Back to the Garden

Getting back to life as usual after a life-altering event is quite the interesting task. How does one go about the day when you are irrevocably changed?

Me? I headed outside.

For the last couple of days I have spent most of my time in the yard. Mowing the lawn, planting out flower pots, transplanting the pepper & eggplant seedlings to the garden, sowing morning glories by the gazebo trellis.

So far, I have completed the first planting of an 8' x 4' section of the potager. Indeterminate tomatoes (Early Girl, Golden Jubilee, Sweet 100, Yellow Pear, and the semi-determinate Mountain Pride) grow happily along the jute trellis, followed consecutively by jalapeno, Mulato Isleno, and bell peppers. Bride & Hansel eggplants round out the transplants. Also planted today include Copra onions-- a storage variety, two varieties of basil (Mammoth Sweet and Aroma 1--just the thought of its scent takes me to summer!), along with a decorative border of Lemon Gem marigolds and Thai Silk California poppies.

They say that growing peppers alongside marigolds and basil is an excellent pest deterrent. I'm truly hoping this is the case-- for I am totally committed to succeeding at growing bell peppers this year. Every year my mom grows these majestic plants with softball-sized, gorgeous peppers. For the last couple of years, I have been lucky if my plants survive... and typically end up with only a sad, shriveled excuse of a pepper-- or two. Some of it has been pests, and some of it has been a sad lack of tender loving care on my end. Not this year. These babies are growing if it's the last thing I do.

Fresh air, flowers, and sunshine.
If that's not a remedy for a rough week, I don't know what is.

A Mother Heart

I love you, Mom!

Thanks for sharing your mother heart with all who have the pleasure of knowing you.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone.

What is a mother heart and how is one acquired? We learn about some of those qualities in the scriptures. To paraphrase Proverbs: “Who can find a … woman [with a mother heart]? for her price is far above rubies. … She … worketh willingly with her hands. … With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. … She stretcheth out her hand to the poor. … Strength and honour are her clothing. … She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness” (Prov. 31:10, 13, 16, 20, 25–27). A woman with a mother heart has a testimony of the restored gospel, and she teaches the principles of the gospel without equivocation. She is keeping sacred covenants made in holy temples. Her talents and skills are shared unselfishly. She gains as much education as her circumstances will allow, improving her mind and spirit with the desire to teach what she learns to the generations who follow her.

If she has children, she is a “goodly parent” (1 Ne. 1:1) who lives and teaches standards of behavior exactly in line with the teachings of living prophets. She teaches her “children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord” (D&C 68:28). Rather than listening to the voices and partial truths of the world, she knows that gospel standards are based on eternal, unchangeable truths. She believes that to be “primarily responsible for the nurture of [her] children” is a vital, dignified, and “sacred responsibilit[y]” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona, Oct. 1998, 24; Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). To nurture and feed them physically is as much an honor as to nurture and feed them spiritually. She is “not weary in well-doing” and delights to serve her family, because she knows that “out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33).

Covenant-keeping women with mother hearts know that whether motherhood comes early or late; whether they are blessed with a “quiver full” of children here in mortality or not; whether they are single, married, or left to carry the responsibility of parenthood alone—in holy temples they are “endowed with power from on high” (D&C 38:32), and with that endowment they received the promised blessings and are “persuaded of them, and embraced them” (Heb. 11:13).

Every girl and woman who makes and keeps sacred covenants can have a mother heart. There is no limit to what a woman with a mother heart can accomplish. Righteous women have changed the course of history and will continue to do so, and their influence will spread and grow exponentially throughout the eternities. How grateful I am to the Lord for trusting women with the divine mission of motherhood. Like Mother Eve I am “glad” (see Moses 5:11) to know these things.
- Julie B. Beck
A Mother Heart, Apr. 2004 Conference Address

What Itch?

Seven years ago we took a chance on love.

Some people thought we were crazy.
Some people thought it would never last.

But not a day goes by that I don't stop and marvel--
Just when you think you can't love someone more, the next morning comes. And I am always pleasantly surprised by how our love continues to grow year after blessed year.

I am so grateful for our marriage.
For how you make me feel so completely loved at all times.
For how you still make my heart skip a beat just by looking at me.
For how you move through life, trying to do good every day.
For how you love our children and treasure the small moments.
For how you remain-- over all-- true to yourself and true to our marriage.

I love you more today than I ever thought it was possible to love someone.
Happy Anniversary, Bryson.

for jen

they say
that night is always darkest before the dawn.

i'm certain this is true.

for your morning has come-- resplendent in its glory.

and although we must remain
in darkness
a while longer

we cannot help
but smile

for the dawn
that has broken

while you were breaking free.

God's Country

After dinner tonight, Taylor and Reilly were pretending to be airplanes flying from destination to destination around the world.

The armchair, Taylor informed us, was Japan. The love seat? Africa.

Bryson: Well then, where is Australia?

Taylor (pointing to the couch on which they were seated): Daaaaaaaaaad, we're in Australia!

Bryson: Oh... Then where is the United States?

Taylor (solemnly): That's where God lives.

Closer to Love

I apologize for the lack of substantive posts lately. I have a lot on my mind, a lot that I want to say, but for the moment everything remains jumbled up in my brain waiting to gain some sort of cohesive form.

Have you heard the latest single from Mat Kearney? Okay, it has been out awhile, but I just barely heard it on the radio for the first time today as I was driving Taylor to preschool. Listening to the lyrics, I felt like my life was spilling out from the radio in musical form... and was reminded of how blessed we truly are.


for complete music video, please click here.
for lyrics, please click here.

Experiencing love and loss is part of what the human condition is all about. Difficult times come to us all. But we are never alone. I am so incredibly grateful for amazing friends who continue to buoy me up with their love and support. In their acts of compassion I feel not only their love, but also the love of our Savior. And after all is said and done in the world that is what truly remains and what truly matters.

He pulls us closer to His love.
♥

There is another angel in heaven...

Jen passed from this life peacefully around 6 am on Monday, May 4th.


I have no words, so I'll borrow these from a far wiser source:

Life is eternal. We are eternal beings. We lived as intelligent spirits before this mortal life. We are now living part of eternity. Our mortal birth was not the beginning. Death, which faces all of us, is not the end.

As eternal beings, we each have in us a spark of divinity...

As we travel through this topsy-turvy, sinful world filled with temptations and problems, we are humbled by the expectancy of death, the uncertainty of life, and the power and love of God. Sadness comes to all of us in the loss of loved ones. But there is gratitude also—gratitude for the assurance we have that life is eternal; gratitude for the great gospel plan given freely to all of us; gratitude for the life, teachings, and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank God for the life and ministry of the Master, Jesus the Christ, who broke the bonds of death, who is the light and life of the world, who set the pattern, who established the guidelines for all of us, and who proclaimed: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (John 11:25–26.)

Yes, life is eternal. We live on and on after earth life, even though we ofttimes lose sight of that great basic truth.

This is but a place of temporary duration. We are here to learn the first lesson toward exaltation—obedience to the Lord’s gospel plan.

There is the ever-present expectancy of death, but in reality there is no death—no permanent parting. The resurrection is a reality. The scriptures are replete with evidence. Almost immediately after the glorious resurrection of the Lord, Matthew records: “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” (Matt. 27:52–53.)

The spirit world is not far away. Sometimes the veil between this life and the life beyond becomes very thin. Our loved ones who have passed on are not far from us.

May God hasten the day when people everywhere will accept His teaching, His example, and His divinity—yes, when they will accept as a reality His glorious resurrection, which broke the bonds of death for all of us.

- President Ezra Taft Benson
"Life is Eternal", Aug. '91 Ensign