The Call

Well, it is just as sweet for child number three as it was for numbers one and two; and in some aspects even more so. Today 'the letter' came. The letter one dreams about for an LDS youth almost adult, the call to put on the Lord's name tag and to serve a full-time proselytising mission. Evan reports to the Illinois Chicago South Mission this Sunday. He will be in a threesome and serve for one month. He will be 24/7 missionary and we could not be more excited, grateful and pleased. Evan doesn't do email so no emails; and if you chose to write, write quickly because a month will fly by. An evaluation will be held after the month to see - where, how and when he might additionally serve.

We owe gratitude to a host of people: Blair & Brigham for leading, Parker & Mackey for pushing; extended family, Bishops, scout leaders, advisers, teachers, friends for belief, incredible support & prayers; Bishop Quinn & President Peterson for making it happen; Broch, Stuart, Jeff, Aaron, Bryn, David, Rob for being the standard; an incredible mother who believes in miracles and facilitates their occurrence; and a kind gracious Heavenly Father.

The missionary:

Crawling Road Trip

So Saturday after sleeping in we declared it a Watertown road trip day and hopped in the car for a jaunt up north. It is actually a fairly painless drive and well worth the investment of time. Upon arriving at Julie & Blair's house, Eden impressively was placed on the floor and crawled over to me. YES. The world of mobility has arrived and life will never quite be the same. She is cuter by the day.

We had a rollicking good time: Out for lunch, Killer Bunnies, three on three football (I guess 4-on-4 if you include duncan and lucky, a Wii bowling tournament which was ridiculous given mackey won, and in honor of Evan getting ready for the mission - High School Musical 3- then cruise back home. Road trips aren't only for Sally & Dale. What a great Saturday. How fun was that ! Name that favorite Watertown venue.

Aging Hearts

Aging is interesting. Observing and participating in the adding of years to my parents, my in-laws, and even to ourselves adds dimension to the expression: "enduring to the end". My father has always said he would rather wear out than rot out. And gracefully enduring might be more of a challenge than the casual, flippant youth may appreciate. (Read this as implying it is something I've discovered of late as opposed to having understood all my life). Nonetheless, today in reading a friend's blog, Carroll Morris - a Minnesota friend and author now of Arizona, I read a quote I truly enjoyed and a thought I embrace:

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow, what a ride!”

Two of my favorites enjoying the ride in style with Parker

(L’Chayim – To life) לחיים

I always enjoy Brigham's writings and today found his posting for October 13th, of added interest. First as rich thought and then as it related to my own recent ponderings.

The challenge of being frozen in time and inactivity is a reoccurring theme in the development of faith, progressing in life, and in making ethical choices. In the tumultuous world in which we live it is possible to be frozen in fear with the mistaken notion that doing nothing precludes bad from happening or somehow defers natural consequences. Fear is the antithesis of faith, and is anchored in the lost of understanding an eternal perspective. We lose our identity of being a son or daughter of God, we lose the perspective of the divine invitation and promise to return to our Father, we lose perspective of having the guidance of the Spirit, we lose the ability to consider the possibility which in turn opens our heart to the promptings of the Lord, The literature would say that people don't act or to chose to act unethically primarily because:

* Peer pressure/consensus acting - this can either cause errant behavior as one justifies following the crowd in doing the popular thing in life; or in not doing a behavior because it would cause one to stick out from the crowd and be overly unique and curious

* Obedience to authority- blind obedience given without reflection, thought or true personal engagement and commitment; or hands thrown-up in the air with acquiescence in terms of the old TV gag of " the devil made me do it"

*Self-serving bias - confirming pre-existent view, or in the terms of pop psychology already always listening, I know what the answer is without investigation, I know without doing because it simply has to be the way i think it is

* Lack of courage

* Confusion

* Not paying attention - this is interesting both in a spiritual sense and intellectual sense. On the one hand we are so busy with the noise of the world and distracted by our busyness that we can not hear the promptings of the spirit let alone heed them; on the other we just don't focus on that which is essential and become distracted , perhaps even by good thing, but are unable to focus and do that which is the essential or best to be doing. Either is a fatal lack of attention,

As I have pondered I have crossed a few quotes that stir thought and discussion.

• A person with outward courage dares to die, A person with inward courage dares to live. Lao Tzu
• The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. Dante
• In morality, as in literature - or in any field of human creativity - indifference is the enemy; indifference to evil is worse than evil. Elie Wiese
• So then because thou art a lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Revelations 3: 16

"A true experience has full flavor. It needs variety and spice. It needs to be real." We need to do.

Northland Visitors First Round

We enjoyed our inaugural family visitors today at our home in Naperville,
Mari-Lynn, Lauren & Liz were in Chicago for a live "So you think you can dance concert". They stayed the night in downtown Chicago and stopped by for lunch and a walk downtown. It was a delight to visit and catch up with family, Med Lake, and MN news. It went by too quickly and they are back on the road heading to Plymouth. A great start to a Saturday.

Kirkland

This past weekend we road-tripped to Kirkland, Ohio; a small town just east of Cleveland which from 1831 to 1838, was one of the first gathering places and headquarters of the saints. Significantly the first temple of this dispensation was built, key revelations received and organizational developments occurred, as well as a financial fiasco resulting in early apostasy. It became a stepping stone as opposed to a stumbling block for the young church.

It is a beautiful part of the country and ideal for a fall weekend jaunt. We visited near by Morely farm, and the stone quarry, and the pleasant little town of Kirkland

Johnson's Farm

About 30 miles south and a trifle east of Kirkland is found the Johnson Farm, which played a significant role in the early church. Several sections of the Doctrine & Covenants came forward from here while Joseph Smith stayed there.

Mayfield Ward

Sundays are glorious days.
A day of rest, a day of replenishment, a day of Spirit, and a day of atonement.

A beauty of Sundays is that they faithfully reoccur every seven days and each one offers the hope, the vitality of the one before, fresh and anew. We’ve long discovered and reveled in the global sway of the Sabbath; one can be lifted wherever the saints gather to worship on any given Sabbath.

As such, this Sunday, October 12, 2008 found us attending the Mayfield Ward of the Kirkland, Ohio Stake. The Mayfield Ward is universally emblematic of one of the strengths of the LDS faith while still being unique. The chapel was full to overflowing in the lounge with a fairly homogeneous congregation of dozens of young couples 26 – 34 yrs old with 3- 5 children apiece. Few if any gray hairs, a pair of 12 yr old deacons, and a matching set of beehives defined the outlaying age groups. We discovered that the bulk were graduate students: medical, dental, podiatry, and law schools of the Cleveland area. One sister made it sound as though there were three similar situated Wards in the area around Cleveland. Speaking of threes, they had three nurseries and its associated cacophony. What a great Ward; they are a living example of the family centered focus of gospel living and the outpouring of the Spirit on any given Sunday. Reinforcing the need and benefit of attending church, wherever you might find yourself, the gospel of Christ works in a very practical sense – back to the meeting; what a great sacrament meeting.

The youth speaker was a disheveled deacon, barely12, with tie askew; shirt oddly tucked in, and scrambled hair. He paused of fear, of reflection, of effect for a very pregnant pause of 2-3 minutes at least before in a singular expulsion of thought and breath taught of deepening the effectiveness of our prayers and ability to connect with God. His was a rapid delivery but he delivered content and meaning that come of the Spirit and not from 12 years of living. He was followed by a Filipino convert of 3 years who in structured, constructed, and practiced English bore a simple testimony of prayer. The concluding speaker was his dynamic wife with strong doctrinal theology mixed with practical experience on the power of everyday prayer. A wonderful blending of young, new; the learning and the learned teaching and sharing.

“It is pleasant for the Saints to meet together to commune with each other, to listen to the words of life, to reflect also upon their position and relationship to God, to His Church and Kingdom, as well as to examine into their own feelings, and, under the guidance of the Lord and of His Holy Spirit, try to find out what relationship they sustain to their Heavenly Father, and whether they are performing the various duties devolving upon them and are seeking to carry out the word, the will, and the law of God” John Taylor
The Sabbath spirit is the spirit of helping, loving, lifting, and teaching family, friends, and neighbors. Sundays are for family worship, Sundays are a wonder time to gather and feel the Spirit. Mayfield, Ohio is but one of many places where this can occur and be enjoyed.

Fall Fun

A great weekend, unfortunately not totally photographically documented, but fun nonetheless.

Friday we went to our first Naperville North High School football game against in-town rival Naperville Central. Both are extremely large high schools though only a 5 minute drive from one another. The game is such a large draw that they rent the local community college football stadium, which holds thousands, for the competition. It was a brisk fall evening perfect for high school football. We sat with a group of 20 - 30 from our Ward enjoying the game. More than the victory the highlight was Parker, as part of a quartet, singing the national anthem. It sounded grand and he enjoyed the experience; even though 2/3's into the song the crowd cheered louder than the song after all it was the start of a game.

Saturday we watched morning Conference in the comfort of our home and then drove up to Kenosha, Wisconsin for the wedding Nick Oxborough and Sara - long time friends of Blair from Armstrong High School days. Blair was truly blessed to have a good group of friends though out high school and then staying friends through college and into their married lives. A great group of people. Mackey drove up with us, attended the wedding, and then baby sat during the reception.

She stayed the night and then drove down with Julie, Blair, & Eden as they visited for conference, meals, a game, and hanging out. It is great to be so close that we can regularly enjoy their company and the delight of a grand daughter.

Mission Prep

In the tradition of his older brothers who developed barbering skills on the missions, Evan took razor to head and a new style resulted. Or maybe, in the tradition of his cousin Eric C's famous college Freshman christmas break family famous blond dye-job; or perhaps his older brother Blair's cut and color soccer hairdo with Rich co-conspiring with his grandfather to unveil; or perhaps going back to times of yore when his father came home with an Afro; or perhaps his 2nd cousin Evan Carlile's famous blog entry (see june 1, 2008) dedicated to the hair history of Evan - same name different story - our Evan looks styling today and is feeling proud.

French Park Anyone

Having a few minutes open Saturday, and not wanting to search adventure downtown, but rather explore something near to home. The weather was grand, a beautiful fall day; not hot, not cold, sunny and just plain overall pleasant - FALL in all its splendor. As such we chose to go to the local community park for a walk and frisbee. It is close, convenient and all that a local park in the nature of French Park in Plymouth would offer. Rindy goes to the park regularly with women in the Ward for a brisk 4-mile morning walk. We took a rather leisurely stroll around a small lake while Parker and Evan played frisbee - a grand time at the Herrick Forest Preserve.