Serenity in the Storm

"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys.  If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."         Fyodor Dostoevsky

This photo taken last year of the trees across the street from our house.  They were lost in 

"THE STORM"

The first of December, 2011 brought predawn icy-cold hurricane-force winds to the area we live.   Winds steady at 80 miles per hour gusted to over 100 miles per hour.  By noon, the winds slowed down enough that we could venture outside and begin the monumental task of clean-up and repair.  Damage estimates in the county were eventually reported in excess of $20 million.  We were lucky in that we lost only one old cherry tree and some our backyard fence, including the section where the tree landed.  Our neighbors lost shingles, roofing, siding and multiple trees.  One of the large spruce trees landed on the owner’s pickup truck.  Another spruce fell directly in front of another neighbors house, tall enough to stretch the entire length of the house, blocking the front doors and windows.  

Depending on the area, electric power was off for 2 to 5 days, as below freezing temperatures settled in.  Again, we were lucky since my husband had purchased and wired into our house a generator that was able to run the electric fan motor on our gas furnace, our refrigerator and alternately a light or two in the house.  We have a gas range so were able to stay warm and have warm food.  Two of our adult daughters and their families took refuge in our home and we had sufficient sleeping bags and bedding to protect everyone from the freezing weather outside.  It was an inconvenience for us but not a disaster. 

Blessings amidst the storm were apparent.  Although the winds were violent, they were NOT accompanied by rain as most hurricanes are.  The odd weather continued so that with the frames of so many homes exposed to the elements, we experienced the driest December in recorded history.  Roofers came in from as far away as Kentucky and although at the end of January, not all damage is repaired, much of the most critical has been.  The storm came on Thursday and by Saturday night, a majority of the fallen trees had at least had the branches cut off, sectioned and stacked along the streets as every able-bodied person, including children worked in their own neighborhoods.

Within minutes of the wind slowing, there were sounds of chain saws everywhere as people began cutting the massive trees into manageable sections.  People were out on ATV’s to drag trees that blocked doorways, driveways and streets.  Our phone depends on electricity so was out but using my cell phone I was able to check on family and neighbors who were ill, disabled, etc.  Those unable to do the physical labor out in the cold made hot chocolate or cooked meals for others.  Those who had sources of heat invited others who did not into their homes.

Then the news reported another windstorm would hit us Sunday night.  The governor called out the national guard to oversee temporary dump sites in our county and called upon the citizens to pick up and transport all the debris to the dump sites so that it wouldn’t be picked up by the coming winds and do more damage.  We went to church long enough to partake of the Lord’s supper, give thanks that no one had been killed in the storm and to offer prayers that the coming storm would be calmed.  Then we went home, put on our work clothes.  Everyone with any kind of pickup or trailer started on their own street and families started in front of their own homes to load all the limbs and debris into trucks and trailers.  When our street was clean, we moved onto the next street.  We live at the base of a large mountain range where the winds swept over the mountains like water over a dam and raced through canyons and creek beds at increased speed so ours area at the mouth of several small canyons received most of the damage.  People further west in our county experienced significantly less wind and negligible damage so they came to our neighbors and worked along side us.  The winds were due to pick up about 5:00 pm.  Shortly after that time, the yards and streets of our town were free of debris. The Lord God heard our prayers: the second wind did not come.  In gratitude, we acknowledged His hand in our lives.

The work of shredding all the trees into compost will go on for months but we moved hundreds of tons of fallen trees in three days.  FEMA arrived the next week and determined that we did not need them.  Working as neighbors with the help of God, we did what no government agency is capable of doing.

No rain during or a month and a half after the storm significantly reduced the damage from the storm. 

There were broken ribs and legs as some making repairs after the storm fell from roofs BUT no one was killed or paralyzed in the storm or during the repairs or clean-up. 

Many semi-trucks were blown over on the freeway before it was closed but no one was seriously injured. 

Still in shock and weary from the first wind storm, we asked our loving Heavenly Father to calm the winds from the second forecasted storm and he answered our plea.  

There were sufficient numbers of us with generators, chain-saws, wood stoves, food supplies, bedding, etc., to pool resources to meet needs.

Our Father in Heaven has endowed His children with the ability and the will to meet challenges.  He then calms the storm when we have done all we can and call upon him for relief.  Glory to God for His mercy and power.

NOT What I Meant

“Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.”    Ambrose Bierce

An Anecdote From The Reader’s Digest:
“Our daughter had adopted a stray cat. To my distress, he began to use the back of our new sofa as a scratching post.


“Don’t worry,” my husband reassured me.  I’ll have him trained in no time.”


I watched for several days as my husband patiently ‘trained’ our new pet.  Whenever the cat scratched, my husband deposited him outdoors to teach him a lesson.


The cat learned quickly.  For the next 16 years, whenever he wanted to go outside, he scratched the back of the sofa.”



Just made me think . . .

How often in our communication not only with those of different species but also with those of our own, do we fail to get across the message?  Whatever our intentions, we may be teaching something totally different or opposite of what we intend.  Consequences of the lessons taught (cat forever scratching the couch) are determined not by the teacher’s intentions but by the student’s understanding (interpretation) of the lesson.  A useful bit of insight for any us as we seek to communicate an idea or principle to another, isn’t it?

Lesson of 9/11

Television images from September 11, 2011 pass float through my mind today as they have frequently during the last ten years.  The horror of seeing the second plane crash into the second tower as smoke was still billowing from the first tower is not the image that bothers me most.  I hate the feeling of falling (like when an airplane drops in turbulent weather) and the most disturbing to me personally was video of two people holding hands as they jumped out of an upper story to escape the searing heat and fell and fell and fell.  I don’t remember seeing them smash into the pavement below but adrenaline flows and panic rises inside me when I think how they felt during those dreadful moments.  The later photos of dust-covered people dazed in the streets and the voices of those reporting the collapse of the towers were awful.  The magnitude of suffering is unspeakable. 

As horrendous as these images are, the most appalling of all was video of people dancing and shouting in celebration in the streets in the Middle East.  I have never seen nor heard of violence and suffering in the world and reacted with exultant joy.  Their reaction was confusing, sobering and intensified the pain of what I had witnessed. Amid the devastation there was Christlike nobility of hundreds who worked to save and comfort others. Far from the scene, millions wished to help in anyway we could.

There is a movement to speak of healing and peace and talk of lessons learned on the anniversary of this willful carnage.  I pray for comfort and peace for the families of the victims.  I believe the suffering of the victims is swallowed up in the atonement of Christ who suffered not only the pain of the sinner but the pain inflicted by the sinner.  I believe we all reap what we sow and do not worry about those who joyfully cause or celebrate atrocities.  The story is not finished and in the end, God and goodness will put an end to evil and suffering and we each individually will stand before God our Father and Christ Jesus our Savior and account for what we have done. 

It is my hope and prayer to be accounted as one who has worked to “comfort them which are in any trouble” (II Corinthians 1:4) and “lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees” (Hebrews 12:12.)  I have also come to recognize that my desire to live peacefully with my neighbors in this world will not change the hearts of those succored by Satan who still reigns with blood and horror on this earth.  Not to acknowledge that Satan rages [or to deny his existence] does not protect the innocent or the striving.  Satan is real and has hold of the hearts of millions in our time.  I will remember and teach my children and grandchildren that he seeks to destroy all our Father’s children BUT we can safely trust in the promises and covenants of God our Father, knowing that ALWAYS God and his Son have power over Satan and the Father’s plan will unfold as he ordains it. 

The greatest lesson of 9/ll:  Stay on the Lord’s side and work harder than Satan and his minions to learn what the Father wants of me and do it.

God Gives Every Bird its Food

God Gives Every Bird it’s food but he does not throw it into its nest.

Josiah Gilbert Holland

God the Father told Adam he cursed the ground “FOR THY SAKE,” causing it to bring forth thorns and thistles explaining to Adam he would eat bread by the sweat of his own face.  (Genesis 3:17-19)  As the children of Adam, we work to sustain ourselves.  This requirement makes us stronger and more capable.  As we enjoy the fruits of our labors, we learn lessons:

1)   cause and effect

2)   self-discipline

3)   competence

4)   joy of achievement

5)   confidence in facing obstacles and challenges

6)   ability to help, guide and lift others

7)   peace of mind

8)   perseverance

9)   strength in the face of adversity

10)         ability to recognize what is of actual value

11)         gratitude to the Father

12)          eternal perspective.

I believe Our Heavenly Father designed our life on earth to teach us to become more like He is: to gain wisdom, strength and understanding.  The earth was cursed FOR OUR SAKE because working to sustain ourselves is a blessing that yields personal growth.   God intended man to work to sustain himself and to reap the benefits of his labor.  Those benefits include the ability to share and help others to also become self-sufficient. 

Any government that takes from the laborer to buy votes is operating contrary to divine principles established by a wise and loving God.  Politicians who claim the right to take anything earned by targeted citizens in order to distribute it through bureaucrats to whom they choose will destroy a nation. 

My husband and I are in our sixties.   We have worked steadily all our lives and raised a large family through intense labor.  We cared for my parents into our home when my invalid father was diagnosed with cancer and my mother still lives with us a year after his death.   We paid off our home but bought a home for a divorced daughter and her three children.  We are financially helping another daughter whose husband’s company went bankrupt leaving him without employment.  We continue to work to try support ourselves and these family members NOT EXPECTING THE GOVERNMENT to help us.  HOWEVER, the ever-increasing TAX BURDEN makes it increasingly difficult to use the benefits of our own labor to sustain our family.

Does anyone honestly think taxing people into poverty so their money can be distributed among bureaucrats leaving a trickle-down fraction to toss into the nest of people who did NOT earn it--benefits anyone but the bureaucrats?

God taught Adam to work despite the thorns and thistles in order to eat.  God also teaches to GIVE and INSPIRE and HELP those in need.  Politicians who glut themselves on the labors of the people they were elected to represent and then have the AUDACITY to take what we have honesty earned to create their powerbase and impose their vision of utopia on their constituents are NOT following the wisdom and commandments of God.  In the end we will all reap what we sow.  (Job 4:8)

Spring Has Sprung

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”  Job 19:25-26

Having visited tropical areas where it is perennially summer, I am enjoying the miracle of spring.  Where I live, the frozen ground gives way first to green sprouts which soon bear bright crocus blossoms.  As they fade, the daffodils, pansies and tulips shout their message of spring and hope; lawns begin to green and bare branches burst with blossoms and tender green leaves.  It is a fitting time for a funeral.  Yesterday I attended the services for an “elect lady,” a neighbor and friend.  Her family laid her to rest on a glorious spring day.  It had rained every day the week before, but yesterday sun shone through white mounds of clouds revealing deep blue sky.  For the rest of the day everywhere I went, I noticed the beautiful spring flowers and the bright green of new leaves.

Is not spring a testament and reminder of the 

power of Jesus Christ over death and of the resurrection? 

A Meal of Seed Potatoes

So often [women] comfort others when their own needs are greater than those being comforted.  That quality is like the generosity of Jesus on the cross.  Empathy during agony is a portion of divinity!  They do not withhold their blessings simply because some blessings are withheld from them.  

                                                                                                                Neal A. Maxwell

I read the Little House on the Prairie series with my two youngest daughters in nightly installments.  They were full of hard-earned wisdom.  One proverb I remember the mother sharing is that “There is never any great loss without some small gain.”  It was used to celebrate the delicious meal of seed potatoes they were sharing.  They were eating the seed potatoes because the homestead they had spent a year of back-breaking work building had been determined to be on Indian land and they were told by the government they must abandon it and move on.  Moving on would require the travel and starting from scratch to build a new home not allowing them time to plant a crop of potatoes that spring. 

I have remembered that premise many times while going through assorted traumas or difficulties.  Mortality is the boarding-school Heavenly Father created.  Earth is a great laboratory where we learn by experiencing the consequences of our own actions as well as the actions of others.  It is here  that we will experience not only the sublime joy of His loving gifts but also the bitter heartache of hate, persecution, and being despitefully used in addition to the natural conditions of this earth and our mortal bodies.  The conditions here allow us to sift through all that we experience to discover for ourselves that which is of Eternal significance; “that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”  (Matthew 5:45)

In other words, mortality is where we come to know the ends of both good and evil and develop Godly traits as we come to cherish righteousness and to lose all propensity for ungodliness.  It is easy to be charitable and kind when one has good health, a full belly and a good night’s sleep or to reach down to lift another out of my own abundance.  It is more difficult to give or to avoid envy, anger or despair when my temporal well is low or myself or my family are suffering from pain, illness or fatigue.  Mortal suffering gives us the opportunity to grow wiser, stronger and more capable of understanding and lifting others.  It clarifies what is essential and what is not.  If we bear it well, we find an Eternal perspective and faith (trust) in a loving Father who knows exactly what we need to become what he sent us here to become.  Everything will unfold as it should and we can be at peace “that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 1:7)

There are tools for enduring and overcoming which we learn along the way.  One is, as the Ingalls family in Little House on the Prairie learned, is the ability to focus on and enjoy what blessings have rather than see nothing but the loss.  Then remember that no matter what I am suffering, there are others around me that are in need of help and nurturing.  Abraham Lincoln observed that "To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own." Trials and difficulties tend to make us focus inward.  When we consciously look outward to focus our attention and efforts on sharing the burdens of others, it pulls our own troubles into perspective and gives us a break from our own suffering.  Another tool is the power of commitment to remain in the light of truth.  To make commitment to myself and to my Father in Heaven to remain true to his teachings no matter what brings a strength not only to endure but ultimately to triumph (through his grace) over all that stands between Him and I.  FAITH, which I equate with TRUST in a loving Heavenly Father and His beloved son, Jesus Christ, is the most valuable tool of all.  Not knowing all the whys and how things will work out in life can be frightening but recognizing that God knows; and that He can be trusted quiets my fears.  Along with the tool of faith is the tool of eternal perspective:  “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”  (John 10:28)  Mortality is a temporary blip in eternity.  Every mortal pain has an end.

Focus and Enjoy What I Have

Look Outward 

Commit to God
Trust Him

Eternal Perspective

These tools have softened suffering in my life and brought a wiser, stronger me closer to Heavenly Father. 

Shortly before he died of liver cancer, Bruce R. McConkie penned these lines in the form of a hymn: “I Believe in Christ, then come what may.”  Earlier in his life I heard him speak and he said words to the effect that it does not matter what happens but rather how we respond.  Three weeks before he died, he gave his last public speech in which he testified that, “Soon I shall kneel before my Savior and bathe his feet with my tears but I shall know no better then than I know now that Jesus is the Christ.”

Amen.

Twice Blessed

Every now and then,

when the world sits just right,

a gentle breath of heaven

fills my soul with delight...

Hazelmarie ‘Mattie’ Elliott, A Breath of Heaven

Life is a deliberate mix of good and bad, unfathomable lows and magnificent highs and every variation in between.  My Dad’s illness and passing was a weight that overshadowed everything; but it was framed by the joyous arrivals of a granddaughter in August and  a grandson in October.  Having these two pure infants to love and hold has been healing.  Twice blessed! What precious gifts they are!  Our daughter miscarried just a year before and we didn’t know for months if she would carry her second child to term.  We prayed mightily for her and her unborn son. Delivered by Cesarean Section, he arrived big and healthy in October.  Our little grandson is five months old now and smiles with his whole body when he sees me! He has such a sweet, calm, tender spirit.  Being able to see him grow and develop is a cherished blessing.

A birth in August, a death in September and a birth in October.  Is the timing Heavenly Father’s compassionate way of softening the pain?   The photo of the two tiny cousins was a Christmas gift from my two youngest daughters, mothers of the sweet miracles.  The story behind the photo is that the when placed in the basket by the photographer, the little boy began to cry.  When the baby girl reached for him and put her hand on his, he stopped crying.  Oh, the comfort in the touch of a hand!  How grateful I am for these two precious babies and for the touch of my Heavenly Father’s hand to wipe away my tears.