The Sun Does Shine

"The sun doesn't shine for three months out of the year in New York," someone told me before we moved here.  I believed it.  I love sunshine in winter.  I thought I'd be leaving that behind.  Thankfully, here is proof they were wrong.

This afternoon, I enjoyed the best bike ride so far of  2010.  Yes, it happens to be the first.  All this work on cycling stories made me jump as soon as I saw the sunshine and the melted, mostly dry roads.  Who cares that it was 32 degrees with a cold wind blowing off the lake that made my eyes water and sting.  It was worth it.

Beautiful White

Snow piling up on tiny branches caught my eye this morning.  Then, I saw deer and rabbit tracks running from our neighbor's fenceless backyard to ours.  If we all had fences, where would the animals go?

Wanted: Cycling Stories

Everybody has a story to tell.  I need a few for my latest homework assignment.  My topic is bicycling.  I'm supposed to write ten little stories in the style of Eduardo Galeano.  I can write stories about myself or about other people. If you have a cycling story to tell, please do.  It can be anything bicycling related, at any age-- not just a childhood story.  Details would be appreciated.  I'll probably ask you questions about the experience if I know your e-mail address.  Here is an example I'm working on that I might use:

Six years old, too big for safety straps, I tucked my legs close to my chest and gripped the curved plastic sides of the child’s seat on my mom’s bike. Mom pushed off and peddled fast up Safari Drive. California wind whipped hair from our faces.

Down the street, four-year-old Stewart Ross sat on his front porch, his freckled face resting on his palms, his red hair hanging in his eyes.

“You don’t know how to ride a bike? Everybody knows how to ride a bike,” he called out. 

Stewart ran into his backyard. Seconds later, legs spinning, he shot out across the grass and into the street on his tiny red two-wheeler. He zipped in circles around us.

“Why are you riding in the baby seat?” he said.

Immediately, I wanted out of the baby seat.

A week later, I learned to ride.

Finding Balance

"Look, Mom.  Somebody balanced only one banana," said my daughter. 

Who?  And how?  I was impressed.  I wouldn't have thought it possible.  I wouldn't have tried.

It's too easy to think that way.

Motivation Again

My children can spend hours playing in the snow.  Where do they get the energy?  Where do they get the desire?

I've been thinking about motivation for a while now.  Today, I read the essay "To Fashion a Text" by Annie Dillard for my writing class.  Her words are specific to writing, but can apply to other aspects of life.  Her words validate my thoughts.  Dillard says:

"What impels the writer is a deep love for and respect for language, for literary forms, for books...Writing a book is like rearing children-- willpower has very little to do with it.  If you have a little baby crying in the middle of the night, and if you depend only on willpower to get you out of bed to feed the baby, that baby will starve.  You do it out of love.  Willpower is a weak idea; love is strong."

Willpower, self-discipline, can get you pretty far, but it's certainly overrated.  Love is definitely more powerful.

I love to read.  I love words.  Even more, I love truth.  I'm more driven by truth than words and books. Trying to understand what's true or wanting my truth to be understood often motivates me to write.  I love truth.

My children love playing.  They love snow.  They love building things.  That makes it easy for them to ignore the discomfort of cold.  That helps them find the energy to run around outside knocking down icicles, crashing into snow mounds, building snowmen, and digging caves. 

I'm thinking that whatever needs motivating needs more love. 

Now I'm wondering how to increase my love for a clean and organized environment and for healthy living, among other things.  Ideas?

Icicles

"Look in the backyard.  The icicles are humungous!" one of my younger kids said to the other. 

I can't believe the icicles are back already.  Just a few days ago, I knocked them all off and used the roof rake to pull down a foot and a half of snow off the roof.  Above our downstairs bathroom and "office" (which we use as a bedroom), there isn't a lot of insulation.  Those rooms get cold fast. I know where all the heat is going:  up and out. It's a little annoying and disturbing.  Was our builder dishonest?  My guess is they put the bare minimum of insulation required above those rooms, if that. 

We have a neighbor who considered suing our builder.  He insists they didn't put the required insulation in these homes.  He uses the icicles, only dramatic on our builder's homes, as proof.  He spent thousands of dollars enhancing the insulation on his home.  The builder claims they put in the required amount and says it's the homeowners' responsibility to keep the roof free of extra snow and ice.  Yeah.  I want to trust people.  Sometimes it's hard.

Loyalty and Devotion

(From "pig in mud" Internet image search)

It's not easy to change. 

“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”  Proverbs 26:11

“But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”  2 Peter 2:22

“And thus six years had not passed away since the more part of the people had turned from their righteousness, like the dog to his vomit, or like the sow to her wallowing in the mire.” 
3 Nephi 7:8

What does this mean? 

I wasn't raised around dogs.  When I was sixteen, I went on a two-week tour where we traveled all around Mexico by bus and train.   One day, we were high up in the mountains and our bus stopped in a poor little village so somebody could use the bathroom.  We witnessed a dog returning to his vomit.  Apparently, dogs don't relate to the reason they threw up.  They just know their stomach is empty and what they threw up smells okay to eat.  The dog is hungry.  The dog eats.  He forgets or doesn't care why he threw up.  He's not thinking about consequences or reasons, he's responding to his physical desire. 

Why does a sow wallow?  Apparently, pigs like to be clean, but they don't sweat.  They use mud to cool down and to protect themselves from insects and sunburn.  It makes them comfortable.  Even though they like to be clean, they enjoy their muddy puddles.  Again, they respond to a physical need or desire.

Why do we forget and return to addictions and other bad habits?  The physical is present and very demanding. 

I have a friend whose father was an alchoholic. He stopped drinking and even got to the point where he was counseling and helping others. About five years later, for some reason, he returned to alchohol and ended up in prison where he got sick and eventually passed away. It was devastating. I can't even pretend to know what alchohol addiction is like or imagine what this man went through or judge the reasons why he did what he did. I just want to understand.  What can make change permanent?  How can I keep from returning to bad habits?

In his recent conference address on moral discipline, Elder Christofferson said:  "Jesus’s own moral discipline was rooted in His discipleship to the Father. To His disciples He explained, 'My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work' (John 4:34). By this same pattern, our moral discipline is rooted in loyalty and devotion to the Father and the Son. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that provides the moral certainty upon which moral discipline rests."

So, loyalty and devotion are key.  If we love enough, and remember how much we love, then we will remain changed. 

I have noticed, every time I return to sin or weakness, it's that much harder to change.  I want to believe it's possible.  I want to believe loyalty and devotion make it possible.