Maine, Andrea's house, and the Chicken Parade

I loved getting from New York to Maine. (Admittedly…I wasn't driving. I always offer, but Sam usually just does it all and it's probably a good thing, because I fall asleep SO easily, I am always fighting it when I drive. I'm grateful he's willing to do it!) So I did drift off a lot during this trip and it was a long drive. But everything I was awake for was absolutely beautiful. It made me want to come back to Vermont and New Hampshire someday! Such cute little towns! Such breathtaking mountain roads! We were on small roads the whole time and I'm not sure if we were taking some scenic route or if ALL the roads are like that!

Most of these pictures are faded and blotchy taken through car windows. I couldn't make us stop for me to look at every pretty view when we had so far to go! But at least this preserves some memory of it. I loved the low-hanging clouds in the morning when we left.

There was misty rain off and on during the day, which seemed right.

We had to stop for road work in a couple places, which gave me a chance to finally take a picture of the flowers that were everywhere along the side of the road. They were so pretty—Queen Anne's lace and Black-eyed Susan and cornflower, it looked like. No daisies like in Oregon, but just as pretty. I wonder if there are flowers blooming all summer or if we just got lucky to be there at the right time?

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A day in Vinalhaven, Fox Islands

I had never so much as heard of the Fox Islands a year ago. But as we were preparing for our trip I started reading about our ancestors who lived in Kirtland and Nauvoo. One of them was Jonathan Hale, who joined the church early on and went to live in Kirtland with his family. I read in his history that he and Wilford Woodruff were called on a mission to the Fox Islands in Maine.

I forgot about that until we were listening to Saints as we drove to Nauvoo and Kirtland, and Jonathan Hale's story was mentioned again there with a little more detail. I thought, "That's cool; we are going to go to Maine too." But I didn't know where the islands were or how to get to them, though I read a "memory" on FamilySearch by another of the Hale descendants who shared a story about being able to visit there. 

Then, while we were staying at Andrea's house in Maine, I was looking for one more thing we could do on our last day there. We wanted to go out to the coast again but it was hard to tell which beaches would be worth the drive, especially with the weather looking a little cool and unpredictable. I suddenly thought of the Fox Islands and just got curious how one would even get there. I didn't know if there was a ferry or if you had to charter a boat or what. When I looked it up, it looked like there was a ferry, but it had to be scheduled in advance and was sort of tricky. The website had all these instructions bolded and underlined about how you had to call this phone number and get a line number, and then appear at the office no later than one hour before and show the line number, and if you weren't on time you may not get on the ferry and you may be stuck on the island and so forth. But after mulling it over, I thought, "Well, why not try it?" I thought the kids would really enjoy a ferry ride. But we could always just do something else once we were out on the coast if it didn't work out.

So I called and got a line number (and then called again when I figured out you had to do that away from the island, not toward it) and we set off early in the morning toward the ferry station in Rockport, hoping everything would work out. And it did! We got there early enough and they were able to fit our van on the very back. (There was also an area for tall trucks—even a UPS truck was able to get on! But they just put us outside of the roof.)

It was cool and weird to drive our van onto a boat! I don't think I've been on a ferry boat with a vehicle before (or maybe once on a really short ride in California?). I've ridden as just a passenger on one. But the kids thought it was really fun and funny to have our van on the boat with us! And to be on a boat at all!

Clementine was very excited.

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Acadia National Park

Andrea told us that her house in Maine was two hours from everywhere, and that was true. It actually took us about three hours to drive all the way out to Acadia National Park. But the drive was pretty and we were just so happy to be close enough to go there at all! I had heard that it was so beautiful and was excited about seeing it in person!

I have never been to this part of the United States. Even though it's green and there are trees everywhere, it feels so different from where I've been on the west coast like Oregon and Washington. I'm not sure why. Different kinds of trees, maybe? Oregon has rocky beaches too, but they don't seem the same as these Maine ones.

The area of Acadia (I learned when we came to Quebec) was part of New France in the 1600s. The Acadians were French speaking and were driven out by the British colonists after the French and Indian war. (If you remember reading James Fenimore Cooper's Evangeline in school, you may recall that it's about an Acadian girl who is separated from her lover during that time period. I didn't remember that!) It was interesting that Maine and Quebec have that French connection I didn't know about before.

The park itself was wild and beautiful. Rocky coasts. A million little islands. I think Acadia National Park is even on an island (though it doesn't seem like it because you just drive over a short bridge). It was quite crowded and we didn't get out and hike any big trails, mostly just drove through and looked at things and got out for short little walks. It was the right amount of exploring to do with the little kids.

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Palmyra, the Sacred Grove, and the Corning Glass Museum

After Kirtland it was a short-ish drive to our house in New York. Only four hours or so. We got there on Sunday night and were ravenous! I made us a quick dinner and we figured out who would sleep where. Most of the beds were in a big room together upstairs, which was fun. 

The bathroom was funny, and Daisy said it reminded her of this:

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Willingly allow him to lead you

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2006 Conference.

I loved Elder Scott this week, always with something good to say:

The challenges you face, the growth experiences you encounter, are intended to be temporary scenes played out on the stage of a life of continuing peace and happiness. Sadness, heartache, and disappointment are events in life. It is not intended that they be the substance of life. I do not minimize how hard some of these events can be. When the lesson you are to learn is very important, trials can extend over a long period of time, but they should not be allowed to become the confining focus of everything you do. Your life can and should be wondrously rewarding. It is your understanding and application of the laws of God that will give your life glorious purpose as you ascend and conquer the difficulties of life. That perspective keeps challenges confined to their proper place—stepping-stones to further growth and attainment.

I understand all that in theory (although even in theory it's pretty amazing…I don't think most people in the world know or believe this!)—but I wonder how much more peace I could find if I could really believe this, live like I believe it: believe that the hard things I'm going through, or that my kids are going through, are really not the "substance of life." And that they're purposeful. That they're stepping stones to good things. Such a beautiful perspective! Then I love this:

The Lord is intent on your personal growth and development. Your progress is accelerated when you willingly allow Him to lead you through every growth experience you encounter, whether you welcome the experience or not. Trust in the Lord.

I like the distinction Elder Scott makes there that we don't have to "welcome the experience" to benefit from it, and even to see benefit from it. I like the idea of praying, "Okay, I never wanted this, but lead me through it! I want to grow." I do want to grow, after all. And I do want to increase my trust in the Lord. So with the perspective from the first quote (the substance of life is goodness and happiness!) and the determination from the second, it seems like I should be able to move forward through trials without so much fear!

Other posts in this series:

The Gentle Light of an Easter Dawn—by Nathaniel

Sunday Will Come—by Rozy

Doctrine, Invitation, and Promise—by Jan

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Kirtland, Lake Erie, and the Fire Station house

The next stop on our sadly-out-of-order church history trip was Kirtland! I was excited to see Kirtland because of the historical sites which our church had just this very year acquired! (There were some in Nauvoo, but the main one I knew about was the Kirtland Temple!) I had never been there before so I don't know what really changed with the change of ownership. I've heard from most people that the Community of Christ did a wonderful job taking care of the sites and giving informative tours. So maybe it made not much difference. But it did seem a happy thing to me, to visit these places and know they are "ours" again and we can have missionaries there!

It was a long drive from Nauvoo to Kirtland. Surprisingly long. We left early in the morning again, Sam drove us all day, and we arrived at dinnertime. But this rental house was a nice place to arrive to because it was an old Fire Station! I was so pleased to find it because I knew how much Ziggy and Gus would like it. The owner is a retired fire fighter and he had restored it and decorated it so lovingly!

The beds were all in one room, where the firemen slept too I assume—just a sort of big bunk room. That was fun and different!

I loved this little call center or dispatch area set up in the kitchen, with maps and directories and an old-fashioned phone. And even my name written on the white board under "Officer in Charge."

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As if our faith were already deep

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 2006 Conference.

A couple sentences in Elder David S. Baxter's talk this week caught my attention:

Faith is then nurtured as we allow ourselves to believe. Like all other virtues, faith is strengthened as we practice it, as we live and act as if our faith were already deep.

Something about "live and act as if our faith were already deep" appeals to me. It just seems like something that wouldn't be too hard to implement. It is a constant battle to fight off the voices saying, "This isn't real revelation; God wouldn't really speak to you; you aren't doing enough of your part to be worthy of His guidance." I am too intimately acquainted with my own faults and blindnesses not to, as a rational person, admit the possibility that they are blinding me about spiritual things too. But I think I could say, "Well, what would I think here if I were a woman of deep faith? How would a woman of deep faith respond to a prompting like this? What would a woman of deep faith assume in this situation?" 

I have already seen to some extent how saying, "I'll write this experience down and consider it as a prompting even if I'm not sure" has increased the frequency of my communication with God. This seems like an enlargement of that principle—deliberately letting deep faith color more of my actions, attitudes, and convictions even when my first reactions aren't as faithful as I'd like them to be!

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Not to be seen of others

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Young Women's Session of the April 2006 Conference.

I miss having age- and gender-specific General Conference sessions! Not that we can't all benefit from all the talks, of course. I love re-reading the ones from Priesthood Sessions as well as Women's Sessions. But sometimes there is specific counsel that seem like it has more power being given to a specific group of people. Like in this session. I liked all these talks for their applicability to me, but I especially thought, "I wish my girls could hear this said to them." Now who will tell them? Me, I guess.

Sister Tanner's topic was how each of us can share Christ's light in small ways. Specifically, she focuses on how women and girls can have such an influence on their homes and families. Now, I know, of course so can men and boys! But hearing it said like "this is one of your divine gifts, a woman's special gift" makes it seem so personal. I feel like without this vision, I would have been so much less happy as a mother! Because this is really true:

In these preparatory years, you young women spend much of your time in schools or jobs where you receive accolades, honors, awards, ribbons, or trophies. When you move from that stage to young motherhood, there is a dramatic drop-off in outside commendation. Yet in no other capacity is there more opportunity to serve selflessly as Christ would do by taking care of hundreds of daily physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. You will bring the light of the gospel into your homes—not to be seen of others, but to build others—men and women of strength and light.

It really is such a strange transition when you move from single life into motherhood (and even married life in general). It's wonderful. But it's disorienting when you realize how much of your days and your years are going to go unnoticed and even looked-down-upon by the world in general. It is so much easier to be happy in that life if you have practiced living those principles as a young woman! Sister Tanner says,

You young women are preparing now to strengthen your future homes and families by bringing the light of the gospel into your current homes and families. Small, seemingly insignificant things you do can make a big difference.…You can [do this by] tending a baby brother, eating lunch with a sister in the school cafeteria, doing household tasks, resisting the urge to quarrel, rejoicing in each other’s successes, sharing a treat, giving care when someone is sick, placing on a pillow at night a thank-you note to a parent, forgiving an offense, bearing our testimonies.…

As you share your light, others will find greater light too. Is there anyone who needs your light as much as your families?

It's so true. My daughters make such a difference in our home by being helpful, cheerful, obedient, and kind. When they are grumpy or impatient, all of us feel the difference. Again, that is true with every member of a family, but I think young women need to hear that they, specifically, can add so much goodness to the spirit of a home. They, as young women, can learn unselfish service and Christlike care for others, so that they're prepared to live those things in their own homes and teach them to their own daughters!

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Nauvoo the Beautiful

We've never had the day of leaving on a trip go so smoothly. We'd packed the kids' suitcases a few days early, Sam had loaded the car Monday morning, I had finished cooking and portioning out food for the cooler and everything was waiting in one spot in the fridge. The kids were sleeping in their clothes with instructions on what to grab when they woke up (shoes and one stuffed animal) and the house had been cleaned, every inch of it, in the four weeks before. That passive voice doesn't quite convey whom had done the cleaning and at what cost, but never mind—it was done. 

Sebastian had said his goodbyes before he left for work at midnight, waking up Sam and each sleepy sibling for a hug, with double hugs for me after I couldn't hold back the tears. He'd been out biking a few hours earlier, and a close encounter with a drunk (we assume) driver had left him, and me, shaken—the car bumped up over the grass and the curb, hitting a tree and barreling straight for Seb until he leaped off his bike and ran. It felt like an inauspicious note on which to say goodbye, but we cheered each other up by talking about how much fun we'd both have, and how we'd FaceTime soon, and then he drove away while I watched and waved from the dark porch. I went to bed and slept fretfully in the way you do when you know you have to wake up early, dreaming about car accidents and missed plane flights.

We were awake and loaded in the car, lists triple-checked and fridge emptied, by 5:15. Said a prayer and our quiet goodbyes to the house. And we were off.

Daisy had made magnets of all the younger kids' favorite toys and stuffed animals to go in the Trip Bags, and once we finally ended our enforced early morning "quiet time," Clementine was happily playing with hers. When she started whimpering and whining a little while later, we put it down to excitement and sleep-deprivation. 

Until, of course, even before breakfast, she threw up. We almost got a bag under her in time (we had prudently laid in a supply of them) and were able to expertly clean up the mess at the next gas station. We speculated on the cause of her upset stomach (excitement, drinking too much water, car sickness) and reassured each other that it couldn't be anything too bad because we all felt fit as fiddles! It often happens, we said knowingly, that small children get sick more than adults do. Their immune systems are less robust. And remember, she had thrown up on the way to Texas too, and it was only the once. Nothing more.

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The Lord holds it in his own hands

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 2006 Conference.

I remember this talk well from when it was given. "Behold the city of Babylon!" We quote it sometimes when driving by Las Vegas. :) The central problem of the talk—how do we remain separate from Babylon and even build Zion in the midst of it?—has only gotten more difficult since then. And I must say, I wish he had given some foolproof tips for how to do it! I often think about this and despair:

We should not allow ourselves to be engulfed by the culture which surrounds us. We seldom realize the extent to which we are a product of the culture of our place and time.

What an insidious thing is this culture amidst which we live. It permeates our environment, and we think we are being reasonable and logical when, all too often, we have been molded by the ethos, what the Germans call the zeitgeist, or the culture of our place and time.…People in every culture move within a cocoon of self-satisfied self-deception, fully convinced that the way they see things is the way things really are.

Our culture tends to determine what foods we like, how we dress, what constitutes polite behavior, what sports we should follow, what our taste in music should be, the importance of education, and our attitudes toward honesty. It also influences men as to the importance of recreation or religion, influences women about the priority of career or childbearing, and has a powerful effect on how we approach procreation and moral issues. All too often, we are like puppets on a string, as our culture determines what is “cool.”

It's so true. I know I am not unaffected by it myself, even, but it's for my children that I fear the most. As much as we've tried to provide glimpses of "Zion" in our home, as much as we've tried to weaken the influence of "Babylon" in their lives—I'm afraid it won't be enough! I'm afraid it can't be enough!

But Elder Stone says it's possible: 

We can live as a Zion people, if we wish to. Will it be hard? Of course it will, for the waves of Babylonian culture crash incessantly against our shores. Will it take courage? Of course it will.…

Wherever we are, whatever city we may live in, we can build our own Zion by the principles of the celestial kingdom and ever seek to become the pure in heart. Zion is the beautiful, and the Lord holds it in His own hands. Our homes can be places which are a refuge and protection, as Zion is.

And I guess the key part of that is the Lord holding us in his own hands! Our little family theme for this last year has been "A place of refuge," based in part on this quote, and I've been trying to trust the Lord to make it possible for us! I pray every day that he will hold my home and my family and my children "in His own hands." Even in our own small family, we seem so far from Zion that I sometimes despair of finding it. But if I think of it as Jesus Christ being able to overcome Babylon and create Zion—well, of course He can do it! And He has promised to help us do it. That ought to be assurance enough for anybody! I can ask for and count on His help with total confidence.

Other posts in this series:

Zion in the Midst of Babylon—by Rozy

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