I read a quote once from Emma Stone who said, "I really like being alive." Here are two pictures from an outing a couple of weeks ago. In this moment, with my feet in fresh water and looking up at Mantayupan Falls, I really liked being alive. It was a sensory moment with the feel of the water, the sound of the falls, and the sight of the beauty around me. I thank God every day for the chance to be here on earth.

 

That point being, as I think about it, it accumulates in my mind as an extravagance of minutiae.  The sheer fringe and network of detail assumes primary importance. That there are so many details seems to be the most important and visible fact about the creation 

(Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, pg. 130).

This is the truth of the pervading intricacy of the world’s detail: the creation is not a study, a roughed-in sketch; it is supremely, meticulously created, created abundantly, extravagantly, and in fine 

(Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, pg. 136).

The creator creates.  He creates everything and anything. 

The creator loves pizzazz 

(Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, pgs. 138, 139).

The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest (Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, pg. 275).

 

I read these verses in Doctrine & Covenants Section 59 this week:

"Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.

The fulness of the earth is yours.

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; and to enliven the soul.

And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made."

 

They come and go so quickly

Spring and Fall...

as if they had not really

come at all.

Perhaps we could not take

too much of beauty,

breath-catching glory,

ecstasy without relief;

and so...

God made them brief.

(Ruth Graham in Footprints of a Pilgrim)

 

Not only is the scenery magnificent in this video, but the message is also marvelous.

Today our son did something adventurous, and something I have certainly never done. He ran across Utah Lake.  When questioned by a brother if it was safe, Logan answered that there were only a couple sketchy parts.  Oh my.  I don't if I could trust the ice to hold me.  

I am thinking about this quote from Nassim Nicolas Taleb in Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder:

"With randomness, uncertainty, chaos; you want to use them, not hide from them.  You want to be the fire and wish for the wind.  We just don't want to just survive uncertainty, to just about make it.  We want to survive uncertainty and have the last word."

The runners had the last word this morning.

 

 

This flowering Christmas cactus has brought me joy all week.  No matter that it is cold outside, or that the last blossom was months ago, the cactus was provided sunshine and water and it gloriously bloomed! 

 

Elder Karl D. Hirst gave a beautiful talk at the October 2024 General Conference. During the talk he included hints as to how we can feel love from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and when and where we can feel it. Here are some of the hints, scattered throughout his talk. I love these thoughts:

His arms are not shortened. They are always long enough to "[reach our] reaching" and embrace each one of us.

I really enjoy the symbolism of mountains being evidence of the certainty of God's love.

The house of the Lord is the home of our most precious covenants and a place for us all to retreat and sink deeply into the evidence of our Father's love for us.

I have also enjoyed the comfort that comes to my soul when I wrap myself more tightly in my baptismal covenant and find someone who is mourning a loss or grieving a disappointment and I try to help them hold and process their feelings.

Birdsong, feeling the sun or a breeze or rain on my skin, and times when nature puts my senses in awe of God--each has had a part in providing me with heavenly connection.

Perhaps the comfort of faithful friends.

General Conference.

Music.

Serving.

A journal.

Your unique place of personal suffering. I wonder, if Jesus were to choose a place where you and He could meet, a private place where you would be able to have a singular focus on Him, might He choose your unique place of personal suffering, the place of your deepest need, where no one else can go? Somewhere you feel so lonely that you must truly be all alone but you aren't quite, a place to which perhaps only He has travelled but actually has already prepared to meet you there when you arrive? If you are waiting for Him to come, might He already be there and within reach?

This week I went on a hike for a couple of hours and it was the most peaceful, gorgeous morning!  Here are a few pictures from the hike.

I thought about this comic, but this was not the case! I let everything go and enjoyed the beautiful scenery:)

The sunflowers are blooming in the gulley near our house and they are beautiful! Do you notice how the sun is just starting to come up over the mountains and the sunflowers are awake and standing up to greet the sun! Most of the flowers are facing towards the sun.

Today I read, "Repentance is a gift. Repent, reset, and refocus every day. Remember it is more about progression than about perfection" (Craig and Melissa Ballard, Liahona).

This quote reminded me of the sunflowers. I am going to repent, reset, refocus and turn towards the true light (Jesus Christ) every day.

 

The last two Saturdays I have spent time in the mountains and I my soul has been fed by the breathtaking views.

"Develop not only simplicity in your way of life, but in your choice of pleasures and enjoyments, also.  Train yourself to appreciate the free, ample beauties and marvels and joys all about you, in nature, for instance." (Mary M. Ellsworth)

This book was recommended by a friend. I was warned that the book was "deep" and "kind of out there," and some of it was, but Dr. Hilton helped me to appreciate the vastness of God's creations and the plan and order in which He created all things.

Inside our wheel-shaped galaxy there exists between 100 and 200 billion stars.  This figure is an estimate, for no astronomer has counted them or ever seen them all.  Many stand in the line of sight of a closer star, and many more are hidden behind veils of dust.  Even if we could see them all, it would take 4,500 years to count them at a rate of one per second, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.  This number is only the stars, how many more worlds and moons are there? Well could the number of Heavenly Father’s creations be described as “innumerable to man” (pgs. 40, 41).

The appreciation of our God and His Christ is greatly increased as we consider the vastness of His creations and the time it took Them to do it (pg. 43).