Hello, my lovelies. 😊
Happy July! 🎉
Joyful and happy day for me today. 😊 I didn’t get much sleep last night, I think mainly because I was sleeping on the side of the highway at one of those parking areas that they have off of the highways in Wyoming. Even though I had my headphones in with white noise blaring, I think I could still hear the semi trucks as they rolled by, and I think there’s always that slight concern in the back of my mind that someone is going to come by and say I’m not allowed to sleep there.
There are no signs saying you can’t, but you never know?
But it was good this morning. I did some morning routine stuff, good gospel stuff, I think.
Grabbed five gallons of gas in Douglas for $2.95 to tide me over until the $2.69 I got it for in Casper. 😊
Once in Casper, the first thing I did was stop off at the FedEx shipping and printing place and finally shipped back the Bluetti AC180 that was decent but defective. Hopefully I’ll get my money back for that relatively soon. 🤞
Then it was on to the temple, blessed temple, for my wonderful Temple Tuesday. 🥰
I spent the first hour plus in the sealing room. I know I’ve already mentioned it, but I love the changes that they’ve made to the sealing ordinance for couples.
🥰
After that I went to my absolute favorite, baptisms and confirmations. I love love love serving there. Probably because I love being able to officiate the ordinances most of all.
Yep, my absolute favorite. 😊
So as a patron, the baptistry takes the 🎂. As a worker, I love everything I’ve done.
Speaking of being a worker, one of the workers who was in the baptistry while I was there gave me a little pitch about possibly looking into being a temple worker, they being short-handed on a regular basis with some workers picking up three and four shifts a week. They are trying to add another endowment session for Fridays, but they don’t have enough Temple workers (I think they are short on men) to do it.
So I fired off a message to my local branch president letting him know that I would be interested in serving in the temple. If I’m going to be driving to Casper once a week anyway, I might as well take time to be a worker as well as a patron. 😊
I miss being a temple worker. 🥰
It was such a beautiful day in the temple today. I love the spirit there. I love the peace. I love the real joy and happiness. I love the light and the faces of the workers and patrons alike.
Today was just a day full of real, true happiness and joy and serenity. 🥰
After leaving the temple, I went to the gym to get a little bit of exercise in. I didn’t do a whole lot, just four exercises, 3 sets of 10 each, but that is better than nothing. 😊
Spent the whole time chatting with Cory about the temple and about consecration and giving our all to the Lord.
Continued talking with him as I went grocery shopping at the Wally World on the East end of Casper. Bought way too much food. 🙃 Lots and lots of Frozen fruits and vegetables.
Do I haven’t been vegan, I would like to get back to being vegan. I really don’t like animals having to die for me to eat when it’s not necessary. If it’s necessary, then okay, but… I really dislike the food industry, how animals are treated, and how they are needlessly killed for our eating pleasure.
I also know that it’s a lot of hard work and expense to be vegan and be healthy, and my mental and emotional health wasn’t good enough for the added stress and pressure, but my mental and emotional health is really good right now. I’m not quite in circumstances that make it easy, but it shouldn’t be too hard at this point.
It’s definitely easier in winter months when my vehicle acts as a refrigerator. 🙃
The drive home went a lot faster than any of my drives to this point.
I worked a little bit answering I think one question. I sang and listened to uplifting music. I smiled and just felt joyful and happy and free. 🥰
Had a really lovely gospel conversation with my mom that lasted a good long time. 🥰
What a beautiful day. 😊
Took my customary dip in Cascade Falls on the way back, doing a little bit of exploring upstream, noting quite a bit of poison ivy on the shore next to one of the little falls.
Sat in the water for a good little while, enjoying the refreshing, invigorating cool water.
Beautiful little places to find joy. 🥰
Got back to the property earlier than expected, actually in perfect time to eat dinner with Heather and Hans. 😊
We chatted for a bit, listened to a couple of sections of the Doctrine & Covenants in preparation for Sunday, and now here I am finishing up my journal for the night. It’s 10:01, so I’m a bit late, but I’m better than I’ve been the last couple nights, at least. 😊
Assuming I actually go to bed, this might be the best I’ve done, so we’ll call it a win!
We celebrate successes. 🥳
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful to finally have the power station sent back. It’s one thing off my to-do list, and it gives me a decent amount of space back on Rover’s floor making it easier to get in and out of the van.
- I’m grateful to have been able to serve in the baptistry. They only had one other Melchizedek priesthood holder patron, so he and I alternated back and forth performing the confirmations. I love it. I just… love it. Fills my soul. 😊
- I’m grateful to be happy, to have that be the climate change in my life. It used to be that my climate was dark and stormy pretty much all the time, with a break in the clouds only every once in a great while; but now my climate is changing to sunny and light and bright, with occasional storms. 🙏
- I’m grateful to be able to have such uplifting conversations with people who are close to me. 😊
- I’m grateful for the gifts of change in heart that God has given me, even areas I didn’t expect because I wasn’t even focused on them–at least one area, that is.
- I’m grateful to have been able to drive all the way back from Casper without much discomfort. I don’t know if that’s the leftovers of the endorphins from my joyful experiences, or if that’s the ibuprofen and migraine meds kicking in and working on a broad base of issues, or if it’s a combination of both, or maybe loss of distraction because of great conversation with my mother. I don’t know. But I’m grateful to have the drive go by so quickly and with minimal, even unnoticed discomfort if there was any. 🙏
- I’m grateful for Cascade falls. For rushing water.
- I’m grateful for the beauty of the earth (love the uilleann pipes… this is one of my dancing on the beach as the little waves splash against my legs 🥰. Best, with headphones and cranked up. 🙃).
Success:
- I’m choosing positivity and happiness and using my agency to follow Jesus, and it means… everything to me.
Improvement:
- Not necessarily something that I was bad at today, but something I want to train my mind to do… when I taught 9th grade, I had a day where, when my students came to class, I had a note waiting for them at the front door that I held up as they walked in. The note said something to the effect of when you come into this class today, do not say anything to one another or to me, don’t try to communicate with one another in any way. For something like 45 minutes we sat there in silence just looking at each other… On the board as we were finishing up, I wrote something to the effect of “tell me what you think about when you have nothing else to think, and I will tell you who you are.” One of my students in the class that day, Andrei, when I asked what they were thinking said something to the effect of “[he] spent his time thinking about good things/things he liked about each member of the class.” Clearly, I’ve never forgotten that, and that’s something I want to train my brain to do, to always look for and think positive things about everyone I see, and to completely rid myself of any and all negative thoughts/judgements, etc.
Thought of the Day:
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Where Do I see the Hand of God In My Life Today:
- I stand in awe (“all amazed,” to steal from the song) of what God has done for me, the pure, boundless love with which He envelopes me, the power and strength gifted, far beyond what I had to give, the light, the joy, the peace, the perspective. Thank you, Father. 🙏
We’ve got this. 💚 All on the altar.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 