So Little Time

 

“Your first duty in life is toward your afterself. So live that the man you ought to be may, in his time, be possible, be actual. Far away in the years he is waiting his turn. His body, his brain, his soul, are in your boyish hands. He cannot help himself. What will you leave for him? Will it be a brain unspoiled by lust or dissipation; a mind trained to think and act; a nervous system true as a dial in its response to the truth about you? Will you, Boy, let him come as a man among men in his time? Or will you throw away his inheritance before he has had the chance to touch it? Will you turn over to him a brain distorted, a mind diseased, a will untrained to action, a spinal cord grown through and through with ‘the devil-grass of wild oats’? Will you let him come and take your place, gaining through your experience, happy in your friendships, hallowed through your joys, building on them his own? Or will you fling it all away, decreeing, wanton-like, that the man you might have been shall never be? This is your problem in life—the problem which is vastly more to you than any or all others. How will you meet it, as a man or as a fool? It comes before you today and every day, and the hour of your choice is the crisis in your destiny!”

David Starr Jordan

Hall Of Fame

I LOVED my college years.  Okay, the first couple were a little rocky, but after I learned that "nobody has ever died from homesickness" (thank you dad) Utah State opened my life to so many friendships and fun times.  Many memories reside in the halls of Cobble Creek and Brook Lane Apartments.  They are all written in several journals, all of which I cringe at the thought of my children reading (nothing bad, just a tad bit on the dramatic side). 
Brook Lane and Cobble Creek made up the Utah State 34th ward, with Bishop Gill presiding.  When my three years as a member of the 34th ward came to a close, I was a little melancholy and recorded the following in my journal, "I think that we meet different people at different times in our lives for a reason, each one creating a little piece of the person we call ourselves.  My hope is that the next life will contain lots of reunions.  Meetings with these people you never thought you would see again.  You can thank them for the memories and more important the lessons they taught you.  It will be a time to celebrate in the final product of "you" and all the people that made you so spectacular."  I am hoping that the "spectacular" part comes to fruition someday before these reunions are to take place :) 
This week I was listening to a talk by Sterling W. Sill entitled, "Each Of You Has a Hall of Fame."  He begins his talk by telling of an experiment.  (I paraphrase, but do so with quotation marks) "Once a piece of silver and a piece of gold were put next to each other for a long period of time.  At the end of the allotted time the metals were separated.  However, during this period of time, molecules from each metal were transferred to the other...The gold had flecks of silver in it and the silver had flecks of gold in it."  The moral.....The character traits of the people we place ourselves next to, will "rub off" on us. 
Realizing this, Elder Sill literally created his own "Hall of Fame" by studying and extensively writing about more than 70 people that he wanted to influence his life in some way.  He then encouraged his audience to attempt the same task. 
The idea fascinates me, and I have vowed to undertake the same project.  I think I will start long before the Utah State 34th ward, perhaps about 20 years before...perhaps on Spruce street in Ashton, Idaho.  I think there were a few people there that hoped one day some of their own gold flecks would rub off on me. 

Funniness

Every day Jared and Sam have the EXACT same conversation after school. "Sam, how was school today?"  "Great dad, nobody moved their clip to yellow."  Moving clips to yellow is Sam's teachers discipline tactic, and it works!  Sometimes the conversation goes like this, "Sam, how was school today?"  "Not so good dad, I moved my clip to yellow."  Those aren't very good days! 

Sam has had a fascination with these clips all year longs.  So I engaged in a very funny conversation with him yesterday.  I began to ask him about each child in his class and if they ever had to move their clips. "Sam, does Cloe (code name) ever have to move her clip to yellow?"  Long Pause, and funny look... 
Smiling he says, "Mom!  Cloe is a GIRL!  Girls don't get in trouble!" and then as an afterthought, he looks at Gary and says, "Only when they talk too much, and they do that A LOT!"

FUNNINESS!

Gathering and Scattering

This weekend, Saturday to be exact, Ally was baptized.  It was GREAT!  But some thoughts are a little to personal or sacred to be blogged about, thus they have been recorded in the journal for all of my posterity to read. 

I did however have another thought, something that has actually weighed on my mind for years.  I feel like it is finally resolved.  So I am ready to write it down before I forget that it is already resolved :)

I come from a family of 6 girls, and we are TIGHT!  Tight in the sense that we are all still very involved in, help with, and aware of what is going on in each other's lives.  I don't know if that is because we are all girls, or because our parents planned it that way, but it is what it is.  And I am very GRATEFUL!   

Sometimes I wonder why we put all of our hopes into, "Families are Forever," and then wait for FOREVER to start on the other side.  Forever starts now.  Do I mean that being tight is all roses?  No!  But issues have to be solved at some point, another reason we should get a jump start on "forever."  And I can testify that over the years, the issues get smaller and the good times get much larger!

Every Christmas Eve, my family gets together in Shelley, Idaho at my sister Kristine's house for the annual Christmas Eve Program.  My sister Erin is in charge of printing a program for the nightly agenda.  About 4 years ago, right before reading the Christmas Story, the program listed "ADVICE FROM DAD."   My dad liked to give advice, sometimes it was about weird things like math, or even fishing, but we could tell that this was serious.  He plead with each of us to "Pray for each other, there is power in prayer."  Then he asked us a favor, "I want you to always stay close and happy with each other, because I would love for my grandkids to have 6 houses they can go to at any time for help or to feel at home."  Well, I have never forgotten that night, or that advice.  It sticks in my mind and reminds me to do whatever it takes to connected. 

Here is the problem part.  As the family grows, and spreads out, it becomes increasingly difficult to carry out the yearly traditions that help us be a tight family.   As I thought about a year with no Christmas Eve party or vacation at Bear Lake, I was SICK.  Knowing that, as a family, we are only going to get bigger, and physically farther apart, I went seeking to know how to feel good about this whole thing.  I came up with 2 things.

#1.  Focus on the day to day. Families are like testimonies.  Testimonies cannot be "EVENT BASED."  They must be built over time, day by day, one scripture, one prayer, one prompting upon another.  Just because I go to the Sacred Grove, does not mean I have a testimony of Joseph Smith.  Families stay close day by day, not because of large events.  Don't discount the little stuff.  When we are involved in the details, we weave ourselves into each others lives.  My mother is brilliant at this.  She knows all of my neighbors names, and actually everything that is going on in their lives too :)

#2.  A while ago I read the book of 1st Nephi several times over wondering what would be important enough to put in the first book of the Book of Mormon.  I came up with several things, but one stuck out to me, it is the following doctrine.  SCATTERING IS A CURSE FOR DISOBEDIENCE AND GATHERING IS A BLESSING FOR OBEDIENCE.   It is GATHERING that I am concerned about.  Families become united as they are obedient.  It goes back to the old triangle theory   (see my Feb. 24th post).  It is natural.  When we are trying to be good, we want to be around each other, we want ties to be strong and we want to help.

I have come to the conclusion that, as we are obedient and put in a whole lot of hard work, the Lord will find a way to GATHER.....