Feeling the Holy Ghost in My Life

I am finally starting to understand what it means to feel the Spirit of God in my life. It's a good feeling, but it's more than just a good feeling. It's something that envelopes you, and you feel like you're being directed, constantly, in a wonderful way. Whenever you're going in the right direction, you just feel so good. As soon as you start going in the wrong direction, you can feel it, and you know what you have to do. As soon as you turn in the right direction again, you know you've done the right thing.

The Spirit gives you ideas. It helps you create. It helps you to learn, constantly, new things that you didn't know before. Life is new every minute. It give you a sense of purpose. It gives you hope. It makes you feel like everything's okay. And it helps you understand people and see them in a new light. I love the feeling of the Holy Ghost in my life.

But it is a gift. It doesn't last long without nourishment. I have to take conscious steps in order to have this in my life. I have to humble myself and pray on my knees and ask for help, every day. I have to ask for the Spirit to be with me. I have to invite it, consciously. And I have to live the way I know I should live. If I am short with someone, I lose a measure of the Spirit. I can explain how I feel to someone and I don't lose it. But I have to be careful.

It feels so good, I don't ever want to lose it. These are just a few of the times when I feel the Spirit: When I read my scriptures and think and ponder about things. When I'm with friends and learning from them or with them. When I'm doing dishes or digging in my garden, and my thoughts wander over my life and what I'm doing here on earth. When I'm praying, especially for someone else. When I play a song I've composed. When I'm listening to someone tell about a truth they've discovered. When I'm listening to someone at the food pantry praying for other people. The Spirit brings me close to God, and it's lovely.

I've learned to start paying attention when I feel the Spirit. It nudges me to do small acts of service for others that I might not do otherwise. It tells me that these small things might have a big effect that day or somewhere down the road for that person. It tells me when to call someone. It tells me what another person is feeling. It teaches me to scatter goodness all around me, every day, every hour, every minute.

I wish everyone could feel it, because with it, you may be alone, but you're not lonely. Even though you may not always have an instant solution to a pressing problem, you feel like everything's going to work out okay. But you also do get instant solutions at times, just because you're in tune. You can sense why things are happening a certain way, and how certain situations affect people in ways that may ultimately help them. Even though somebody might treat you badly, you can see them as human beings working things out in their life, and you don't feel like it's all directed at you.

And even though everything might be crazy elsewhere, inside of you, you know that life is going just as God has planned it, and that everything will be all right. You know that even if you die, it's okay...God will take care of you. It makes you feel like you have a choice in how you act, and that you can act however you want because you're important. You know that you'll be directed in your decisions, and that that direction will always lead you to a good and comfortable place. I love the feelings that the Holy Ghost gives me. I hope, I pray that others can find this in their lives, too, because it is wonderful.

Dehumidifying DVD Remotes

Okay, that's a bad title. It should more properly read, "What to Do When You Idiotically Drop Your DVD Remote into a Cold Cup of Milk."

You see, some time ago I came up with the brilliant idea of using an oversize metal cup to hold all the remotes in our bedroom. It worked great, and even had a cute picture of an Old Navy reindeer on the front.

Yesterday, however, I was tired of working and thought I'd eat my lunch in front of the TV set. I was just about to watch my very first episode of "Lost." (Yes, I know the whole world has been watching that series for the past 7 years, without me in their midst. Does that mean I have to do things on everybody else's timetable?

I set my over-sized cup of milk in front of the cup holding the remotes and enjoyed something delicious while I watched people racing around trying to cope with having fallen 40,000 feet through the air onto a deserted island (well, deserted except for the ravaging creatures that sneakily pick them off one by one). I can't remember what I was eating right now, but that's beside the point.

I have this nasty habit of putting things away whenever I see them laying around. When I didn't need the remote anymore, I plopped it into its cup....noooooo!!! Not THAT cup!!!!....it was that over-sized metal cup half full of milk! I yanked the remote out, but it was too late.

It took quite a long time to get all the milk out of it and wipe off the batteries. No, it did NOT work anymore. Aughh! And how can one enjoy "Lost" if one can't rewind the best parts?

I explained my tale of woe to Ted, who came up with the brilliant plan of submerging the remote in a container of rice overnight. The idea behind that is, the rice sucks up all that extra moisture. Evidently Ted had used this method on his cell phone when he got it wet.

Yup, you guessed it, when we took it out and inserted the batteries in it today, it worked!! Yay!!

So this is my blog about dehumidifying DVD remotes. I should probably put this device on the market! Well, there was one downside, and that is that the remote sounds like a marimba now...there's no getting that rice out. But that is a small price to pay for being able to rewind an exciting episode of "Lost," right?

What Was I Created to Do?

When you read first-hand accounts of near-death experiences, often you'll read where someone in authority up there is telling the person to fulfill their mission on earth once they get back. Then the knowledge of that mission is erased and they're sent back to earth. Now why would they do that?! Seeing how each of us is unique, wouldn't it help to have a hint of what we are uniquely supposed to be doing on earth for the benefit of our fellow-man and ourselves?

I've come to the conclusion that the only way to figure this thing out is to look back on our life and ponder the things that we've instinctively been good at, use our patriarchal blessings as a guide, and then keep ourselves worthy to notice when the Spirit nudges us in the right direction.

In my own case, as a child I thought it was odd that I was really good at two things: spelling, and rhyming.

Of course, spelling is important because if you can't spell correctly, people won't take you as seriously. Try to picture the following essay in a child's handwriting.

Sticker Story Hores
I like hores. Hores have other hores frinds.
Hores like carrots. You wouldn't think they could
but they can put their legs strait up.
Hores make you feel good. My dad wants a hores
but my mom says no. When I am. 16 or 20
I will buy my own hores.

Okay, I hope that wasn't too offensive, but you get the point.
Spelling is important.

As a youngster, I read many poems. I really liked poems, so I found myself very irritated when I found out that RHYMES + POETRY = BAD. Rhyming was no longer in style. Now everybody was just putting their thoughts on paper without any sort of rhythm whatsoever. Note the following example:

Speak

Voices
Not mine, but someone else's.
Someone else's advice
Their hopes, their dreams
What do they say?
Do you choose to listen?
They're very convincing
All morals aside
It's fun, its easy, its ok
But it's also them, not you.
Will you be their echo?

by whisperettex16

It has some good thoughts, but it's missing something.
Now read this one:

Count That Day Lost

If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went --
Then you may count that day well spent.

But if, through all the livelong day,
You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay --
If, through it all
You've nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face--
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost --
Then count that day as worse than lost.

by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

So much more satisfying!

Later, after many hours and years of struggling with the keyboard, a new talent emerged. I found out that I could play the piano, and I was good at it!

It is just now, at this late date, that I've realized why I was good at those three things. It's because all were necessary to create SONGS.

One day I figured out that the songs I liked best were the ones that followed the natural cadence of a person's speech. Look at any Beatles song...usually the melody follows how a Beatle would naturally speak those words. That was an important day, because that's when I discovered that I could put all four elements together...spelling, rhyme, piano chops, and melody. (Chops = A slang term for the technical skill with which a jazz or rock musician performs).

Now that I've begun churning out songs, I'm started to understand what my place in the world is, and why it says in my patriarchal blessing, in effect: "Your influence will be felt by many."

The reason why I say we should keep ourselves worthy to notice the nudges of the Spirit is because I've found that when I'm doing what I know I'm supposed to be doing, not doing what I know I'm not supposed to be doing, and taking baby steps toward becoming a better person, that's when the musical floodgates seem to open. When I follow any other course, the floodgates are shut tight.

So, what are your natural talents, and what have you discovered about yourself?
What is your place in the world, and how are you using your talents to improve the lot of mankind?

Thank You Notes

My daughter had a graduation party not long ago, and people generously gave her money. The polite thing for her to do now is to at the very least write thank you notes. It has been more than a week.

As I was thinking about this, I remembered my mother insisting that I write a thank you note each year for the present I received from my grandparents in another state. (Said present was always wrapped, purposely, with so much scotch tape that it was well-nigh impossible to open). I was told that it was impolite to write this thank you note at any time later than one week. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good with words, and put this off as long as possible.

Procrastination of the dreaded task soon gave way to guilt feelings, as the days slipped into one, then two, weeks. Finally I couldn't stand it any longer and had to just do it.

Now as I look back on this, I think, why didn't I just think about how the other person would feel when they got my thank you note, whether it was late or not? My grandparents would probably have been happy with anything, no matter when I sent it.
And I could have thought about they would have felt if I didn't show any gratitude for their present, no matter how it was wrapped. Perhaps that would have spurred me on to say a few grateful words in a letter.

This got me to musing about the idea of considering the feelings of other people.
Parents and children sometimes have a hard time putting themselves in each other's shoes. Strangers do. Even friends do. This is why it's about impossible to judge another person; we don't know everything about their situation, or why they make the choices they do.

I will add to this as more thoughts occur to me....