Happy Informational Valentine's Day!

"The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France."

From History.com

Accepting what is...

I am reading a book  "And There Was Light," by Jacques Lusseyran, a Frenchman who became blind at seven years old.  At age 17 he was a leader in a resistance movement fighting the invading Nazi tyranny in France during WWII.  He later survived 18 months in the Buchenwald  prison camp.  I have been fascinated by his perceptions.  I recently ran into this quote by him while reading another book:

"One should not try to console either those who lost their eyes, or those who have suffered other losses - of money, health, or a loved one.  It is necessary instead to show them what their loss brings them, to show them the gifts the receive in place of what they have lost.  Because there are always gifts.  God wills it so.  Order is restored; nothing ever disappears completely."  


"We wish to force our own conditions on life; this is our real weakness.  We forget that God never creates new conditions for us without giving us the strength to meet them....By all this, I learned at the same time that we should never give way to despair, no matter what brutal and negative events occur in our lives,  just as quickly the same sum of life is given back to us."

(Against the Pollution of the I: Selected Writing of Jacques Lusseyman)

Although I am a believer in consolation and compassion (Jesus wept with Martha and Mary even though he knew that Lazarus would be back to normal in just a matter of minutes)  I really liked Lusseyran's perspective on the gifts that come through adversity.  I do believe that "there are always gifts."

Congratulations Egypt....

Yesterday, you could feel the happiness of the Egyptian people all the way across the world.  I must admit I went around all day with a smile on my face as I thought about their newly acquired freedom and their success in toppling an oppressive regime.   (It reminded me of how I felt the day Elizabeth Smart was found.  The happiness was palpable!)   I am sure the road ahead will be a rocky one for Egypt and perhaps the rest of the world will feel some repercussions as well, but all people deserve the right to be free from fear and recrimination, from imprisonment and torture.  I have thought a great deal about our country these passed few weeks and about the courage of those who brought about our own revolutionary war. Thankfully the Egyptian revolt was mostly peaceful.  I admire the courage of those who were willing to stand up for freedom, human rights and democracy without really knowing what the long-term consequences would be.

I have followed the Egyptian revolt with a bit of fascination.  I couldn't help but remember the two visits Randy and I made to Egypt and our brief contact with the Mubarak inner circle.  We visited Egypt not too long after a terrorist attack on a tourist bus in the Valley of the Kings which resulted in the death of 57 tourists.  Because of that Church Education had decided to take Egypt off of their travel list during their Israel study tour for CES teachers.  Our Egyptian contact worked hard to get our business back and we were the first CES group to visit after the attack.  As tourism is a huge industry in Egypt they were very anxious to retain our business so our tour guide who was very influential in the industry set up a dinner for our group with the Minister of Tourism, who, as we were told, was Mubarak's second in command.  As Randy was the highest ranking authority in our group as the one administrator on the trip, he and I were assigned to sit with the Minister at dinner - one of us on either side of him.  We were taken to a special room an hour before and given instructions on how we were to act and to address "His Excellency."  We were to walk behind him, not with him, eat when he ate etc.  There was quite the little flurry that someone so important was going to be arriving at the hotel.  We ate on an outdoor veranda by a beautiful pool of water.  I'm sure the meal was exquisite although I couldn't really tell you as carrying on small talk with a world government leader was a new experience and it was difficult to focus on eating let alone enjoy it.  When the Minister arrived he was attended to by everyone around who had anything to do with anything.  You could feel the power and importance emanating from him.   He was a very congenial dinner guest.  (Or were we his guests?)   He painted Egypt in a favorable light.  He told us he liked America but not the violence, immorality and corruption that America exports through it's media.  (Couldn't agree more!)   He said it was safe for a woman to walk on the street of Cairo at 2:00 am because of their strict punishment of crime.  During the cultural entertainment afterward he took the opportunity to talk to Randy on the side out of my hearing and ask him if he had been favored with any of Egypt's excellent belly dancing while he was there.  He recommended a celebrity dancer who earned well over a million a year with her gyrating talents.  Randy politely declined the offer.   All in all, our evening with His Excellency was a memorable one.  Oh yes, and did I tell you this was a bit of a publicity stunt.  We were televised on the national news that evening.  It was broadcast to the world that tourism in Egypt was resumed, happy and healthy.

Awesome young men....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynVgDWKWHtU

It's time...

Yes, it's time for a new post.  Hmmm.  Nothing to say...and I usually can ramble on quite well.  I guess I could post on the weather.  Utah weather this year is all over the map.  We have frigid cold one minute, sun the next, rain, rain, rain and then ice, snow and what do you know, sunshine again.  It's actually been a bit entertaining.  I am weary of the winter however.  I would like spring to peak it's little head up and decide to arrive even if it is a bit premature.

Come spring we plan on wreaking havoc in our yard (and I mean bonified, genuine havoc!!!) by bringing in a back hoe and digging up dump truckloads of dirt for an addition onto our home.  Strange as it seems, we are enlarging our house even though 8 of our 11 children are wending their way in the world (the 9th one will soon follow.)  The problem is that they are not necessarily wending their way alone therefore the principle of multiplication is in force and when everyone is at home one can barely find space to sit with their meal laden tray and eat.  Watching my son-in-law standing in the corner while eating his Christmas pie clenched the deal.  We need more space.  So we are taking out our lovely 23 year old honey locust tree in the back yard, pulling down the front section of fence we just installed last fall, ripping out cement patios and stairs and digging a humongous hole in our back yard.  The plan is to extend the kitchen, add a master bedroom out back so we can knock down the wall between our current bedroom and the family gathering area to make it larger.  While we are at it we might as well extend the basement also (cheap square footage the builder says).

Our builder has informed us that we will need to learn how to live without a kitchen, a bathroom, two of the bedrooms,the family room and part of the basement and the garage.  Hmmmmmmmmm....  Oh yes, and without much of the yard.  Sprinklers, lawn and landscaping all in upheaval.  Maybe this would be a good time for the earthquake (yes, we do live close to a fault line) and we can kill all the birds with one stone.   Natalie will be returning home from Brazil in May, Nathanael from BYUI and there are five of us here now.  So all seven of us will squeeze into the remaining space.  It's possible I will very quickly want to be one of those birds.  For some odd reason I am warily looking forward to it all.

Merry Christmas!

 Look to the Light

Here's a Christmas gift to you - whoever you may be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aup9M5HZawI&feature=player_embedded

Congratulations Cameron...

Cameron completed his Eagle Project just after Thanksgiving.  He collected winter clothing (coats, gloves, hats, scarves, boots etc.) for the Salt Lake City Mission, a Christian, non-denominational organization that helps homeless individuals and families as well as those who have lost jobs or families who have a parent in prison.  The SLC Mission provides a breakfast every morning.  They assist the unemployed in looking for work.  They have a winter clothing room to help those who are in need of warm coats etc.    

Cameron collected over 42 garbage bags of good coats, gloves scarves, hats etc.  He had them all washed and sorted into sizes.  He found dry cleaners to donate cleaning for coats that couldn't be washed.

He also went to a retirement center here in Orem and arranged for the women there to make blankets, fleece shirts, gloves and hats.  Altogether his project has probably logged in over 500 hours.

 

Cameron, Bethany, Christian and I delivered the clothing the Mission offices in Salt Lake the Monday after Thanksgiving.  It was a great experience.  There were about seven men who had come in off the streets having coffee in the office that morning and they all came out to the van and helped unload the clothing.  They were very polite and expressed appreciation to Cameron for his work.  While we were there the first customer came in for a coat. 

 The Mission clothing director (far right) was very appreciative.  He said they had emptied their clothing room the week before Thanksgiving as we had had a cold spell with temperatures in the single digits.  He was not expecting to have any clothing available for several more weeks.  He invited us all to come back on Christmas Day to help with the dinner they put on.  I think we will go and help out.