Faith, Hope & Charity

The end of the year is always a time for reflecting on the past year and thinking about the new year to come. This scripture articulates what keeps us going during challenges.

"And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.

And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure."  (Moroni 7: 41-48)

What Do I Really Want?

 “What are your deepest desires? What do you really want to experience and accomplish in this life? Do you really want to become more and more like Jesus Christ? Do you really want to live with Heavenly Father and with your family forever and live as He lives?

“If you do, you will want to accept many gifts offered by the Lord to help you and me during our time of mortal probation.”

 

Four of the gifts Jesus Christ gave to all who are willing to receive them:

-Jesus Christ gives the unlimited capacity to love

-The Savior offers the ability to forgive 

-The Savior gives the gift of repentance

-The promise of life everlasting

Russell Nelson 

Christ's Gifts To Us

“Our Savior, Jesus Christ, offers to us four incomparable gifts—the capacity to love others, the ability to forgive, the blessing of repentance, and the promise of life everlasting.

These four unique gifts will bring us more and more joy as we accept and act upon them. They were made possible because Jehovah condescended to come to earth as the baby Jesus. He was born of an immortal Father and a mortal mother. He was born in Bethlehem under the most humble of circumstances. His was the holy birth foreseen by prophets since the days of Adam.

 Jesus Christ is God’s transcendent gift—the gift of the Father to all of His children (see John 3:16). We joyfully celebrate His birth this Christmas season."

First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

He Was Born For You

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Kirkland

Puddle Jumpers run towards the Christmas tree

Park Lane

foggy morning at the lake

One of the treats after the tree lighting ceremony was a sledding "hill" for the children. Snow was brought down from the mountains. 

This is how it looked two days later

American Printing House for the Blind

Founded in 1858 in Louisville, Kentucky, American Printing House for the Blind is the oldest organization of its kind in the United States. From 1858 until the Civil War began, APH organized its operation and raised funds to create embossed books. After the war, APH resumed operations and produced its first tactile books. By the early 1870s, APH was operating on a national scale.

APH received a federal mandate in 1879 when the Congress of the United States passed the Act to Promote the Education of the Blind. This act designates APH as the official supplier of educational materials to all students in the U.S. who meet the definition of blindness and are working at less than college level. (APH website)

When I was working, first with the Ohio Resource Center for the Visually Handicapped and then with the Ohio Resource Center for Low Incidence and Severely Handicapped, I drove to Louisville 3-4 times a year for meetings. I served on a number of committees throughout the years and, along with our staff, coordinated the expenditure of Federal funds for materials for students with visual impairments. 

 At the APH museum - bottom right is a picture of the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind. Established in 1837, it was the first public school for the blind in the United States.

Helen Keller's desk from her 44 years at the American Foundation for the Blind

The desk went on display at the APH museum the day before my visit.

During my visit I went on a fascinating tour. We saw people recording books for the free national talking book program. Then we saw various items being printed. The product line has greatly expanded since I was working with them - many more technology products. 

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See the green tree to the left of the entrance in the top picture? It's a holly tree. It's probably the same one I saw decades ago when I first visited APH. That's the first time I saw holly growing as a tree. 

The current building surrounds the original structure built in 1883. On the tour, we could sometimes see parts of the original building. Click here for a picture of the original structure. 

Generosity

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent. Johann von Goethe

Sunset

That's Seattle on the other side of Lake Washington

Find the Fish & the Piano?

 In the courtyard of the Arete apartments

November Flowers

Dandelions still blooming & going to seed

Roses still blooming

 It's wonderful to see so much color this late in the year

In addition to these flowers, colorful pansies fill many outdoor containers

Gloriously Overcoming Obstacles

“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”  ― Molière

This lavender pushed right through the wood fence and bloomed gloriously

In Memory Of

I frequently comment on Kirkland's abundance of wonderful public art. This statue is one of the newest ones in town. 

When a developer bought an acre parcel in downtown Kirkland, the owner attached a specific stipulation with the sale. The developer had to include a memorial of some sort to the seller's daughter who died young. The little girl liked butterflies. The developer commissioned this statue that stands outside the Voda Apartments.

Leaves

70 years after this photo I still seek out piles of leaves (dry ones) 

to walk through. I love the feel and the sound.

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October 1947 at our home in London, Ohio

Childhood memory - Margaret Farrar, later Reynolds, lived behind the vacant lot next to our house. I have a vivid memory of raking leaves there and making leaf houses, very elaborate (to us) with "walls" for rooms and openings for doorways. Were we supposed to be raking her yard or did we go there because she had the most leaves in the neighborhood? 

such a beautiful time of year

Some Joe Things

It was barely November and Trader Joe's already had their Christmas goodies out

Not at Trader Joe's but at QFC grocery - Joe Chips

I'd never seen these before

February 2013

Dog Gelato

Kirkland & many surrounding areas pride themselves on being dog friendly. I spotted these signs not long ago. The owner of Sirena Gelato said he started carrying the dog gelato because he saw so many people buy gelato for their dogs and felt dogs needed a non-dairy gelato. 

Swell gelato stepped in to fill this need

Kirkland's Wednesday Market

Kirkland's Wednesday Market brings people to Marina Park June through September.

Caryl Holton - WWI & Statue of Liberty

Caryl Holton served in France during World War I. He wrote home regularly and those letters were saved. On this Veterans Day, it’s fitting to share our Grandfather’s thoughts about going and coming from war, expressed in his feelings on seeing the Statue of Liberty. 

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In a July 1918 account of the trip from New York to France, Grandpa writes about sailing to France on the USS Leviathan, the largest ship afloat, along with 13,000 other men. “We were towed out into the river. Then our own engines began to throb, although we could hardly tell it because there was so little vibration, - and we were on our way. … As we passed the Goddess of Liberty, every man removed his hat and a wonderfully inspiring cheer went up. 

The thought that came to me then – and to almost every man, I think, was “WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN? As we sailed out of the harbor, any number of little submarine patrol boats moved all about us. A destroyer showed up in front of us and started that weaving back and forth in front of us which is [sic] kept up for two days. Overhead a dirigible balloon hovered. It seemed that they were making a lot of fuss over us. All the way down the river were passing larger boats. Some transports; some cargo vessels, and many destroyers and patrol boats. All of them were camouflaged until they looked like a futurists nightmare. In fact everything we saw reminded us of the precautions that were necessary in fighting our hidden enemy, the submarine.” 

He tells about the voyage and remarks “It would have been a wonderful trip for a honeymoon!” This is an interesting comment since he and Celia were married just a few months before he went to Europe. 

“On the second morning out, we discovered that our destroyer had left us and that we were left on our own resources. We were alone then until the following Friday morning. When we first went on deck that morning we discovered that we were convoyed by four US destroyers. Until you have seen the Stars and Stripes show up under just such circumstances as that, you have one sensation to experience because never did they look so good.”

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May 11, 1919 he wrote to “Mother o’Mine”

Caryl will be leaving France in about 2 weeks to sail back to the States.  He writes that he will watch France disappear from view and “… as soon as it disappears below the horizon I’m going to plant myself up as near to the bow as possible and stay there as much as my duty and physical condition will permit so I may be among the first to spy the Statue of Liberty as her torch appears “over the hill” where we left her a year ago. When we passed her last year I removed my hat because everyone else did. This time I’ll remove it for another reason – because I’ve come to an understanding of what she means and represents.” 

Caryl Holton - WWI - Armistice

Caryl wrote "Talmont, France / Winter 1918-19

On November 12, 2018 I was looking through the letters my grandfather, Caryl Holton, wrote home from France during World War I. I found this letter that mentions the Armistice, the agreement to stop the fighting and start negotiating peace. Tears came to my eyes as I realized I was reading this letter exactly 100 years after Grandpa wrote it. 

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France, Tuesday Nov. 12, 1918 

Dear Dad,

These are great days. All our prognostications have gone by the board because none of us in our most insane moments dared forecast the end of such an early date. There will be very few who can honestly say “I told you so.” I didn’t know that so many things could happen in such a short time. The newspaper accounts have read like pages from a novel - and even yet it is hard for me to convince myself that the terms of the armistice aren’t fiction. They were just published today - they must have been very humiliating to Germany. It certainly takes no chances on their resuming hostility. But at that they are receiving more consideration than they deserve.

Of course the big question on everybody’s lips now is “when do we go home?” We really haven’t any idea what they will do with us for they may put us to training up north [not sure of this phrase] or send us up to help reconstruct some of the devastated country - or they may even sent us home from Bordeaux I really think that we’ll be kept in this base - in different jobs until they’re ready to ship us back. I figure that they can send us back at the rate of five or six hundred thousand a month. The ships can sail home by the direct route - and they won’t travel in convoy which held the fastest boats to the speed of the slowest - then too they can use neutral shipping - and shipping will be realised [?] constantly which had been transporting food and supplies. So I’m expecting to get home by June at the very latest. [jht – He did go home June 1918]

………. [comments about the election & flu epidemic] 

You notice I refer to us as “old men” for we have been over almost 5 months now - although I admit it didn’t doesn’t seem possible. Dec 22 we sew on a service stripe. It would be a joke if we would not stay long enough to get one - but it would be agood[ underlined twice] joke.  I don’t want one bad enough to be willing to wait one extra day for it! 

Lovingly 

Caryl

Lt CHolton

CoD 32^ndEngr

American E.F.