Positive Attitude

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." Herm Albright

Did you hear about the dolphin that hit his brother? He did it on porpoise!

---Boys' Life :)

Life's challenges

These quotes were posted on a friend's blog today and I wanted to pass them along.

“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.”
Bernice Johnson Reagon

“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”
Joseph Campbell

“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”
Joseph Campbell

“Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch--what make you go beyond the norm.”

Childbirth at 65

With all the new technology regarding fertility recently, a 65-year-old friend of mine was able to give birth. When she was discharged from the hospital and went home, I went to visit.

'May I see the new baby?' I asked

'Not yet,' She said 'I'll make coffee and we can visit for a while first.'

Thirty minutes had passed, and I asked, 'May I see the new baby now?'

'No, not yet,' She said.

After another few minutes had elapsed,

I asked again, 'May I see the baby now?'

'No, not yet,' replied my friend.

Growing very impatient, I asked, 'Well, when can I see the baby?'

'WHEN HE CRIES!' she told me.

'WHEN HE CRIES?' I demanded. 'Why do I have to wait until he CRIES?'

'BECAUSE I FORGOT WHERE I PUT HIM, O.K.?!!'

New Blog!

I just started a new blog called Loving Liberty. Still looking for a better name, but it was the best I could do in a pinch. I want to find ways to encourage people to take an interest in politics in a positive way instead of focusing on all the negative things going on in the world. Hopefully the blog will be a place for people to get a little dose of positive patriotism, and give me a place to put all the fun stuff I find. Yes, I'm a bit of a geek, and I do enjoy studying about politics and economics. It feels weird to admit it, but there it is. Check it out at: lovingliberty.blogspot.com .

Good Morning!

My face in the mirror
Isn't wrinkled or drawn.
My house isn't dirty.
The cobwebs are gone.
My garden looks lovely
And so does my lawn.
I think I might never
Put my glasses back on.

Aging

I was planning on aging gracefully, and my motto has been "Go gray with dignity". Translated, that meant that I thought I was not going to give in and color my hair to hide the fact that I was getting older. It's not that I don't like the color gray; it just doesn't happen to be my color. Even so, I think I could have still done it if not for one thing: The grays are too darn friendly! If they could just lie low like the rest of the hair, then I wouldn't mind them so much, but they don't do that. Instead, they stand up and wave to everyone who walks by! What is UP with that? Okay, so I'm getting older, we all do that, but to make a big production out of it-- well, I ask you! So then I started considering it, but it wasn't until I found out that the prophet colors is hair, that I finally started thinking seriously about it. I mean, if he does it, it can't be too bad, or at least not immoral, and it doesn't seem to be shortening his life any, so why not? When I mentioned to my husband that I was thinking about coloring my hair (thinking he'd have something to say about the cost) he said, "Good. I'd rather you do that than go bald plucking them all out" (apparently, he doesn't know how much it costs). So while he was out of town one week, I went and got it done. I don't recall that I planned that timing on purpose, though it is possible, my memory being what it is, and all. He didn't even notice until I told him a couple of weeks later. Funny thing is, one of my teenage sons noticed right off. I've come to the conclusion that it's okay if dh doesn't notice those kinds of things, though, because at least it means he doesn't dislike it. So I was okay with the fact that he didn't notice, plus the fact that the checking account was able to get reloaded by the time he found out about it. :) I did have it pretty much done as close to the natural root beer color as I could, so it was understandable that he might not notice. The second time was when we were visiting my parents in another state, and I ended up going to the daughter-in-law of the woman who has been doing my mom's hair for the last several decades. No root beer coloring this time. She told me it was called "highlighting with a foil weave" and my husband did notice that one. It's actually kind of fun I've decided, with the downside that I'm going to have to do this for the rest of my life, or until I finally give in and just let the grays have their party. Time will tell who wins this little battle.

So the closer I get to turning 50, and realizing that it's about time for my midlife crisis, the more pondering I do on the subject of getting older. I've decided that we all need to do everything we can to make each other feel better about it. I'm thinking that if we don't give in to the temptation to feel old, gray hair and aches and pains notwithstanding, that maybe we can postpone it as long as possible. This afternoon I went to a friend's house to pick up my daughters who had been playing there all day, and after a cup of tea and 20 minutes of chatting, I finally remembered what I had gone there for. My friend's sister-in-law came in and, after being introduced, she asked me how many children I had. I told her 8, and that two of them were on missions and that the rest were still at home. She immediately said, "You don't look like you'd be old enough to have two children on missions." Okay, I have a mirror, and even though I know the looks of age are starting to creep up on me, I have to admit that I did feel a slight endorphin rush when she said that. I believe that endorphins might just be the countereffect to aging, and that if we get a boost every so often, we might be able to slow this down. So let's all go around telling each other how fabulous we look and see what happens. I think laughter releases those hormones, too, so let's do a lot of that while we're at it.

I was in the checkout line at the grocery store yesterday, when I noticed a women's magazine touting an anti-aging formula in the headlines. I used to buy that magazine all the time, until I realized that every single week it had a new diet advertised on the front cover, and I couldn't keep up with all of them. I bought this one (just for the crossword puzzle on page 46), but as I left the store riding the cart like a scooter all the way to my car, I realized that maybe I didn't need an anti-aging formula. I guess as long as I still feel like I'm 10 years old, maybe I don't need to fret about it. Like the song says: Don't worry; Be Happy! (It keeps them wondering what you're up to.)

Smiling: Pass It On!

Smiling is contagious,
you catch it like the flu
When someone smiled at me today
I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner,
and someone saw my grin -
When he smiled I realized
I'd passed it on to him!

I thought about that smile,
then I realized its worth.
A single smile - just like mine
Could travel round the earth!

So, if you feel a smile begin,
don't leave it undetected -
Let's start an epidemic quick
and get the world infected!

The Atonement is Not Just for Sinners

The following is an email to a list I'm on. It's a great message!

The Atonement is Not Just for Sinners is the name of an insightful article by Bruce Hafen and is referenced in the book I'm reading, The Infinite Atonement by Tad Callister, p.222

Isn't that title intriguing? "The obvious implication of such a title is that the Atonement's circle of influence extends far beyond a cleansing for our willful misdeeds."

This reminded me of our conversation that Weakness is not sin.

"The Savior's victory can compensate not only for our sins but also for our inadequacies; not only for our deliberate mistakes but also for our sins committed in ignorance, our errors of judgement, and our unavoidable imperfections. Our ultimate aspiration is more than being forgiven of sin--we seek to become holy, endowed affirmatively with Christlike attributes, at one with him, like him. Divine grace is the only source that can finally fulfill that aspiration, after all we can do."

And because of the Atonement that Divine grace is ours if we seek it! His Plan of Happiness is perfect!! We can win the prize!

I love it when words can explain feelings! I'd love to type in the whole chapter, but I know you wouldn't read it because it would be too long! So, savor the flavor of that paragraph!

Happiness: A Moral Obligation?

Watch out! I've now learned to put videos on my blog! Woohoo! One more for today, and then I'll go clean the house (Happily). :)

The Key to Happiness

Gratitude! Who Knew? :)

A Message from the Hopi Elders

We are looking with great anticipation for the coming of our Lord, trying to be prepared, and wondering when the day will really be here. The truth is, as I believe the message below illustrates, that as soon as we change our hearts and learn to love those around us, we will already find that this earth can be a heaven right now. It will make the waiting easier to bear, and even allow us to enjoy, rather than just endure, the journey.

(If you click on the video, it will open up into the youtube page so you can see the full picture.) Enjoy!

Continue in Patience

The following are my thoughts on Elder Uchtdorf's talk entitled "Continue in Patience," which he gave in the April 2010 Priesthood session of General Conference. I realized as I read it that the concept of patience is an easy one for me to ignore as one of the things that I should be consistently working on. I think the reason is that when the temper flares up, it also subsides rather quickly and life just moves on. It is apparent, though, that the weakness of impatience continues to plague me, and in reading his talk I decided that it was time to get the hitch out of my giddyup and start working on it with a more concerted effort. The following is a compilation of the quotes I pulled directly from that talk along with my commentary, in the hopes that actually writing them down in the process of pondering them will help me to remember longer. His quotes are in black, and mine are in my color. :)

Elder Uchtdorf said that "without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become perfect." Ouch! I want to please God and I certainly do want to become perfect, and if I want those things enough, it appears that I need to work harder on cultivating this virtue. One thing I have learned, I hope, is that I will not be perfect in this life. That will happen in the next life through the mercy and atonement of the Savior. Knowing that, I do not need to go around mentally beating up on myself for my weakness in this area. However, if I do want to eventually receive those blessings, then improvement needs to be a constant goal toward which I am working.

"Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace." What beautiful promises these are! Could I not trade my impatience for those things? I feel like I have an attention problem and it never occurred to me that exerting more effort in the area of patience might help with that. It would certainly be worth a try.

"But children are not the only ones who spoil when showered with immediate gratification. Our Heavenly Father knows what good parents come to understand over time: if children are ever going to mature and reach their potential, they must learn to wait." Hmmm, am I spoiled? Yes, I think I am. I pretty much get whatever I want. I keep hoping my husband will put his foot down and rein me in, but it sort of looks like that won't happen, so I guess it's going to have to be up to me. Add "self-control" to the list along with patience.

". . . I learned that patience was far more than simply waiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn’t appear instantly or without effort." I find it easy to get discouraged sometimes when things don't go the way I want them to. Part of my problem, I think, is putting too much emphasis in what I want to happen as the outcome of different circumstances, but I also find that the times when I'm able to let go of expectations and just accept the things that come, I can stay peaceful, realizing that there is only so much that I can control.

"Impatience, on the other hand, is a symptom of selfishness. It is a trait of the self-absorbed. It arises from the all-too-prevalent condition called “center of the universe” syndrome, which leads people to believe that the world revolves around them and that all others are just supporting cast in the grand theater of mortality in which only they have the starring role." Ohh, that hurts a little. I guess that harks back to the spoiled child syndrome above. I find that I tend to get impatient when people bother me when I'm on the computer, or when I'm trying to concentrate on something, and they won't let me finish a thought. I guess that's the problem: I'm never doing "nothing." Even when I'm sitting and it looks like I'm doing nothing, I'm probably just trying to think a complete thought, and the inability to be able to do so is probably the cause of my attention deficit issues. It's starting to feel like there is a lot of interconnectedness going on here.

In these next quotes, Elder Uchtdorf is particularly addressing his remarks to the priesthood holders. In order to apply them to myself, I've taken the liberty to change a few words in order to liken his remarks to me. My changes are in brackets.

“No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of [our callings as wives or mothers], only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.”^{2
Basically, this says to me that we cannot have a lasting influence over people if we use compulsion and impatience as our way of controlling them. They might do what we want, but they won't respect us and we won't have a positive influence for good if we use unrighteous methods in our interactions with people.}

"The character traits and practices described in these verses are the foundation of godly patience and are inseparably connected to effective [godly womanhood] and [m]atriarchal service. These attributes will give you strength and wisdom in magnifying your callings, in preaching the gospel, in fellowshipping [Relief Society sisters], and in giving the most important [selfless] service—which is indeed the loving service within the walls of your own homes.Who wouldn't want that kind of help?

Let us always remember that one of the reasons God has entrusted [us with the callings inherent to women] is to help prepare us for eternal blessings by refining our natures through the patience which [selfless] service requires. I have to admit that my nature could certainly use some refining.

As the Lord is patient with us, let us be patient with those we serve. Understand that they, like us, are imperfect. They, like us, make mistakes. They, like us, want others to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself." So it would appear that patience is much more that controlling one's temper, it is the key, or at least on of them, to unlocking the powers of heaven. I guess that would make sense, because in any moment that I am feeling impatient, the Spirit is not with me, and I am unable to draw on the heavenly assistance I might need. Wow. That would be a good thing to keep in mind.

"We must learn that in the Lord’s plan, our understanding comes “line upon line, precept upon precept.”⁶ In short, knowledge and understanding come at the price of patience." Yes, we must allow Heavenly Father to dictate the timetable of life's events." Rephrasing: Patience is the price I must pay for knowledge and understanding. Without patience, I won't be able to increase in those areas.

"Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience. Often we can’t see the Lord’s hand in our lives until long after trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity, understanding, and happiness." This brings up the little thing that lots of people say, "Let go and let God," realizing that things are happening according to His wisdom and timing. Life does go so much more smoothly when I do that, it makes me wonder why it's so easy to forget it.

Patience is a process of perfection. The Savior Himself said that in your patience you possess your souls.¹¹ Or, to use another translation of the Greek text, in your patience you win mastery of your souls.¹² Okay, so by applying patience, the issue of self-control might come along naturally. Two for the price of one! All right!

Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most. This was true in the time of the Savior. It is true in our time as well, for we are commanded in these latter days to “continue in patience until ye are perfected.”¹³ That's such a good thing to remember: Sometimes it is in the waiting that we grow the most.

"To paraphrase the Psalmist of old, if we wait patiently for the Lord, He will incline unto us. He will hear our cries. He will bring us out of a horrible pit and set our feet upon a solid rock. He will put a new song in our mouths, and we will praise our God. Many around us will see it, and they will trust in the Lord."¹⁴

Sometimes our trials are given to us so that others may be strengthened by watching how we continue to patiently wait on the Lord during our trials. I've thought a lot about how I can be strengthened by my trials, but not so much about the idea that my going through them might be strengthening others in the process. That is an interesting idea to ponder, because it might appear that someone who is able to cheerfully bear all things, has already learned their lessons in those areas, and thus wouldn't need to continue to suffer, but who knows that part of their life plan, agreed to before they came here, was to suffer so that others might come to God through them. They, in essence, become a type of savior for those people, and they will be called blessed in the next life because of it.

"My dear brethren [and sisters], the work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments; trust in God, our Heavenly Father; serve Him with meekness and Christlike love; exercise faith and hope in the Savior; and never give up. The lessons we learn from patience will cultivate our character, lift our lives, and heighten our happiness. They will help us to become worthy [women of God] and faithful disciples of our Master, Jesus Christ."

In summary, lessons to be learned from patience are:

Patience = working while waiting, and not being discouraged in the waiting.
Impatience = selfishness.
Patience = effective service.
Patience = faith; the waiting might be the lesson.
We must learn to wait if we are to reach our potential.

Blessings that come from Patience:

We can please God and become perfect.
Refined understanding.
Deepened happiness.
Focused attention.
Strength and wisdom in magnifying our callings, in preaching the gospel, in fellowshipping and in giving the loving service within the walls of our own homes.
Refining of our nature.
Increased knowledge and understanding.
The Lord will incline to us and hear our cries.
We will praise the Lord.
Others will see us and come unto Christ.
Heightened happiness.
We will become worthy and faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It will be worth the effort!

Gratitude and Miracles

I have a list of book titles that I might use someday, whenever I get around to putting all of my scintillating words of wisdom in one place, not that it would be very long book, mind you, but one I really should use would be called "My Charmed Life," or something equally clever. I have so many little miracles happen to me all the time, that it would be fun for me to keep a record of them. Take this week, for instance. It's only two days old, and already I've had some interesting (to me) things happen. I have a pair of small loop earrings that, for whatever reason, have become my favorites. They aren't fancy, but they're the ones I wear most days, unless I'm going somewhere that I want to wear something a little more fun or pretty. It appears that I am unable to lose these things, not that I want to, but I have misplaced or temporarily lost them several times, and they always reappear, much to my joy and gratefulness. Once I lost one and couldn't imagine where it might have fallen off, but I happened to find it on the floor of my car. Another time I found one of them on the floor in the hallway of my house. Until yesterday's incident, I've even always found the little piece that the post sticks into, that probably has a name, but for the life of me nothing is coming to mind. Anyway, yesterday I was going to the UPS store to get a page laminated. I went in and waited a minute or so and then the guy asked what I needed. When I told him, he asked if I had any other errands to run, since it would take a few minutes for the laminating machine to warm up. I did need to go to the grocery store next door so I went to do that. I knew I was going to be getting quite a bit of stuff, and rather than walk the little bit of extra that it would have taken (I did, after all, have over 80 minutes of 'x' on Saturday, don'tcha know?), I decided to drive the car a little closer. Typically, when I'm walking outside, I'm looking up at the people around me. This time I happened to be looking down at the ground, when I saw an earring that looked a lot like mine. I checked my ear, and sure enough, I had lost it. I felt only a slight twinge of embarrassment that I had been walking around looking like a gypsy with only one earring, but I didn't know either of the people I'd seen, and they probably didn't notice, and if they did, who cares?, so the twinge passed rather quickly. I took off the lonely one and put them both in my purse pocket for safe keeping. I always say a little prayer of gratitude whenever that happens, because I do enjoy those earrings.
Tomorrow is Amanda's birthday. About a month ago, the twins bought some birthday cards at a neighbor's yard sale, wrote in them, and put them in envelopes so I would send them to her on her mission. Somewhere in the past month, the things got buried and yesterday they were asking me if I had sent her the cards. Oops. So I looked all over last night and this morning, tearing my room apart, not that you could tell the difference from before, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I realized that I hadn't said my morning prayers yet, so I did and asked for help to find the cards. While I was praying, the idea came to me to look in some boxes of stuff in the bedroom that I had been ignoring in my search. I went and dug through them, and sure enough, they were there, so I was able to get them in the mail to her, with a note of apology for their being a day or two late.
Then at 6:30 tonight, Daniel asked me what he was supposed to do about paying for the bus tomorrow. He will be taking some classes in SLC and commuting both ways, and I realized that I had forgotten to go up to the UTA place to buy that pass, and didn't figure there was any way I'd be able to get one before morning, so I figured we'd have to just pay the little bit of extra, and I'd need to go up to Orem on Wednesday. I called the UTA people to ask how all that worked, and in talking to the lady, I found out that they sell passes at the grocery stores also. I asked her if they'd sell them in Utah County for Trax and she said they would. So I hung up with her and called the grocery store downtown and they verified that they do sell them. After dinner I ran down to different store that was on the way, but they don't sell them. Then I went down to the other store and the girl said that she only had an Express Pass. I asked if they sometimes had the others, and she 'no' that those were all they ever carried. She asked what I needed and when I explained the situation, for some reason she kept looking in her little divided coupon holder looking thing, and lo and behold, she drew forth a Minor Monthly pass, just the thing I needed. It had the price written across the front of it, and I knew it was the one, but I waited politely while she read the back of it to make sure it would work. I was able to buy it, and now we have the pass, and I didn't have to go to Orem to get it. If I had remembered and gone to get it this morning, I would have gone up there, not knowing any different, so it all worked out perfectly. Woohoo! Yet another thing to be grateful for.
So it's being a great week so far. I was thinking about this while I was fixing dinner tonight, wondering why so many good things happen to me like this, and the thought came to me that it is because I am so grateful when they do happen. The thought was accompanied by a little tingly feeling, and I think I may have been receiving a little slice of inspiration there. I know I enjoy doing things for people who are grateful much more than for people who don't seem to be. I think sometimes people are grateful but don't show it, but I think we should. There just might be a connection between gratitude and the miracles that happen to us.

I just came across this: "And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." D&C 78:19 Maybe I'm onto something! :)

A New Exercise Theory

I just read a study that said that people who watch a lot of television don't live as long as people who don't. It actually concluded that it probably wasn't the t.v. watching, but the sitting that was actually causing the earlier demise (wouldn't I love to get paid for research like that), and if that's true, then no doubt we'll be seeing a similar study coming out on computer usage, though they'll probably blame it on the nasty electromagnetic pulse emanating from the power supply or the alien rays that come at us through the screen, before they ever get around to realizing it's just that if people are sitting there, they aren't exercising. So exercise is not my favorite thing. I wish it were, because that would make it a lot more enjoyable, and also if it were, that would mean that chocolate wasn't, which would also help out in the weight loss battle. It's a dilemma; however, I think I did make a little headway on Saturday. It was the annual Nestle Fun Run, where a couple of thousand people show up to travel a distance of 5K in whatever time it takes them. You have some people who take this thing seriously and actually try to win, even though they're racing against old people, and mommies pushing babies in strollers, but if that makes them feel good, well, who am I to give them a hard time about it?
We showed up at a little after 7 in order to stand around and wait for it to start, and to do a little stretching, in case my blazing speed might cause me to pull something. I had family in town to celebrate Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary, and it was a nice surprise to see my sister in law, as well as my mom and a sister show up along with some of the cousins. It turned out that Fun "Run" was a bit of a misnomer, considering how long it took us to finish that little course. My usual time, as near as I can recall, is around 30 minutes for that "race," and I walk a little and sort of jog a little until I get to the final 1/4 mile, which is the track at the high school, then I run, and end up feeling like I'm going to be sick when I finally get to the end. It's a fun family tradition.
This time, however, I just walked, or maybe "sauntered" fits better, with my family, having no idea how long it was taking us. When we got near the finish line, I was in a bit of shock to see the numbers 60:48 on the timer that was ticking away. It hadn't seemed anywhere near that long, but there it was. I slowed down just a tad, figuring that if my time was 61 minutes even, it would be easier to remember, just in case I wanted to brag to anyone about it. So far I haven't, but I guess blogging about it is just as good, and Look! I did remember it! :) After the race, part of the tradition is to sit around while they draw names for several hundred door prizes. We had taken two cars, because I have decided that I really have better things to do so I went home. In order to get back to my car, I had to walk 10 minutes back to my brother's house where I had parked it. Now, here comes the theory I mentioned in the subject line, that I know you've been dying to get to: Since I walked 20 minutes round trip to the car, and 61 minutes on the track, that's a total of 81 minutes (in case you're impressed by my quick math there, just know that I had it figured out before I started writing this). Usually we park closer than that, and I don't count the time it takes to walk to the car, so I only log about 30 minutes of exercise. I figure that doing it this way all the time, I pretty much take care of my whole summer's worth of exercise in one day, and then I don't have to worry about it any more for awhile. So slower is better. That's all. :)