Life in Our World

We’ve been inundated with dragon flies this year; and I do mean inundated.  Not all of them are as pretty as this one.  Those big blue eyes are certainly big. blue. eyes.  He was kind enough to spend his last few hours by the garage door.  (And that is the difference between Calvin and me:  I saw the bug, looked at him for a minute, thought, “My that’s pretty,” stepped over him, and came on in the house.  A little later when Calvin came home he had the bug on his hand examining it.)

Larry, Sally, Cali, Levin, Ray

Cali lived with my cousin Larry and his wife Sally while she was attending nursing school.  When they left to serve a mission in Sweden, one of Larry and Sally’s sons – Trevor and his wife Melissa – moved into the family home.  Cali lived with them also until she had finished nursing school.  After Larry and Sally’s first mission to Sweden, they were asked to return so that Larry could serve as the mission president there.  Having recently returned home from both missions, we drove down to Tri-Cities to have dinner with Larry, Sally, Trevor, Melissa, and kids and to see Larry and Sally’s new home.  It felt really good to reconnect with them and hear their stories.  Larry and Sally have collected several James Christensen paintings.  

I am going to go back after they get them hung in a grouping on their tall living room wall.  It will be like a museum.

I'll be darn.  I didn't notice those dollar bills in my hand until now.
Hmmm.  I think I bought a chocolate dipped ice cream cone from McDonald's with them.
No.  No, I did not save them or donate them.  I ate them.  

I owe Mother Teresa.  I owe her for her example and famous quote: 

“We must not drift away from the humble works . . . it is never too small.  We are so small, we look at things in a small way, but God, being Almighty, sees everything great, therefore, even if you write a letter for a blind man, or you just go and sit and listen, or you take the mail for him, or you visit somebody, or bring a flower to somebody – small things – or wash clothes for somebody, or clean the house, very humble work, that is where you and I must be.”

I think of that quote often.  Mother Teresa makes it so I don’t feel stupid with less than perfect offerings.  If it weren't for that quote I’d often sit on good intentions because I couldn’t execute the ideas well enough.  But because of that quote, I can give bouquets of dandelions without thinking twice that they aren't bouquets of roses.  I’d be sooo poor without the interactions that I have had when others accept my bouquets of dandelions.  Someday I'm going to tell Mother Teresa so.  

The rest of life in our world consists of doing the things that humans do to stay alive -- work, eat, sleep, work some more, eat some more, sleep some more.  Oh.  I forgot.  Calvin took me out on a date twice this week.  I think he forgot.  No sense reminding him . . . he hates it when I nag.