I don't
know about the rest of you, but I.am.sick.of.winter. Not that it's been
that cold (and certainly not enough snow to bury a flea), but it's been
DREARY.CLOUDY.DRIZZLY, with not enough sunny, "warm" type of days to
count on 1 hand, it seems like.
Cheers
to the brave daffodils. Some around the neighborhood have already
bloomed! Ours are on the verge, and hopefully two weeks from today, I'll
be playing a different tune.
Happy
Valentines Day to everyone, especially those I didn't get around to wishing if
officially. I love you! (Happy Birthday tomorrow Scott).
Emily and I went to Starbucks
using their "buy one get one free." I hate to say it, but I
like my homemade hot cocoa better. But it was nice to have some time
alone with Emily, which is always rare. One of her friends apparently
works for Norwegian cruise line, and is encouraging her to apply to
work on the ship. Emily gave me some Dove chocolates - they put me
in heaven! She bought a bunch of roses and I got some balloons to
put on the grandgirl's graves. I've been to
the cemetery several times this week, and it never fails to
"get" me. I wish I could visit Cheri's - Brett and
Matt, you'll have to go for me - take some pictures -
I've never seen her marker (how did we fail to go there this Christmas?!?!?!)
Got my
Roku set up last night - finally - so now I can watch BYUtv while I'm in the
kitchen! I can't believe how many channels there are! I'm not going to
miss Time Warner Cable, at all.
I got
my old Schwinn bike put into shape, with the help of a Groupon and an
additional $80. Now I have another way to get exercise! And
speaking of bikes, I was on a busy street on the way home Friday and while I
was at the light, two missionaries zipped across on their bikes! Only, a
moment later one of them was on the ground next to a car!! Oh no!! After
a tense minute the guy put 2 thumbs up, hopped up and hugged the horrified
driver of the car. Guess he was ok!
Because
Feb. 11 and 18 will forever be significant days in my life, I decided from now
on, I will make a trip to the Temple during this time. I started over a
month ago looking for some company on the trip - it was announced in Relief
Society, and found no one, which won't stop me. The weather was supposed
to be kinda bad in the eastern part of the state, and there were even flurries
in Clemmons when I left. When I got to Siler City it looked like a
feather pillow was ripped open and dumped out! I loved it - but I was too
far to turn back, so I kept going and the snow turned back to cold/drizzle
stuff and made it to the temple just fine with beautiful music from my Tim
Janis Iheart station on my cell phone.
This
is the end of my news for the week - Meriden, feel free to edit for the blog.
Now, for something more personal, and this far outweighs the
above in significance for me. If you don't want to read it, just
make a "mom" file and save it for later. This is about temple
worship, for want of a better term.
 |
| Raleigh NC Temple |
I'll be honest and confess that for the past several years I've
had lull/lapse in what I hoped to gain from attending the temple. I
NEVER fail to be inspired and feel the Spirit there, don't get me wrong.
And I always feel good for doing service for others.
But I've been kinda frustrated feeling that I wasn't
learning/feeling/experiencing all I've read that one can learn from the temple.
And I've been feeling guilty, knowing that kind of knowledge comes from
the Holy Ghost by revelation, which said to me that I am lacking some way.
AND to be honest, for most of my life I've attended the temple with the
primary goal of obtaining guidance for situations/problems in my life (which is
appropriate and fine), but as I look back, perhaps it was at the expense of
understanding the symbols and other things there are to learn from temple
worship.
I made a point to do some reading this week - I listened to a
WONDERFUL talk (House of the Lord) by Truman Madsen on the commute to
work. (Those of you who aren't familiar with TM, he is an absolutely amazing - he
is a scholar, but he also comes totally from the heart). From there I
looked for a classic talk by John Widstoe (look him up), and found it on a
fantastic web site at work. (This site is a gold mine about the temple-http://www.templestudy.com/). And then I revisited a
book on my bookshelf, House of Glory, by S Michael Wilcox, which
discusses how to how to find personal meaning in the temple.
So yesterday I went with the attitude of just learning one (or
more) things. Like so many spiritual experiences I've had, the meaning
of a couple of things was quietly, almost imperceptively, brought to my
attention. And the more I thought about the symbols the bigger it got,
with one thing leading to another and another, and of course, leading to
Christ. I was amazed! How could I have missed it these past 40 years??
It was just right there! And today during the Sacrament song it
jumped off the page and hit me between the forehead!
But that's not all---let me
go back to Wednesday, which is always a sweet day when I have my counselor
appointment followed by the parent's group meeting. I came to my
appointment with Carol without an "agenda" in mind, which I usually
do. Instead we got started talking about experiences I had recently that
didn't fit the "mold" I developed for myself throughout my life.
As Clayton Christensen (author of the Innovators Dilemma - look him up; I was in the Honors
Program with him at BYU), would say my idea of myself was being
"disrupted." (here's another link which talks about disruption http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=3120; WANT TO BE HAPPIER? DISRUPT YOURSELF ). And perhaps - the mold I created for myself
wasn't correct, and realizing that it is really full of holes, and perhaps,
there's is much more to me than I thought of myself before - is really
thrilling!!
NOW, back to today - I was reading more in Bro. Wilcox' book,
and a flash hit me - just as there is so much in the endowment to learn,, there
is more to ME to learn about because I've existed for thousands of
years!! Heavenly Father knows about the endowment, because he gave it,
and He also knows all there is to know about me because He is my Father!
And just as we find more and more meaning in temple worship, there is more to
learn about ourselves! And we can disrupt the "mold" that we
have created about ourselves and our purpose in life in favor of a true
"mold."
I think that's about enough. There's more I'd like to
share, but at another time. As always, I invite you to share your
thoughts and experiences.
In love,
Mom/Nancy
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