Prophetic Passing

by Anna M. Molgard, January 27, 2008

I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,
Yes, running, not waving his cane.
I see him embracing his father and mother
While they keep repeating his name.

I see him now meeting his forebears,
Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.
Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service
That only such noble men share.

I see him embraced by the Savior
While Father says, "Good and well done.
So faithful in stalwart endurance, I welcome
My noble, most excellent son."

I then hear the ripples of laughter
As he says the reception's just fine,
But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two
Since there's no need to waste any time.

I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward — there's work to be done.

President Hinckley would want it that way.

Paper scrapping again

I got out the Christmas storybook I started over a year ago. I'm making it with old Christmas cards on a child's used board book I stripped.



I've kept and organized Christmas cards for a few years. So I can make little boxes or cut them up or make books. I have lots now. This (below) is un-organized.



This morning I went through cards from the last couple of Christmases. This is going on my fridge - it's how I feel some days!



I've had my eye on wire-bound children's books lately because wired scrapbooks look great but cost a lot new. I found a tutorial online for taking apart children's books to alter them, so maybe I'll have a new project soon!

Happy Anniversary

Six years ago this morning I was on my way to the doctor’s office for an emergency procedure before the wedding. I have to laugh thinking about what a mess that made of the morning, but Jen came to drive me there and home again early and help me before Kent and his folks picked me up to go to the temple. To get married! Yay! This morning the two of us sat calmly at breakfast looking at eggs and toast and grapefruit juice. Thankful, so thankful. For so many things. For Kent. For a peaceful life. For this month that every year I’ve struggled with but which better than other months keeps me present. I “come to” in January, notice the bareness of things and take a breath and say yes. One January I was so depressed after I got home from being in Utah. Christmas and my kids and granddaughter and snow and what had been my home for five and a half years - well, Georgia and my brick house under the pecan trees and my life were a big NO! I don’t ever want to repeat this if possible (lessons learned) and every January I’m reminded and thankful. I’m thankful for food to eat every morning, and sitting at the table with Kent as a regular thing cannot be taken for granted. It’s joy. I’m thankful for no bird shrills and squirrel chatter in the big trees above us this month; stillness and lots of sky in this big orchard we live under. For roller-coaster sunshine and clouds – you should see the crocuses come out practically on New Year’s day when temps are normally in the seventies, all bright (not a clue), then pale under ice later in the month when it gets wet and terrible. I’m thankful for the way January makes me want to make bread and casseroles and soup. How I keep a fire in the fireplace, especially on seminary mornings, and wear a light jacket all day. I come back to how bare things are outdoors and feel abundance in my house, at my table and on my back. I’m grateful Kent and I share our lives. His card to me this morning says, “To the woman I’d marry all over again . . . my loving partner, my best friend.” (He gets the People’s Choice Award, right!) Mine just says “I love you so darn much!” Who wins? They both say Happy Anniversary and I love you. Every January I have all this.

Yoga for Elephants and A Bunch of Poesy

(Double click above and check these out)

I went to the bookstore today. The one appended to our Goodwill Emporium in Macon. I think Goodwill put on Emporium to be all la-di-da. The book store is Good Books Cafe. Here's what I couldn't put back when I sorted through my basket for the cashier-lady and my purse for my money. (Notice I did pass on Yoga for Elephants. A test to see if you're paying attention.)

Love, love A Bunch of Poesy. Discovered poet/illustrator/author Michael Leunig, Austrailian, about whom is written on the book jacket: Born in Melbourne 1945. Early influences include the ten volumes of Arthur Mee's children's encyclopedia; his dog, Dinah; the Maribyrnong River; and to some extent, Queen Elizabeth II, whom he saw passing by in Moonee Ponds in 1954 'looking very pale.' I'm in love!

Here.

There's a Bird at the Window

There's a bird at the window
A wolf at the door
A fly in the ointment
A snake on the floor
A flower on the pillow
A note on the bed
In the spare room attached
To the back of my head

Sitting on the Fence

Come sit down beside me
I said to myself
And although it doesn't make sense,
I held my own hand
As a small sign of trust
And together I sat on the fence.

Things Just Seem to Fall Apart

Things just seem to fall apart
String bags full of oranges
And things within the heart
Calamities evaporate and memories depart
People laugh at anything
And things just fall apart.

(You're missing the illustrations)

These other books I had to buy. Staying Flexible, the full range of motion. Yes. Please. David Smells, for when Brady comes to visit in February. Woman First, Family Always - I looked it over and decided to. She has 10 kids and is beautiful. Works out. Wrote really short self-help chapters I can cope with. (I admit I'm jaded.) I'll probably finish it I hope. 8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs is a pipe dream but was only a buck ninty-nine. Sauces and Dressings has Chocolate Sauce Extrordinare in it, page 64, with a hint of orange. That's a go. Uh, with Lean Hips and Thin Thighs, d'ya think? What's the Matter, Davy is darn cute and ends well.

Here's another one:

A child is a grub
And a man's a cocoon
Music's a butterfly . . .
Sing me a tune.

What else did I do today? Washed towels.

In the scriptures

Sundays and other days I read scriptures for the week's seminary lessons. The kids don't ever read these chapters at home. Ever. At the first of the year I was pumped thinking about great class discussions we would have. No. You can only have those if everybody's reading. Seminary isn't like that; I'm jaded but it's passed. I do read whole chapters at a time to get the story and also read resource manuals for doctrinal helps. Reading chapters or whole books at a time is a different kind of study. I mark scriptures as I go and comment in the margins, but the point is that instead of zooming in on certain passages like we do in Sacramant meeting or seminary, I'm like on a mountain getting the big picture.

I shouldn't blog right after I put the book down. I was absolutely speechless a week ago after 1 Samuel, not a word. Kent knows, he saw me put the Bible down, saw my look. I finished 2 Samuel yesterday morning and just read ten chapters in 1 Kings, and want to tell someone about it. Not really, not tell just about David dying and Solomon being king and building the temple, but all of it: from Eli the temple priest whose sons were of Belial (worthless; worse, of the devil) and Samuel, whose mother dedicated him before birth a Nazarite for life and took him to Eli at age three (Joseph Daniel McKasson's age). Hear what I heard in my mind, Dad's favorite hymn Hushed Was the Evening Hymn, every verse, each of them as I read about Samuel. O, give me Samuel's heart. I've cried. To Saul a farm boy, very good, annointed by Samuel when the people begged for a king. Sinned in offerings and sacrifices and turned to madness. To David, called to played the harp for Saul and live in the court, a fair boy himself who killed Goliath. Where was the people's faith that a boy alone called on the living God? To the boy King and man who followed the Lord, escaping Saul's madness and mourning as a loved one Saul's death - then forgetting himself in a moment and a series of days. The rest of his life repenting and repenting and surely living the consequences. To David who this morning died an old, old man. Bath-sheba's Solomon put on David's kingdom. To Solomon, pure in his desire for wisdom before the Lord, who received a promise of unprecedented riches.

I finished verses, mind-boggling chapters, about good King Solomon. Looked over the page just now and saw in the new chapter heading Solomon marries outside Israel and put the book down. I shouldn't blog right after I read. I feel like weeping and can't here.

The objective part of me sets this all in its place, and like today has moved already part of an hour since I started, I'm going on. There's sun this morning after yesterday's rain and ice. 27 degrees outside and our moat on our sidewalk, normal after a lot of rain, is a skating rink. Kent skirted it going out for his paper this morning. North Georgia may have gotten snow again the second time this week. It snowed in Auburn, Alabama. Pretty unusual! Today's a day of rest and tomorrow's a holiday from school and seminary. I should be enjoying sleeping in. My eyes are on the clock about 5:00am though, never fails, and shortly I'm up and in the scriptures.

Small surprises

I threw on a jacket and pulled on shoes and went out (agh, it's raining!) to pick rosemary for our dinner. Making Herbed Rice Bake; it's got spinach and broccoli in it and of course rice, and cheese, eggs and rosemary and milk and butter and you bake it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Oh! I put my fingers right up to my nose like I always do when I touch rosemary, and sniff, and wow! I love it - I'm revived! So thankful for smell.

Switch points

We've been learning about David in 1st and 2nd Samuel in seminary. David's exemplary, absolutely, up to 2 Samuel 11. BTW, in my opinion the Old Testament is R-rated for violence. In the last chapter of 1 Samuel and first four of 2 Samuel (Monday's and Tuesday's lessons), no less than half a dozen people have been stabbed beneath the fifth rib and died, or been beheaded, or had hands, feet and/or head cut off and nailed to the wall. Including Saul, the king! AGH! I'm exhausted, and imagine how David mourned for friends and even enemies in these days. Anyway, now he is tarrying in Jerusalem while his captains carry on at the battle front. (A possible mistake.) He walks upon his roof in the evening and sees something; more, he watches. (Definitely a mistake because it's an unclothed woman.) He inquires about the lady. (BIG mistake.) You know the rest. And I'm so sorry.

President Hinkley tells about when he was working for the railroad company. A passenger train arrived at its destination in New Jersey minus the baggage car. "We discovered that the train had been properly made up in Oakland, California," he says, "and properly delivered to St. Louis . . . But in the St. Louis yards, a thoughtless switchman had moved a piece of steel just three inches. That piece of steel was a switch point, and the car that should have been in Newark, New Jersey, was in New Orleans, Louisiana, thirteen hundred miles away."

I get it. I do. What are switch points? A crossroads of sorts, a decision you make at an intersection that can keep you on track or put you on a different track than the one you started on. I showed the kids this drawing on the board.



We talked how if you left my house heading for the temple in Atlanta up I-75, and had to flip a coin at every intersection for which direction to go, would you be assured of getting there? We talked about what David did and what David should have done, even after any one of the first three thoughtless choices. I asked the kids to one by one share a decision facing them today and what they will choose. Becky - not judge or talk bad about teachers she doesn't really like; Sarah - do her homework; Stephen - clean his room because he can't see the floor and he thinks he stepped on a DVD and crushed it this morning getting ready for seminary and his dirthy clothes are piled three feet high; Ian - not speed; Kathryn - be okay with all her friends that are surprising her by coming out; Michelle - tell the girl that likes her as a girlfriend that she doesn't like her in that way without hurting her feelings; Tiffanie - couldn't share it in public, but said she'd deal with it; Anna - not argue with her sister, Michelle. "Oh yeah?" Michelle said.

I love listening in seminary, watching for how the kids get it or don't, and what they'll choose or won't. I think about them during the day, truthfully about as shocked at what they reveal to me any day as I am about graphic violence in the Old Testament. The decisions they face! Sure, to do homework or not or bad talk a teacher or not, but a lot about same-sex friendships, opposite-sex relationships, how to spend their time, what to wear, what to say and not say and believe and not believe. I like this lesson on switch points, and am thinking about it while I work. Becky asked me this morning what decision I'm facing. (That threw me!) I said what to do with my time. I'm trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up! Not like I'm making bad decisions now; just, I could do better with what I've been given, right? I hope to. Being in seminary and being the teacher is a "better" thing.

As I said before about David, I'm so sorry. The next gospel principles we'll look for are: unrepented sin cannot be hidden from God and always brings sorrow, and our decisions affect our future.

Random (but good) things

Six years ago on the 7th Kent and I were in a car wreck. Totaled the car, airbags, almost killed us and all that. I remember it every year at this time - what an impact (pun intended) it has on me. A sudden stop. Two years ago on the 9th I woke from a terrifying dream. Even today I can recount every detail, the scenery and overwhelming feelings I had during and after. Nothing dark. The trauma was that it was so REAL. There's got to be something up with that.
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We're running the air conditioner today! It was 63 degrees when I went out to get the newspaper this morning before my seminary students drove in; yesterday it got up to 75. Hot enough the trees are trying to bloom and weeds are up in the front yard. I pulled a clutch of them from around the mailbox and under the roses.
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By now Dan and Adrienne Hale are back in Hawaii, Shana Runyan's on her fourth day at work, and I've taught Seminary three mornings. Surely college classes have started - Scott starts today I think. Dan at the U, I don't know, but he's back at work and sounds official when I call. Jen is featured at the end of this post. Erin has recovered from strep throat in Minnesota after a horrible week between Christmas and New Year - Mike took care of everything including Abbie's birthday party, and must be glad to be back on rotation. Brad and Dana are having a baby in July. Amy went to day shift at the hospital as of the 6th. Kent and I are planning a trip for May through Independence, Carthage and Nauvoo to see church history sites with a stopover at Brad's and Dana's in Arkansas. I'll love to go in May - today I'm glad to be home cleaning out my junk drawer and wondering what to do with my Christmas cards.
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The Life of Mrs. Miles blog: A New Year. A fresh start. 2007 is no more, 2008 lays open before us ... I'll be drawing on the gift of what I learned in 2007 – wisdom from successes, and mistakes. One can't have one without the other, really. Kind of a big thought, that no matter what I aim to do this year, I WILL make mistakes. Being human means there is no hope in being perfect – that’s reserved for God alone and the best I can hope for is to become more like Him.
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Life Muses by Ro: Choose to Be Grateful “When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” – Anthony Robbins Today I choose to be grateful for what I have been given. As I consider this question and begin making my list, it grows and grows until I am overwhelmed with the goodness heaven has bestowed upon me merely by placing me on the earth at this particular time. As I look around my environment, I am suddenly grateful for...

Roads and sidewalks that prevent me from traveling on muddy, rutted paths
Mail that is delivered to my door
A refrigerator full of food that will stay edible for long periods of time
Double-pane windows that keep out the cold
A furnace that keeps my home warm
A telephone that allows me to communicate with nearly anyone
Post-it notes
Rainbow colored magic markers
Shelves lined with interesting books
Trees in my yard that birds love to live in during warm months
Fluffy pillows
Blow dryers
Sunlight
Ten fingers that work correctly
Two legs that carry me from place to place
A swivel office chair
Interesting work
A world full of friends, family and supporters

Surely, my cup runneth over. - Ro----
The Today Show, January 2nd: Top Talk Mistakes for Couples. This video is several minutes long, hosted by a man-woman team, really insightful. Enjoy! (p.s. sometimes when I pop into it I get a 20-second ad I don't know how to get rid of quickly, so if that happens to you, SORRY! The video SHOULD come right up to the communication tips.)

5. Men think women talk to much; women believe men don't talk enough
4. Poor timing
3. Coaching instead of cheering
2. Confronting instead of communicating
1. Women have a hard time letting go; men have a hard time saying they're sorry

What do you think: DO women love to ask men questions that they don't really want the answer to?
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Visited Jen's school! She's Ms. McKasson, the no-nonsense teacher of over a dozen special ed fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders, and Shana and Synthia and I were her guests Thursday last week. Boy were we impressed. After we were introduced to the kids and they left for the bus, she taught us more about her students, showed us what she does in in class, how with two teacher aides she tailors lessons to the kids' different skill levels. I've known she has a big job these past two years, with mainstreaming the students as part of it, but I have new respect now for my daughter the teacher. For everything she's studied and how she's now applying it. For how she sticks to her job when the reality is the students struggle to learn and it doesn't stick with them. For how commanding she is in the classroom and considerate of the children. For me it was a cool field trip. Didn't hurt that the four of us went out for dinner right after - girls night!



I love you Jen, Shana and Synth!

The way things make you feel

Hello Andrea! I'm in love! You can't believe how great Andrea Bocelli's voice is. And his Italian, mmm. I listened to "Vivere" this afternoon, his newest CD, driving to the store. And fell hard. Every track is wonderful! He does a duet on the fourth with Laura Pausini (she's amazing) that blew me away.

I was laughing in the car listening to him, thinking about yesterday being home alone. Poor me, sick, laying on the couch and Kent at church. Home with, rather, Paul Potts. Another grand CD I got for Christmas, Paul's "One Chance" made me laugh and cry both as I listened in my empty house. (Volume cranked.) Do you know him? Here he is! (Google site with YouTube videos of Mr. Potts, two of the most inspiring clips I've ever seen.) I love his story and love this new CD. Honestly it's celestial.



You'll laugh - on Nella Fantasia and O Holy Night I sang with him - I know you're laughing! Got up to get a drink and had to just belt out a duet with him right in my kitchen. To the plants. It was silly and amazing. I sang and sang and had tears in my eyes and goose bumps. Then I got back on the couch. Oh my gosh sometimes I love the way things make you feel.

A cool thing for your purse

I dug into at least two purses and a diaper bag looking for things for the girls while I was in Utah - Laura, Jenny and Amy. Scrounged around in my own purse looking for glasses a few times. What do you think about this: I was online and linked from a blog to an artist who hand-makes purse liners. Sells them, but I didn't like hers for the money so I Googled PURSE ORGANIZER to see what else is out there. Found this among other things. There's a video for the product and the owner-maker-seller-whoever she is has a sweet southern accent. Cool, huh?!

A week ago

Laura's got pictures on her blog of us at our reunion last week. We had so much fun! I couldn't believe it when we pulled up to Laura's house - Mark and Chris and Amy had followed us from Mom's, then Dan and Amy drove in behind them and Chris and Karen and the boys were right behind coming up the hill, and in less than a minute Marcia and Brent pulled up. Could we have timed it better?! Even Brent and Sandra's kids drove up the hill at the same time and waved and grinned. We hugged and made all kinds of commotion. I yelled at Sam to go get Laura and pulled out my camera. Laura came out and we started the party in lightly falling snow. I loved it - the people next door with triplets were sledding or something, and the dad stopped to watch. We were more entertaining.






We started at 4:00 and Kent and I were the first to break it up at 11:30. We had a full house, six couples and kids and Chinese take-out and sheet cake and ice cream and treats. Sarah and Glen and their kids came in after skiing - more hugs and kisses and food. We got the cousins together for group pictures then handed them the cameras and the six of us posed til we were silly. Jenny got a pretty good shot of us with spouses, but surely someone else must have sharper pics of just us brothers and sisters; mine are blurry. If you're reading this and have good pics, send them!

Home tomorrow

Last day here, working with Laura this morning on the computer. Helping her get her blog up. I go home in the morning. Tomorrow night I get off the plane in Atlanta and take the shuttle to Macon; from there drive home in my own car. Yay! It's always kind of weird to figure out months in advance how long to stay in a place. House guests are like fish, my friend Regina says to me. After three days they stink. I always think of that when I plan to be gone from here two weeks or more. What I chose in October worked. I've loved every day since I got here and no one threw me out with the newspaper. I'll be sad to leave.

I do get sad when it's time to go away. When I say my last goodbye and hug my family. Pack and look around for the last time. Step out of the car at the airport and into the chaos and watch my ride drive off. What would a poll of women like me show?

Dear Poll: Do You Get Post-Vacation Blues?

Yes! I'm a mess when I get home.
Sometimes, but I get over it fast.
No, but I am slow and easily distracted after a break.
Never. I'm good to go.



I almost always cry.