Mishmash

The pesky arrow is in the way, but look at that map of the Emerald Isles!  Breath taking!

 I am pleased to say that we both survived our talks nicely.  Our topic?  Recognizing our relationship to our Father in Heaven and our relationship with others.  SK did great.  He took the scripture Moroni 7:48 and then found paragraphs from prophets about that verse.  He read seven or eight of them.  I thought it was interesting.  I think it is much easier to give a talk to a computer.  You can look directly at the screen, you can sit comfortably in a chair, you can hold your paper close to the screen so you never lose your place, and you can do it without shoes on.

One grand advantage in being in a ward far from your normal haunts is that they don't know your stories.  I used The Little Prince and Mother Theresa's quote about seeing Christ in others, in wretched, diseased and dying individuals, in fact seeing "Christ in all His distressing disguises."  She was an amazing person, and I so admire her ability to love.  Mormon said in the above verse that the pure love of Christ is the highest form of love, and that if we truly possess that - every other accomplishment  will pale in importance.

SK attended priesthood while I fixed a meal for a young man who is studying around the clock and feeling stressed.  We delivered it to him after our missionary meeting with new members. The rest of the afternoon/evening were relaxing and a beautiful way to spend the Sabbath.  

On a down note, the dishwasher up and died.  It was doing its usual thing, purring away in the kitchen, cleaning and rocking and rolling.  Then it started moaning and groaning, and then it died - pure and simple.  SK got out the manual, cleaned out the filter and other parts.  It would seem that it is not to be revived, but we will try a repairman first, before sending it to the dishwasher cemetery.

We had a planning meeting with Harry and Kristina, who with spring right around the corner, and with a glimmer of hope that the lockdown will end sometime this year, were energetic and enthusiastic about planning for upcoming activities.  I think they have some good ones coming soon.

I read today that those who have had one COVID vaccination shot have a high degree of protection, and have nearly 100% chance of not having to be hospitalized.  THAT is certainly good news.

Last week, I received a request from a dear young friend (she took me on a 6-mile walk to Port Meadow, telling me all kinds of interesting things about Oxford dating back thousands of years.  She is an archeology student and back in Utah now.  She is working on a project with a friend and needed some 16th century script.  I am the only person she knows who knows anything about calligraphy!  So she wrote asking if I could help.  She sent me some examples....I didn't care for a few of the letters and (ahem) substituted a few strokes of my own, but otherwise stuck to the examples for....examples.

I ordered a dip pen and bottle of ink on Amazon and Voila, today I played around with the words and sent them off to her.  She was very pleased with them.  Four words - that's all - piece of cake.  But so enjoyable.  

Twenty Five years ago, I would have done these over and over and over and over until they were as near perfect as I could get them.  Today, I know I can't get them perfect, so I settle for a lot less than perfect and feel just fine about it.

That's our day!  A mishmash of good things - and one slight inconvenience with the dishwasher.