Listening thoughts

I am still so in love with the book “Mitten Strings For God” by Katrina Kenison. It’s such a beautiful book. I just had to share some thoughts from the ‘listening’ chapter with you all today. Such simple and important reminders.

“Listening involves making a choice-right now, just for a moment-to stop dead in your tracks. To stop moving, to stop talking, to stop making noise. As Madeline L’Engle has said, “When I am constantly running, there is no time for being. When there is no time for being, there is no time for listening.”

We give our children a great gift when we help them tune in to the muted sounds of earth and sky, of soul and spirit. It is a joyful lesson, offered in the spirit of play, even as they learn the discipline of listening. All we need to do is lead them into quiet moments and allow them to open their ears.

Find a dry spot to sit with your child on a sunny winter day and listen to the snow melt-you will be astonished at the subtle symphony of sound. Sit in the car together, before you turn the key in the ignition, and listen to the rain fall on the roof. Ask your children to listen to the world around them for two or three minutes- and then compare impressions of what each of you heard. Listen to a cat purr, and notice all the variations in tone and tempo. Listen to an airplane as it makes it way across the sky, until it is out of sight and, finally, out of earshot. Listen to a bee as it takes nectar from a flower. We can all find a moment in everyday for listening, a moment in which we gather our children close, open our ears, and luxuriate in the sounds of world, wherever we may be.”

I love that last word, luxuriate. The luxuries of nature, sounds, and listening. Love it.

The picture above is from a country road I traveled on last week to get some fresh chicken eggs from a nice lady. I stopped for a moment, and just looked at the beautiful country sights. It’s so beautiful up here. In one way, it feels very much like coming home for me, as it reminds me of my country living days long ago in Kooskia, ID. The rain is constant, as we are just getting into the rainy season, and it keeps everything nice and moist. No more flash flooding like in the desert. The ground soaks it up. Such a change.

PS: The LDS General Conference is coming this weekend! Happens twice a year, and it’s fabulous. Our church leaders, the prophet, apostles, and more speak to us on topics they’ve prayed about for a long time. Topics that they were prompted to speak on through the quiet whisperings of the spirit. It’s a spiritual feast, and it’s easily available online to view here.

If you’d like to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or you’re already a member and simply have not drunk from the well in awhile, please tune in this weekend. Two sessions a day starting in the morning. Peaceful feelings guaranteed. I love the church so much:)

 

Good quote

Marjorie Pay Hinckley. I love this lady. She is one of my biggest heroes. She lived a life of kindness, gentleness, is an incredible mother, and has a shining testimony of the gospel. I have nearly all her books. I just want to be a gentle and loving mother like her. Sometimes I wonder how she handled the challenging days of young kids. What did she do when they didn’t listen. I just wonder, and pray to do better at understanding. Glad to be a mom.  Here’s a great quote she said:

“True spirituality makes you loving and grateful, and forgiving, and patient, and gentle, and long-suffering. True spirituality breathes reverence into every act and deed.”

Just simple inspiration to lift me when I need lifting. Yesterday was one of those Sundays when Satan decides to engage in full attack on the family. With our Sundays, it’s 50/50. Some times church goes great, the kids listen, and we have a beautiful day. Other days it’s pure exhaustion that many mothers out there understand.

It’s always Sundays that can be the hardest day of the week. Sometimes, I’m a little nervous when Sunday gets closer. It’s frustrating, but I know why. Satan knows that we are trying to build a forever family. He knows that going to church is so important for building happiness. He knows, and he wants us to be ‘miserable like unto himself”. 2 Nephi 2:27  

It’s just that simple. He knows, but thankfully, he can’t win. He can wage war against families everywhere, and he is now, but he can’t win if we don’t let him. Still, Sundays can leave Shaun and I completely exhausted, and our spirits wiped out. It’s funny; I never had Sundays like this back in college. Sundays were heavenly up there, but I am in a different chapter now. I’m trying to raise my children up in light and goodness, and that just makes Satan mad.

Not to be negative talking about Satan, but I have learned that it’s very, very important to be aware of him and his stupid antics, and to protect yourself and family against him. It’s very important to have tools ready like scriptures memorized, and a constant prayer in your heart, or he will find that wedge and make his way into the home. He just does if we’re not vigilant.

On the beautiful side, we have help from above. Our goal was to come here to earth to gain a body, and experience happiness, with lots of learning. We have a loving Saviour who is there to strengthen us. We have scriptures to read and learn from. We have light all around us, if we will just grasp onto it, and push the dark clouds out, and keep pushing them out, because Satan never gives up.

And so, with each Sunday, I pray that we can have a good one. 50 percent of them are wonderful, and make me go, ‘Oh my gosh. Wasn’t it nice to experience a real Sunday again?’. I try to hold on to those 50 percent ones.

Goodness, I did not mean to write that much! Hope this helps someone out there:)

Something beautiful

Today’s post, I’m directing you over to my photography blog, but first let me explain.

Last week, I was up in our local mountains for Girls Camp. I had some quiet time before the calvary of girls and noise arrived, so I ran up the hill to the top of the camp to have some wonderful moments alone in the woods.

I wanted to create something pretty to hang on my walls for inspiration and peace. I reveled in the quietness of the mountains, going from tree to tree, snapping pics. I had a specific picture in my mind, and it involved those beautiful aspen trees mixed in with the pine trees. I love the look of Aspen trees. I love the white trunks with the brown, jagged lines and the green leaves that jingle in the wind. They are so stinking beautiful! It took me about 35 minutes of looking and taking pictures until I found my mental picture, the one at the top of this post. I remember looking at the picture on my camera LCD screen after I took it, thinking ‘That’s it! That’s the one. I found it!’. I was so giddy.

At a women’s conference, Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a great church talk  about creating. Here’s some great snippets:

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

You might say, “I’m not the creative type. When I sing, I’m always half a tone above or below the note. I cannot draw a line without a ruler. And the only practical use for my homemade bread is as a paperweight or as a doorstop.”

If that is how you feel, think again, and remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn’t it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God? Think about it—your spirit body is a masterpiece, created with a beauty, function, and capacity beyond imagination.

But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy. ⁴ Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things.

You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. ⁵ The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.

The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.”

I love to create. In the mountains for that brief quiet time, I just looked around at all the gorgeous nature. I listened to the wind blow through the trees, humming birds that whizzed past me, a whole chorus of birds singing above my head, the crunch of the pine needles and twigs under my feet, and a quiet stream trickling nearby. I laughed at myself for getting such a huge kick out of being alone in the quiet peace. Having kids sure has changed me. Raising them is such hard work, and it’s made me slow down and enjoy the simple things better. The things I don’t get to do as often as I did when I was single and had less responsibilities. Nevertheless, it’s a good chapter of my life to be in.

Anyways, I just wanted to create something beautiful. Head on over to my photo blog to see the rest of the pictures. If you’d like these pictures in your home too, just comment below with your email, and I’d be happy to share them with you.