Giant Daffodils

Quite a few years ago a new woman moved into my circle of friends. Her name was Barbara and she came to the Island via Utah, having entered life in the U.K. We quickly became friends as we had a lot in common, but that is not why I am writing this post. Today I was out and about and saw something that always makes me smile and always makes me think of Barbara.

Her first spring on Island she told me that she had seen some giant Daffodils and that she really wanted to have a start of them in her yard. I had no clue as to what she was talking about and told her that. She continued to explain where she had seen them and the light of recognition went off in my mind. Yes, I knew the giant daffodils that she was wanting. So, being the kind friend that I am, I suggested she ask at the local nursery for them under their common name (if I would have had time I would have given her the genus specie but I didn't have time) and their common name was silly but it was the only name I knew them by....skunk Cabbage! Unfortunately she got smart before she went and asked! So I didn't get my final laugh, but I get entertained every year as the glorious yellow flowers appear in bogs throughout the area. And after Barbara's input I look at them differently, they are, in fact, beautiful. Mind you, their beauty is something that has to be observed from afar as they have a very strong, pungent Oder!

I wonder how many things in life fail to get due respect because of something like an Oder? Skunk Cabbage is truly beautiful but I had never taken time to look at it, I just judged it bad because it smelled bad. It makes me think that one needs to re-evaluate things every once in awhile just to make sure something of great value has not been overlooked due to prejudice in one form or another. And, yes world, I love avocado....my mother would gasp to know that fact. Sometime in the last 50 years they must have improved because they were bad years ago and they are wonderful now. Just an example of what I mean.

Primroses

I wandered out and spent a few minutes in the yard today, pulled some weeds and other fun things like that. Kind of between sun shine and not, trying hard to hit the real thing and actually missing it totally. Such is early spring in Washington, changes rather frequently. My circle of primroses caught my eye and made me think. The table decorations from my parents memorial were primroses, and then my friend Avery Wilson purchased more for me rather than sending flowers or a card (by the way, she was probably 11 at the time). I enjoyed all the bright colors of the primroses until they no longer had color to share and then I planted them in my flower bed and encircled them with rocks to give them some structure. Every spring they make their much welcomed statement in the early spring and every year I remember my parents and most particularly my mother as she loved her gardens way more than I, as a child, thought healthy! I am sure she is smiling from her home on high on those beautiful flowers, and so am I. They were a gift to honor my mother from a young lady that I enjoy working with, a very thoughtful gift to me and to my mother.

And that made me think further. I have this wonderful contorted filbert that I love in front of the house. It probably garnishes more comments than anything else I have growing outside and I love it. When Larry's sister died we were given a planter filled with spring flowers and, like the plants from my parents memorial, I love their bright colors until they were all gone and then I emptied the container into the flower bed by the filbert. Each spring I have a beautiful display of deep purple minature Iris and some minature tulips and small daffodills that are among the earliest colors in the garden. They make me remember Susan and all the positive things she taught me. Her life was kind of a tradjidy, but she taught me the power of honesty. She made mistakes and she paid high for those mistakes, but she was so open and honest with me and taught me many things.

I love spring flowers, but most of all I love spring flowers that mean something to my heart as well as to my eyes. (Humm, spell checker is not working so you get this one raw. Does not this stupid computer know I need all the help I can get when it comes to spelling!)

Passport

I took myself up to Langley today to officially apply for a passport. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time but found ways of not making it happen, something I am completely too good at! Anyway, I downloaded the application off of the Internet, filled it in, got my birth certificate and off I went. I came to a realization here awhile back, things don't have to be complicated if you just don't make them complicated. My background is completely clear and easy to understand but I don't have complete documentation on some points of interest to those that really delve into these things. Point at hand, I have documentation of Long going to Franco, and Long becoming Godsey but I have nothing that bridges the point between Franco and Godsey. And that gives the authorities fits! It takes a simple leap of logic to connect the dots but they leap not at all. So how did I manage it this time....simple....I deleted the Franco name and it sailed through. So why did it take me all these years to come to that realization? Heck if I know, but it did. And now, in 4 to 6 weeks, I will be available to run around the world at will....anybody taking a trip that needs my supervision? I will soon be available!

All this documentation is kind of a farce anyway. They make it feel like they are enhancing national security as you get this passport, but the reality is they allow all sorts of people with negative intentions into the country every day while they stress out about the Franco/Godsey situation. The only thing I have ever blown up was a potato in the oven and that has been years ago...you stick them first and then they don't blow potato chunks all over the oven to be cleaned up later. Potatoes are simple, passports should be too.

Hello Dolly

Linda and I are doing something unique and different....we are going down to the Fifth Ave. Theater to see Hello Dolly on stage. I haven't been to a professional live production in an extremely long time. They are expensive and I detest going alone. I don't think Linda has ever been! So when Hello Dolly came up I thought this would be a good one. I played the local production and Linda was in the cast. We both know the show upside down and backwards thanks to those hours of rehearsals. I, of course, never saw it, but I still know what was going on...one of the joys of being the rehearsal accompanist and then in the pit. I can't help but think it will be a fun day.

She is leaving the boys with Lisa so we are truly alone for a time. It will also be her first trip away from Logan for more than an hour or two. See, lots of firsts today! Beefy-boy should do well and there is a back-up plan, Lisa is still nursing Isabella. Should be a fun day and the boys will be fine too.

Friday the 13th is good

Today is a good day on many levels. Garret is a whole month old today. It is hard to be so invested in someone and still not have even set eyes upon them. It was never my plan to have my family live a long way away so I had never thought about having a grandchild that I could not see with slight investment of time and energy. But that is the way things are right now. As a grandparent I want to be available but not in the way, and sometimes it is hard to see the line between the two. 3 weeks from today I will be on the road headed south to see this young man and I greatly look forward to the experience.

And it is good that this week is over and the wounds can begin the healing process. I so respect the young people I work with and how they feel so deeply but embrace tomorrow with so much health. They honor and love Katelyn but today they have moved on, she is still in their hearts and minds, but life is for the living and so they must live. What a healthy way of being and how I try to emulate them. All challenges are just that, challenges, and it is how we carry the load that is the measure of the person.

That said, Romans 8 and some before and after address being joint-heirs with Christ. What an amazing thought. Inheritance has been such a rats nest in my life and it is good to hear it all put in proper perspective. If we are to live worthy as joint-heirs with Christ what does it matter how things unfold here and now on this confused earth? It is of only temporary significance and I need to remember that all the time. I most certainly lost the battle but I feel so assured that the war is mine....I will be joint-heir with Christ and that is the true prize. It isn't in money and/or acreage, it is in the good you bring to others.

Ya, Friday the 13Th is a wonderful day and I am glad I am here to embrace it...and now I want my shower and breakfast, they too are in need of my embrace!!!

Some days are hard.

Today was a hard day in seminary. Some people think teaching seminary at 6:20 a.m. every day is a negative thing, but I really do love it. Weeks like this one make me realize how important it is and how blessed I am to work with the young people as closely as I do. The death of Katelyn last week has hit most of the kids really hard so today we honored her with a DVD which they will play at her memorial tomorrow. Kip assembled it with the help of some of the other kids, took most of the night to put it together and it was very touching. To say there was not a dry eye in the house would be an understatement. We all intellectually understood that Katelyn was gone but seeing the final frame with her birth and death dates on it, well, that was just difficult.

And, yes, I know....guns don't kill people, people kill people. But when guns are involved it just makes it more difficult. One of the things we all did was try to find the positive in this extremely negative situation. The positive is the love of a Heavenly Father and the gift of the Holy Ghost. We just need to learn to listen to those promptings and then maybe things like this would not happen as much. None of us know if Katelyn had time to react, time when she knew she needed to stop the game and get out of the room, but we all know what it feels like to have the comfort the Holy Ghost can provide. It affirms to me that I need to invest more energy into listening to those promptings, no matter how small and act upon what I know to be right.

And Katelyn will be missed but she will live on here on earth as well as in the Celestial Kingdom beyond the veil. She lives because she touched a lot of people here on Island and in other places too. She lives because there are many people that will remember her with a smile. More than that a person can not ask I think.