Action Required

 “I desire that ye shall plant this word [of God] in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen.”  Alma 33:23

Knowing God requires action on my part. I won’t progress if I’m passive about my discipleship. I like all the action in this verse. Plant and nourish, these are things I need to do. Then God does His part by helping the seed become a tree. We’ll still have burdens but they will be light as we share the load with Christ. Joy! of his Son! Then we are reminded that we can do this – if we put our mind (and effort) into it! 

Read more about planting and nourishing the seed of faith Alma 32

As Advertised

Chocolate Mint Cookie Bites -first time treat from Costco 

- we highly recommend them 

Mango - these used to be "enrobed" in dark chocolate. Now they are merely "covered" with dark chocolate. Either way, they are VERY good. 

Saw this advertised on TV and found it at Bed Bath and Beyond. 

It works as advertised. It's a great addition to our kitchen tools. 

Reflection on Changes

Drafted June 12, 2011 - 

Periodically I think about the life change we have made in the last six months. It’s amazing. I am thankful we were able to make it and that it seems to be working out so well. 

It’s interesting to be discovering and making a new life of sorts with Joe at this stage in our lives. This is somewhat similar to making a new life together when we served a mission. 

It certainly takes us out of any ruts we developed. If we find ourselves creating those same ruts here, it’s important to recognize it and make sure they are ruts we’re wanting to make - and ruts that take us where we want to go. 

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July 2016 comments - We moved in March 2011. I wrote this post a few months later but never published it for some reason (I have a lot of unpublished posts. I make notes when an idea comes to me and often don't go back to polish it for publishing). Five years later it's still relevant. 

It's been fun to explore a new part of the country together and to find new favorite places to go, new restaurants to frequent, and a new community to enjoy. Both places we've lived since we moved out here have been wonderful homes. 

Thinking about this - Our life together has had several distinct phases

-our marriage (for time; til death do us part)

-our baptism and decision to be active disciples of Jesus Christ

-our marriage for eternity 

-our mission (24/7 serving & working for the Lord for 15 months)

-our move to Kirkland, Washington

-our life with Parkinson's

Each of these major events has brought something very different into our lives. Each has given us opportunities to make decisions about who we are individually and as a couple and family. 

It's been an exciting journey so far. We have been abundantly blessed and look forward to continuing the journey together. 

Street Sense

We are in our sixth year here in Kirkland. We are still confused by the streets. Almost all the streets are numbers. Avenues and streets supposedly run different directions - but this isn't consistent throughout Kirkland (see notes below). 

Then you run into the situation pictured above. This 2nd Avenue runs east and west but there's a 2nd Avenue South and a 2nd Avenue (no "north" attached to that name).

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From an article in Seattle Times

"Under state law, cities can tackle street naming however they feel is best. And hence, Kirkland has opted to maintain its own original downtown street layout from the late 1880s rather than conform to the county’s grid.

From Northeast 68th Street to 20th Avenue, Kirkland does everything in reverse [from the rest of the county]. Thus, avenues run east-west and streets north-south. Many of the roads are set at a diagonal because city founder Peter Kirk and his engineer wanted to make the most of the area’s water and mountain views, said Bob Burke, past president of the Kirkland Heritage Society.

As Kirkland grew, however, it kept the street names of the county neighborhoods it absorbed, Burke said. And that’s why drivers encounter 110th Avenue Northeast after Ninth Street."

From: The ABCs and 123s of Eastside streets by By Karen Gaudette

Read more here

Doors

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." Helen Keller

I was going through drafts of blog posts that never were published. This one was initially saved in June 2011. I'm sure the quote resonated with me because of our recent move from Ohio to Washington. The Ohio "door of happiness" had closed behind us and I still wasn't sure how I felt about the Kirkland door.

That Kirkland door has indeed been one of happiness. We have been blessed and our lives have been full as a result of our move.

top - leaving Ohio home for the last time, March 2, 2011

bottom - our new home in Kirkland, March 2011

UL2

This phone was in the basement of my parents' home when they died. 

I remember our phone # being UL2-0874.

Eventually the UL was dropped and 852 was used. 

I wonder if the new owners kept it, tossed it, or sold it? It's definitely an antique -  UL2 label, rotary dial, AND the cord is cloth covered!

Mom and Dad built the house in 1950. I wonder if this was the original phone? When they died, the phone in the kitchen was a rotary phone, but it had a coiled rubber or plastic cord (It was a VERY long cord that gave you quite a good range of motion while talking on the phone.)

This article gives an interesting history of exchange names such as Ulrick.

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Phone related memories 

No phone calls during meal times

Phone calls were supposed to be short. Mom sometimes set the timer. I don't recall how long calls could be. This same timer was used to remind us about acceptable duration of showers. 

That long cord made it possible to sit on the top of the basement stairs with the door closed in an attempt to have a bit of privacy during a phone call. 

After we children left home, Mom and Dad would get on different phones (kitchen and basement or den phone) to talk with children and grandchildren. This was before the days of speaker phones.

One of my siblings gave Mom and Dad a wireless phone that untethered them from the corded phone. They often took it outside with them. 

Long distance calls were very expensive. They were for special occasions or emergencies. Dad liked to tell this story about one of his cousins. Dad received a telegram from K. The message told him to ignore the first telegram. Dad called K to let him know he hadn't received a first telegram. "I know," said K. He then told Dad he'd read about a situation with the family and wanted to talk with Dad - but he wanted Dad to incur the cost of the long distance phone call!

When I was in college we had a phone in the room. It was connected to the dorm switchboard. The operator/receptionist could call to tell you about a visitor or some other message. I don't recall if you could make calls to people on campus. I know you had to use the pay phone in the dorm if you wanted to call home. I think people could call you on the pay phone. Someone would answer the ringing phone and seek out the person being called on the pay phone. 

Things have certainly changed!

Helping Each Other

Interestingly, becoming the best I can be, becoming like Christ, is more about others than it is about me. I can't become my best by focusing just on myself. Despite what we often hear in the media, it isn’t all about me. It’s about who I become as I love and serve others. Christ is our example of how this works. He fulfilled his mission on earth by serving others – and it often wasn’t easy.

Christ taught, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9: 24 

“I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and … lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives.”  Thomas S.Monson

Lola B. Walters told of a friend who had this to say as she was caring for her "invalid husband. 'Don’t think of your task as a burden; think of it as an opportunity to learn what love really is.'”  

From Thomas S. Monson – we are “surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness—be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. ...We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.” 

Cheryl Esplin – “True Christlike service is selfless and focuses on others. …  some of you … may feel stretched to capacity ministering to the needs of family members. Remember, in those routine and often mundane tasks, you are “in the service of your God.”   (Mosiah 2: 17)

My sister recently reminded me of words of wisdom from Dad – “Dad used to tell me that those small daily tasks are the foundations that help others.... and to do them quietly with a grateful heart.” 

 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." Mosiah 2: 17 

Lola Walter's talk Sunshine in My Soul 

Thomas Monson - What Have I Done for Someone Today?

Cheryl Esplin He Asks Us to Be His Hands

Happy

"Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people ... Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ." Gordon B. Hinckley


Amen!

Book - When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air  

 by Paul Kalanithi

"... a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015..."  image & summary from worldcat.org

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“I hadn’t expected the prospect of facing my own mortality to be so disorienting, so dislocating.” (163) 

       

“As furiously as I had tried to resist it, I realized that cancer had changed the calculus. For the last several months, I had striven with every ounce to restore my life to its precancer trajectory, trying to deny cancer any purchase on my life. As desperately as I now wanted to feel triumphant, instead I felt the claws of the crab holding me back. The curse of cancer created a strange and strained existence, challenging me to be neither blind to, nor bound by, death’s approach. Even when the cancer was in retreat, it cast long shadows.” (176)

Epilogue written by Paul’s wife Lucy Kalanithi

“… we knew that one trick to managing a terminal illness is to be deeply in love – to be vulnerable, kind, generous, grateful. A few months after his diagnosis, we sang the hymn “The Servant Song” while standing side by side in a church pew, and the words vibrated with meaning as we faced uncertainty and pain together: ‘I will share your joy and sorrow / Till we’ve seen this journey through.’” (228) 
        jht – My sister sent this hymn to me a few months ago – beautiful words. Read about it here. 

 “What happened to Paul was tragic, but he was not a tragedy.” (234)

        jht – so very, very true. This is a very important distinction. 

C.S. Lewis “Bereavement is not the truncation of married love, but one of its regular phases – like the honeymoon. What we want is to live our marriage well and faithfully through that phase too.” (235)

        jht – It's all part of the journey, especially when that journey and marriage are eternal and continue on the other side of the veil. 

Talking about being surrounded by family & friends at the end – “And yet we did feel lucky, grateful – for family, for community, for opportunity, for our daughter, for having risen to meet each others at a time when absolute trust and acceptance were required. Although these last few years have been wrenching and difficult – sometimes almost impossible – they have also been the most beautiful and profound of my life, requiring the daily act of holding life and death, joy and pain in balance and exploring new depths of gratitude and love. … Relying on his own strength and the support of his family and community, Paul faced each stage of his illness with grace – not with bravado or a misguided faith that he would “overcome” or “beat” cancer but with an authenticity that allowed him to grieve the loss of the future he had planned and forge a new one.” (230 )

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New York Times interview with author's wife Lucy

Almost

Sometimes it takes a lot of tries to get something right. Most things in life are a process. Here's what I learned from a recent experience with these cafe curtains. 

I bought them several years ago to put in the high windows in our Kirkland townhouse's narrow, two story living room windows to block the intense summer light and heat. When we moved to our new place we used them in our bedroom. Curtains on the bottom half of the window give us privacy but also let light in the top half of the window. The only problem was the two panels weren't quite wide enough. We made do and I would periodically try to find cafe curtains that were wide enough - or to match this pattern - or a pattern we liked well enough to buy two sets. We struck out on all accounts. I bought one set that was supposed to be wide enough but that proved to be false advertising and we didn't like the pattern well enough to buy two sets to get the width we needed. I was almost ready to make curtains. 

Then it came to me to see if there was a label on the back of the curtain with a clue as to the pattern. Duh! I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't thought of that before. There was enough information that I was able to find the exact pattern on Amazon. They arrived and I was thrilled to have finally found what I was looking for - almost. The color was ivory and our existing curtains are white. However, in that window and daylight you couldn't really tell the difference. It appeared to match - almost. For several days I went back and forth about whether or not it made a big enough difference and it was worth it to go through the hassle of returning and reordering. At this point I'd put in much more effort and time that was probably merited by the task that needed to be done. But I'd come this far and I wanted it to be "right." So I returned and reordered. 

Now it's right! And it looks good. 

What did I learn from this? What do I think of almost every time I see those curtains? You'll probably think this is quite a stretch, but it is a good reminder for me. I think of my discipleship of Christ. About how much effort it takes. And how we shouldn't settle because we're "almost" there. Some Christ-like attribute I'm working on is "almost" good enough and I can let up on further developing it. I should accept that discipleship is a journey and I need to keep moving forward and not stop with "almost." 

And that's what I learned from my experience with the curtains. 

Flowers

Some flower pictures from the past few months 

& comments on why I took the picture

the first week of April - dandelions have bloomed & gone to seed alread!

in a beautiful Mother's Day bouquet

yellow roses were Michael Todd's favorite

Every spring I comment on the beauty of the rhododendron

and how difficult it is for my iPhone camera to capture the reds

I was struck by the contrast between the vivid light greens and deep reds in 

these side by side plants - glorious

Rhododendron bloom a bit at a time.

They start as a tight bud pictured above. 

more and more

We are a bit like this - we are born with the light of Christ. As we learn of Him, follow Him and try to become like Him, that light brightens bit by bit until people can see and feel Him in our countenances.  

a friend brought a beautiful bouquet of tulips

friends & flowers brighten our lives

sun helps these flowers bloom

 and compacts the trash in the solar compactor behind the flowers

Books - Garbage Land & Bottlemania

I tend to take water and garbage for granted. They are part of every day life - one vital to our well-being and the other a fact of life. Elizabeth Royte has written a book on each subject. Very interesting reading. 

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Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash

by Elizabeth Royte

"Out of sight, out of mind ... Into our trash cans go dead batteries, dirty diapers, bygone burritos, broken toys, tattered socks, eight-track cassettes, scratched CDs, banana peels.... But where do these things go next? In a country that consumes and then casts off more and more, what actually happens to the things we throw away? In Garbage Land, acclaimed science writer Elizabeth Royte leads us on the wild adventure that begins once our trash hits the bottom of the can. .......... By showing us what happens to the things we've "disposed of," Royte reminds us that our decisions about consumption and waste have a very real impact-and that unless we undertake radical change, the garbage we create will always be with us: in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we consume." summary from goodreads.com image from worldcat
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As I read this book I got the feeling that often we're just shifting our trash from one place to another. Evidently only 2% of all garbage is household waste. "The rest of it [waste] is industrial, primarily manufacturing and commercial, mostly restaurants and fast food outlets. ... for every 100 pounds of manufactured goods, 3,200 pounds of waste are generated."  source 

When I drop something into the garbage or recycling container, I wonder about its final destination. 

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Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It

by Elizabeth Royte

"An investigation into the commercialization of drinking water traces the process through which companies acquire, bottle, and market water, in an account that addresses such issues as the risks of water-decontaminating practices." (summary & image from worldcat.org)

read more at goodreads.com

thought-provoking questions

"Is it right to trade water at all, to move it from its home watershed to other states, or even countries? Should the taxpayers who protect land and water share the profits of those sho pump and sell that resource? How is water different from such resources as oil, trees, or lobsters?" (15)

“… who controls what’s left of our freshwater – locals who depend on it for survival, or corporations that sell it for profit – matters a great deal, whether that water comes from an aquifer in western Maine, or an aquifer in the Philippines, … where companies have already privatized either supplies or delivery systems." (53)

If people switch to bottled water will there be support for public water supplies and infrastructure to provide safe tap water?

Elizabeth Royte's blog
Elizabeth Royte's website

Already?

First Christmas catalog arrived early in July

 - from Current

SaveSave

Didn't Read All The Memo

Back in 1980 we were driving through Jackson, Ohio and did a double take when we saw this. The building housed social services organizations. The accessibility signs were there. So was the ramp. But the ramp led to steps. 

Ordinary Experiences

"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."                      Thomas Moore (Irish poet)

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How these ordinary acts are done either builds up or depletes our souls. Love, patience, flexibility, and respect will nourish our souls as we do these ordinary acts. 

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; …  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth” 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

photo - about 1952

Washington Beauties

fresh peaches & Rainier cherries 

delicious!

These peaches come from Bill at Kirkland's farmers' market. Every year he has the best peaches we've ever tasted. 

Have you ever had Rainier cherries? They are often more expensive than other cherries, but worth the extra money. Created in the state of Washington in 1952, Rainier cherries are very sweet. 

These are two fruits to eat slowly and purposefully. 

Scripture Study

Over the years we've learned much from each other and the Spirit as we've studied scriptures together. 

Giant Blossoms

giant, gorgeous hydrangea

One Load At A Time

Sometimes things pile up and I have to remind myself that one load at a time is all I can do. Sometimes I can't even do that one load - if the dryer breaks. 

Recently our dryer broke. We didn't inherit its manual or receipt when we bought the condominium so we don't know its age - it's definitely past middle age. When it broke we decided to try for repair instead of buying a new one. It was going to take a week for a repair person to come out. A neighbor kindly loaned us her dryer and I used it to dry two loads. I let the rest pile up. 

The dryer was repaired and I was ready to tackle the mountain of laundry. Since I could do just one load at a time I had to prioritize. As I went through this process I thought about the similarity with our lives. Things can pile up. We have to make daily decisions about priorities and capacity - so we can do what needs to be done. 

 I've put this picture on the wall to remind myself  - one load at a time. Our "dryer" can only do so much. 

4th of July

59 degrees at noon at the start of Kirkland's 4th of July parade

Let the parade begin!

 a sobering reminder of the cost - 

pictures of people who have given their lives while serving

submarine veterans

World War II veteran

Joe remembers his mother wearing this rhinestone flag pin

Missing??

This parking spot is empty because our friend was at the hospital for a heart procedure. 

The seat is empty at church because .....

The person who's always at .... is not there because ....

I want to be the kind of person who notices who's missing 
and respond with support and love