Part of me died today

I will not go into many details, but part of me died today -- a creative and social aspect of me. I am genuinely sad about it, but sometimes hard things are necessary.

I watched a program on Yosemite the other night with Pam. One part that was both informative and moving related to fires among the giant sequoias. Even thou the fire can cause some scarring to the base of the tree and burn other trees completely, it is only during a fire that the seeds drop from the sequoias and new life springs forth. I can only hope the same applies to me.

Car update

So today I filled the Prius with gas for the first time since purchasing it nearly a week ago. The gas tank is all of about nine gallons. I drove 352 miles on about 7.3 gallons of gas, averaging 48.3 miles per gallon. At today's gas prices, I spent about $21. Tidbits of happiness come in all forms.

Global warming and my cars

I must admit that I don't lose a whole lot of sleep regarding the size of my "carbon footprint." At the same time, though, we do try to be conscientious about not being wasteful, about recycling and composting, combining trips, being good stewards of the earth and its resources, etc. I am genuinely delighted that today we bought a "new to us" Toyota Prius. I have wanted one for a long time, and the Church had one for sale that we were able to snap up. It at least partially offsets the gas-hog nature of our Ford Excursion (that is a necessity for us when driving the whole family anywhere). People evaluating us on what we drive (if anyone is actually doing that) may consider us slightly schizophrenic.

Stake Youth Fireside

We had close to 500 people show up to our stake's youth fireside this past Sunday evening. In those types of settings, I always think to myself that I hope those attending will think it was worth their time. Five hundred multiplied by ninety minutes is a pretty big number. My part on the program was the "wrap-up" in the break-out session that included the young women and their parents in the stake. Ryan Smith was indeed masterful in his remarks to the congregation. The focus was on modesty. As he was speaking, my thoughts crystalized regarding what I should say. I had read this Christianity Today article during the week, so I quoted a bit from it as well as from Abraham 3:22-23. It all turned out well.

Here are the quotes from the article that I used. The author was lamenting the fact that few evangelical beauty pageant contestants had the guts to act on their convictions:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2011/01/miss_america_and_the_bikini_qu.html

It’s hard to believe that just over a decade ago, two-piece pageant swimsuits were taboo for Miss America. In this year’s competition, all but one contestant wore a black bikini and high heels. (Apparently pageant officials give contestants few swimsuits to choose from.) The young woman who donned a one-piece swimsuit was not 17-year-old Teresa Scanlan, Miss America 2011, former Miss Nebraska, and a devout Christian. No, the brave one-piecer was 19-year-old Miss Idaho Kylie Kofoed, a Mormon and music major at Brigham Young University....

...Why would a young Mormon woman, but not an evangelical one, dare to buck the ubiquity of bikinis and bronze-tanned skin in favor of something more modest? Can Christian pageant contestants gain the worthy cultural and political influence that usually comes with a pageant crown without losing their souls?....

In 2007, Katie Millar, then a neuroscience major at Brigham Young, became a top 10 contestant in the Miss America pageant. Wearing a one-piece swimsuit and a sleeved evening dress with a high back and high neckline, Millar stood out. She admitted she had never worn makeup before entering the Miss Utah pageant. After the pageant, she told KUTV, “When I did make the top ten . . . the first thing that went through my mind was, ‘I get to wear my one piece swimsuit on national TV and hopefully a girl will see that she doesn’t have to show a lot of skin to get attention or do well in society today.’ ”....

....But most of all, I hope more evangelical women entering the tricky world of beauty pageants will dare to be conspicuous for Christ — even if that means forgoing those black bikinis or evening gowns with plunging necklines. Faced with the pressure to conform to Miss America’s standards of beauty, they might realize that trying to be a modern-day Esther means sacrificing too much self-worth and real beauty for a little bit of power.

Art and pleasure

In my state of near depression yesterday, I needed something to get my mind off of those trees that no longer graced our yard. A couple of weeks ago, I had read an article about Alexa Meade, an artist who paints on people and then takes photographs of them. In the article, someone called it "Acrylic on Flesh." My son, Jacob, was a willing participant to give it a go, so I pulled out the acrylic paints and started painting away. Here's the final project.

How is it that a simple creative project can boost one's soul? I don't know if it is part of the divine nature within us that causes us to derive such pleasure, or simply something in our DNA passed down from the artistic caveman. All I know for sure is, that I find this and other like activities deeply satisfying.

Of course, this morning, I'm still mourning the trees that are now mulch ready to be spread in my garden.

Saying goodbye to trees in our yard

I don't want to sound sentimental, but that's how I'm feeling as I said goodbye to trees in our front yard today. Our house looks naked without them. We had a Bradford Pear tree that had split (twice) and was a major hazard. It was positioned to fall on and crush our neighbor's apple tree (and take down the power lines in the process). That one had to go. Two other trees were just too close to the house and I was concerned about the roots against the house foundation. Even though I know it was the right decision, it still made me sad.

The upside is now I get to fantasize about trees to plant as replacements. I pulled out our landscape plan that we did about 10 years ago (and haven't done much with it since, since the plan included $50K of plantings and hardscaping). It calls for white dogwoods, carolina hemlocks and a ginkgo tree. I look forward to clothing our home once again.