I remember when I was a pre-teen sitting in church one Easter Sunday and being brought to tears as a man with the voice of an angel sang “The Holy City.” It’s the song with the chorus: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Hark! How the Angels sing, Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna to your king!” I was really touched through the whole song, but especially as the words took us from Jesus’ birth, to the cross, then to the changed earth, with the gates wide open welcoming everyone. “And no one was denied,” the rich tenor voice rang out.
Overlooking Jerusalem as we were climbing Golgatha to the place of the crucifixion.
This morning I was listening to worship music and “The Holy City” came on and I was transported to various times in my life, feeling ever so grateful for the Savior. Another song, this one I got to hear remotely as it was sung by my granddaughters today in church, “I did not touch Him or sit on His knee, Yet, Jesus is real to me. I know He lives!”
I have so much hope for continued growth, for increased peace, and for eternal joy. Wishing you all a blessed Easter and a joyful spring.
We loved watching The A Team on TV in the early 1980s. Every episode would come to a close with the line, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
That phrase has been running through my head this past week. Without going into specifics, let me just say that even when it looks like my plan is falling apart, or when I’m putting tons of effort into something, but not yet seeing progress, life blesses me with moments when everything seems to come together: my efforts, soul-hurting heartaches, hopes that I’ve felt in my heart but not yet articulated in my head, and forward motion – but in a direction I didn’t anticipate. It’s really, really beautiful and solidifies my gratitude for life and experience, and my faith that God really can help turn everything for my good. And it reminds me how important to my becoming the process and the path really is.
Really, from 2 weeks ago to today, for everything to have fallen into place so beautifully, I feel nothing but awe and gratitude. The gratitude extends to people – some, who don’t even have a clue how integral they were to helping this plan come together.
Someday, I hope to come back and fill in the blanks. I hope to create in you, my reader (do I have a reader besides myself?), the same awe that I feel. For now, I’ll be content with sending out my grateful thoughts and documenting them generally. Life is just so very beautiful.
With some of my granddaughters looking out over Sitka Sound
I was planning to dedicate a blog post to my recently departed Uncle E.H. As I spent time thinking about him and about what I wanted to share, I was struck with how every person I love (and likely every person I come in contact with) influences me. Heads up: there will be no logical reasoning for the order that I share things in. In fact, it’s feeling to me like this will become more of a journal entry than a blog post. But there we have it.
Ririe Shelton Cemetery, Ririe, Idaho February 17, 2024
It is really something to be present at a graveside service with military honors. I’m so touched by the respect and sacredness as the honor guard and others in uniform carry out this responsibility. The guns going off, the bugle playing taps, the flag being folded then delivered … really a magnificent experience. The only clue in the above photo that it was a bitterly cold, extremely windy day is that there is a giant cord holding the flag on the coffin in place. While I was sniffling and rubbing my hands together, these military personnel stood at attention, giving Uncle E.H. the honor he deserved.
Uncle E.H. with my son, Trevor, standing next to him at a family reunion in 2015
A couple of years after we moved to Henderson, NV, I began contracting with a company as a marketing director. That required me to travel six or seven hours north to Utah every month. Many of those months, I’d drop in and spend the night with Uncle E.H. and Aunt Eva. Besides their incredible hospitality (always an amazing meal or two, comfortable bed, lots of card games, and a sweet visit), spending time with them made me even more of a WATER SNOB (I was already, having lived near an artesian well in Alaska), and fascinated with living water and salt. Uncle E.H. shared his research with me and encouraged me to get my own crystals to keep in a water jug, start using sole (so-lay), and to shun “purified” water. I’ve been doing that ever since. (Click on “his research” in the sentence above for a link to the book that transformed him and changed my water/salt habits.) Uncle E.H. was 80 at that time. He died at 94. I miss him.
About 1967 in El Cajon, CA
I love trees. Especially weeping willow trees. Funny how this picture looks so different from how I remember it. In my mind, I can only see it from inside the weeping branches. I’m sitting on the ground looking up at sunlight peeking through the green canopy, surrounded by a wallpaper of a thin, flowing sea of green. It’s cool – inside the arms of our giant weeping willow tree. I can hear my mom’s voice singing about how beautiful God’s creations are. I feel peace here. When we were preparing to move to Idaho from Nevada, Brad was already working at his new job and house searching for us. As he had me on FaceTime and walked me through this home, up the front steps, through the house, then out the back door, I just about jumped up and flipped! The weeping willow in the backyard sold me on the entire house!
Summer 2015, Idaho Falls, ID
Autumn 2023, Idaho Falls, ID
I love everything about our tree, our yard, the grass, the kazillion flowers that happily grow for us (we can’t grow veggies AT ALL). In a nutshell, though, I love the earth. I learned that from my parents, and that love and connection to the earth keeps growing. My personal experiences and my interactions with so many glorious people, just make me love the earth more and more each day. Speaking of the earth, two days ago I was walking around barefoot in our backyard, taking deep breaths and looking upward. Today, I’m hunkered down inside as the wind blows the giant snowflakes that have landed on the ground into humongous drifts. This is March – such a temperamental month.
Of the shore of Guam, USA 1990
My parents first taught me to love the water. My dad was in the swimming pool business, and (except for the 3 years we lived in Michigan) we grew up near an ocean. But I had never imagined myself a diver until a few months after moving to Guam. Diving was Brad’s profession at the time, so when our baby was old enough for me to be away for a few hours (she would have been fine earlier … I couldn’t stand the separation) I finally went for a dive. I was immediately hooked. I can honestly say that I am never more comfortable physically, emotionally, spiritually, than when I am in the ocean. I feel one with everything. The ocean calls to me.
Fall, 2023 ~ Sitka, Alaska
I would always rather be IN the water than on the water (in a boat) or looking at the water from the shore. However. I’ve had some really sweet moments sitting on the shore, and being on a boat. Honestly, I’ll take the ocean any way I can get it.
More about trees: In 2022 and 2023 I did a deep dive into the Divine Feminine. I know. Some things become trendy … vernacular, tattoos, fashion, and even spiritual study. More about trends and my fight against and then acquiescing, in a minute. But the Divine Feminine, particularly, Heavenly Mother: I took a couple of courses; one of them was a study (kind of a surface level study) of the Hebrew and Greek words that have been either accidentally mistranslated or intentionally changed in the Bible. Shortening my two year experience into a small paragraph, I learned how symbolically divinely feminine trees are. Including the Menorah. Yes. I now own a couple of menorahs. And it’s making more and more sense to me why I’m so enthralled with trees.
Christmas 2023 in our home
Now, about trends. A couple of years ago when I first heard about cold-plunging, I thought: idiots. I thought that for a long time. That being said, I’ve always been attracted to the occasional cold plunge. When we lived in Sitka, I participated in the annual Polar Dip. Anyway, it wasn’t until after visiting our son & his family that I started to think that cold plunging might be more of a progression of science than a fad. Our son had been using his cold plunge for months and was completely sold on it. It was part of his daily routine. Brad and I both tried it, and it was doable. Brad really, really wanted to get our own cold plunge (aka, repurposed chest freezer). So I did a deep dive (hehehe) into the scientifically proven benefits, the risks, and blah blah blah. I now cold plunge daily. For the past while, I’m in the cold water for 2 1/2 minutes every morning. The temperature is set at 36 degrees, so the temperature fluctuates by a couple of degrees. This morning, it was 35.7. Cold. But, as my son says, “cold is cold” so I might as well plunge at a temperature that gives me the greatest benefit. I think that perhaps this is becoming a passion.
Since January, and with about 2 weeks off total because of travel, I’ve lost over 4″ of belly fat, have been able to sleep better, and clearly am more energized. My weight hasn’t changed, which I think is weird if I’ve been measuring smaller, but that’s that. I originally committed to cold plunge for a month, and if there weren’t marked benefits, I’d stop. At the one month mark, I decided I’d do it through the semester (I teach at the university) and see if I’m still benefitting. Truth be told, I think I would miss it if I stopped. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to scream: This is INSANE for the first 2 seconds of each plunge.
Ok, I’ve been writing this off and on for about 7 hours now, so I’ll just do a sequel another time. I’ll end with my obsession with flowers. I love every kind of flower in every setting. Gosh, I love them. (Also, I live my life in song and movie quotes, so please excuse me as I end this post with the words of children’s song.)
Summer 2023, Idaho Falls, ID
I think the world is glorious, and lovely as can be The birds and bees and blossoms bring sweet messages to me I’ll sing and sing and sing and sing a song of joy and love I’ll sing and sing and sing and sing my thanks to God above.
I am Yellow 