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.