Category: Love

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This very minute…

Do you ever feel like everything is flinging past you at such a fast pace that you can hardly remember what you did yesterday because of how much is going on tomorrow? Do you feel like your days are just a blur?

Well, I do–way too often, actually.

When that happens, I’ve found this little exercise that can help pull you back into the moment. You know…this moment. Not yesterday or tomorrow, but right now…this very minute.

You just take a nice, deep breath and let yourself answer the questions below–as honestly and simply as you can. Pay attention to the first thing that comes into your mind.

It’s usually the truth. Be brave.

Right this minute I am…

feeling–


–a bit sleepy, a good kind of sleepy–like all I need is a teeny, tiny, twenty minute nap and all the energy will come flying back. Naps are good for you…naps are good for you…naps…are…good…for…you. So is chanting.

listening–

–to Lisa Hannigan who soothes me into liquid with her raspy-smooth, Irish ballads and inspires me to get really skinny so I can hang some pretty dresses like hers in my closet—or on my amazing skinny body.

eating–

–a piece of string cheese, one pinch at a time, to make it taste better–and drinking my Kangen water because I’m addicted…and it’s a good thing.

watching–


–very carefully for any itty bitty sign that Spring is indeed coming. I’ll take just about anything right now because on this fine April day, I’m tempted to build a fire in the stove to warm the place up. The smoke signals to Mother Nature coming from the chimney couldn’t hurt either.

plotting–

–to buy some packages of every-color-in-the-world Sweet Pea seeds to plant outside my bedroom window even though they are climbers and I don’t really know what they would climb on exactly. Details…details. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I need color, I tell you!

thinking–

–of a story that I can’t get out of my head, which is usually a sure sign that it needs to be written in the first place. I’m hoping I know someone who can possibly do that…possibly…maybe.

loving–


–the little, precious people around me that tug and pull and whine and grin and spit and giggle and walk and evade and stumble and wave and mimic and kiss and bawl and smile and watch absolutely everything.

hoping–

–that the smaller size jeans in my closet will fit me because I’ve lost 13 pounds since that silly surgery. I know, I know—“that was a BIG appendix!”

I’m afraid that I need a bit of clapping for this one…please.

wishing—

that Peanut Butter Weebles and Cinnamon Pull-aparts and Easter cookies were a smart, healthy, non-fat part of a sensible, balanced, nutritious diet.

Alas…

AND…

–you the most lovely weekend and a very Happy Easter!

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This is the Season

“Now, my brethren and sisters, the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater understanding. This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow. It is a time to be found keeping the commandments. It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain. It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another in all of our relationships. In other words, to become more Christlike.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

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A Place for Imperfect People

“Except for the Lord, we have all made mistakes. The question is not whether we will trip and fall but, rather, how will we respond? Some, after making mistakes, stray from the fold. This is unfortunate. Do you not know that the Church is a place for imperfect people to gather together—even with all their mortal frailties—and become better? Every Sunday in every meetinghouse throughout the world, we find mortal, imperfect men, women, and children who meet together in brotherhood and charity, striving to become better people, to learn of the Spirit, and to lend encouragement and support to others. I am not aware of any sign on the door of our meetinghouses that reads ‘Restricted Entrance—Perfect People Only.’ “

Joseph B. Wirthlin

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Modern Day Noah’s Ark

The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was opened for the first crowd of curious townsfolk to behold the wonder.
Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark , built by Dutch Creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible. The ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide.
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That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house. Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold. A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine.
Biblical scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been. Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son Roy.
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Construction began in May 2005. On the uncovered top deck – not quite ready in time for the opening – will come a petting zoo, with baby lambs and chickens, and goats, and one camel. Visitors on the first day were stunned. ‘It’s past comprehension’, said Mary Louise Starosciak, who happened to be bicycling by with her husband while on vacation when they saw the ark looming over the local landscape. ‘I know the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big.’
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There is enough space near the keel for a 50-seat film theater where kids can watch a video that tells the story of Noah and his ark.
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Huibers, a Christian man, said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where church going has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years.
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