Hello and Goodbye to The Sunflowers

 

I've enjoyed the wild sunflowers more than ever this year.  Perhaps it is because of the pandemic.  I'm not going places and doing things other than riding my bike through the neighborhood.  It has been hard not to visit family and hug grandchildren, in particuplar, but this is a temporary thing and I've decided fretting isn't worth the energy.  Instead, I've resolved to enjoy everyday small moments and see the beauty around me everywhere. The sunflowers, and other wild weed/flowers particularly have brightened my world.

The other day, riding along on my bike, I saw this tall sunflower plant standing proud and brilliant in the sun.  A family had stopped to look at it and the mother had picked a couple of the flowers and handed them to her small son.  I thought it might have been better to just admire them and talk about how they grow in the worst soil with not much keeping them down.  Wildflowers never last if they're cut and brought inside.  Anyway, two days later that beautiful plant was mowed down, along with others growing nearby.

The area where the sunflowers were growing looked like a war zone where someone had ran over the area with a mower.  It looked far worse than if they'd just left the weeds and flowers growing.  Seriously, the weeds with the purple tops and the sunflowers were quite pretty. Why would anyone consider these plants a problem when they were just growing along side the road in gravel?  Did they think they were a fire hazard?  They grew near alfalfa fields with no homes close.  I was very sad to see the sunflowers ruined while yet it their glory.  The purple weeds were gone too.

Perhaps we could appreciate the gifts nature gives us even in the form of weeds.  Just because we didn't plant and tend something doesn't mean it is worthless.  Sure, some weeds are noxious and prevent cultivated things from growing but can't we leave the ones that aren't bothering anyone or creating a problem?

This is what I wrote to the sunflowers that were cut down (I know you'll think this silly but it did really affect me.):

Dear Sunflowers,

Why would anyone mow you down?  You were just handin' out hoping for sunlight and perhaps a little dew.  You brought light to a darkened world with your bright yellow that I enjoyed each day as I passed you by.

You grew in gravel, thin soil, and amongst debris but reached for the sky anyway though rain rarely came your way.  You grew in the worst of conditions and made the best of what you had by not just surviving but thriving with the little you were given. You lined the fences, the ditch banks, the side of the roads, and popped up in the middle of the fields bringing a marvelous display with freedom to reach for the sun in a joyful yellow dance. You decorated rock and garbage piles, somehow adding beauty to things considered abandoned and ugly. Your sunny faces bobbed in the wind.  Nothing much could take you down except what finally did. 

It truly was a shock when I saw your season of splender cut short and your lovely stalks flat on the ground and those pretty faces in the dirt.  You are gone.  Cut down in your prime and glory.  I'm so sorry, lovely sunflowers.  I mourn the loss of you, an important part of my present life. Your cheer is gone but I still feel warmth inside for what you gave.  I'm sorry that not everyone noticed your magnificent display.  

Thank you for your sunshine.

I loved you dearly.

The Miracle of Hope | Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Perfect is Perfectly Overused

Don't worry about being perfect but do your best to stand strong in your values and beliefs. The negative opinions in the world will not sway you to believe you're not good enough.

Apparently, I do everything perfectly. Cool, huh? I know this because everywhere I go someone tells me whatever I’ve done is perfect. It is said emphatically often with a little upward lilt at the end of the drawn-out purr.

As an example, consider my recent visit to the bank where I signed a paper that was declared perfect by the bank associate. I also discovered in the past couple of years that my orders placed at various restaurants are always perfect. If I want straws, it is perfect and if I don’t want straws, it’s still perfect. My mouth is always full when a server in a restaurant asked, “How is everything?” To which I can only say, “Ummm,” and shake my head up and down while I am told, “perfect..” How can I lose? The money I hand to the clerks in the store is perfect (even the torn $20 I taped back together). My purchases at any store are deemed perfect. The fact that I found everything I wanted in the store (as asked by the courteous clerk) is followed by an affirmative, “Perfect.” All answers I give to questions on the phone or in-person are perfect. When asked if I’m warm with the blanket given me before surgery and I happen to be, then that is perfect. My opinion on a poll, my favorite TV show, book, method of doing something, and thousands of other things I’ve done, chosen, or commented on have been proclaimed perfect. Imagine that.

In the old days, before “perfect” became the go-to comment to almost everything, I remember people using other words like, “Thank you,” “That’s great,” “Yes,” “Good,” “Great choice!” “Okay,” “Alright,” and any number of useful or neutral responses (I’m not judging them better than awesome perfect, of course). Anyone remember John Denver and his “Far Out?” Or, how about “Groovy?” Word fads come and go. A couple of years ago “insane” hit the phrase rage and everything that was fabulous, shocking, wonderful, or just too much was deemed “insane.” No one forgets the “like” preceding many words, especially used by, like, teenagers. Many sentences these days begin with “so,” my husband points out. Studying the evolution of speech is quite interesting, really.

According to a dictionary, perfect means: being entirely without fault or defect—FLAWLESS; satisfying all requirements: ACCURATE, EXPERT, PROFICIENT TOTAL, and lacking in no essential detail: COMPLETE. It also said it used to mean SANE but that is obsolete.

With my false sense of perfectness, I find myself using the “P” word. This trend is contagious!
Really, it’s okay. Perfect is a much better word to use than some ugly words we’re hearing too often these days. It is always fun to count how many perfects I can collect in a day. It makes for a perfect day on the bright side and my head gets a little bigger as I perfect.

On the other hand, perhaps some of the above definitions do fit certain situations nicely and warrant using “perfect,” but I’d like to think that “sane” might come out of obsoleteness and send “perfect” back to where it belongs.

Being Grateful for All We Have

This was given to me by my grandson.  It is precious because of the effort he put into making it and, of course, the message. I am always grateful for gifts.

An inspirational thought:  Cicero, a legendary statesman from the ancient decaying Roman Empire, called gratitude the parent of all other virtues.  If we keep a feeling of gratefulness--have gratitude in our hearts--we unlock an entire range of temporal and spiritual blessings.  Gratitude invigorates the soul, overcomes fear, envy, and resentfulness.  It frees the heart so one can better love others and be concerned with their welfare rather than self.

Most of us are familiar with some sort of tradition we follow to show gratitude for the food we eat.  Sometimes the blessing on the food is a memorized prayer like the one I grew up with--"Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let this food to us be blessed."  Other times, we may offer a prayer off the cuff with whatever we feel inspired to say.  Either type of prayer is fine because it causes us to pause long enough to show gratitude for our food, which not everyone has on a regular basis in places throughout the world.

I challenge everyone to pause and really think about where their food actually comes from and what efforts are in play to get it to the table.  How about the following prayer for my morning smoothie:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food before me. I'm grateful for the cows that gave their milk, the farmer who milked them, the truck driver who transported the milk to the processing plant, and the plant workers who prepared the clean equipment to receive the milk. I'm grateful for the process that made my yogurt and for those who made the container that it was put into, as well as those who put it into the container.  I am grateful for those who transported it to the store, unloaded it, and put it on the store shelves, and for the clerk who checked me out at the grocery store. Bless this food to nourish and strengthen my body in the way that I need. Amen." Yeah, that is a bit much but don't tune me out yet. Think deeper.

If we went further back, we could thank the farmer who fed the cow and plowed and planted and watered the field where the grass grew for the cow to eat.  Perhaps, the farmer had to plow, cultivate, plant, cut, bale, and haul the hay for the cow to eat.  It can be a long list of complicated steps before the food makes it to us.

Think about all the food we eat and where it comes from and all the work that goes into getting it to our tables.  Many people are involved with laboring in the fields to gather fruits and vegetables,.  After that, there is washing, packaging, loading, transporting, unloading, and stocking.  All those steps and details for every single item means we get a quality product to enjoy in our homes.  

I would advise keeping the blessing on the food short in the interest of those hungry folks sitting at the table waiting to dig in as quickly as possible. A simple thanks for all the people who helped get the food to us will suffice.  It still doesn't stop me from thanking the chicken who laid the egg but I do that in private or everyone at the table would probably start laughing.

My husband enjoys creating a masterpiece when he prepares food.   

Love is the Little Things and Everything

On my fridge are three pictures sent to me by great-grandsons. This is love. They know I love ducks.

Most of you have heard the quote by George Sand, "There is only one happiness in this life--to love and be loved."   This I believe wholeheartedly. The small, simple gestures like a quick text with a heart or an "I love you," makes for a happy heart.  Feeling loved cannot be topped in the happiness scale.  Many things can be going wrong all around us but if we are loved we can survive anything.

Here are some quotes about LOVE:

Love one another deeply from the heart. -1 Peter 1:22

In our life, there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning to life and art.
It is the color of love.  -Marc Chagall

Love one another and you will be happy.  It's as simple and as difficult as that.  -Michael Leunig

Love is above, above all, the gift of oneself.  -Jean Anouilh

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. -1 Corinthians 13:4-8

We can only learn to love by loving.  -Iris Murdoch

Love is not only something you feel.  It is something you do.  -David Wilkerson

Every man [woman] feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.  -James Russell Lowell

There is no remedy for love but to love more.  -Henry David Thoreau

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.  -David Viscott

Only love lets us see normal things in an extraordinary way.  -Alejandro De Salminihac

One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life.  That word is love.  -Sophocles

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.  -William Shakespeare

Our echoes roll from soul to soul and grow forever and ever.  -Alfred, Lord Tennyson

What a grand thing, to be loved!  What a grander thing still, to love!  -Victor Hugo

Love is everything it's cracked up to be . . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.  -Erica Jong

Love on!

Love is Beautiful-Spread it!

Happy Valentine's Day this week. 

A Perspective on Everyday Life & Trials

Here it is the middle of January and already we may feel like a failure because we had goals to improve ourselves or to do some specific things differently and we are still going on each day the same in and same out. Don't despair! We need to remember to just do our best each day and call it done.  We've heard it many times:  The past is gone, the future isn't here yet, so today is all you have in which to live. Needless to say, there are challenges to our days and these seemingly get in the way of what we were planning to accomplish.  Just take what comes.  Do our best with it.  

Faith Precedes the Miracle, by Spencer W. Kimball, is an easy-to-read book that addresses many concerns in life.  Below is a quote from his book to help our perspective on living and enduring trials that come our way.

“If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective”

Is there not wisdom in His [God’s] giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?

If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.

If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls.

Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors.  Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery.  The sufferings of our Savior were part of his education."

Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.” 

Okay, so back to our earth school day--what can we learn today?  What can we do with this day?