Glory

Wonderful thing for Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, 9-11 February:

Pathway, what hast thou wrought with my life?  Ah well, GOOD things are coming to pass, so it's okay that I haven't had a spare minute to blog.  I guess that's the wonderful thing - good things are coming to pass!  How awesome is that.  Everywhere we go to make a presentation, enthusiasm for this program abounds.  Folks, we have a stake in Florence.  That means, all the priesthood keys to carry forward the work of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ are here.  in Florence.  Within the next year or so, we will have a temple.  in Italy.  http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-in-pictures-beauty-purpose-mormon-temples.      

I am reminded of the live action Peter Pan movie - I know, that's odd, give me a minute.  Peter Pan, Wendy, her brothers and the Lost Boys, are all in utmost peril on Hook's pirate ship.  Wendy is permitted a moment to say good-bye, and she takes the opportunity to present Peter with " the hidden kiss."  This changes everything.

So it is with what's happening right here, right now, at least that's how we feel about it.  A stake.  A temple.  Pathway.  This changes everything!

If there were the words to describe what it's like to be me, to be us, here, now, doing what we're doing, perhaps you would feel how...BIG it is.  The scripture that comes to mind is when the Nephites are visited by the Resurrected Savior in 3 Nephi 18; they partake of the bread and wine of the Sacrament and are "filled".  There is purpose, there is meaning, there is delight; there is heartache, there is disappointment, there are conundrums.  It's absolutely glorious.

Every now and then, in my prayers, I sneak in a little "Hallelujah!"

fun thing:

Yesterday was "P Day" for the younger missionaries.  We took one, too.  Sisters Johnson and Gregg drove over (they're the only sisters in the mission with a car) and we drove two cars to the drop off spot at the foothills of Prato on the east side and left our car.  Then we drove several miles west and parked their car near a trail head, albeit along a busy city street.  Off we went for three fun hours of minimal climbing and great views.

We saw:  a dilapidated and crumbling textile factory with scaffolding still up around a "new" part, and accompanying outbuildings; a cave; lots of olive orchards; purple daisies and smaller white daisies, both of which smelled...nice!; villas; dogs guarding villas; other hikers and bikers; a real farm, with chickens and geese, and somewhere - cows, given the sound of cow bells; at another place we saw and tried to communicate with a very stout horse and a very stout pony; blue skies - glorious after several very cold, wet, windy days...

All of this, too, was glorious.  We stopped and ate a sack lunch prepared by Blaine.  Approaching the first drop off point, he suddenly realized that he had carefully under the back seat of the sisters' car, his wallet...and his keys.  He probably doesn't want me sharing this.  Oh well!  He had planned everything perfectly, he couldn't conceive of this colossal snag having occurred.  We all hooted.

Eventually, we thought to call Andrea, who came to pick us up and take us to the sisters' car.  Blaine tried to swear her to secrecy, but we'll see how many find out about it!

I'd post a picture...but I forgot my camera.  The sisters promised to share.

...and geese in my kitchen

More Mystery: I sat eating breakfast at the kitchen island, because the dining room table was cluttered with wiring and a new light fixture. The kitchen window is reflected in the granite countertop of the island; because of the angle, I could see more out the reflected window than I could by taking in the view from the window itself. I was at the same time writing in my journal, so I was pondering and gazing in front of me, when a startling hint of motion riveted my attention to the countertop, and here is what I saw: an oblong block of light on a green-black granite background, and across it in classic V-formation, a flock of geese, reflected in, but unhindered by, solid rock.

Geese flying in a granite sky! I did not see them out the kitchen window, but in the reflection of the kitchen window. Such a delicious whisper of ethereal delight it was! Once again, I felt as if I were part of some otherworldly conspiracy, allowed a momentary glimpse of what lies just beyond the limited spectrum of mortal consciousness. Glory!

Comets in My Bedroom

Saturday I slept in till 8:00! I stood up from my prayers and walked around the bed toward the dresser, when I stopped for a moment - don't know why; perhaps I was trying to remember something. At any rate, as I stood pondering, all of a sudden I became aware of a shaft of sunlight directly in front of me. I saw that the bedroom drapes, which we usually keep closed, were open just a slit at the top. The sun was in just the angle to shine directly through that little slit. I saw particles darting through that sunbeam, almost in the way stars are portrayed slipping past a traveler in space, for it seemed that each one was charged with light: one little shaft, right before my eyes, filled with micro comets. I stood transfixed, transported to another sphere of existence, as I watched countless tiny brilliant iotas, each one on a mission, on its way from Somewhere to Somewhere. I felt that I was in the presence of things beyond my ken.

You may say that what I witnessed was no phenomenon at all, that everyone knows the air is charged with particles of all sorts and varieties, all the time. That would be true, but it would also be irrelevant; the moment itself was magic. How pathetic is modern science, wherein man seeks to reduce All to the explainable. What I witnessed, what became clear to me, is that there is, at any given moment in any given spot, unperceived Light all around us. I say, let there be Mystery!

And there is Mystery, and it is glorious, and it can be perceived, but not by the natural man. We must seek for eyes to see and yes, for ears to hear. If it had not been for the sunlight through that little gap at just that moment, if I had not stopped to ponder in just that place, I would never have apprehended that joyous phenomenon. We walk in the presence of Glory; perhaps, if we become as little children, if we walk in humility, gratitude and courage - perhaps we will be privileged to apprehend it more often.