Whose Shoes?

"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, if he gets angry, he'll be a mile away - and barefoot. -Mark Twain

Haha, that's definitely (notice the correct spelling of the preceding word) not scriptural, but it is funny. And for that reason, I stuck it in our sharing time presentation yesterday. Our little class was assigned forgiving as our topic. I tell you, it's a subject I have to revisit almost daily. When the Shanester left today for a short camping trip without saying goodbye, I put our advice from yesterday into practice to good effect. We'd discussed and demonstrated through several scenarios matched up with a variety of footwear, the concept of walking a mile in someone else's shoes in order to be able to have a forgiving heart. So I put myself in Shane's hiking shoes, and then realized he doesn't have the perspective of a parent, and wasn't intentionally trying to cause me extra worry, and, presto, I was able to forgive him. I'd pondered D&C 64:9-10 in preparation for the presentation, and I'm happy to say that I learned a few things.

"Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men."

Definitely (there's that correctly spelled word again) worth pondering. Is the Lord holding us to a higher standard than Himself by requiring we forgive everyone, while he chooses whom He'll forgive? Looks a bit like that at first blush. On second glance though, it makes perfect sense. His grasp of the entire situation is clear and faultless. We, on the other hand, are not nearly so knowledgeable. When we apologize or repent of a sin or error, we expect full forgiveness from the Lord and others, but if we are not willing to be as merciful and generous as He is, we are setting ourselves up to know better than He does what is best. We could actually end up attempting to claim the blessings of His great atonement for ourselves, while denying them for those we refuse to forgive, a major affront, or worse, to the Savior. So come on, boys and girls, let's play nice, and stay nice!

Here's another point to ponder: What does forgiving really mean? I'll tackle that question later, but I'd dearly love to read anyone's thoughts who's willing to opine. I probably won't do that until we're back from Denver though. Happy Fourth of July, everyone! BTW, here's a festive drink for the Fourth. Dig out those old-fashioned items called ice cube trays, and freeze a couple of them filled with red and blue Powerade. Drop several cubes of each color into a clear glass, and pour 7Up or Sprite over them. Voila, you'll be sipping a fun and fizzy Frosty Fireworks drink for the Fourth of July!

Sweet Stuff

We've had out-of-town guests on three different occasions this month, and without fail, they've all commented on the moss roses Dan planted for me under the maple tree in our front yard. He did it of his own accord for Mother's Day, while not feeling at all well. I think it may be the best gift he's ever given me, because (1) it was a complete surprise; (2) it's something I really really like; (3) I had never thought of doing it; and (4) moss roses were one of the favorites of his mom, who was a fantastic gardener. The fact that he did it when he was sick, not waiting till he felt better, just makes it that much sweeter. They haven't exactly flourished with all the rain we've had this spring, but we have high hopes for them yet.



We enjoyed Dan's sister Janet's visit a week and a half ago. She filled us in on some of the exciting Utah Washburn news. Some examples: we have a new little nephew we're eager to hear more about from Cindy! Daniel bought a cozy little home, and Cliff and Bugs have acquired a trendy new business. Next, our second guests were Rick and JoLyn Farrer, with two of their grandsons, Ashton and Isaac. JoLyn has this magical way of getting the most out of every minute she's here, so that a short visit seems longer than it was in actuality. Colin entertained the boys, who were weary from a six-hour drive, while we went to the cemetery. I feel a little closer to Jordan when I'm there, and the Farrers share my feelings of sacred reverence for these places which have been the site of great outpourings of emotion, and, at a future time, will be glorious places of joyous reunion. Afterward, JoLyn and I made a mad dash, my first, to the awesome sporting goods store, Cabela's. I only call it a mad dash because we hurried in just 30 minutes before closing time, and 30 minutes in such an enormous and interesting place is not nearly long enough. But it was long enough for me to part with $82, buying the first ever peach rings I've had, some watermelon licorice, and a Father's Day gift for Dan, a two-burner propane camp stove combo, meaning a propane lantern was included. Our last guest of the month is our son, Ethan, who's here doing his penultimate rotation in his quest to become a physician's assistant and graduate from the program in August. It's a pretty sweet deal to have such wonderful guests visiting.



I am so grateful for Neil and Penny, too, who invited Greg and his three little ones, Tori, Juli, and Christian, over to their home for a lovely pot roast Sunday/Father's Day dinner. It looks like Penny even let them decorate the cake for their Daddy. Dan and I are so very happy to see the brothers and their families showing kindness to one another, caring for and strengthening each other in a multitude of ways. They've got the brotherly love thing down pat! Suh-weet!

Dirtywork

I can't work in the garden without getting covered in dirt, and bringing a lot of it indoors. No standing and hoeing out those pesky weeds for me. I have to scoot around on my behind, fgrabbing hold of the weeds with my hands, getting some extra oomph with my small hand shovel when necessary. I also crawl from row to row, and do some kneeling too. I just get downright dirty out there, and I'm not proud of it! But desperate times demand desperate means, right? Right. And these are desperate times. Time to plant if you're going to plant! We're on our third wave of planting, and we've even already done a bit of harvesting. Sugar snap peas and lettuce were the firstlings of our crop. It was only a small bowl of peas though, accompanied by a horrible, nasty intruder! I held it up between my thumb and forefinger to ask what it was, hoping against hope that it wasn't a slug. Dan took it from me and showed it to Brianna, and confirmed my fears. Serves him right, he then had to listen to the shrieks of two women instead of just one. I can't believe I held a slug, or that I ate the first pea without washing it, maybe even one of the ones that the slug had slimed. I always pop cherry tomatoes right into my mouth without washing them, but after this, I'll be rethinking that habit. Oh, I can hardly wait till August, when everything's in full production. I'm so grateful for all the weeding help from Colin, Shane, and Brianna. They're faster and more efficient than I'll ever be!

Slugfest, but not in our peaceful kingdom.

Until today, I'd held off on planting any flowers this year. But I know how much Brooklyn and Lilly love picking them when they come for a visit. So, I found a spot or two for a few four o'clocks, verbena, celosia, nasturtiums, zinnias, and petunias, after all. Brianna asked if we could eat them. She's so funnny, she wants all of the space for vegetables only. Well, grapes and berries would also pass muster, but definitely not flowers. Happy compromise, nasturtiums are edible, both the leaves and the flowers. And they say the flowers are so pretty in a fresh sallad.

Dan and I have also become avid couponers. We can't say how long our new hobby will last, but we'll have fun with it for as long as we enjoy it, and then discontinue it without a qualm. We gave it a try way back when the kids were very young, but since we didn't know the finer points of getting the biggest bang for our buck, the benefits weren't enough to keep us going with it. Now, thanks to some good web sites and blogs, we are becoming highly educated couponing machines, so we'll see if we can clean up with coupons, and cancel out some of that dirt. Just yesterday, we purchased 6 $25 gift certificates for $2 apiece to use over the next year at several restaurants. We're not usually much on dining out, but I guess we can manage it if we have to. Besides, Colin and Shane can easily use them all, if we let them, on dates or other outings.

Glad to Be a Grad

It's graduation week. Shane graduated from seminary on Sunday, May 31st, giving a talk while he was at it. Just yesterday, June 3rd, he graduated from Borah High School. When the nice customer service rep asked me what I wanted written on the card that went along with the festive edible arrangement I was ordering for him, I surprised myself (and probably her too) by starting to cry. This is the beginning of a whole new chapter for Shane, but it is the end of an era for Dan and me. As we walked into the Taco Bell Arena for the commencement exercises, Dan said, "We should stop saying this is the last time for this or that, and look ahead to the future, and say instead, we get to start doing this or that." That rates as good advice from a good guy in my book.

And now, it gives me great pleasure to present our beloved graduate from the Class of 2009 to you. Please join us in smiling upon the quiet, the stalwart, the absolutely delightful, Shane Joseph Washburn.

Look Mom, Great Buns!

I'm not bragging. I'm not boasting. I am merely ecstatically thankful that I made a successful batch of homemade whole wheat hamburger buns yesterday. If you had ever eaten any of the others I've pulled out of the oven before, you'd be grateful too! Those were dark, dense, and heavy. These, oh these, they were light and uncrumbly. If I must say so myself, strictly in the interest of accuracy, yesterday's batch was perfect! All I did was follow the recipe to the letter, and it worked. There's a lot to be said for good old-fashioned obedience. Obey the recipe!

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/blog/whole-wheat-hamburger-buns

I also made black bean burgers to eat on those perfect hamburger buns. And I have a couple of other veggie burger recipes waiting in the wings to try. Then, not to become too puffed up with virtuous cooking, I made oreo truffles. Brianna kindly did the dipping for me, some in white chocolate, some in semisweet chocolate. It was a fun few hours spent in the kitchen. When I wasn't in there, I was either napping or reading. I'm thoroughly enjoying a book of plays by Agatha Christie, duly impressed with the surprising twists she builds into her plots. Witness for the Prosecution and The Mousetrap are my favorites so far. Agatha Christie, or Dame Mallowan, was called the Queen of Crime with good reason!

One more excellent development: Colin landed a great job this week. It could possibly even see him all the way through college, debt free. And thus we see that good things do come to those who wait.

The Heroes of Memorial Day

At noon, we attended a flag raising ceremony by Civil War re-enactors. When I first mentioned we'd be going, Colin was less than enthusiastic about "Watching some old people dress up as older people." Shane contributed his own quip that all we lacked there was someone dressed as John Wilkes Booth. All kidding aside, I couldn't help but feel appreciation, admiration and awe for the soldiers who've served, and are yet serving, our country in defense of righteous principles. Dan and I were surprised to read a headstone of a soldier from the Spanish-American War. Sometime I'd like to wander longer there, reading more of the headstones. Actually touching them made the sacrifices of war more real for me.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The story of the writing of the poem:

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

Stepping into the Spirit World

As you may know, I've thought a great deal about the spirit world over the last while. I'm now strong enough to read accounts from people who claim to have visited there. I've just finished a book by Dannion Brinkley and Paul Perry,Saved By The Light. It's very interesting to me, but I can't say with certainty that it's true. I believe Mr. Brinkley is telling the truth, but there's a chance he's been deceived. There is also the possibility that he himself is attempting to misled his readers. So while I read it with interest, I can't accept it as doctrine. However, here's a passage from the book that is fascinating, and I'd like to think is true.

On Sept. 18, 1975,Dannion Brinkley's spirit left his body after a lightning strike. For awhile, he was aware of his sobbing wife and worried friend, and watched as medical personnel worked to revive him. But then he saw a tunnel forming, "opening like the eye of a hurricane and coming toward" him. "That looks like an interesting place to be, I thought. And Away I went. I actually didn't move at all;; the tunnel came to me. There was the sound of chimes as the tunnel spiraled toward and then around me."

After describing his surroundings, something happened to him that was a wonderfully effective teaching tool. Wow, it'd be great to be able to cause this to happen here in mortality! I think we'd all be a lot kinder to one another if it did. Just listen to this!

"I began to experience my whole life, feeling and seeing everything that had ever happened to me. ... This life review was not pleasant. From the moment it began until it ended, I was faced with the sickening reality that I had been an unpleasant person, someone who was self-centered and mean.

"The first thing I saw was my angry childhood. I saw myself torturing other children, stealind their bicycles or making them miserable at school. One of the most vivid scenes was of the time I picked on a child at grade school because he had a goiter that protruded from his neck. The other kids in the class picked on him too, but I was the worst. At the time I thought I was funny. But now, as I relived this incident, I found myself in his body, living with the pain that I was causing.

""This perspective continued through every negative incident in my childhood, a substantial number to be sure. From fifth to twelfth grade, I estimate that I had at least six thousand fistfights. Now, as I reviewed my life in the bosom of the Being, I relived each one of those altercations, but with one major difference: I was the receiver.

"I also felt the grief I had caused my parents. I had been uncontrollable and proud of it. Although they had grounded me and yelled at me, I had let them know by my actions that none of their discipline really mattered. Many times they had pleaded with me and many times they had met frustration. ... Now, in my life review, I felt their psychological pain at having such a bad child.

"As my body lay dead on that stretcher, I was reliving every moment of my life, including my emotions, attitudes, and motivations. The depth of emotion I experienced during this life review was astonishing. Not only could I feel the way both I and the other person had felt when an incident took place, I could also feel the feelings of the next person they reacted to. I was in a chain reaction of emotion, one that showed how deeply we affect one another."

After high school, he joined the military, eventually becoming a sniper in Vietnam. Imagine the intensity of emotions he experiences in that horrible setting. He does make enough of a recovery from his injuries to transform his life to one of caring about and serving others. As I said, it's a remarkable story, but for me it's not entirely believable because not all of it squares with the gospel.

The next account, however, does. And Mr. Brinkley included a briefer part of it in his book than I've posted here:

President Jedediah M. Grant was quite sick, and could hardly speak. [Heber C. Kimball] laid hands on his head and blessed him, that his lungs might breathe easier. In two or three minutes he raised himself up and talked for about an hour as busily as he could, telling me what he had seen and what he understood, until I was afraid he would weary himself, when I arose and left him.
He said to me, "Brother Heber, I have been into the spirit world two nights in succession, and, of all the dreads that ever came across me, the worst was to have to again return to my body, though I had to do it." "But O," says he, "the order and government that were there! When in the spirit world, I saw the order of righteous men and women; beheld them organized in their several grades, and there appeared to be no obstruction to my vision; I could see every man and woman in their grade and order. I looked to see whether there was any disorder there, but there was none; neither could I see any death nor any darkness, disorder or confusion." He said that the people he there saw were organized in family capacities; and when he looked at them he saw grade after grade, and all were organized and in perfect harmony. He would mention one item after another and say, "Why, it is just as Brother Brigham says it is; it is just as he has told us many a time."
That is a testimony as to the truth of what Brother Brigham teaches us, and I know it is true, from what little light I have. He saw the righteous gathered together in the spirit world, and there were no wicked spirits among them. He saw his wife; she was the first person that came to him. He saw many that he knew, but did not have conversation with any except his wife Caroline.
She came to him, and he said that she looked beautiful and had their little child, that died on the Plains, in her arms, and said, "Mr. Grant, here is little Margaret; you know that the wolves ate her up, but it did not hurt her; here she is all right."
"To my astonishment," he said, "when I looked at families there was a deficiency in some, there was a lack, for I saw families that would not be permitted to come and dwell together, because they had not honored their calling here." He asked his wife Caroline where Joseph and Hyrum and Father Smith and others were; she replied, "they have gone away ahead, to perform and transact business for us. The same as when Brother Brigham and his brethren left Winter Quarters and came here."
Journal of Discourses, 4:135-36 (December 4, 1856).

Read more about the spirit world here:
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Spirit_World