Morning Lines #10- Mindfulness Upon Bicycle

  Mindfulness 

by Mary Oliver

Every day

  I see or hear

    something

       that more or less

kills me

  with delight,

    that leaves me 

        like a needle

in the haystack 

   of light

     It is what I was born for-

        to look, to listen,

to lose myself

  inside this soft world--

     to instruct myself

        over and over

in joy,

  and acclamation.

    Nor am I talking

       about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

  the very extravagant--

    but of the ordinary,

       the common, the very drab,

the daily presentation.

   Oh, good scholar,

     I say to myself,

        how can you help

but grow wise

   with such teachings

     as these--

       the untrimmable light

of the world,

  the ocean's shine,

    the prayers that are made out of grass?

Morning Lines #9- Vulnerable

"Faith is essential when we decide to live and love with our whole hearts in a world where most of us want assurances before we risk being vulnerable and getting hurt. To say, “I’m going to engage Wholeheartedly in my life” requires believing without seeing."

Brown, Brene (2010-09-20). The Gifts of Imperfection (p. 92). 

       
       This tree is almost hollow inside. How can it stand so secure and tall, yet be so vulnerable?

Morning Lines #8-Fireworks

    

Colors fill the sky; 

The smell of smoke drifts around, 

Sometimes, they're even formed into pictures, 

Fireworks, colors fill the sky.

By  Dang Xiong

                                   

                                                       Safety First……………………….

                           The Fireworks technician must be cool and collected with mental clarity.

                                             That smoke stinks even if it is rising in three colors.

                   Ohh, Ahh, it's a Geyser.

                                                                 Higher………………………….

                                                                                 

                                                                              Wow!!!!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!

I caught a cute picture of my friends adopted kids. That made me feel the joy of freedom as I contemplate the future of these children.

Two Peas In A Pod

Many, many people have commented on the similarities between my granddaughter and me. "Really?", I say, "You think we are two peas in a a pod?".

We have a very strong bond and so people watching us see to happy people totally comfortable with each other. But, do we look alike? I had blond hair; she has blond hair. I have blue eyes; she has blue eyes. Well, that covers the obvious.

Whatever you think, I hope she doesn't mind years from now, when the story gets retold that we are so alike. My mother had a cousin who she loved very much. As I grew up she often said we looked so much alike. I never met her but her picture makes me wonder.

Do these genes we carry around within us come together in similar patterns and create "look alike" sets? It is hard to say but I do know when I look into my brother's face I see a my whole family history. I see my mother and father, my other brothers, and even aunts I knew so well. I totally understand why the adopted child searches for his birth family. It is so very important to look into the past to see the future.

Morning Lines #7- Fog

FOG
by: Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

HE fog comes

on little cat feet.

 

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Book of Mormon Sunday II- 3 Nephi 25-30

 In these last few chapters I really connected to Mormon, the editor, whose testimony resonates throughout the Book of Mormon. I feel like he glories in the chapters written about the coming of Christ to the Nephites.  I sense that he knows this time, not just from reading the account on the plates, but he knows from the mouth of three who were there.

     3 Nephi 28:25 "Behold, I was about to write the names of those who were never to taste of death, but the Lord forbade; therefore I write them not, for they are hid from the world. But behold, I have seen them, and they have ministered unto me."

   What a powerful gift is given to three apostles from the New World, a chance to minister till the end of time. For Mormon they are angels sent from Christ to sustain him in perilous times. If I have learned anything from this second reading and writing about the Book of Mormon, it is that God desires to sustain us in our journey through life. The principles that open a view to how he sustains us are increasing faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, opening our hearts through repentance, entering into baptism , and then receiving the power of the Holy Ghost as an ever present gift.
     3 Nephi 27:20 "Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day."
   If Jesus fulfilled his promise to come the first time then he will fulfill his promise to come again. That event lies in our future and on this Sabbath morning I am grateful for the testimonies of all those who saw him then.
     3 Nephi 26:12 "Therefore I, Mormon, do write the things which have been commanded me of the Lord. And now I, Mormon, make an end of my sayings, and proceed to write the things which have been commanded me. Therefore, I would that ye should behold that the Lord truly did teach the people, for the space of three days; and after that he did show himself unto them oft, and did break bread oft, and bless it, and give it unto them."