Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Catching a Link

My roller coaster has inched ever so slowly forward, but I hear the familiar 'clink' and know that the car I am riding in has caught the link, and the ascent begins anew. Life simply marches forward. On the same day I am planning to visit my friend's comatose son for the first time, another friend's daughter has her first baby. A beautiful little girl. And I know that the circle of life marches forward.


Life is so filled with joy, victory, triumph over trials -and yet, the times of trial and sorrow are inevitable. But today, an angel kept my baby girl alive when the bolts sheared off one wheel of the car she was driving, and she could tell something was wrong, so she pulled over thinking she had a flat, checked the tires, felt that they were all full, got back in the car, but just felt that she should not drive. Something told her to check again. So she got out and checked to see if the lug nuts were tight.


When she came to one of the wheels, ALL of the lug nuts were gone. Dave left work and went to help her. She was at 12300 S in Salt Lake heading North. When he jacked up the car, the wheel simply fell off. The bolts were all sheared clean off except for one, which had about a 1/2 inch nub left on it. We have no idea how that wheel was still on the car, or how she was able to safely navigate off the freeway into the emergency lane. I am grateful that Hailey was in tune with the Spirit enough to know that something was wrong, and then act on it. We love you Hailey.

 

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Devastated

The roller coaster we call life blazes on, accelerating ever faster as I age. Being an adrenaline junkie by nature, I should consider this good, however, I must say that there are some twists and turns in the area I consider rock bottom, that leave me so completely empty -heaving with pain, eyes filled with that familiar empty sting -dry, unable to shed another tear.


An empty, almost comfortable numbness begins to settle in. Like fog that erases you. And the numbness protects me somehow. I push reality farther away, and the peace of the fetal position cradles me -both body, and soul. And somehow the healing begins and the roller coaster catches the next link to urge me on. Wake me up. Refresh me. Remind me that I do indeed still enjoy breathing.


But for today, I will mourn. Because today I was told that a friend whom I truly love, has a son in a coma because of a drug overdose. My eyes sting. My heart aches. My soul calls out to God. And I know that the truth is, it could just as easily be my own son ..... or me


Monday, June 7, 2010

Life Is Good

Today I am happy. Not just for one reason, but for many. For one thing, I have been working for the past 2 years on getting my Utah Elementary Mathematics Endorsement (UEME), and Friday will be the final day of class! I am happy and relieved that it will be over because it has been so much work. I don't often allow myself to go anywhere and play because I usually have homework to do and am never fully caught up. But there is a part of me that is sad, because I will miss the association of some incredible people.



My teacher and mentor over the past 2 years has been Dr. Eula Monroe. She is a truly amazing woman. She has worked at BYU for the past 17 years, and I am blessed to have had her in my life. She is from Kentucky and she is a Baptist, so you can imagine that working at BYU could be a challenge. I did not know her 17 years ago, so I do not know what it was like for her back then, but I can tell you that the woman, as I know her now, is up to the challenge.



You can be sure that there have been many obstacles for her to overcome, and many people become soured by their experiences dealing with the bureaucracy that exists -not just there, but at ANY sizable institution of learning. The extra layer of being an outsider in a religious learning institution could have served as a mountain that was just too steep to climb, but not for Dr. Eula Monroe.
She has shown me how to be an example of scholarly excellence, and positive attitudes -even against the odds.