It is not really clear in the picture, but if you look carefully you will see two balls stuck up in the roof. Sometimes when you are just doing what you are meant to do, following the rules, serving faithfully, just being a good ball, getting pushed around a bit but generally responding to life’s pressures, you get a rogue hit that scuttles you. You literally get stuck in the roof. We’ve all seen those balls up in the roof of the gym or the squash court, or stuck in the cyclone fence at the local tennis court. It’s no fun for the ball, and it’s no fun for us when we get miss-hit or handled poorly. I figure there are two reactions: We can either stay up in the roof and perish under the heat of the summer sun, or we can respond to the attempts of others to rescue us. A common way of getting those balls down is to try to knock them down with another ball. Sometimes the getting down is painful – especially if we think that we are the victim in the first place, and then more insult is added in an attempt to help us. Let us always be striving to get whatever help we can when life is giving us a bad run.
Our new house is drawing closer to completion. The kitchen installers have been meticulously leveling every cupboard, vanity and item they are installing. In the process they have created much fine sawdust. The fit out is going well, but they are leaving a lot of debris. Tonight after school our five year old grand daughter came to inspect the day’s activity. In the dust on the floor she wrote: “Sorry. You can just walk past. This is Lady and Eva’s house.” Of course it was funny – all the more so because she and her family have just moved into a brand new house also. Sometimes however, we would fain lay claim to blessings that are not rightfully ours. A classic example shows in the writings of Abraham. Promised blessings are usually conditional, and are dependent on other factors such as obedience, faith, prayer, dedication and so forth. Let us not trick ourselves into thinking that we deserve blessings that are not fully earned or deserved.
I’m not too sure that we could rightly assume that this family of wood ducks were praying, but the nine chicks all had their heads down and they reminded me of a family praying together. Remember the old saying? A family that prays together, stays together. These ducks will stay together as a family for quite some time, and will feed, swim, sleep all together. Far too often our families drift apart in the currents of life because we either neglect or half-heartedly follow the direction of the prophets to pray, read the scriptures, and eat together as much as possible.
The entrance to our current home is via a long driveway which leads through the gate to our housing complex. Just before the gate the driveway forks and branches though a beautiful garden to an old mansion – Darroch House – which is used as a funeral home. Yesterday we saw an amzing site as we returned home. A bright yellow parrot with a striking red beak. It was obviously an Australian native – right? Wrong! Google Images correctly identified it as an Indian Ringnecked Parrot. While we have our own 4 varieties of ringnecked parrot here in Australia – including a Port Lincoln form – this yellow friend is apparently more of a fiend. As you can imagine, it is widely kept as a caged bird, a pet – but it seems so many are escaping that the authorities have labelled it a pest with the significant potential to establish populations and compete with our local birds for food and habitat.
The lesson for us is obvious. While we may do/say/think things in private, never intending for anyone to know about what we are harboring, there is always the possibility that word will get out. Children, grandchildren or spouses may innocently say something which is immediately picked up and it can spread like wildfire. Innocent parties can become infected by our indiscretion. the good name of the Church can be tainted by our very actions. Others may be mortally wounded by something we say or do, never intending to cause anyone harm but ourselves. We do need to watch our every thought, word and deed.
We were coming back from an activity at Prospect chapel the other night and we thought we would cut through Cluny Street so we could go past the temple. I was not thinking along those lines and had missed the regular road we would have taken. But there, in the middle of the road was a cat – no – it was a koala. It was ambling along the centre of the road and then it crossed to the footpath. Judy had not brought her camera with her, so I gave her mine. She had never used it before, so by the time she had it figured out, our furry friend had walked up the footpath, past at least one house, through a fence and started to climb a tree. This was the end result.
It hadn’t gone far from the safety of its usual habitat on the linear path, but it had gone far enough to get into trouble. I remember a talk by Sheri Dew discussing not crossing the DMZ while she was visiting Korea one time. I remember as a missionary being warned about the mercenary snipers on the hillside watching, waiting to see if we walked across the border from Peru into Chile. I remember the Brethren and Sisters in General Conference telling us quite plainly to stay away from pornography and other suspect material on the internet and on TV. I can also clearly recall various people describing movies that were OK except for a few words, that were OK if you closed your eyes for the bad bits, or that really did not deserve that R-rating. What is always of interest to me is that very little addiction occurs when no pornography is ever accessed or no drugs are done; no alcoholism ever occurs when there is not even a first taste, and there is very little chance of getting lung cancer if tobacco is avoided.
The message that koala gave me was that we should be where we are meant to be, that we should do what we are meant to do, and we should say what we are meant to say.
This was a stately willow tree until yesterday. We used to walk past it almost daily as we walked the linear trail near where we live. We always noticed this tree, because its long slender branches/leaves would hang down by the side of the path, and it looked so cool and inviting. I don’t know how long the tree had been there, or how many winters it weathered, or how many spring storms it silently withstood. It was there always – inviting, offering shade, a haven for the birds. But for some reason, the wind the other night was enough to cause the whole trunk to split. As you can see it just splintered.
The willow is a great metaphor for life. We can go through our life doing good continually, serving others, offering blessings to all who happen by. The storms of life might cause us to bend a little, to feel the pressure and even to wonder how much longer it will go on. But the storms always pass, the winters of our lives are replaced by the wonders of spring – albeit sometimes an odd storm will come out of nowhere. The winds that buffet us are not always consistent – they are easier to deal with when they are consistent. It is more problematical when the wind gusts, in different directions. While we are withstanding one lot of buffeting, another might catch us off guard and cause us to snap. It is so important to have resiliency – and this only comes through being constantly nourished by the spirit. Through our diligent faithfulness, through our unwearyingness, and our continual endurance, the spirit will keep us supple enough to withstand the rude blast.
It is unfortunate but a true statement that almost all of us have a self-limiting view of ourselves. We express it in a million different ways, but some of them may sound familiar to you. I am too young, too old, too fat, too weak, too inexperienced, too poorly educated. I am computer illiterate, I read poorly, I don’t do math, I burn toast, I am not pretty enough – and on and on it goes. Almost every day our lizard-brain clicks into gear and slows us down, preventing us from achieving our potential. It is so sad to hear comments like these. We have all heard them, usually every day. Chances are that we have all used them in an attempt to convince ourselves that we either don’t want to put in the effort required, or that we feel inadequte when we compare our weaknesses to others’ strengths.
This little tree was planted in July or August. At the time it did not have a leaf. Who would have thought the less of it had it only produced a few leaves and concentrated on putting forth a couple of branches? But no – this is a cherry tree – and it wanted to make a statement. So the cherry started to grow before the leaves. No-one expects fruit in the first year from a cherry tree. No-one expects much when we are just starting off. But what better time than that to put down a stamp, to mark the spot and say that we are going to excel, that we are going to do what is required, that we are going beyond the mark to make a statement and prove to the world that we can do better than mediocre.
It is never too late to start. But then again – it is never too early either. Be fearless and go for it. Chances are that you will astound yourself, and you will hear the rest of the world whispering that they knew you could do it.
We came home from somewhere and Grammy decided to try a new recipe for bread rolls. So she weaved her usual magic and hey presto! A few minutes later she had created these wonderful bread rolls – out of a handful of flour and some yeast and a few other bits and pieces. They were wonderful rolls, and the whole family quite enjoyed them. I could imagine that they could be a great standby in the event that unexpected guests pop in and need some nourishment.
What particularly struck me was this. I think of breadmaking as a major event, something that usually takes hours. But this turned my thinking around. Sometimes we look at making say a major change in our thinking or perhaps even our behaviour – but it is all just too hard. So however valuable the project may be, it appears to be too daunting, and it gets postponed or even shelved altogether. But there is always another way, or a smaller bite of the elephant that if taken at the right time favors us. From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, we can still hear Brutus pleading:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224
We often walk along the linear path by the river. The last couple of days we have seen this lizard, out getting a bit of sun on the edge of a retaining wall. We often see wildlife along this trail. This morning a koala was quite low in a tree, and the bird life is wonderful. But this lizard caught our attention a couple of times. As you can see, he has no tail. I imagine that he dropped his tail in an attempt to save his life at some stage. As a child I used to catch lizards and geckos, and they would drop their tail and make good their escape while the writhing tail captured the attention of the assailant. So whatever the cause, this fellow has no tail. It reminded me of Joseph, as recorded in chapter 39 of Genesis. When he resisted the attempts of Potiphar’s wife to seduce him, he dropped his cloak and ‘got him out’. Sometimes we may have to high tail it out of a dangerous situation while the escaping is still good. The moment we find ourselves backing into a corner, we have to get out, even if it means losing face, or being embarrassed in front of friends. The loss of a tail, or a tale, is not worth the loss of virtue, self respect or dignity that otherwise might result.
Just above where I sit at the desk in our study is a painting of a gondola in a canal of Venice. Attahed to a corner of the frame of the painting is a quote from a talk given by Alma many years ago. My daughter used it as the basis for a Family Home Evening lesson long before her mission, and I carried the quote in my scriptures for years beofre placing it right at eye level above my computer screen. For some reason a can of Motein fly spray has been sitting on the desk for a few days. This morning a tiny little drain fly was resting on the wall. You can see it in the photo. Here’s the dilemma. The fly is resting on the wall within inches of what could be the intrument of its death. Whether it realizes that or not is irrelevant. It is there – in full danger. Right above it is the haunting question that Alma asks each of us – If we have felt the redeeming love of the Saviour – Can we feel it now? It is a wonderful question we each need to ask ourselves on a daily basis. The question deserves an answer on an equally regular schedule. If we can’t feel the spirit of the Lord, then we need to fight to get it back, and if we can feel it, then it makes our decisions for the day that much easier – most decisions are already made for us – we made them long ago.
The sad thing is that we often tend to flirt with danger. There is the conundrum for us. While we have in clear view the gospel and all the security that it gives us, we play with fire, so to speak, as we get caught up in things of the world. The movies we watch, the thoughts we entertain, the anger we harbor all is so reminiscent of the fly sitting next to the instrument of its death.
