Didn’t have very good dreams last night. Current worries and concerns invading my dreams. 😅
I listened to some uplifting music and heard Heather outside, so I poked my head out of my van to say hello. I probably mentioned it yesterday, but just in case I didn’t, one of the little killdeer chickies fell in the dry well last night (about five feet down, and Hans heard its parents chirping and cawing with great concern. So he went over to investigate, saw the little chickie, and rescued it.
Well, shortly after saying hello, Heather let me know that a baby bunny had also fallen in the hole, and she asked if I wanted to come rescue it.
That would be a definite yes. 🤍
So I climbed in the hole, and the little guy (who was probably about the size of my fist) didn’t move when I first picked him up.
I think he was trying to not be seen, as rabbits seem to first try and do when concerned.
When I tried to cradle him instead of hold him in my hands, he jumped away, but it wasn’t hard to pick him up again.
Like with the killdeer from yesterday, there were two adult rabbits waiting near the open hole, one of them was curly, so when I climbed out of the hole with the little guy, I set him down on the ground right there in view of the two adult rabbits.
Hopefully that will build some trust and good will. 🤞
🙃
I want to get to the point where they trust me enough to eat out of my hand.
I just love critters. 🤍
I got dressed rather quickly, as I was up a little later than normal, and we needed to leave relatively early for the general session of stake conference up in Rapid City.
And after grabbing my daily pills and a banana to take with the ibuprofen, we were off.
Why is it that it seems that only American car makers understand that sun visors should cover the whole side window?
😶
I don’t think I ever had a Japanese car where the sun visor was long enough to cover the whole window. And I want to say it’s the same with European cars? Just short little things that do very little good.
Anyway, though I don’t generally appreciate American vehicle reliability, they do tend to do pretty well with creature comforts.
The three of us had a super-great gospel conversation on the way up. I’m feeling closer and closer to getting back to where I was a decade ago. 🤞
There’s still definitely a good way to go. Many obstacles to overcome. A lot of spiritual heavy lifting.
I’ve been running away for so long, trying to escape the fear and pain, but it just follows me everywhere I go, even to the paradise that is New Zealand. 🙃
Stop running/escaping. Face the fears. Acknowledge the pain.
Make my choices.
Anyway, there were principles that I used to live by that brought light and connection with God more powerfully and more deeply than I’d ever had before and that I’ve had rarely (but sometimes) since those golden years.
I’m grateful to be making progress. I’m grateful for a God of love.
Like last night, stake conference started off quite slow for me, but the last hour was powerful. 🤍
I actually walked something like 8000 steps during conference, giving my lumbar and sacral nerves a rest. I was standing all the way in the back and just slowly walked back and forth and back and forth on the gym floor.
We stopped off at the future Temple site of the Rapid City Temple on the way back home and then had another lovely gospel discussion as we drove back to Hot Springs.
Back at the ranch, I let River out to munch, and then I led Fiona over to where I had my solar panels resting on the ground. A particular species of grass grows right there, and come July, it’s all going to dry out and become a fire hazard, so I tried to get her to eat a bunch of it, but she was super slow chewing today. Usually she goes hot and heavy I’m ripping it all out as if she were never going to get another chance to graze in the green goodness. 😆
Looks like it’s going to take several munching sessions to eat down all the grass there.
I chatted with my friend Cory for a bit, and Heather made me a sandwich and a smoothie. 🙏
Cory and I are studying similar topics right now in our gospel study, and there’s a lot of deep diving that we both want to do, so I created a spreadsheet and some Google word-study documents in an effort to help us better learn and understand.
Hopefully, I can focus. 🙃
I’m realizing that I think it’s actually been years since I did really in-depth studying. Sure, I’ve consumed a bunch, but consumption is very different from really digging in and searching.
I think I’ve spent so much time consuming whatever it is that I wanted to consume whenever it is that I wanted to consume it that I’ve lost my ability to focus. When I try to focus, I find my mind wandering to 80,000 different destinations. Focusing and pondering and reasoning and synthesizing… They take so much more effort than just pressing play and listening or watching.
I think maybe I haven’t actually exercised my brain much? … maybe not for a long time.
And maybe that’s why I can’t seem to get myself to sit down and focus on something? Maybe why I’m having so much trouble making meaningful progress on my book?
Definite possibilities.
One of the topics that I’m studying right now is the concept of glory. That’s the first word study I’m doing. I’d like to understand the ins and outs and depth and breadth of the concept.
So I looked up the definition in the 1828 dictionary and added that to my word study document, and then I started looking up scriptures that have the word in it. If I’m remembering correctly, they’re 607 times the word is found in the scriptures. 🙃
Heather and I chatted about it for a bit, and I read her some of the verses. My mind is starting to churn a little.
I think I’m also discovering that I have my attention split in numerous directions, All sorts of worries and concerns that call out for my attention, and oftentimes those things that call out for my attention require less mental energy, so it’s easier to turn to those then to do the hard internal work.
Anyway, Heather and I also talked about the house build a little bit, and then we noticed that there were four bunnies hanging out eating the grass on the strip between the trailer and the horse area. Two adults, one of them being Curly, a medium sized young rabbit, and a relatively small rabbit not too much bigger than the one I rescued this morning.
I’m guessing they’re a family. 😊
And AI thinks that curly is actually a girl. Hans and I noticed curly harvesting grass instead of just munching on it (cutting tons of blades and storing them in its mouth almost as if it were a mustache. 🙃
Ai says that means most likely a female either pregnant or with a hormonal imbalance thinking that she’s pregnant.
AI said males sometimes do that as well, but it’s much more likely that it’s a female doing it.
Sooooo Curlyette? 🙃
You know how I mentioned that I wanted to get to the point with the little rabbits that they would be willing to eat out of my hand?
Well, I didn’t get that far, but while all four rabbits were sitting in the grass near the trailer door, I quietly and relatively slowly made my way, apple in hand, out of the trailer. That definitely got the attention of all the rabbits, but instead of going anywhere, I just sat down on the steps of the trailer and started playing uplifting music on my phone and whistling to it.
It wasn’t long before a bunch of robins showed up as well. I don’t know if it was just the time of day, or maybe they were attracted to my whistling? I like to think that maybe it was my whistling. 🙃
Anyway, after Curly didn’t come around to my side of the shipping container after I accidentally hit him (her?) with a piece of banana during my last attempt to engender some good will, I was less interested in tossing the food toward them. I haven’t been successful in a single attempt at getting them to eat something that I’ve left for them. Not lettuce. Not Apple. I think I’ve tried a carrot as well? I don’t remember for sure.
But I was encouraged that Curly hung out there with me, even digging a little bit in the dirt maybe 12 ft from me and just stretching out. 😊
I’m going to keep calling him a he because that’s what we’ve known him as. 🙃
Anyway, Curly didn’t run away when I very slowly and carefully walked past him, probably coming within ft of him, maybe just a few feet of him. He did move so he was more like maybe 7 ft away, but I had my back to him as I walked past. Then I went and found some dandelion greens and picked some of the smaller leaves, walked back over and carefully set them on a rock within maybe 5 or 6 ft of him. Then I went back over and sat on the steps of the trailer to see if he might investigate.
Sadly, he didn’t right away, and after maybe maybe 5 or 10 minutes, Zorra needed to go to the bathroom, so that sent all the rabbits scattering as she came down the stairs.
Oh well. Next time. 🙃
Fiona needed her feet trimmed, so that was the next item of business, so I tried to calm Fiona down while Heather and then Hans worked on trimming her feet.
After that, I Pooh dragged and gave noms to the horsies, chatted again with Cory a little bit, wished Heather and Hans good night, and have been wandering the gravel roads in the dark dictating this journal entry for the last… probably hour, trying to get from about 18,000 steps to 20,000 for the day. 🙃
And I just hit 20,000… now. 😊
I’m grateful it’s cooler now than it was earlier. Good golly, it was hot. The AC unit in the trailer struggled to keep up, getting as high as 82° inside.
Depending on which weather report you look at, the outside temperature ranged from 93 to 99°, and the thermometer that Heather and Hans have said about 99 or 100. That thermometer sits in the sun, so it may not be as accurate as one in the shade would be.
Just passed 11:30 now, and I’m pretty hammered. In addition to passing 20,000 steps, I have now passed nine miles of walking for today. 😲
Didn’t have that on my radar when I woke up this morning. 😆
Time to hydrate and chat with the Big Guy.
🩵
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 