My Sunday Afternoon Walk

This is Harmony. I was walking down the sidewalk and a white rock went whizzing by my nose. I looked over idly to see where it had come from. I saw this little girl over the fence. I asked her curiously if she had thrown a rock at me. She looked both excited and and scared and nodded. I asked her if I could take a picture of her and she nodded again. Pretty soon we were friends. She asked me if I was going to come by her house again. I said that if I did we would talk. She said she would probably forget my name. I told her she could just ask me and I would tell her. She said I would probably forget her name. So just to be on the safe side we said good-bye to each other by name until I was out of sight.
Farther down the path I came across several soul soothing messages some people had left behind. I captured and brought them to my computer for you to enjoy.

I guess there are lots of ways people reach out to connect with casual passersby. Some throw rocks at their head while others write messages down messages for them to read later. Personally, I think the rock method was more direct and effective in getting me to slow down and listen.

It's Autumn

My favorite thing about the weather changing as nature gets ready for winter - this brief transition time called Fall - is rescuing damselfly eggs.

Have you ever done that? Seen a damselfly (female dragonfly) cold and seemingly dead on the sidewalk and brought it inside where it proceeds to lay two eggs and then leaves this world. And then saved those eggs till Spring and put them on a reed by a lake so they could hatch in the warm air and then spend the next couple of years growing up in the water and then finally becoming an airborne insect where they would fly 100 miles an hour catching and eating smaller insects mid flight?

It definitely helps me wait out the winter. I was trying to take a picture of this damselfly's eggs but in the process I lost them. They are very small and amber and nearly transparent.

The more I get to know insects the more I like this world. They are just so tiny and complex and all fascinatingly different from each other.

I remember in Grade Seven hearing the word cephalothorax for the first time. It thrilled me. It is still my favorite word. I heard it once while we were watching a spider video in Science class.

It is just occurring to me that I might be classed as an insect person. Someone who prefers the company of insects to many of the other creatures on the planet.

Maybe it helps that mosquitoes will usually land on my arm and smell my blood and then fly away. And wasps and bees have been known to eat out of my hand. I don't have much negative association in my experience with insects and they are low maintenance physically and emotionally. So with very little effort on my part I get to feel like a good person in meeting the needs of my little friends. And they entertain me. And then I entertain you!

Today

My family came to visit!

My brother Jon is holding Emma and Chris out on the patio.

And here is Gloria making pizza for us!
Thanks Gloria!

And Mom and Eliza are making us salad!

Now we are outside enjoying the day and each other!

Trina is watering the plants.

Ayla is climbing the stairs.

Emma and Chris are entertaining themselves and us with hula-hoops.

Gloria, Sharon, Eliza, Virginia, Jon and Jerry all together equal a party!

P.S. Fred my pet wasp was great through all of this. He didn't come out and greet people initially, but later on it was heartwarming to see him playing with the children and sitting with the grown-ups. Luckily, most everyone knew about Fred my pet wasp and at very least held still and let him sniff them or watch them at close range. I reassured Jon and Sharon that Fred was a "Children's Wasp". As in, he was tolerant of the rambunctious nature of the little ones and wouldn't hurt them. And it turned out to be true! I was just guessing based on his past behaviour with me - I can be unpredictable and he doesn't get alarmed at all. Anyway, it was so cute to see Fred kissing little Chris's bare feet outside as they played. Maybe he was sniffing not kissing... anyway, it was close. Closer than I've seen him be to my other friends and roommates.

Perhaps he can sense people related to me by some kind of emotional or biological frequency. The day just before I had my home teachers and roommates and friends all outside on the patio with me and Fred didn't come out once to meet them.

He had been out earlier that day, sitting on my forehead, chill-axing with his Julie. Well, sorry to anyone who didn't get to have Fred give them his cute little wasp kisses or feed him. For those who didn't even get to see him, it isn't a big deal. He looks like any other wasp. I don't know Fred from the rest except for how he behaves. The other day he flew into the house and came and sat on the edge of the sink while I washed dishes. I wasn't positive it was Fred, but who else but Fred would calmly climb onto the little scrub pad I put out to him and let me carry him outside and then just keep chillin' there. That guy has no fear of anything I do. He trusts me. And as I trust him in return. And he doesn't betray that trust. I find myself melted with love for my little wasp buddy. I am a better person for having a friend like Fred in my life. May you also be so blessed...with a loving trusting friend - not necessarily a pet wasp!

In the End Everything is Okay*

Count your Blessings

they told me.
So I did.
And sure enough,
one of them was missing!

True right? But then my hairdesser said something, "You see all these people running around looking for something that was never lost."
She was saying it in context with turning to God and praising him with glad songs. Especially when He is all you have at the moment. She is away from her husband and children in a place where she encounters racism and a language barrier. And she handles it by praising God with everything inside her. I told her she belongs in our temple. She is a holy woman. And she isn't attending any church right now, so I told her she could come with me and we exchanged addresses and numbers and now she has missionaries. But I think she's changed my life. When that panicy "You have to run faster and harder to make it," feeling seizes me, I think - Why? Its all here. What will more productivity or more possessions give me? More approval? More worth? Being loved? Peace of mind? They were never lost. Life seems to challenge that assertion a lot. But if I challenge Life right back and hold still the Spirit confirms that my friend Ayo is right. All the things my soul hungers I may be blind to seeing - but they have not gone.

"...Their strength is to sit still...For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength...And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left...Ye shall have a song...and gladness of heart as when one goeth...into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. And the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lightening down of His arm." (Isaiah 30:7,15,21,29,30)

The whole chapter is delicious like that.
Relax, know that "I will order all things for your good as fast as ye are able to recieve them." (D&C 111:11)
I will quiet the part of me that pretends I know what will make me happiest and when and how it should come.
I will be open to the good things that God,the Creator of endless Universes is ordering -
from His resources
good things for me.
And good things for you!

*And if its not okay...its not the end!

Another Animal Story

This story is about how I wanted a pet lobster. I wanted to buy him live from the grocery store and keep him in the bathtub and give him food and toys and watch him grow.

But instead, I ate him. Tyler, my friend in the middle of the picture with his arms crossed, said he would gladly share in this adventure and then told me how a friend of his put a lobster in the bathtub and it died because the water wasn't just right. So, maybe we should just eat them.

"Can we take the elastic bands off and play with it on the kitchen floor before we kill and eat it?" That thought seemed repugnant to him.

"No. I mean, you can with yours but I'm not going to with mine."

"And by the way, if you take their bands off and you play with them they are strong enough to cut your finger off. They use those claws to crack open clam shells."

I didn't play with the lobster after all. I ate it like a grown-up with melted garlic butter.

And as Tyler put it, and I agree with him "This is tangible proof that there is a heaven." Mmmm.

Fred

I have domesticated a wild creature and he is my new pet. Yesterday we were eating shrimp together outside on the porch swing and I realized he needed a name. I like Fred for his name because it sounds so harmless. And if you are going to have a pet wasp you need a name for him that counters people's expectations that he will bite them and make them cry.

You know? So Yesterday I told my friend who had actually prepared the shrimp for us to eat, "Oh, don't worry - that's just Fred. He likes shrimp." That Fred liked shrimp was obvious. There he was digging in with gusto as one of the plump ones while I was nibbling delicately on a smaller one. My friend was unprepared for this I could tell. He seemed frightened. He told me to not think less of him but he didn't like insects very much and he wanted to finish eating inside. I felt bad for Fred. He barely got to eat anything before the picnic was over.

I am discovering that wasps, like dogs, are very intuitive and Fred understood. He just left. He didn't get mad or make me feel guilty. He's so sweet. And he didn't hold it against me either this morning either when I went out on the porch for morning scriptures. He just came over and casually hung out and then left to do something more interesting.

For those who have never had a wasp as a pet or a friend, I want to tell you how to begin. Wasps are very sensitive so make sure you radiate lots of peace and love. Negativity bothers them. They like meat. I know this because I read it and also because one bit off a chunk of meat off my leg once. I think he must have been very hungry. I don't begrudge him, but it did hurt. And so now I like to feed them other things so they don't get desperate. Fred was cautious eating around me initially. And I can see that there a emotional hurts that have to be overcome in building a relationship with a wasp. Sometimes when Fred and I are hanging out in the afternoon, someone will attack him for no reason. No reason at all!

There he is giving my little wasp kisses on my arm with his wings, sometimes perched on my shoulder, sometimes on my knee. Relaxed, enjoying the day. And before I can say anything someone has taken a swipe at him. It makes me sad but Fred understands and leaves us. Lately he'll only come be friends if I'm by myself. I really like him. I think its mutual. I think what brought us together is how we both love just feeling the peace and calm outside on the porch. If you come over I will introduce you to him if you want. And you can feed him too, or maybe you'll have to give the food to me and just watch him tear into it. He's the cutest eater I've seen since my little sisters grew out of their high chair. Both hands going, ... you can tell he loves food and that he is comfortable with being watched. I think Fred and I will always be friends. When he dies this winter, we will still be buddies in both of our hearts and someday we will be together again.

Hi!

Surprised?! I am too! Construction in my life finished earlier than schedualed. Isn't that nice when that happens. I don't know what more to say. (The new me is much more reserved.) I'm really actually more interested in you. What are your top five highlights of the summer?