Book - Flunking Sainthood - A Year of ...

Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor - by Jana Riess

"This wry memoir tackles twelve different spiritual practices in a quest to become more saintly, including fasting, fixed-hour prayer, the Jesus Prayer, gratitude, Sabbath-keeping, and generosity. Although Riess begins with great plans for success (“Really, how hard could that be?” she asks blithely at the start of her saint-making year), she finds to her growing humiliation that she is failing—not just at some of the practices, but at every single one. What emerges is a funny yet vulnerable story of the quest for spiritual perfection and the reality of spiritual failure, which turns out to be a valuable practice in and of itself."      image & summary from goodreads.com

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Initially, publishers approached Jana Riess with an idea for a book -  Reiss would spend a year studying spiritual classics. She suggested that, along with the reading, she would experiment with a different spiritual practice each month. 

She decided on fasting; Sabbath observance; infusing daily tasks with a sense of God’s presence (finding spiritual value in ordinary tasks of our lives); read, study, ponder the Bible; simplicity & frugality; prayer – a month on centering prayer [really listening to God] & a month on praying at fixed times; gratitude; Benedictine hospitality; meatless month; generosity.

Of course, the doing turns out to be key to learning. Riess comments that often we can’t hear what God is saying until we do what He is asking us to do. (7) Towards the end of the book, Reiss reflects that “…the power of spiritual practice is that it forges you stealthily, as you entertain angels unawares.” (168)

Any spiritual practice, if it’s to become part of us and truly change us, has to be done for more than a month. Nevertheless, Reiss’s reflections on what she learned are interesting and insightful. 

A Few Dots Connected

This was one of those slap-on-the-forehead moments. I came across the word “austral” and momentarily stopped to think about its meaning. I recalled it referred to the southern hemisphere. Then some dots connected in my head, totally unconnected with what I was reading,  – I wonder if that’s why Australia is called Australia?! I’d never noticed the word “austral” in the name before!

I was surprised I couldn’t find an official version of the origin of the name on the country’s official website. Perhaps it’s there and I just didn’t discover it.

Click here for an interesting timeline of the use of the word “australis” and its eventual morphing into Australia.

 

Click here for a Wikipedia article on the origin of the names of countries around the world.

images source (public domain)

Book - The Still Point of the Turning World

The Still Point of  the Turning World by Emily Rapp

"Like all mothers, Emily Rapp had ambitious plans for her first and only child, Ronan.  He would be smart, loyal, physically fearless, and level-headed, but fun.  He would be good at crossword puzzles like his father.  He would be an avid skier like his mother.  Rapp would speak to him in foreign languages and give him the best education.

But all of these plans changed when Ronan was diagnosed at nine months old with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder.  Ronan was not expected to live beyond the age of three; he would be permanently stalled at a developmental level of six months.  Rapp and her husband were forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about parenting.  They would have to learn to live with their child in the moment; to find happiness in the midst of sorrow; to parent without a future."        image & summary from goodreads.com

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Celia enjoys listening to
Big Mouth Billy Bass
September 2010

I was drawn to this book because two children in our family had very brief times here on earth. When she was about 18 months old, Celia was diagnosed with Batten Disease. This enzyme deficiency causes neurodegeneration. Most children with Batten die before their 10th birthday. Celia passed to the other side a few months before her fourth birthday.

With the OK of Celia's mother, I share Celia's picture as well as some thoughts I had as I read about the author's journey with her son Ronan. 

“My plan was simple and yet impossible: to go with him as far as I could along this journey that we call life, to be with him as deeply as I could from moment to moment, and then to let him go.” (115)

Celia taught us that our journeys are sometimes short and we need to love well and completely and do the best we can with the time we have with each other.

The author wrote the following observation as she participated in a support group - ‘More than anything else, however, each face in that circle, infant or adult or otherwise, taught me that learning how to live with death ... - was also about learning how to live.” (135)

Time and time again, family talked about how Celia helped us more fully appreciate life. 

“Healing, for Ronan, would not mean the radical healing of his physical form. It might mean instead his full acceptance into community, into family, not the fixing of his physical body. Healing might mean no prayers for a miracle but prayers for his peaceful, albeit short, life. … Healing for Ronan might simply mean people meeting him and experiencing his uniqueness without thinking He’s blind, he’s paralyzed, he’s deaf, ... another mom pointed out to me [that] our minds are littered with these classifications that block us from seeing the beauty of individual souls housed in particular bodies.”  (149)

Being with Celia, it was very easy to see the beauty of her entire being. She radiated light and love. 

 “Ronan lived in the world held by people who loved him and fed him and talked with him and met him on his own terms. When he died, he will have been fully loved from his first breath to his last and then after.“ (151)

Celia is fully loved - from her first breath to her last - and beyond. 

Read more about Celia here and here

It's The Little Things

How did I get to be this age and never read the end of these boxes? 

I hope all of you discovered long ago that you can push in the tabs at the end of boxes of foil, wax papers, and plastic wrap. The rolls then stay in the boxes instead of popping out when you're trying to tear the material. 

It's often the little things that make life nicer. 

Wisdom

Bits of wisdom are preprinted on each page of my old fashioned but still very useful paper planner (I hope some of what I record in the planner is wisdom also - but here I'm referring to the preprinted quotes :). Recently there were a number of very good sayings all in the same week.

"I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. Umberto Eco

This reminds me of the importance of our example, walking the talk. 

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... 

forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waster of spirits. 

- Hannah More

Forgiveness is the Christ-like way. Not forgiving exacts a great toll. 

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary 

so that the necessary may speak. - Hans Hofmann

We need to make sure the noise of the world is not pushing aside and drowning out the voice of God. "Be still and know that I am God." Doctrine and Covenants 101: 16

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. - C.S. Lewis

I want to reread all my books by C.S. Lewis. 

I keep coming across pieces of his wisdom. 

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.  - Aesop

So true.  

"... by small and simple things are great things brought to pass "  Alma 37: 6

Kirkland Wednesday Market

Every Wednesday a market takes place in Kirkland's Marina Park by Lake Washington. 

There are food vendors, craftspeople, 

and farmers selling fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

It's a colorful and fun place to be every Wednesday. 

It was too crowded to get very good pictures of the vendors and their wares.

People and dogs (always lots of dogs around Kirkland) 

come by car, on foot and by boat. 

Many stay to eat some of their purchases. 

Some are lucky enough to get a bench right on the lake. 

Joe enjoys the crepe full of vegetables - 

purchased from the people in the picture below. 

The fruits and vegetables were abundant

strawberries, cherries, raspberries

asparagus, snow peas, zucchini (they even had round zucchini)

kale, lettuces, and much more

The flowers are always gorgeous. 

Many of the flower vendors at the area markets 

are Hmong who came here from Cambodia.

We were lucky to find a parking spot close to the gelato store - 

so that's what we had for dessert on the way back to the car.

We even got a free gelato 

because we filled up yet another frequent customer card! :)

Nature's Beauty

This is our fourth Spring in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. By now the vegetation has become fairly familiar and is our new "normal." Every once in a while I notice something that hasn't become "ordinary." 

There are so many shades of green in scenes like this - moss covered trees, ferns, evergreens, deciduous trees, and more. This picture was taken in a residential area. It looks like a mini rain forest.  Click here to read about the rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula. 

Pieris - This is an amazing shrub. It changes colors and textures throughout the growing season. All winter it's green. Small white, bell shaped flowers appear in the Spring. Then come red or pink leaves.

Simple Truths

One of the blessings of age is the perspective that comes with the journey here on earth. We’ve noticed that even though age often brings challenges, some things become simpler, less complicated because we come to know what’s really important.

For us, it’s come down to family and faith in Jesus Christ. That’s pretty simple. If we center our lives on faith in Jesus Christ and family, everything else will fall into place.

We’ve noticed this focus on the basics as we listen to wise men and women who are well along the path here on earth. Boyd Packer, a modern-day apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, says, “I wish to share with you those truths which are the most worth knowing, the things that I have learned and experienced in nearly 90 years of life.”

“Like most things of great worth, knowledge which is of eternal value comes only through personal prayer and pondering. These, joined with fasting and scripture study, will invite impressions and revelations and the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. This provides us with instruction from on high as we learn precept upon precept.”

It’s this instruction from on high that helps us realize what’s most important in this life.

“After all the years that I have lived and taught and served, after the millions of miles I have traveled around the world, with all that I have experienced" -  Boyd Packer shares what he considers the greatest truths:

“God lives. He is our Father. We are His children.... Parenthood is a sacred privilege."

“The Holy Ghost is real.”

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. “He is He who was slain and He who liveth again. He is our Advocate with the Father…. He is the anchor that holds us and protects us and our families through the storms of life…The Savior lives.”

To this we say “amen.”

Kirkland Is A Happy Place

Kirkland is a happy place!

Our teenaged friend Joseph said this about Kirkland the first time he visited us. 

Indeed it is!

Recently we ate at a new restaurant in downtown Kirkland - Alanya Cafe. The owners are from Turkey. The cafe, like so many restaurants in downtown Kirkland, is very small, perhaps 6 tables. We tried pide which is kind of like pizza only much better. The owners were very proud of their food, emphasizing that everything is homemade and very delicious. It certainly was delicious. We'll definitely be going back. 

As we sat in the cafe, enjoying the food and the people watching, we talked about the types of restaurants we could see. We were in a Turkish restaurant; then there was Japanese, Greek, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese. Ones we couldn't see but were within half a block were Italian, Thai, Mexican and a place you could get hamburgers. Only a few of those places had more than 8 or 9 tables. There's even more variety a block and more out from where we were sitting. 

It was a beautiful almost summer evening. We stood outside the cafe, right in the center of town, and took a picture in all four directions.

looking north up Lake Street

The cafe where we ate is on the left

looking south on Lake Street

The Alanya Cafe is on the bottom right, beside me

looking east up Kirkland Avenue 

the cafe is to the bottom left

We live about a 10 minute walk up this street

looking west on Kirkland Avenue

Lake Washington is at the end of this street

The Alanya Cafe is to the right

I get my hair cut in a little shop on the right

Before the bridges were built across the lake, 

people took the ferry from the end of this street to get to Seattle. 

We walked a short block from the restaurant down to Marina Park and Lake Washington

The top picture is looking south - the sky was a vivid blue

looking west into the setting sun 

sparkles on the water - isn't it beautiful!

Can you see the sparkles going from the boat to the gazebo?

The pathway looks like a sparkling magic carpet!

Book - Food Production - Big Issues

The Meat Racket: 
The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business

by Christopher Leonard

"Forty years ago, more than thirty-six companies produced half of all the chicken Americans ate. Now there are only three that make that amount, and they control every aspect of the process, from the egg to the chicken to the chicken nugget. These companies are even able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers."

image & review from goodreads.com

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The author deals with big issues - cheap food, vertically integrated companies, industrialization of food production, small town America, family farms, politics. Tyson Foods and chicken are the main focus but you can see how the scenario is affecting many other aspects of our lives and economy. Supermarket and restaurant chicken and other meat will never be the same to me after reading this book.

Happy Father's Day

"God bless you, dear fathers. May He bless you with wisdom and judgment, with understanding, with self-discipline and self-control, with faith and kindness and love. And may He bless the sons and daughters who have come into your homes, that yours may be a fortifying, strengthening, guiding hand as they walk the treacherous path of life."       Gordon Hinckley

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Red bud trees always remind me of my father. He liked red bud trees and we always had at least one in our yard when I was growing up. 

Continuum - Hope, Trust, Belief, Knowledge

I have great faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel. My testimony of various parts of the gospel is an interesting combination of what I hope for, what I trust in, what I believe, and what I know. It all falls on a continuum from hope and trust at one end to belief, to sure knowledge. 

As I go through life’s experiences, some things I hoped for or trusted in develop into a belief. Sure knowledge comes for some principles. 

The Holy Ghost is one of my teachers in this process. He helps me in my communication with the Father and Jesus Christ. He helps me feel peace when answers come differently or more slowly than I would like. He helps me know when to be OK with hope and trust. He helps me know when I need to continue praying, pondering, and experiencing so a concept can move from hope to belief or even to knowledge. The Holy Ghost’s companionship and counsel have become an integral part of my life.

Book - The Wives of Los Alamos

"Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago—and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with a P.O. box for an address in a town wreathed with barbed wire, all for the benefit of a project that didn’t exist as far as the public knew. Though they were strangers, they joined together—adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery.

And while the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed from an abandoned school on a hill into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud, the letters they couldn’t send home, the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges to the people of Los Alamos, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind."

image & summary from goodreads.com                               author's website

The author uses an unusual style. Some people call it the first person plural, others say it's the collective third person. Whatever you call it, it's the way the author shows that life in Los Alamos was experienced in many different ways. There is no “one” story, no one reaction to lack of water and bathtubs or parenting in this unusual situation or dealing with rumors in a place where everything was supposed to be secret. One reviewer said this style resulted in a “tapestry of time and place.” Initially, the style got in the way of the story for me and I thought I wouldn't/couldn't finish the book. I persisted for a few chapters and eventually found that I was enjoying the story; enjoying hearing the voices of many women who were trying to have "normal" family life in this very different place and these very difficult circumstances. 

The people living in Los Alamos were severely restricted in what they could do and say. There were rules about contact with their families. People couldn’t know where they lived. When they did go to nearby towns, they were told what they could and couldn’t say. The birth certificate for children born in Los Alamos listed their birthplace as P.O. Box 1663 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Read a review in the New York Times here. 

This book brings to mind the way our lives are impacted by big issues with major consequences as well as the smaller choices and major efforts that go into our every day lives. 

I like to read about the families behind the people who make the news. Often the stories behind the headlines and the headliners are just as interesting, as the stories of the big newsmakers. This book reminds me of “The Astronaut Wives Club” by Lily Koppel. These kinds of books show the importance of interviewing people, preserving and sharing their stories.

The author was born in Dayton, Ohio. The text on the book jacket said Dayton was “one of the lesser-known Manhattan Project locations.” Read about Dayton and the Manhattan Project here. 

Ironing

My iron and ironing board must feel very neglected. They don't get used very often.

My memories of ironing go back to childhood. Mom had a lot of ironing with a family of six. Those were the days before  permanent press, wrinkle free settings on dryers (even before dryers in the very early days) and before the days of steam irons.

My most vivid memories are of Mom with a basket full of laundry; hot, muggy days; a pop bottle with a sprinkler attachment on top, filled with water to moisten the clothes. She set up the ironing board in the living room. Hopefully she ironed in the basement in the summer when it was hot. 

I don't remember how often I had to iron, or if my siblings also ironed. We did sheets. I remember Mom ironing Dad's boxers and wondering why that was necessary. Mom taught me how to iron Dad's white shirts. I still know the order of ironing various parts of a dress shirt. We pressed dresses and shorts - practically everything in our childhood wardrobe needed ironing. 

Mom taught me to check out how much ironing a fabric would need by balling it up in my fist. If there were lots of wrinkles when I let go, I knew ironing would be required - buyer beware. I still do that when I purchase clothes and/or fabric. 

It was a wonderful day when permanent press became part of our lives. 100% polyester turned out not to the be best fashion trend but polyester and cotton can be nice. That, combined with customized dryer settings have made ironing not really necessary. Also, I think our cultural expectations have changed and the starched, freshly ironed look is no longer "necessary."  

I did teach the boys how to iron (along with how to do some basic mending). Joe knew how to iron from his days in the Navy. 

Over the years my iron and ironing board could go months and months without being used. One time Michael came home from college and wanted to iron a shirt. When he asked where the ironing board and iron were, I was mortified to realize it had been so long since I used them that I had no idea where they were! Eventually I located them and Michael proceeded with his ironing. For some reason this is a vivid memory (Guilt? Some feeling that a "good" wife and mother would be doing more ironing? Who knows.). I even remember which shirt Michael was ironing.

Now I don't feel at all guilty about neglecting the iron and ironing board. I'm thankful for the advances that have made them less necessary. 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!

June 10th - married 'til death do us part

April 8th - married for time and all eternity

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We've written about our anniversaries here and here

Click here to see pictures of us through the years

Who We Are

Religion can be a touchy subject. Many people avoid religious discussions. Some of that avoidance is part of our culture. When we were missionaries in The Bahamas we were surprised how readily people engaged in discussions about religion. People were very vocal in their thoughts about churches, beliefs, practices, and God. It was usually friendly and came as a result of curiosity and often with a sincere desire to find out more and share beliefs. And people were not shy about sharing some outrageous things they KNEW to be true about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were glad they shared what they “knew” to be true so we could give them correct information and let them decide for themselves. Hopefully we helped clear up misunderstandings – and hopefully spread a bit of light in the process.

The curiosity of others plus the huge amount of misinformation out and about were part of the reason behind the launch of mormon.org. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were encouraged to create a profile and share stories and answers to gospel questions. This is the “I’m a Mormon” campaign.

Click here for Joe's profile and here for mine. Periodically we add information to our profiles. Our blog has links to the profiles – at the top right there’s a “What we believe” icon; that takes you to mormon.org. At the bottom of the right column there are links to Joe’s and my profiles ("I Believe" icons). Check them out every once in a while.

Doing this has helped us think about and articulate what we do believe. Who we know Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are – who we are and why we are here on earth – what happens after death – and so on.

We welcome your comments and questions. 

An Evening in the Park

An evening stroll at Juanita Bay Park

There was a group of dogwoods - loaded with huge white blossoms

They shimmered in the bright evening light

a boardwalk took us through a wetland and to Lake Washington

yellow flowers - creeping buttercup

a field of ferns

cattails & creeping buttercups

Joe on the boardwalk

Forget Me Not - Batten Awareness

This is Batten Awareness Weekend. Visit the Batten Disease Support and Research Association website to learn about a terrible disease that makes life on earth so short. This sweet picture of Jenni* and Celia is being used in BDSRA's "Forget Me Not" campaign. Go to Andy & Jenni's blog to read their "forget me not" tribute to Celia. Jenni told the family's story in a post here. Celia was featured in a picture for the 2012 Neurobiology of Disease in Children Symposium which focused on Batten Disease.

Jenni and Andy have generously and graciously shared their story so others can learn about Batten Disease. Increased awareness will hopefully lead to more research and finally - a cure.

"I'll always be with you." So says Winnie the Pooh in the above quote. Indeed Celia will always be with us, even though we are apart. She brought much love into many lives in her short time here on earth.

If ever there is tomorrow when we're not

together... there is something you must always 

remember. You are braver than you believe,

stronger than you seem, and smarter than you 

think, but the most important thing is, even if

we're apart... I'll always be with you.

(Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne)

picture & quote

*Jenni is my "niece-in-law"