Love.

I've always been a fan. 

So happy to see this on Facebook this morning. 

the news

I'm so devastated by the events of today. I've been crying and praying for the children and their families. The horrific act of harming children is beyond anything I can comprehend. 

I love this advice, when my children worry I'm going to tell them 

to look for the helpers, you will always find them. 

purple carrots

An adorable tiny food market opened near our home. 

The Cowboy picked up some colorful carrots. 

I had no idea carrots were originally purple.

You can read about it here... so much to learn. 

Happy Hunters Moon

hunters moon

9/11 destruction allowed us to spiritually rebuild

By Thomas S. Monson

The calamity of September 11th, 2001 has cast a long shadow. Ten years later, many of us are still haunted by its terrible tragedy of lost lives and broken hearts. It is an episode of anguish that has become a defining moment in the history of the American nation and the world. This week, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, along with Tom Brokaw, will pay its own homage to the unforgettable events of September 11, 2001.

There was, as many have noted, a remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy. People across the United States rediscovered the need for God and turned to Him for solace and understanding. Comfortable times were shattered. We felt the great unsteadiness of life and reached for the great steadiness of our Father in Heaven. And, as ever, we found it. Americans of all faiths came together in a remarkable way.

Sadly, it seems that much of that renewal of faith has waned in the years that have followed. Healing has come with time, but so has indifference. We forget how vulnerable and sorrowful we felt. Our sorrow moved us to remember the deep purposes of our lives. The darkness of our despair brought us a moment of enlightenment. But we are forgetful. When the depth of grief has passed, its lessons often pass from our minds and hearts as well.

Our Father’s commitment to us, His children, is unwavering. Indeed He softens the winters of our lives, but He also brightens our summers. Whether it is the best of times or the worst, He is with us. He has promised us that this will never change.

But we are less faithful than He is. By nature we are vain, frail, and foolish. We sometimes neglect God. Sometimes we fail to keep the commandments that He gives us to make us happy. Sometimes we fail to commune with Him in prayer. Sometimes we forget to succor the poor and the downtrodden who are also His children. And our forgetfulness is very much to our detriment.

If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives to us. We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives. It should not require tragedy for us to remember Him, and we should not be compelled to humility before giving Him our faith and trust. We too should be with Him in every season.

The way to be with God in every season is to strive to be near Him every week and each day. We truly “need Him every hour,” not just in hours of devastation. We must speak to Him, listen to Him, and serve Him. If we wish to serve Him, we should serve our fellow men. We will mourn the lives we lose, but we should also fix the lives that can be mended and heal the hearts that may yet be healed.

It is constancy that God would have from us. Tragedies are not merely opportunities to give Him a fleeting thought, or for momentary insight to His plan for our happiness. Destruction allows us to rebuild our lives in the way He teaches us, and to become something different than we were. We can make Him the center of our thoughts and His Son, Jesus Christ, the pattern for our behavior. We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow. We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm.

Thomas S. Monson is president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The moon still so very full of surprises, no?

Lumpy Gravity Has The Moon 

Cuddling With 9, Smooching With 8, Winking At 7

Just reading this favorite number article on NPR,

I love reading about favorites and why they are the favorite. 

I'm not so sure of mine, I have sets of numbers I dislike including:

3,7, 9, 13,17,19,23,27,29... you get the idea.

I am really fond of 0,2,5 and 8. 

It's fun to think about, I'm remembering as a kid I gave personalities 

to all the numbers (it just felt like they came with them) and

8 was the tough guy all covered in leather and chains. 

Do you have a favorite? 

interesting

In the News

Have you seen this story? It made me smile.

The poem inspired by the news article...

ok so months ago I blogged about how I was looking for this poem by Stephen Dunn and now that we are in mid-April (national poetry month) I decided to get out all the old poems I love and re-read through some of my favorite poetry books and I found this poem I had been missing.

From Underneath
A giant sea turtle saved the life
of a 52 year old woman lost at sea
for two days after a shipwreck
in the Southern Philippines. She rode
on the turtle's back.
--Syracuse Post-Standard

Stephen Dunn

When her arms were no longer
strong enough to tread water
it came up beneath her, hard
and immense, and she thought
this is how death comes,
something large between your legs
and then the plunge.
She dived off instinctively,
but it got beneath her again
and when she realized what it was
she soiled herself, held on.

God would have sent something winged,
she thought. This came from beneath,
a piece of hell that killed a turtle
on the way and took its shape.
How many hours passed?
She didn't know, but it was night
and the waves were higher.
The thing swam easily in the dark.

She swooned into sleep.
When she woke it was morning,
the sea calm, her strange raft
still moving. She noticed the elaborate
pattern of its shell, map-like,
the leathery neck and head
as if she'd come up behind
an old longshoreman
in a hard-backed chair.
She wanted and was afraid to touch
the head--one finger
just above the eyes--
the way she could touch her cat
and make it hers.
The more it swam a steady course
the more she spoke to it
the jibberish of the lost.
And then the laughter
located at the bottom
of oneself, unstoppable.

The call went from sailor to sailor
on the fishing boat: A woman
riding an "oil drum"
off the starboard side.
But the turtle was already swimming
toward the prow
with its hysterical, foreign cargo
and when it came up alongside
it stopped
until she could be hoisted off.
Then it circled three times
and went down.
The woman was beyond all language,
the captain reported;
the crew was afraid of her
for a long, long time.

was that lightning?

The Cowboy and I really miss Utah thunder storms...so it was a great pleasure last night to have one here (they are super rare in San Francisco) but this was a good one with lots of sound and light and even some pounding hail...loved it!

Beautiful

The Cowboy and I love this Bravia commercial. It gives such a nice view of our city and the music is by Jose Gonzalez it's so perfect Oslo calms down when he hears it...so beautiful.

where I grew up...

Kaysville was listed in Business week as one of the top 25 suburbs in the United States... and my highschool Davis High was ranked the #1 high school in the country last year with a graduation rate of 97%. The Article is found here

Finished!!!

This is my second year to have completed a novel as a part of nanowrimo...it feels fantastic.

jellyfish

I have seen jellyfish in person and I’ve never had a dream about one but when I see them I always want to touch one...so pretty and delicate and dangerous.

Kiwa hirsuta

Does anyone remember this story...found here...about the Furry 'lobster' that was recently discovered back in March. Wow...when the story broke I was so fascinated I had a couple of dreams about the furry creature. And for some unknown reason I was just thinking about Kiwa hirsuta and wondering if I will ever see one in person. I doubt I would actually dare to touch it and maybe I wouldn't even be able to look at it straight on...I don't know why I just have this feeling I would be terrified.

...but what about the nursery?

Jordan just sent me this article from The New York Times…I really like it. Here is a quote that feels super familiar:

“WHEN Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan told friends late last winter that she was pregnant, they offered the obligatory congratulations. Then they asked when she was moving.”

Next to the big question do you have a name yet? I get asked most… When or where are you moving?

We live in an apartment so tiny apparently it would send most people into a completely miserable or even crazy state of mind if they had to take our place…but we aren’t most people and we love it.

Sea Turtle

I once read a poem based on this story that I really loved...now I can't find it anywhere and I can't even remember who wrote it? Maybe one of my long lost classmates? I might try to recreate it in the near future...only if I really can't find it after going through all of my files.
I love the story

“June 4 in 1974, Mrs Candelaria Villanueva, 52, had been
in the sea with a lifejacket for more than twelve hours after the ship
she was on, the Aloha, caught fire and sank 600 miles south of Manila,
Philippines. A giant sea turtle appeared beneath her and supported her
until her rescue by the navy vessel Kalantia. After the rescue, the bigger
turtle circled the area twice before taking off.”

Halloween Story

So a few years ago while watching a TV ghost special…or something I saw some video footage of this angry wild west ghost woman…it was super freaky and I’ve told The Cowboy about it a few times and we will both search around the internet furiously trying to find some information about it. Basically it went like this….A family in a big old house were sitting/standing around for a child’s birthday party. I think it was a boy maybe turning 5 or 6? Anyway someone is filming from a doorway looking in at the party and there are stairs leading up from behind the wall the kid is sitting in front of…there are quite a few people around the lights dim and the cake comes out and everyone starts singing Happy Birthday. While this is happening suddenly this ghostly woman appears at the top of the stairs she is dressed in old wild west attire and she is somewhat transparent and she is holding two shotguns and she looks very mad. Then one second later she somehow appears right in front of the camera glaring into the lens it happens so fast and the person filming doesn’t see anything he just keeps on singing with the camera aimed on the kid about to blow out the candles. Then the woman is gone just as fast and the party continues. So the family then explains how they sat down to watch the movie and they all freaked out when they saw the ghost and never could figure out what happened. They never experienced anything before or after that was even remotely ghostlike. They all seemed normal and at a complete loss as to how this ghost appeared in a home video of their son’s birthday party.
I loved seeing it and I love telling it but I wish I could see it again or read about it or something…I think The Cowboy imagines I dreamt it up one night years ago and now I can’t tell the difference between what I’ve seen on TV an what I’ve made up in my own mind…but I’m pretty sure my sister saw it too…did you?

Ghost Story

this is one I've always loved...as told by Troy Taylor

The historical society is located in the old Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Depot. The building was constructed in 1910 and while there seems to be no real reasons for the ghosts to linger here, there is little doubt that they do. The most famous ghost here is that of the woman in the purple dress. She has been described as having raven-colored hair and is very beautiful to the eye. Her clothing appears to be from another period and she is usually seen near the Rio Grande Cafe, a restaurant which is located in the Depot.

There is a legend to explain the woman's presence in the building. The story dates back many years and according to the tale, she was engaged to a handsome, young man. It is believed that the lady would come to Salt Lake City by train and for this reason, many of the young couple's meetings took place there. One day, they had a terrible argument and their engagement was broken off. Angry, the young man threw the engagement ring onto the railroad tracks. The young woman, hurried to retrieve it -- never seeing the train that struck and killed her! Since that time, she has been seen haunting the depot.
And the woman is apparently not there alone....

There is also reported to be a "phantom party" going on in the cellar. One night, it seemed the lights were going on and off in the depot by themselves and a maintenance worker came to check things out. He went down to the basement to check the fusebox and was stunned to discover that there was a large group of people there having a party! Even more surprising was the fact that they vanished in a few seconds!

On a different occasion, a security guard heard the sound of someone walking on an upper balcony at the same time very night. He would always race up to the spot but would find no one. Finally, one night, he hid and waited for the person. At the right moment, he heard the footsteps and sprang his trap.... and yet no one was there, even though he could distinctly hear them walking. The footsteps came closer and closer and as they reached him, he felt something brush past and then hear the steps continue down the stairs.

How long has the old historic depot been haunted? Apparently, these are not recent occurrences. A visitor to the society told the staff that in the 1940's, he had worked in the depot restaurant. In those days, train crews who came in for coffee often spoke of the ghosts. It was common knowledge that the Denver and Rio Grande Depot was haunted in those days.....
And the ghosts don't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon!