Dear friends
It’s been more than 10 weeks since my last post and much has happened, in your lives as well as mine. Change is necessary for progress is my personal motto, it has been for a very long time. In modern speak, I suppose that would show I have a growth mindset. Anyhow here’s a synopsis of what I’ve been experiencing these past weeks 🙂
1. Children grow – when our eldest was about 9 months old, a friend gave me some advice which I believe she had received from another friend who is a mother of 10 children. That advice was, remember it’s a phase. Whatever seemingly difficult stage you or your child is at, view it as a phase. This advice has served me well and has certainly helped me to remain sane! I strive to apply it to other aspects of my life, other relationships. I think one day we will realise how brief mortality is and we’ll see all things clearly (see 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 12) For now, when I had to buy yet another pair of school shoes for our youngest, Son2 (approaching 10 years old) and discovered he’s now in the smaller men’s shoe size, I thought, it’s a phase… what size feet will he reach as a grown man!?
2. I’ve decided to look up more, seize the moment, capture now, be a little more impulsive and take more photos of life as it happens – like this photo (no filter) of our yellow sky, pink sun, as a result of Saharan sands a few weeks ago. Related to this, I’m going to post more photos, probably of trees and skies as this reminds me to see the beauty all around. We live on a beautiful planet which serves life well. We, humans, need to serve life well too.
3. The long awaited restructure began at work and some of my older colleagues have been taking stock of what their pensions look like and is it worth retiring a few years early. I’m in the generation that’ll work till 67 years so it’s not something I’ve paid too much attention to (I probably should but I’ve not…) So I was traveling to a meeting with two older colleagues, both male, and one mentioned his wife retired several years ago, she earned quite highly so they were OK. The other chuckled, commenting his wife never earned much and “my wife retired at 23!” I impulsively stood up for his wife and said, “I don’t think she would call it retirement, I’m sure she did a great job raising your sons!” He did accept this but I realised how many people out there devalue their own family, because they are making a different contribution. I’m so glad that as a working mum I could still stand up for my sisters.
4. Glass an hour – this is a little mantra I’ve been telling myself in relation to drinking water. It’s like the fruit & veg, 5 a day, here in the UK. I’m blessed to live where I can turn on a tap at home and work and drink safe water. I know many in the world can’t do that and I, sadly, remember a time when living at my dear mother’s home and she’d been unable to pay the water bill and it was cut off (I don’t think they are allowed to do that now). I walked a couple of miles each day to public toilets to fill bottles of water to bring back home. So I appreciate water and what it means for our health. I don’t think we can ever drink too much but we can certainly have too little, so, as I’ve noticed myself feeling thirsty more often, I’ve tried to drink a glass of water each hour. I always feel much better and less tummy aches when I do this.
5. I mentioned the long awaited restructure at work began. I’m one of the few whose salary will increase, quite significantly, as a result of this due to the grading of my job. Our jobs have now been aligned to public sector gradings and although people many are grumbling that it’s less than private sector pay, I say, well, go and work in the private sector if you want to earn that kind of money; don’t expect public taxes to pay ridiculous amounts for you not to deliver! And around the time the restructuring consultation began, I was approached by the local school of architecture to see if I’d be interested in studio tutoring 🙂 Of course!!!
6. The world wide General Conference #LDSconf was, in my humble opinion, absolutely sublime. I am steadily working my way through all the talks, starting with those given by the apostles. I can only suggest you listen to it – check it out on LDS.org or on YouTube. I don’t have a favourite but memorable messages for me are: am I Sad, Mad or Glad?; women in these last days; the need for humility.
7. Finally, the changing world. The past 10-12 weeks have seen human tragedies on an increasing scale of horrific-ness (i.e shootings, terrorism acts) plus natural incidents, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes. And then political incidents across the globe affecting whole countries and regions. For comfort in these difficult times, I gain comfort from the words of prophets reminding us Who wins in the end and I am striving to be on that team. Elder Dallin H Oaks reminded us of these words from 20 years ago in his talk at conference:
I see a wonderful future in a very uncertain world. If we will cling to our values, if we will build on our inheritance, if we will walk in obedience before the Lord, if we will simply live the gospel, we will be blessed in a magnificent and wonderful way. We will be looked upon as a peculiar people who have found the key to a peculiar happiness.
President Gordon B Hinckley, November 1997.
Princess Architect 