Oh, man, did I have a hangover this morning–a double hangover–the effects of both a lack of sleep and having pushed out the light I was starting to live in for some mindless… not uplifting veging. 😕
Only recently returning to a life of living in the light, I did not like feeling so far from it. 🙁
I hit my knees pretty quickly, chatting with the Big Guy about how I was feeling, recognizing how much I had taken for granted by voluntarily pushing the light aside.
I don’t want to go back to living outside the light.
No ma’am. No sir.
As I was praying and pondering and I think re-listening to the same talk we all listened to last night, I had the thought pop into my head to go with Heather and Hans to the temple today.
😶
They’d scheduled for today, but as you know, I’d just barely gone templing on Thursday, and I… didn’t actually want to go today. 😅
I was going to be back again on Tuesday (on my way to visiting Utah again next week), but the thought came back again: Go to the temple with Heather and Hans.
I resisted. 🙃
Finally, I think it was maybe the third time the thought came a knocking, I finally stopped pushing against it and told the Lord I’d go.
Immediately not only did I feel peace, but both my hangovers were gone. 🤍🙏🤍
🥰
So good. 🤍🥰🤍
I told Heather and Hans I would be joining with them after all and then headed down to the springs to have a brief but refreshing bath. 🙃
After a quick wash ‘n dash, I was back at the ranch loading up my stuff for the drive.
It’s always a fair bit more challenging going on a trip in someone else’s vehicle. When it’s my own vehicle, I already know that I have absolutely everything with me, so there’s not really much of any chance that I could leave anything important behind.
I drag my house along with me everywhere I go.
(And yes, I was definitely reminded again today of how much I love being on the road 🙃). Cheap New Zealand tickets once again popped up in my travel deals feed. 🙃
Anyway, after getting the car loaded up, Heather found a vole trapped in our dry well pit, so I climbed down and rescued it, and then we headed out.
I took advantage of the time as a passenger to write the journal entry I didn’t write last night, so I’m all caught up again. 🙏
We listened to part of a President Oaks talk just before walking into the temple, and then we went in for the 2:30 endowment session.
I spent a lot of time in serious pondering and in conversation with the Big Guy. I’ve been really lonely lately and also feeling quite… undesirable. And one of the things I was chatting with the BG about was my longing for a companion.
I thought about the earnestness, the strength of desire, the hope. I thought about petitioning in that earnestness over and over again, day after day, but then I thought… no, Stephen. You already have the perfect gift. If this is the path God has led you down, then this is your perfect path. This is the path that will bring you the greatest growth opportunities, the best chance to become the person you want to become.
In essence, let go of the longing, and fill your heart with gratitude for the perfect God who has given you this perfect opportunity. Rejoice, for all the richest blessings are already on my plate before me, if, like Peter in Hook, I could just open my eyes to see what I could not before.
Anyway, I’m grateful for the reframe. 🙏
I also feel like I’m on the cusp of uncovering a new level of understanding of the endowment. It’s like having something on the tip of your tongue, not a sort of recognition of an impending deeper understanding.
I think that’s what I’m feeling at least. 🙃
While waiting for Heather and Hans to get changed, I spent some time reading in the Doctrine and Covenants, memorizing and re-memorizing a couple of scriptures on gratitude.
🙏
Lunch was at a local Mexican restaurant which was tasty, and we had a great time there.
We chatted a fair bit as we drove home. I also spent time journaling a bit and reading some old files on Google Drive that have been important to me through the years.
Back in Lusk, we swung by the triplex I’ve been toying with buying. It’s probably a good 90% that I’m not buying it, but I’m still checking it out a bit.
We stopped at the gas station there again, and then back in Edgemont, we stopped at the YesWay to buy some ice cream. 🙃
While we were paying for our stuff, still dressed in our church clothes, a gentleman in a wheelchair behind us asked what church event we had participated in, and then the lady behind the counter said that she was about to ask the same thing. We said we were on our way back from Casper , and then he was like, let me guess, your Mormons, you just got back from doing baptisms for the dead in the temple there.
Close!
Turns out he’s a member of our church from up in Gillette who stopped going to church about a year ago, and the cashier was also a member, I think baptized when she was a kid? and is now an adult with kids and looking to bring her kids to church.
We laughed and joked around with the guy in the wheelchair. He’s clearly not interested in coming back to church and was ribbing us a bit, but it was fun. We had a great time, for the most part. 😊
The woman might actually join us tomorrow, so that was cool. 🥰
Hope she felt loved. 🤍
After getting home, we chatted for a little while, had evening prayer, and then Heather and I were hanging out when she noticed another mouse in the house that disappeared into the cupboard underneath the sink through a little gap in the wood that apparently is there.
For the next 5 or 10 minutes, or so, who we worked on trying to capture the little guy (or gal), I had it in my hand at one point, but I didn’t want to squeeze too hard, so it got away, running along my leg and then underneath one of the recliners.
Then it ran under some stuff that was under the kitchen table, and then it ran back to the corner by the recliner but went behind the deep chest freezer.
Ones behind the freezer, there was nowhere for it to go but out one side or the other. So I did my best to block off one side, and then put my live trap on the other. But I didn’t want to risk it being able to jump over the live trap, so I used a binder to block any vertical escape, setting the binder on top of the trap.
Then I used one of Heather’s long recorder-style instruments to nudge the Little critter toward the trap, and it did indeed run toward the trap, but then it seemed to disappear into thin air. I didn’t hear the trap engage, but the mouse was no longer anywhere behind the freezer that I could see, so I started moving the stuff that I’d put in the way of it’s escape and notice that the mouse was indeed inside the trap, but had jumped from the entrance of the trap and landed on the food tray which is only a half an inch deep and maybe an inch wide.
There it was perched having completely bypassed the little ramp that triggers the trap.
😶
Smart mouse? 🤓
So I quickly triggered the trap myself, and boom, we got it–safe, but probably quite frightened.
Like I did with the previous mouse, I hopped in Rover, at like 11:30 at night, drove down to j.h Keith Park, built it a little shelter out of two large pieces of bark (it’s going to get into the low 40s tonight), and put an apple core next to the shelter for food.
Hopefully, it’ll be okay, and maybe it’ll find the other mouse that I let go in the same spot that is likely related to it somehow. 🤞
If the other mouse is still alive. 😅
Chatted with Heather a little bit upon returning, but it’s after midnight now, and this little boy is yawning and quite tired.
Not to mention, I’ve been battling a mini migraine all day. I’m going to eat just enough to take some pills, and then I’m done for.
I think there’s more that I wanted to write, but… mush brain. 🤪
Love you. 😊
🩵💚🤍
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 