Are you experiencing Turbulence?

Several years ago I listened to a talk tape by a man trying to help people learn to deal with daily stress and problems. While flying to a seminar, his wife commented about the turbulence they experienced. She said she was not afraid of flying when it was smooth, only when there was turbulence. His comment to her, and to us, was “but turbulence happens in the air.” We are not afraid when life is smooth, only when things are rocky. When my life is stressful and rocky, I will often say I am experiencing turbulence.
During the Saturday session of October Conference, I sat on temple square in Salt Lake City, with my sister, enjoying the beautiful fall weather, listening to conference, and watching people. The Sister missionaries approached us and talked for a while about missionary work. When they left, we realized we had missed Elder Uchtdorf’s talk. Imaging my delight in reading that talk today and finding he talks about turbulence from a pilot’s point of view. He says a new pilot may speed up the plane when experiencing turbulence, but experienced pilots know that there is “an optimum turbulence penetration speed that will minimize the negative effects of turbulence. And most of the time that would mean to reduce your speed.”
How often do we try to speed up when we experience stress, or turbulence in our lives? The more we try to hurry, the more things seem to go wrong. The light only turns red, or the car in front of you is only slow, when you are in a hurry. Elder Uchtdorf says that “the wise understand that there is more to life than increasing its speed. In short, they focus on the things that matter most.”
Sometimes we feel that we are imprisoned by the busyness of our lives, when in reality we are the jailor holding the key to our escape. Do we need to be involved in all the things we do? Do we need all the stuff we collect? What are the reasons that we do the things you do? Are you busy to keep busy or to prove your significance in the world? (Can you ever really prove your significance?) Do your children have to be involved in everything, even if they don’t want to? Are you living up to a worldly ideal of perfection?

Quotes from Elder Uchtdorf’s talk:
“Leonardo da Vinci is quoted as saying that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”3 When we look at the foundational principles of the plan of happiness, the plan of salvation, we can recognize and appreciate in its plainness and simplicity the elegance and beauty of our Heavenly Father’s wisdom. Then, turning our ways to His ways is the beginning of our wisdom.
“Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in a recent general conference, taught, “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.””
“My dear brothers and sisters, we would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most. Let us be mindful of the foundational precepts our Heavenly Father has given to His children that will establish the basis of a rich and fruitful mortal life with promises of eternal happiness. They will teach us to do “all these things . . . in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that [we] should run faster than [we have] strength. [But] it is expedient that [we] should be diligent, [and] thereby . . . win the prize.”
Brothers and sisters, diligently doing the things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the world. That is why “we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, . . . that [we] may know to what source [we] may look for a remission of [our] sins.” In the complexity, confusion, and rush of modern living, this is the “more excellent way/”
“Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from placing our attention and efforts on the basics of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most.
Let us simplify our lives a little. Let us make the changes necessary to refocus our lives on the sublime beauty of the simple, humble path of Christian discipleship—the path that leads always toward a life of meaning, gladness, and peace.”

When you feel the turbulence of life shaking you to your foundation, make sure you are built upon the rock of Jesus Christ. Take a deep breath, slow down, and pray for strength and guidance. God will guide you and help you through. Trust him and know that he has a plan for your life and the challenges you face now may be preparing you for the future.

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Gardening

My Mother and Father always grew a big garden, bigger than the lot on wich I now live. Dad paid us ten cents a row to weed for him. We'd crawl down the rows on our hands and knees pulling our the weeds from around the plants, usually corn, squash, or beans. Mom weeded the more tender plants, like carrots and radishes, until the plants grew big enough to be easily distinguished from the weeds.

Planting a garden in the southwest poses a challenge for someone who grew up with 4 seasons. With 2 growing seasons, planting beings at the end of February, when most of the US wakes up to shovel the driveway. My husband prepared a 10'x3' planter box for my experimental garden. I mapped out the area and planted my seeds, still with the mentality of planting in rows, onions, radishes, lettuce, spinach, bush beans, peppers and some flowers along the edges. The next morning, much to my dismay, animal tracks filled my little planter box from what looked like a cat fight. We rigged up some green mesh to cover the planter to keep out the animals. They just fought on top of it, so we added boards to keep the mesh off the plants. Now we have cat tracks on the mesh, but they don't reach the little plants that are starting to grow.

The radishes pushed through the soil first, of course, followed by the lettuce, and then the spinach and onions. Much to my surprise, the animals fighting only scattered a few seeds. My fear of spiders kept me from trying gardening, because black widows love my garden spot. My friend suggested scattering some diatomaceous earth in the cracks and spaces along my garden walls, so we'll see if it keeps the spiders away.

Now I have carrots coming up in a nice little row, beside the radishes.

Cleaning up... from a stolen check.

Well, yesterday found me waiting with several other people at the bank to have my affidavit signed and notarized, so they can chase down the person who stole my check. Stealing from someone their money is bad enough, but the time lost in cleaning up after such a violation hurts and then the confidence and trust in people goes out the window. We just can't do things like we could in the past. The lady waiting next to me had her information stolen through an ATM. She had to use cash all weekend, until the Banks opened up again. I don't use ATM's anymore. It's to easy for someone to put on a false ATM front and sit outside with a computer stealing everyone's card numbers and pins. The man on my other side was trying to remove charges from his credit card that he didn't authorize. Ah, money, we can't seem to live without it, yet it can really be a pain.

I am very grateful that the person didn't change the check for a greater amount, and they left their thumbprint on the check. The bank has camera's in all of it's branched, so surely, with the time on the check of when it was cashed, they will be able to find this person. They could have ruined their own life for pennies... These are desperate times and who knows when the economy will reverse and the recession stop. Our parents and grandparents lived through the depression, maybe we just need to learn some lessons about wanting so many material possessions.

Mail Fraud

Do you ever get that feeling that you should not do something, but you don't know why, so you do it anyway? I put a payment for an invoice into my mailbox for the postman to pick up and that little feeling came not to do that, but there were other envelopes in there already, and besides the mailman should be coming soon. You guessed it, someone stole my outgoing mail, altered my check and cashed it. Luckily I had the money to cover the check, because they only changed the 3 to a 5, but I lost the whole afternoon reporting it to my bank, the fraud department, and the US Postal Postal Inspector. (The Police said I didn't need to file a report with them, just the Postal Inspector.) Monday I get to go and open a new account, because they closed my account today as an added measure of safety, in case the criminals try to do anything else.

I know, and we all know we should never leave our outgoing mail in the mail box to be picked up. I usually take it to the Post Office myself, but I was lazy and rushed for time. Well, look at the time it has cost me today. We are now going to buy a mailbox that can lock. This will protect our incoming mail, but I will always have to remember to take my outgoing mail to the Post Office. It is a small inconvenience for that added measure of safety.

But the day didn't start off bad. We helped with an Eagle Scout project this morning, painting a new design on the play ground wall at an elementary school. A lot of people turned up to help and the wall looks so colorful, light blue, with yellow, red, and green designs, and it looks fabulous.

Hope you all have a great day and remember to protect yourselves against fraud.

Happy New Year!

Well, we have rung in a new decade. What will this year bring you? The new year creates thoughts of new things to do and accomplish. This year I am not making the usual lists. I don't need to, I can just recycle the old ones. This year my goals are simple. Be Happy and help others be happy.

I will probably look over my goal lists from last year and I may be surprised that I actually can cross a few things off the list. In spite of not doing what I may have wanted to do, I had a great year and learned so much about taking myself out of the center of my world and putting others in that spot.