Crash Course: Where Love Is

         The smoke must have cleared out as I was able to see stars above the skylight.  I hope it may remain behind the hills or better yet disappear all together.  Bless the many fire fighters who are battling the flames.

        A funeral was held yesterday at the church.  The second I've attended in person rather than virtually since the pandemic made its way to the US.  As with the last funeral, the service did not take place until after the body had been buried - or in yesterday's case, cremated.

        Jenna had been asked to sing with her friend, Heather.  They performed two songs: "I am a Child of God" and "Where Love is".  I remember them learning the latter in primary after Jenna had already graduated to Young Women's.  It is one of my favorite primary songs and it makes me feel bad that I somehow missed out on teaching or singing it to Jenna.

        She took it upon herself to find a recording that neither one of us particularly enjoyed.  She learned it and practiced with Heather for the first time yesterday morning before the funeral started.  There was no emotional attachment and they were able to sing both songs in their entirety without stirred feelings.  They did a really great job.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/where-love-is

        

Being a Part of the Choir

           I love to sing but was not blessed with the talent that makes others want to listen nor have not taken the time to develop my vocal ability.  I have joined a number of choirs through the years – well mostly church choirs.  I have joined for more to contribute to body count rather and overall I have enjoyed the company. I know I am not the greatest singer and so it is nice to belong to a body of those who do.

          I remember my entire family having joined the stake choir when we lived in Kearns.  We performed twice a year as I recall – once during conference and once the first Sunday in December.  The December performance was always so awesome.  There was always at least one song that would tug at my heartstrings and my eyes would moisten as the male voices would soar behind me. 

          Our choir director’s name was Diane.  She had quite a pleasant attitude and would always say things to make us smile – for we needed to smile when we preformed and not appear grumpy.  I have tried to keep that image with me whenever I have performed.

          I remember one stake conference I had gone to each practice diligently with Roland and the boys.  Though we arrived early on Sunday morning for one final practice I ended up bailing on the performance. I had just learned that I was pregnant with Jenna and was experiencing morning sickness.  I had started out sitting in the pews closest to the stand to watch my men.  After a while I went from the front to the back of the chapel and finally to the back of the cultural hall.

          Our stake president found me in the cultural hall amongst the empty chairs and joked “You need to come early to find a good seat back here.”

          I told him I had initially come to perform but was pregnant and needed to be as close to the restrooms as possible.  After that we all seemed to taper off being in the choir.  After we had moved to West Valley we would try to return to Kearns stake on the first Sunday in December to watch others perform.  We didn’t always make it because of the weather.  I don’t know why, but it seems like it always snowed that night as though testing the diligence of those involved.

          Some callings or talks are assigned by inspiration – others have come from desperation.  I don’t know what the reasoning was behind asking Jackie and I to sing something together when I lived in West Valley.  We didn’t have a choir in West Valley and I found that odd.  I’d never been in a ward that didn’t have a choir.  Perhaps if they had everyone would have known that Jackie and I couldn’t sing – each believing the other sounded worse.

          I think we might have been asked just to prove that God does have a sense of humor.  I smiled big and proud.  I thought perhaps if I had followed Diane’s advice, people wouldn’t notice how bad I (we) sounded. We sang a primary song. I think we sang “Jesus Said Love Everyone” (here)  although that does seem shorter than what I remember. Perhaps we sang it through twice.

Even though I had smiled (and maybe Jackie did too – I wasn’t looking at her) I’m sure that we were as pleasant to listen to as two wounded cows. I had posted about it on facebook.  A couple of years later I made a comment that I noticed we had never been asked to perform again.

Avatars and Peculiar People

          Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have always been referred to as “a strange and peculiar people”. Perhaps one reason is because many members will spend time getting high on life instead of drugs.  We march to the beat of a different drummer in many minds – and while there are many who may find us odd, there are just as many who may admire us because of our values and being able to face challenges with a different perspective.

          I remember both Corey and Joh were present when my youngest son got married.  As they waited for us on the outside and walked around temple square (I guess) Joh had many questions and would ask Corey – who by then had not been a member on record due to his excommunication (see here) 

It was then that Corey understood why members are often called “a strange and peculiar people”.

          I remember one time one of my brothers (Patrick, I think) either purchased or had received a CD featuring Huey Lewis and we listened to it and all of us danced to each song.  We were in their living room and the curtains were drawn away from the window.  I wondered how odd we may have appeared to any passerby.  It didn’t matter.  We were having fun.  I cherish the memory of us as we really enjoyed ourselves. I am reminded of this memory each time Jenna and I “work out” and our front door is open.

Jenna has decided that we must exercise each day.  Her workout choice is to dance.  She will play videos on YouTube and we will follow the dance moves – or attempt to.  Mostly she has been pulling up “Just Dance” videos with Wii avatars, but occasionally we will try to work out or Sumba with real live people who are always in sync even though we’re not.  Especially me. I don't know if anyone has seen us through the door.

         

          The other night we asked Roland to join us.  He joined us for one song.  Jenna selected “Living La Viva Loco” as she really appreciates the single avatar who dances on a flatbed it appears to be moving through the dessert.  Roland mostly just did the arm movements, but occasionally I could see that he may have been working his legs – although we were all looking at the screen more than one another.

         

          After I got up yesterday, I went over my normal routine of checking email, checking facebook, downloading the dailys on my kindle and then attempted to make breakfast.  Jenna, who normally has left her room by 5:00 was still in her room when I started breakfast.  Three poached eggs, three slices of ham, two English mufflins (as our toaster will only do four slices) and whatever cheese was left in the container.  I made two sandwiches pretty similar to the McMuffin and Roland and I ate.  When he returned to his office to work, I asked Jenna if she would like me to fix her some breakfast.

          I put another muffin in the toaster and she unloaded the dishwasher while I made her sandwich.  We asked a blessing on our food and began our day with prayer and watched “Come Follow Me” which covered Enos, Jarom, Omni and Words of Mormon.  And then we danced. We finished watching the 2^nd Jumanji and each did our own thing.  I  attempted to crochet some dishcloths and played several puzzles on my kndle.  I think Jenna watched more videos and made some tiktoks.  Silly girl.  

Why is this orange shaped like a pear
and why does my hand appear to be twice
the size of my head?

Jenna had asked me to send the above photo to my brother-in-law as the face I am making reminds her of the ones he makes.  He is a professional photographer and may cringe at the result of pic

Documenting Day 7.  Jenna's bored.

          Once Roland got off work, we headed up to the big city of Roseburg and went about our regular activities.– like those who had brought this virus outbreak upon us had finally finished the Jumanji game and things felt normal.  The traffic flow felt normal.  The recycling plant was open – not overly crowded with people – but well more than ten standing closer together than you think the “accepted social distance” would allow.  No one wore masks, though there were a few patrons who wore gloves.  The majority of the hands that I saw were naked  After turning in our bottles and cans, we headed to Stewart Park to feed the ducks.  

And since we were already there, we went into Fred Meyers to pick up some milk and cheese. 

          There weren’t any monitored lines as we had witnessed the last time we had attempted to go to Costco.  

There were many shoppers – no panic- no distance.  The only thing that had changed was the number of unhoused people standing between the park and store parking lot holding signs, begging for financial aid.  I saw only one shoeless woman standing holding a sign.  It said “God Bless” and she had drawn a red heart.  Near her was a cart full of cloth bags – I don’t know if they contained all her possessions.

          We had heard her singing, and when Roland returned to the store to purchase a forgotten item, Jenna and I took the rest of the groceries to the car.  While we waited for Roland, Jenna approached the sign holder and asked her if they might sing a duet together.  Jenna made another Tik Tok of the two of them singing “This is Me”.  I thought it was great!

          Traffic wasn’t outrageously heavy going back to Tri-City, but there were a good amount of cars.  Enough to make it feel as though nothing about the week had changed and changed and then changed again.  But after we returned, Roland had turned on the TV.  The newscasters had taken us to Italy where the virus has gotten out of hand.  And I wondered how many of my followers who live in Italy would comment about how careless I have been.  Or if they would agree with my wrecklessness. 

          It’s said that the rural areas will be hit hard eventually.  Rural hospitals may not be prepared to handle the outbreak.  I believe that only because of the reputation that many will say are unable to deal with what was thrown at them before COVID-19.  There is one hospital in our county which I mentioned is geographically the same size as Rhode Island.  Douglas county has just over 109,000 persons occupying space whereas Rhode Isand houses over a million residents.

          I’m not scared.  I refuse to live in fear.  I do wonder what other restrictions lye ahead.  I predict that soon we will be grounded to our houses and will be breaking the law if we drive our cars.  Almost matches the description of the restrictions put on citizens during World War II.

         

Christmas Caroling

               Jenna seemed quite excited when the Young Men and Young Women decided to go “Ding-Dong Ditching” rather than their usual caroling, but still wanted to go caroling.  I have not had much of a singing voice this season and have missed singing along with Christmas songs because I don’t wish to risk making my throat sore.

                Jenna finally found someone willing to go with her.  On Saturday, I picked up her friend.  They caroled to a few houses in her neighborhood.  I then took them to the street where we used to live.  They went to several houses.  Surprised some people.  Uplifted others.  I was happy to see how happy it made them.

not your typical caroling attire, but this is what they chose to wear

                On Sunday, we had just one speaker for sacrament meeting.  The remainder of the meeting was for singing five different hymns after the bishop introduced each hymn with a small synopsis for what purpose each had been written. I could tell that she enjoyed that.  I am so happy that she enjoys singing.

Camp Fire in the Primary Room

          I was really impressed with the primary yesterday listening to their sweet voices sounding more like 30 children and not just less than 10.  The amount of awesome volume has impressed visitors as it often sounds like there are more than there are.

          Our pianist teaches a Sunday school class as well as playing piano, and so she is often late getting in.  We chose to sing "I am a Child of God" a cappella.  It was beautiful - especially when Lily started off on her rendition - not taking away from the traditional version - but rather adding more beauty to the song.

          Emily was a pill about giving her talk today.  After much prompting and a sad little girl who would not speak, the primary presidency asked the children to stack their chairs.  We still had 40 minutes left.  What?

          The presidency then brought out blankets and a false campfire to set up in the middle and had the children set around the campfire while telling pioneer facts, sharing stories, and singing pioneer songs that the children (nor I) were familiar with, but sang as though it were a part of their daily routine.  I was quite impressed.