawrence Welk Show in the TV room as we sat in curlers under the dryer
18. She made lovely, delicate Easter eggs with pearls and gold paint, doves and crosses
19. She read the best stories to her children, like Over and Over and Johnny Maple Leaf
20. She taught them nursery rhymes and songs like “Bye, Baby Bunting”
21. She had a beautiful dark-eyed baby girl on April 11, 1962
22. She let her children play on the Twirly Bird—day after day after day
23. And splash in their plastic wading pools, which got pretty grassy in a hurry
24. She brought out warm water from the house to heat the pools up
25. She always practiced provident living, and taught her children the same
26. She canned bushels of tomatoes, plums, cherries, peaches, rhubarb and pears, and even venison (yuck)
27. She planned fairy tale birthday parties with Santa and snowmen made of marshmallows held together with toothpicks
28. She let her husband build fences, swing sets, entire rooms and even floors for their house
29. She let him buy the tent trailer and take her and her children to remote places in the western deserts
30. That had flies
31. She let him drive the children up elephant hill (but she walked)
32. She told her children to pray for him when he floated out toward the open sea on a Mexican estuary
33. She took care of him when he came home with a dreadful sunburn
34. She took her children to visit relatives, even though they (one anyway) swore
35. She took her children to the beach and Ripley’s Believe it or Not and Chinatown
36. She tried to teach her children to work and be responsible
37. And she kept trying
38. She taught them to respect all people, regardless of any differences there might be between them
39. She taught her children to say “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me” always
40. She taught them to greet visitors, and stay politely in the living room for their visits, even if they didn’t feel like it
41. She taught her children to work in the house and yard
42. Especially to weed
43. She taught them to rinse out a rag with very hot water, wring it out, wipe up, then rinse and wring again, so their rags would never be smelly, and their kitchens would always be clean
44. She taught them to dust under things, even though dust doesn’t get under things
45. She taught them to sew, and took them to the fabric store when they wanted to go
46. She taught them that sugar is bad for you
47. And that you should only take one cookie
48. That you don’t need a drink when you go to “The Clown Place,” or fries, but that you do need a hamburger with the dill pickles on the bottom
49. She had a beautiful boy on March 18, 1968
50. She really liked him! (We did, too)
51. She taught her children that hard work is a good thing
52. And TV is mostly a bad thing
53. And that she would support us, even if she didn’t like our choices
54. She made such delicious Sunday cream of mushroom chicken and roast beef and chicken teriaki dinners
55. Even when she was vegetarian
56. She taught us to be open to new adventures and cultures
57. Even when they put paper flowers on their Christmas trees
58. She let children go in on Christmas morning youngest first
59. Even though it was the oldest’s birthday
60. She let her husband put “desert marble” on many surfaces of their house without a permit
61. She moved her family back to Salt Lake when her husband’s job changed, though she knew she would miss the sun
62. She cleverly bought her dream home, and made it more warm and beautiful
63. She supported her husband in his community service
64. And her children in their school, sports, church and music
65. And she earned masters and doctorate degrees
66. She taught outstanding courses at the University of Utah for many years
67. While supporting missionaries she really would rather have had safe at home
68. She welcomed sons-in-law and a beautiful daughter-in-law
69. And truly extraordinary grandchildren
70. And built relationships with them
71. She battled phlebitis, emboli, back trouble, heart trouble, circulation trouble, arthritis, a devastating eye disease and the loss of function in her hands with astonishing grace and no complaining
72. She sought to find her ancestors and share their stories
73. She heard them singing the Song of Redeeming Love
74. And she chose to believe
75. She turned her face toward home

And Mom, just because I said that, don't think that we are finished with you here on earth. I still need my mommy helping me and praying for our family. I don't think anyone else knows how to make those snowmen, either.

Much Love,

Lark (your little "oiseau")

Create!

Dear Daughters, Sons, Husband and Everyone, Happy March! Here's a spring-fresh message for the month. Much love to everyone.

The Magic Briefcase

There was a really great forum today. It was about giving. This Arthur Brooks has done lots of research on how being charitable makes people happier and richer. Interesting stuff that, of course, as Mormons we love to hear. His last story was kind of funny, and I thought worth repeating.
Last year when he came to visit the MPA school, as a thank-you, he was given a nice briefcase which said "Brigham Young University" on it. A few months later, his briefcase broke and his wife suggested he use the BYU one, which he did. He realized after a while that people who saw him carry around this BYU briefcase thought he was Mormon (he's a faithful Roman Catholic). He said it really petrified him, because he worried that he might be impolite or something, and people would say, "I saw this really rude Mormon at the airport today." He said that every day he worked really hard to be on his best behavior, because he knew of the high standard we live, and that we are known to be very generous people. He said it made his life better. He also said he was getting a new briefcase.

Happy Birthday Brother Abraham!

When I pass the portrait of the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Salt Lake temple hallway, I often feel nearly overwhelmed with gratitude at his inestimable contribution to the earth, and to my own life. In a different way, I also feel profoundly grateful to Abraham Lincoln, Joseph's contemporary and fellow giant spirit! Both were tall, rough boys of the frontier, who lived and worked in poverty through their boyhood. Both were short on the wisdom of men, but long on intelligence of spirit and purity of heart. Their minds stretched beyond their fellows in every way. Their plain, honest speech cut to the hearts of those who heard them. They provided leadership in the most troubled times through the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the preservation of the young democracy that the restored church has depended on to this day! Though Joseph's contribution eclipsed Abraham's in scope and importance, Abraham's was crucial. I imagine the two sitting together in some pre-mortal classroom pondering on the immense work ahead in the 19th century. They must have been friends.

When he was 23, Lincoln said, "I have no other [ambition] so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed." At the end of his life, Joseph said, "If my life is of no value to my friends, it is of none to myself." Both lived and died in service to us, and both will be remembered forever. Today is Abe's 200th birthday. Happy Birthday, Brother Abraham!

Little Abraham Marshall, take note of your esteemed namesake!

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."--A. Lincoln

February Sunshine

Dear Micah, Andrew, Rachel, Hannah, Laurel, Ariel, and Mr. Galli,

I have listened to my birthday CD so happily this morning! Punxsutawney Phil cannot cast a shadow on my delight at the favorite numbers from each of you, though I confess that I wouldn't have guessed that Andrew was tickling the ivories on the "Andrew and Micah" number :). I love you all! Thanks again for that very special gift.

Inauguration Day 2009

Laurel was laughing at me as I was dropping her off at school today. She said she could watch the inauguration without crying. I challenged her to do that when she was as old as I am. This is the most exciting presidential inauguration of my life (even though we, including the girls, attended Clinton's first inauguration--anyone remember that?).

I know that we have trouble ahead in our country and around the world, but I believe that, at least for now, we have a president who understands what sort of work, sacrifice, virtue and unity we need. And I believe that he is sincere, and wise. While wickedness will increase before the millennium, light will also grow brighter. Regardless of what comes, today I saw with spiritual eyes the potential beauty of all the Lord's children united without enmity. It was a heavenly vision, reminding me of what I just read in 4th Nephi: "There were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another. And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift." Let's choose hope, and "starting today. . .pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work of re-making America again!"

"Praise song for walking forward in that light."--Elizabeth Alexander