Marriage – Letters from Home

Happy memory

Richard and I became engaged during the first week of January, 30 years ago. This little remembrance has been like glitter to my thoughts this week as I have swept away most of the sparkle of Christmas decorations. I believe that we make important decisions each day, including how to spend our time, and with whom we spend our time, but there are a few moments of decision that have immense impact.

Choosing to say yes to Richard’s proposal was the best decision. I wasn’t expecting a proposal that evening, but I remember almost immediately after saying yes, I told him that we would have a good life together…as if I could know…which I couldn’t, on my own. This was a little insight from the Lord, given to me at a critical moment of decision: things are going to be good with this man at your side.

Connection with Heaven

We went with Tim and Queenie to Temple Square on Saturday. I was excited to see the new First Vision statue. I like the depiction of movement and life in this, and that heaven and earth are reaching for one another.

I think people spend a lot of time decorating and seeking musical and artistic experiences at Christmas time because we are all in search of that feeling of connection with heaven.

Celebrating us

We’re celebrating 29 years of marriage! (This was taken at my parents’ 50th anniversary party.)

Things that helped

After reading through my 2023 blog posts, I’ve decided that I want to end the year by listing one daily, one weekly, and one monthly thing that helped me get through a year which was actually very challenging.

A daily practice that helped:

I took the counsel of President Nelson and I kept a journal of impressions that I had while I prayed, and I acted upon those impressions. This created a leap in progress in my understanding of how revelation works and how interested God is in my life.

A weekly practice that helped:

Friday dates with Richard

A monthly practice that helped:

I tried to do a variety of work in the temple. Richard and I were able to complete temple ordinances for several ancestors with the help of our children, my brother, and my parents.

I have also looked over my reading list from 2023 to see where I have been. I have a special shout-out for Charles Dickins’ David Copperfield and Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

As I prepare for 2024, I don’t have any major resolutions. I do have plans to keep my good habits, while giving myself the grace to just do one thing at a time, including new things.

Wishing you a gentle look back at your 2023, and a hopeful look forward to your New Year.

Love,

Christmas Concert

This was our first Gentri concert, and it was a great way to begin the Christmas season. Our favorite from the group is their pianist, Stephen Nelson. And look who stopped by during the concert to visit with the people at the end of our row, Casey Elliott!🤩

Family quotes that matter to me

The most extraordinary thing in this world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.
G.K. Chesterton

The end of all activity in the Church is to see that a man and a woman with their children are happy at home and sealed together for time and for all eternity.
Boyd K. Packer

Many who knew her, thought it a pity that so substantive and rare a creature should have been absorbed into the life of another, and be only known in a certain circle as a wife and mother. But no one stated exactly what else that was in her power she ought rather to have done…

Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature…spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life.
George Eliot, Middlemarch

Sights of the week

I came across this model that Mark created of his old bedroom. The stacks of books, the curtains, and furniture placement are accurate and made my heart flip.

The eclipse wasn’t the most exciting thing to me this week, but the light was so eerie and we noticed how it made the air feel cold.

Some kids in the neighborhood have a jeep like Tim used to own. This scene reminded me of him. ❤️

I tracked the typhoon as it passed near Saipan thanks to live satellite images.

Richard and I were able to see Itzhak Perlman perform. We had wonderful seats and it was a remarkable experience.

Date night

We are big fans of Nate Bargatze. Clean comedy, yay!

New York City

I had never been to New York City, so Richard took me there this week. We stayed in an Airbnb not far from Times Square, but definitely on a quiet street. We could walk to our shows in about five minutes.

Vacations and major family events are tough to condense into blog posts. Trips planned by Richard are usually so full that it’s impossible to cover everything, and this trip was just the two of us, so it also feels more personal.

Still, I know that Paige will probably like to see her old stomping grounds, and the future me will like this place marker in time showing some of our adventures together, so here goes.

The Starry Night was at the Met for a special exhibit.

We saw a lot of beautiful art, but this was one of my favorites, also by Van Gogh.

I cannot capture all we saw in the nearly 5 hours we spent at the Met.

9/11 Memorial and Museum: Somber, heavy, dark, important.

Beautiful view at lunch in lower Manhattan

Trip Stats, according to Google maps:

12 miles of walking
59 miles of driving
6 miles of cycling
13 miles on the train
4,019 miles by plane
11 miles on a ferry
11 hours of culture
8 hours in airports
5 hours at parks

28th anniversary

It is a stunning gift to enter into the covenant of marriage within the temple. This covenant is not just between husband and wife, but also with God. This has breathtaking implications, not only in the eternities, but now.

Today I share a quote from a mind-shifting article that President Nelson wrote. He is teaching about all the covenants we make, and as I study these words in relation to the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, I see the years of our marriage with more informed eyes. The Lord’s imprint is everywhere.

Just as marriages and families share a unique lateral bond that creates a special love, so does the new relationship formed when we bind ourselves by covenant vertically to our God! This may be what Nephi meant when he said that God “loveth those who will have him to be their God” (1 Nephi 17:40).

This is exactly why, as part of the covenant, a special mercy and love—or hesed—is available to all who enter this binding and intimate relationship with God, even “to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

Making a covenant with God changes our relationship with Him forever. It blesses us with an extra measure of love and mercy. It affects who we are and how God will help us become what we can become. We are promised that we, also, can be a “peculiar treasure” unto Him (Psalm 135:4).
Russell M Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, October 2022.