Beacon

I am still in my church dress and the bottom of my feet are black from walking on the street. It's midnight. Church was over with at noon. After a long walk home in my 3" red high heels (hate the pain/love how they look) I removed said shoes and spent the next 10 hours twirling and whirling wherever the wind (or rain) blew me.

I sat a friend's kitchen table and chatted. I swung with friends on a porch swing. I rang a doorbell during the afternoon monsoon and listened to the thunder crackle in the atmosphere. I left that house looking like a drowned sewer rat. I delivered strawberry shortcakes. I tried to help a friend find a rental in Provo. I pushed a friend's baby stroller slowly up the street while we chatted. I visited for an hour in another friend's garage. My neighbors from Maine taught me to put cracked corn in birdfeeders instead of bird seed because spilled bird seed sends shoots up in the grass while spilled corn gets eaten by mourning doves. I talked to lots of scout moms and scout boys as they dropped their gear off for the big campout tomorrow. Except for the three minutes of effort it took me to put crock pot French dips and bagged salad on the table at 4 o'clock I did nothing today except play with my friends. I felt like a kid again; I played all day and came home late without my socks and with dirty feet.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to come up with a creative solution for the back of the cabinet that holds our big, bad, behemoth TV. All my ideas have led me down designer dead ends. Sheet music? Pages from a French book? Paintable textured wallpaper? Subway tiles? When I came home last night I was so happy from laughing and visiting that I glared at my TV and thought, "You're just a thing, you silly thing. I could care less if I ever make you look better." And I really did think that while glaring at it because I hate cable and am *this close* to making our home a distraction-free zone where brains can grow. The only problem is that come September Greg needs his Denver Broncos. Curse the mile-high legacy of John Elway and all that Greg finds holy with the Orange Crush!

The other thing that really made my day was that a baby was blessed in church today. In our church a father holds his baby and under the authority of the priesthood and through the influence of the Holy Ghost speaks a blessing to it for its life. This father warned his infant daughter that the standards of the world and the standards of the Lord are growing further apart. Then he blessed her to live the Lord's standards with love and without judgement. I can't stop thinking about that line. WITH LOVE AND WITHOUT JUDGEMENT. What a perfect way to describe discipleship and devotion. What a perfect way to live.

Today I remembered the day when Greg blessed RE. She wore the dress my mom sewed for Rat fifteen years earlier. We soaked it in Borax in a Rubbermaid bin under the sunshine and it brightened right up. Like a fool I didn't write her blessing down so I only remember one line. Greg blessed RE to be a BEACON OF LIGHT. And she is! She is my little lighthouse shining in the darkness. I know that she will cheer up many sad hearts in her lifetime by being real and non-generic and brave. She has a gift for reading people and always seems to know what to say.

Yes, it was a near-perfect day except for my bad choice to try the new dark chocolate Fudge Stripe cookies that left a chemical aftertaste in my mouth minutes after swallowing. Since cookies aren't people I will judge them (and TVs) all I want. Bad cookies. Worthless TVs. Beautiful babies.