Duck, Duck, Goose?

Last week, during a three hour visit to a waiting room waiting to get my two-year-old's finger X-rayed, Lukie got a bit bored with the books and crayons I had brought along to entertain him, so we we flipping through magazines talking about the pictures together.  We saw a picture of two ducks, nudging each other - obviously a pair.  Luke pointed to the ducks and said "Mommy duck, daddy duck."  His words struck me - duh!  Mommy duck, daddy duck.  That is the natural order of things, and a two year old could see that clearly.  It was so obvious to him.  Two ducks are mommy duck, daddy duck.  Not mommy duck, daddy duck OR mommy duck, mommy duck, OR daddy duck, daddy duck.  It is just simply mommy duck, daddy duck.  You know what they say.  If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...?  That is the order of nature, and a two year old understands this.  Why does this world have to be so nutty?

What happened Tuesday here in California was a miracle, quite frankly.  We are living in the eleventh hour, the end of days, and we are witnessing first hand what the prophets have been prophesying since the beginning.  This is it folks.  Unfolding before our eyes.  What happened on Tuesday was that kind of miracle.  And not only were we privileged to witness it, but we had the opportunity to participate in that miracle, to be part of that miracle, and for that we need to rejoice.

When we were read the letter from this first presidency asking the saints in California to do ALL that we could do to help this proposition pass,  I decided to do just that.  My parents have always taught me, and I have tried to teach my children that we always follow the prophet.  But how do we know what "ALL we can do" entails.  I decided that I had to just break it down.  As each opportunity to help came, I decided if I could possibly do it.  If I could, I would, and if I couldn't, then I couldn't, and I wouldn't feel guilty about it.  Can I knock on doors? yes.  Can I make phone calls? I don't want to, but yes, yes I can.  Can we make a donation? yes. Can I put up signs, stuff envelopes, write a letter to the editor? yes, yes, and yes.  Can I come to this rally?  No, I'll be decorating for a youth activity.  Can I deliver door hangers?  Yes, and my kids can too.  Can I go to this sign waving? Yes.  Can I go to that sign waving? No, we have an appointment, but I can drive by and honk on the way to the doctor's office, and show some support.  Can I help at the polls Tuesday night to get out the vote? Yes, because I am lucky enough to have a built - babysitter.  

Looking back I am amazed at how much I was able to do.  It didn't seem like so much, when I just took it one opportunity at a time.  I must say, it wasn't bad, and most of it I really enjoyed (not the phone calls though).   I really enjoyed the solidarity I felt among all the members who were working together in so great a cause.  Maybe I really could have done more, and I saw so many people, like Dayna and Ossil, that did so, so, so much more.  And I also know that everyone has different circumstances (Can I just say I am so lucky to have a babysitter!) and that some couldn't do as much, but still did ALL they could do.  It is wonderful. 

 It feels so good to be able to say I did do ALL I could do.  I think I need to apply this principle more in my life.  Am I really doing ALL I can do in my calling? in teaching my children the gospel? in my visiting teaching?  in my marriage?  Probably not.  Maybe if I take it just one opportunity at a time I can do more. During this whole campaign I just kept thinking that I want to be able to report to the Lord when I see him again that I did do ALL I could do, not just "my fair share".  I know that in my home, when kids protest that they did their "fair share", nothing ends up getting done.   If I could get them to each do ALL that they can do, this place would be in ship shape in no time.  I think the Lord's kingdom needs to work like that too.  

I see what the saints in this corner of California have done, and multiply it by the many wards and stakes throughout this state.  I pray that the sacrifice that the saints placed upon his altar, and my own sacrifice and that of my family, was acceptable to the Lord.  I think it was.  Even if we had lost, that would have been what really mattered.  

It is funny, because with this victory I do not feel a need to gloat or celebrate, but I feel a fantastic sense of relief, accomplishment, and deep gratitude that the Lord loves his children enough to trust us with this work, and that we were able to do what was asked of us.  I am grateful for those who put so much more work and time into this cause that I did, and for the opportunity my children had to participate and watch their parents fight for them.

One day I found my 5 year old busy working on some project.  He was making "Yes on 8" signs, (only he is still very new at the whole writing thing, so they said "Yes no 8" - a bit confusing, I know).  He took them outside and stood in our very quiet cul-de-sac and chanted "Yes on 8, Yes on 8".  Realizing he wasn't getting much of an audience, he brought me his signs, and told me to show them to my friends and tell them "Yes on 8." Will he remember this?  I hope so.  My older children all spent hours hanging things on doorknobs, and delivering and putting out signs, and babysitting so Dennis and I could go and help.  I am grateful that they know that they all were an important part of this miracle too.

I know it is not over.  We won the battle, and rest assured, in the end we WILL win the war, but there are going to be some tough battles to be fought before then, I'm afraid.  There are those who are doing everything in their power to teach my little boy that a duck is a duck, but so is a goose, and maybe an elephant too.  I will fight to make sure that doesn't happen.  What we learned from this battle will help us do ALL we can in the next.  God bless his saints and all his children who love and serve him.

What an O'Bamanation!

Hang on, folks, 'cause it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

Romney/Palin 2012!

My Letter

Yesterday my letter to the editor was published in the Desert Sun.  This is what I wrote:

Throughout human history, nations have risen and failed, but the family, the basic unit of society, father, mother, children, has always endured. Are we so "enlightened" today to think that we can change the definition of marriage, the very bond that holds the family together, and survive?

True, there are many great families that don't fit the ideal, but children are most likely to thrive in a home with a father and a mother, and it is incumbent upon us as a society to preserve that ideal for the sake of our children and our society. I submit that no society can survive the collapse of the family. None.

This isn't about people's right to be together. Anyone already has the right to be with anyone. When we speak of rights, lets speak of the right of children to be raised by a father and a mother. Isn't that what we want for all children? Isn't that what we wanted as children?

When we mess with the definition of marriage, we undermine the bond that holds family unit, the basic unit of society, together. In these dangerous times we need to vote yes on proposition 8.

Yes on 8 is a no brainer for me.  

  

God himself defined marriage as between a man and a woman, and His definition will always be between a man and a woman.  It is frankly arrogant and prideful for man to think he can stretch forth his puny little arm to change that, just like it would be arrogant and prideful for man to think he can stretch forth his puny little arm and change the weather (oh wait, I guess man is already doing that too).  The definition of marriage, and the climate - these are in God's arena, not ours.   Men start acting like gods in these things because they refuse to admit there is a God, because as soon as you admit there is an all powerful, all knowing, all loving creator who makes laws and controls the universe, you have to start to live a moral life.  Many people frankly don't want to have to do that, so they set themselves up as the supreme intelligences in the universe, and start trying to change what is not theirs to change.   

The fact is there IS a God, and I am going with HIS definition of marriage.  

This isn't a political blog, so please keep comments kind.  Thanks.

Day of Tears

 I should have thought to wear waterproof mascara today, as I have been brought to tears several times today by the memory of that terrible day, Sept. 11, 2001.  

I still remember that morning.  We got up and Dennis jumped in the shower.  I turned on the TV.  The news was on.  I glanced up at the TV and saw two tall buildings with smoke billowing up from them, the commentator was saying something about a possible terrorist attack.  I wondered where it was, perhaps Israel, or some other war-torn country.  It never occurred to me that it could have been in America.  I kept waiting for the news to say what country had just been attacked.  They said something about trying to get a response from the president.  The president of what country? - I asked.  Then they said the president was in Florida, and I thought how strange it was that that country's president was in America.  I am so incredibly slow sometimes.  Suddenly, devastatingly, it all clicked.  America.  America.  Someone had attacked America!  Dennis came out of the shower and saw me frozen in the middle of the room watching.  Watching and crying, as I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening.  Could such a thing have really happened?  Couldn't their be some other explanations for what was happening.  One plane - a freak accident.  But two?  To use our own people, innocent people, as weapons against other innocent people, people who had just kissed their families good-bye and went to work.  Just people.  My mind couldn't grasp such evil.  Before that moment, I couldn't have believed that such evil existed.  That morning I saw the face of evil, rising in the smoke, reflected in the terrified, ash covered faces of people running through the streets of New York, running for their lives.  Who could hate us SO much?  Why?  WHY?

I sat there in my room and watched all day, and for days after.  So many images, images that I still can picture today, each new image ripping my understanding of the state of the world further into shreds. Images of papers streaming down like obscene parade confetti, and the horrifying image of people...jumping.  What horror did they face that jumping 100 stories to their certain death was preferable?  I remember watching the first tower fall, collapsing on itself. I could hardy comprehend what it meant.  People inside.  How many?  Then the unthinkable, the other tower fell, dropping out of the skyline.  Who could survive that?  No one, apparently, we learned as we waited, and waited, then stopped waiting , stopped hoping for survivors.  I remember the terrifying reports of another airplane hit at the same time - the Pentagon - edifice of our Nations strength and security -  a punch in the face of America.  The NERVE!  And then speculation.  What next?  The White House, the Capitol, or the west coast?  Disneyland?  LA?  So many possible targets.  And more reports of another plane crash, but this time in a field in Pennsylvania?  Something went wrong?  Then realization.  Something went right!  Heroes were born... and died..  at the same moment!  Some of the strongest images weren't images at all, but sounds.  Phone calls made to wives, husbands, children.  Last messages.  Voices of dead men walking.  "I'm fine."  "I'm scared." "I love you."  So many "I love you"s that really said "Good-by."  Or then eerie sound of empty skies.  No planes flew.  Not for days.  No white streaks in the sky.  Nothing.  

One image hurts more than any other.  Even seven years later it stings my brain.  It was the wall.  Remember that wall?  My eyes swell with tears right now as I think of it.  It was the wall near ground zero where people placed pictures of their missing loved ones, desperate to find them, hadn't heard from them.  Pictures of ordinary people, smiling, doing ordinary things, photos with friends, and pets.  All ages.  All races.  Just people.  Titles: "missing", "loving mother", "come home" with descriptions, and phone numbers.  Please call!  And as the days passed, there were more and more faces, names, stories, lives on that wall, not fewer.  Heart wrenching! I still remember how that wall just filled me with despair - their despair, the despair of those who hung those pictures there.  I remember how I cried.  It was the kind of crying that hurts your sides, aches with each breath, and burns your throat and eyes.  

I didn't cry like that today.  Thankfully.  Today's were the short, quaking in the chest, eyes fill with tears, try to control my breath type cries.  Maybe that is bad.  They say time heals all wounds.  Perhaps it is true.  I hope that it isn't.  I fear the day this wound heals over, and people forget, and get lax.  I'm afraid it had already started to scab over.  

Remember the other images.  The FLAGS!  Flags everywhere.  The real America rose from the ashes.  United.  Strong.  Unashamed of calling upon their God.  Remember that?  But I didn't see too many flags today.  I flew the GIANT one.  My kids and I all wore red, white and blue.  Not too many others did.  

Today I watched the memorials, and cried.  On Saturday there was a documentary about the twin towers on the Discovery Channel.  I made my kids watch.  They were amazed, they had so many questions.  I told them.  They saw me cry.  It was good for them.  My children were too young to remember much about Sept 11.  The twins were only 2.  My oldest was only 5. They are old enough to understand now.  I want my children to know that evil exists, secret combinations, just like we read about in the ancient days.  They need to see what evil is.  What evil does.  Why we fight.  They need to also see how heroes are made from ordinary people.  Americans are good, and strong.  Americans help each other.  There could be heroes everywhere.  They could be heroes.  They must be heroes if a day like this comes to them.  My boys need to see that too.

They showed more images today.  Not many.  There were so many that day.  But the ones that they showed seemed so fresh.  Raw.  And the sounds... Oh!  

They need to show more images.  And show them, and show them, and show them.  We need to cry more, and remember more.  And then we need to stand up and be that America again!   

Others "PALIN" Comparison

Last night watching TV I was screaming and cheering.  To hear it you'd think I was watching a ball game and my favorite team was winning (of course anyone who knows me knows I don't have a favorite team for any sport, and I don't ever watch games, the Olympics excepted.)  I was watching the speech of Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention.  I kept forgetting my kids were asleep when I hollered out things like, "You go girl!"  "EXACTLY!!!"  and "YESSSSSS!"  To continue with the sports analogy, Palin hit a home run, no, actually a grand slam (Yea, dear, I do know what grand slam is.)  She said everything just right, and I agreed with everything that she said - things that have needed to be said for a long, long time.  This morning Glenn Beck called it political porn - too funny.  I think of it as political manna.  She was sharp, witty, and very clear about who she was and where she stood.  

Now, while I do believe that a mom should generally stay home with her kids when at all possible, I also realize that mom's voices are rarely heard in the political scene - not because we are uneducated, apathetic, or brainless, but we are busy helping kids with homework, driving kids to soccer, or shopping for groceries - we realize that the best way to serve this country and keep her free is by raising our kids to be contributing, honest members of society and teaching our children the values that will continue to keep this Nation great.  Unfortunately, at the same time, the only voices we hear are the shrill, angry Hilaryesque voices of the woman who claim to represent us women, yet espouse everything opposite of what the mothers of America are working so hard to instill in our children.  I'm sorry to say, that when I see a woman's name on a ballot, my instinct is to not vote for them simply because the majority of the women I see in politics are the nasty chip-on-her-shoulder, wanna-be-a-man feminists that make me crazy.  

That's why Sarah Palin is so refreshing.  She has five children, not the token one or two,that many politicians have, so she is serious about this family thing.  She got into politics in an attempt to improve her children's' and our children's' lives, while other women have children in an attempt to improve their political careers.  And she adores her husband, and lets him be the man.  She is not apologetic about being a woman, instead she knows that it is her characteristics of a woman that make her great at what she does.  That is something I have understood for a long time.  There is no shame in being a woman (who would want to be a man?  Not me!)  I know that the only way women are going to gain the real respect they deserve, is to demand that we are respected for being who we are and who we were meant to be, and never by trying to become like men.  Strength, compassion, nurturing, attention to detail, and defense of family and truth are the exact female traits that make women great at anything they do.  

Sarah Palin seems so familiar to me because she is so like most of the wonderful, strong women I know personally and interact with everyday, and so unlike the ones that make themselves seen, and endlessly heard, all over the TV.   I am going to let THIS women represent me, because she is the REAL American woman.  

Her speech was perfect.  Her voice was pleasant - firm and cheerful, not shrill and grating like Hilary's.  (I am so glad I don't have to listen to that voice for the next 4 years.)  Palin was confident and completely comfortable during the monumental speech, which is something considering the pressure that must have been on her last night.  She was sharp and intelligent, and knew so much about other important issues besides family, like energy and spending.  She has good old common sense, and is completely no-nonsense, saying thanks, but no thanks to the bridge to nowhere, and the governor's personal chef and luxury jet.  (I think I would have had a tough time getting rid of a personal chef.  I mean, how sweet would that be?).  She actually lives what she believes and has been tested and tried in her convictions in real life.  She chose to keep her baby when she learned he had Downs Syndrome, and her oldest son is enlisted and heading off Iraq next week. They are not "just words" to Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin has me excited, more excited than I have been in years.  It is so refreshing to have a voice in the public arena.  And she speaks for millions of mothers, and fathers, around this country.  Real people.  People who love their God, their country, their hometowns, and their families.  I'm going to support Palin in doing her part to keep this country great as she speaks up for what so many of us have been thinking for so long, and I am going to continue to do what I can do best for this nation by keeping my family strong and teaching my children to live Christian values.  Together, we just might have a chance to redeem this great nation from the grip of the adversary.

To continue the sports analogy, I say "Touchdown!" (oh, yeah, wrong sport.  Sorry!)  I mean "It's going... going... it's outta here!"

Real women of America, and all Americans who love god and family finally have a reason to stand up and cheer.  Hurray for women.  Hurray for the good ol' USA!