Author: Angela

I write so my family will always have letters from home.

After the storm

I drove through a heavy rainstorm on Saturday to attend a niece’s temple endowment. I was flustered by my commute and ran from my car to the unfamiliar temple in the rain.

I was greeted in the usual way by young and old temple workers, ushered through new halls, and given spiritual assurances that my visit was important.

You’d think that after years of temple attendance that these things wouldn’t surprise me, but that is the way with joyful things.

“Surprise!” Joy cries, as it jumps out from a hiding place such as a rainy day or a challenging relationship.

There was a time when I didn’t think I would ever see this niece again because of family difficulties, but I was invited to be with her on her important day. Poised and happy, she greeted me in the celestial room with a hug.

Later, when I walked outside, the clouds were gone and the brilliant afternoon sunlight descended like a confirmation.

Surprise!

Keepsake

I asked Paige to illustrate each member of my stake Primary presidency. The upper collage shows the most recent group and the lower collage shows all of the women who served with me during my five+ years as president.

We were released last weekend. The keepsakes from this calling are this little portrait collage and hundreds of lessons of the heart.

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

This blog tells the tiniest piece of our story. So, if you read my last post and don’t interact with me, you might think that I am languishing. Let me be clear that despite the pull to hold still lately, I definitely continue to do things with joy.

Last week, I celebrated a bride, visited a friend, helped host a dinner for Primary presidents, cheered for the summer olympians, coordinated the staffing of baptisms, attended baptisms, and sewed. I also rearranged the upstairs furniture, only to move it all back in place later in the evening. 😅 But I mostly held still. I don’t know how else to function in this heat and smoke but to stay indoors.

Rest

With Mark gone about 3 days a week, I find that my days are empty, just a preview of how it will be when he leaves.

I am not looking for advice or sympathy. In fact, if someone offers it, I bristle.

While expected, this phase has surprised me with its hollowness. My time with my children at home is ending and I don’t feel drawn to do anything. All those things I said I would do later have simply stopped calling.

I feel weary, but more aware and more wise.

My days feel hollow, but personally, I am intact.

I just want to be completely still all of the time. I could take time to really develop this thought, but that would interrupt the stillness that I crave. Here is a simple explanation.

In music and in life, there are necessary rests, pauses, and changes in theme.

The best way I can express it is that I have come to a point of arrival in my song that requires a pause. A rest.

Soon, I will pick up a new theme or begin a new movement. But now, during this scorching summer, I seek rest.

I Finished this.

What would you not have accomplished if you had been free?” “Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus; and you are well aware that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced— from electricity, lightning, from lightning, illumination.”

“I too, as happens to every man once in his life, have been taken by Satan into the highest mountain in the earth, and when there he showed me all the kingdoms of the world, and as he said before, so said he to me, ‘Child of earth, what wouldst thou have to make thee adore me?’ I reflected long, for a gnawing ambition had long preyed upon me, and then I replied, ‘Listen,— I have always heard of Providence, and yet I have never seen him, or anything that resembles him, or which can make me believe that he exists. I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.’ Satan bowed his head, and groaned. ‘You mistake,’ he said, ‘Providence does exist, only you have never seen him, because the child of God is as invisible as the parent. You have seen nothing that resembles him, because he works by secret springs, and moves by hidden ways. All I can do for you is to make you one of the agents of that Providence.’ The bargain was concluded. I may sacrifice my soul, but what matters it?” added Monte Cristo. “If the thing were to do again, I would again do it.”

“Count,” said Morrel, “you are the epitome of all human knowledge, and you seem like a being descended from a wiser and more advanced world than ours.” “There is something true in what you say,” said the count, with that smile which made him so handsome; “I have descended from a planet called grief.”

Friends, this was a fun summer read. My dentist recommended it after he realized that I was a reader. You never know where you might find a good book recommendation.

If you decide to take on this mammoth book, I have two suggestions: First, read the Penguin Classics edition, as this translation is great, and second, keep notes on people and families. Begin with the four people who betray Edmund Dantes and their families and friends. Trust that each named character has a part to play throughout.

Revisiting Pollyanna

We were eating steak and ice cream at Sunday dinner on Father’s Day and it reminded us of this movie.

With this reminder, Richard and I decided to sit down to watch Pollyanna this week. We always come away from this show feeling better about life. It also reminds us of our childhoods, the feeling of a small town, and the hometown bazaars we experienced. I think the preacher storyline is especially good.

Hayley Mills earned a special Oscar for this film. She was given a miniature Oscar statue which was later stolen. Just a few years ago, the Academy presented her a new one to replace her last-of-its-kind tiny Oscar that was taken so long ago.