I am grateful for many things and many people. Today I wanted to write about the people who work at care centers and are trying to lift the spirits of the residents who are most definitely feeling more isolated than ever during this pandemic. I'm thankful for them!

I know of one sweet lady who is doing all she can to lift and cheer the hearts of the elderly. She has been enlisting the help of our community to donate decorations and notes of encouragement and other things. In December she is planning snowflake day, candy cane day, a wreath for every resident's door, and many other ideas. I am grateful that my daughter and my niece and I have been able to make a wreath to donate. I hope it brings a smile and some joy to whoever receives it. 

One of my favorite things to do on Sunday morning is watch the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. I love the songs, and I also love the messages. Today's message was about wreaths. I learned something new about holly and ivy and wreaths, and I wanted to share it with you too.

The Holly and the Ivy

"People watch for the first signs of Christmas with great anticipation. Favorite holiday carols fill the air. Colorful, glistening lights illuminate the night sky. And wreaths of holly and ivy appear on doors and storefronts. To many people, traditional symbols like these signal the advent of the Christmas season. But how did these traditions begin?

For example, why have holly and ivy become symbols of Christmas? The answer takes us back to the earliest days of Christianity, when wreaths of holly—with their sharp leaves and red berries—brought to mind the crown of thorns worn by Jesus Christ and the drops of blood He shed. The tradition of making and giving decorative wreaths dates to the Roman Empire and may have entered Christianity through St. Augustine, who was Roman by birth and was highly successful at spreading “good tidings of great joy.”1 Over time, it was believed that a holly wreath on the door would keep one’s home safe from evil—and from tax collectors.2

Holly and ivy commonly appear together as mainstays of Christmas decor. Some say the holly represents the Christ child and the ivy represents His mother, Mary. Others find symbolic meaning in the fact that these plants do not die in winter. In the evergreen leaves of the holly and the ivy, they are reminded of the promise of everlasting life embodied in a newborn babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. No wonder our hearts still thrill with excitement as we see these symbols of Christmas!

The symbolism of the holly and the ivy has been preserved by an English folk song, written about 300 years ago.3 Traditions may come and go, but for all, the holly and the ivy signal that Christmas is coming, and with it, goodwill and enduring hope." 

The holly and the ivy

When they are both full grown

Of all the trees that are in the wood

The holly bears the crown.

1. Luke 2:10.

2. See Ronald M. Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols: The Stories behind Twenty-Five Yuletide Favorites (2006), 61–62.

3. Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols, 61.

We're all in This Together

I realize that although as a worldwide family we're all affected by what's going on, it is different for each individual. We're not all on the same boat, some are not even fortunate enough to be on a "boat." Yet, I believe that we're all children of God, and that is something that we have in common. We're brothers and sisters navigating a life that quickly changed and continues to change faster than we could have ever imagined.

I've found myself wishing that I could read my grandparent's and great-grandparent's journals about the trials they went through. I've not been very good at keeping a journal myself lately, but I finally remembered a way that I kept a "journal" when my babies were born. I printed off a calendar and wrote little things that happened on it. I did that for April and May of 2020.

Here are some pictures of life from our view.

In December 2019 my sweet daughter made this Stress Reliever Kit complete with pictures to look at, fun textures to touch, and encouraging happy thoughts. I appreciated her thoughtfulness as we navigated the holiday season while my husband was laid off. In January and February of 2020 life was less stressful, but BAM, the pandemic hit ant this Stress Reliever Kit has once again been in use.

The lack of toilet paper at the stores was dramatic. Pasta, canned foods, and my favorite stress food HotTamales candies were hard to find. Apparently many of you have the same favorite candy! Purchase limits and signs on the floor of the stores soon appeared. Sometimes pretend I am playing Pac Man as I am weaving in and out of shoppers and mostly following one way signs in the aisles. I'll be happy when shopping and all of the supply chain bottle necks can return to a more normal state. We haven't been able to get everything we want when we want it, but we've been blessed to have our needs met.

Here's what we did when we couldn't find toilet paper in the stores. We bought industrial sized rolls and tied them up. It worked.

We did a 1000 piece puzzle as a family in April.

We were able to buy a new car with our tax return. The DMV was open, but only for drive thru service. My wait was five hours! Yup, five hours. Google said it was "Not too busy." Google didn't understand that all of the people there had to wait in line in their car in three lanes, not inside the building with more than a dozen workers helping. I was able to teach a piano lesson via Zoom during my wait though. Yea for technology.

I work at an elementary school. When it was announced that school was going to be online for the rest of the year the district also decided to do the planned demolition of our building early. So I was able to help pack and prepare for the move. The PTA gave us these toilet paper teacher appreciation gifts. I loved it. 

I had mixed emotions seeing our school building being demolished. We're getting a new school which will be ready for school in the fall (fingers crossed), but it was sad to not be able to celebrate the end of this school year with the students and the community.

Speaking of school. My kids are not fans of online school, and neither am I really. I sure do appreciate my kids teachers. Photos of my daughter's work filled up my phone and got emailed to her amazing teacher. 

I appreciate the hopeful painted rocks and even a banner in the trees I've seen as we cheer each other on from a distance.  We lost a member of our extended family to Covid, which is hard.

Here's a quote that has given me hope through all of this.

"When we have conquered this—and we will—may we be equally committed to freeing the world from the virus of hunger, freeing neighborhoods and nations from the virus of poverty. May we hope for schools where students are taught—not terrified they will be shot—and for the gift of personal dignity for every child of God, unmarred by any form of racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice." Jeffrey R. Holland, April 2020 

Turbulence

On March 18, 2020 there was a 5.7 earthquake in Magna, Utah. We live far enough from the epicenter that it probably felt more like a 2.something earthquake to my family. When the earthquake occurred my second son thought that his older brother was shaking his bed to wake him up. My daughter thought that same older brother must have been stomping or shaking something in the other room. The sound of my closet doors shaking is the sound that I remember most.

No damage occurred to our house, but there was definitely damage to various buildings closer to the epicenter. So far I've not heard of any injuries. I'm thankful for that. I did take the picture that hangs over the head of my bed down till I can safely mount it in a way that won't fall on my head in another quake.

My oldest son said that the earthquake felt like turbulence on a roller coaster ride. I recently rode on an airplane and experienced some turbulence so this got me thinking. . .

What if we were flying on an airplane and Jesus were our captain? What might he say to us in March 2020 as we experience the turbulence of a pandemic accompanied by earthquakes and uncertainty all around?

Maybe it would be something like this:

This is your Captain speaking. As you can feel, we are experiencing some turbulence, and it will continue for a little while. Our plane is under My control, and we'll continue safely on our journey. Keep your seat belts on, listen to instructions given to you, "Be still and know that I am God." Thank you for flying through mortality with Me.

Life has proved to be an interesting adventure lately. I'm going to trust My Captain and keep hanging on for the ride.

Did a Fourth Grader Write this Adventure or What?

The other day someone mentioned that life lately seems like a creative writing assignment written by a fourth grader. What an adventure it is. So far it goes something like this.

Once upon a time there was a bat, the bat got sick and then it got the whole world sick. School was cancelled, Church was cancelled, everything was cancelled! The people ran to the store to buy toilet paper just in case toilet paper could save the day, they bought everything else in the store too just in case. AND THEN there was an earthquake, AND THEN there was a hail storm with marble sized hail, AND THEN there was snow, but school was already cancelled. AND THEN . . .

I'd like that fourth grader to quickly find a peaceful ending, wouldn't you?

But here's my personal experience of the day to add to the adventure:  The earthquake didn't do any damage at Sharla's house. She went to the store to forage for nuts and berries and laundry detergent for her family. She was happy to find some detergent and put it on top of her washing machine. While the washer was spinning it created it's own mini earthquake and the new container of detergent bounced off the washer, the lid broke, and there is now a flood of laundry detergent on her floor. She is procrastinating cleaning it up.

True story!

The Beauty

I love where I live. I love to see the mountains and especially the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. When my kids were younger they started calling a sunset or sunrise "the beauty."

Yet, this is the view from my front window.

I have a choice to make, I can either let the power pole and all the lines annoy me and ruin the beauty for me, or I can see through them to the beauty. The beauty is there whether I take the time to soak it in or not, and whether there are things obstructing part of the view or not. So I try to enjoy it as often as possible.

I've thought a lot about how looking at a sunrise through all these lines is an analogy for how I can look at life. I can name each and every cable for a trial or annoyance or a person who is making my life stressful. Or, I can look past some things and do my best to enjoy the beauty in life. There are definitely times when I wish those cables weren't there, or when one particular trial takes up a lot more of my view than I'd wish. I do also enjoy the chance to look at the beauty from other viewpoints, but I still love where I live and what I can see.

I've been feeling impressed to start a blog for several years now, and I knew that this was the first thing I'd post about. Hopefully my insights can be helpful to someone.