Sacred Moments Fade

Even the most vivid sacred moments

Fade like old jeans with holes in the knees 

Where you’ve knelt to pray

And threadbare on the place where you sit.

Sit as in doing nothing?

Or sit as in dreaming, planning, pondering,

Tapping into the Creative Now with God.

His Spirit begins to enlighten my mind

And His truth distils upon my soul.

That truth is light, a light that changes darkness

Into everlasting, eternal light and life.

That same light that is in all things,

Every cell of our body, 

All the particles of this magnificent earth,

It’s rocks and minerals, plants and animals,

Air and water,

All are living things because of that light,

God’s love, His power, His Priesthood

Fills the immensity of Space and so

Communication with Him is Instantaneous.

We are One:  At-One-Ment

Traditions - Going to See Santa

Mom Would Sew New Christmas Outfits

Big Day arrives: My Sister and I go See Santa

Photo taken on Nov 28, 1944 at the Pasadena, California Bullocks Department Store.

Notice the great beard on Santa. I'm in the middle, and my sister 2 years younger looks on in amazement. Our coats were pink and blue, trimmed around the collar with little brown ermine tails. Shhh, I won't tell the animal activists, but I just found two in my sewing accessories. 

Listen for his sleigh bells next Saturday, especially if you've been good little boys and girls!

Finding the ONE

Fishers and Hunters of Men

I am reading a chapter a day in Luke during the days leading up to Christmas. Thus the 15th Chapter is today! Luke asks, “What man having a hundred sheep, if he lose 1 of them, doth not leave the 99 and goes into the wilderness after that 1 until he finds it?” We all envision The Good Shepherd with that sheep as a lamb probably because he carries it on his shoulders. It very well could have been an older sheep, even one that has been hurt.

I've had this print since 1978 of an Eskimo who has been both fishing and hunting. It symbolizes both a culture that is not my own, but also the dual nature of fishing and hunting. It's more complex than you'd first think. Just ask any Eskimo. He will have to do a lot of hunting to find one seal or walrus. The fishing part is cut a hole in the ice and have patience. So how does this relate to Luke.

How do Luke 15 and Isaiah 41 relate to Lost Sheep?

Since my study of Isaiah 41:18-19 where the Holy One of Israel (v 14) makes a “pool of water” in the wilderness!  I have considered the wilderness to be not only the gentile world like the Eskimo above, but also the cyberspace of the Internet. Wow, is that a leap or what? Not so much… since I spend hours every day on FamilySearch.org, Ancestry, and MyHeritage researching my ancestors. Where… on my laptop, in my living room on the internet.

How Does My Mind’s Eye See That World?

This image of a binary world is how I see the world, blue and filled with Living water, or in other words Jesus Christ and his teachings of the gospel that will flow across the globe via missionary work, as well as on the other side of the veil, where it is preached to those who sit in spirit prison awaiting their release.

In Isaiah 41:19 the Lord plants the cedar, acacia, myrtle and olive trees in the wilderness. Then He goes on to set in the desert, the fir, pine and box trees TOGETHER. And God did this so that ALL would see and know that HE had done this.

All the different trees in this verse represent to me the wide variety of FAMILY TREES from the various countries in the world. On MyHeritage they are even now translating their records into 6 or 7 different languages to facilitate researchers understanding names, places, etc. The Book of Mormon is available in dozens of languages now so that missionaries, our “Fishers and Hunters” of men can find people. We have a young man from our ward serving in Cambodia and a returned missionary sister who served in the Ukraine.

But, about this Cyberspace idea…

This image reminds me of a waterfall or streams. isn't that what do via the net and call it streaming?

The Lord says He “will make a NEW sharp threshing instrument having teeth.”  (see Isa 41: 14) Perhaps reading this as our digital technology or COMPUTER that uses BYTES as basic units, will help you to see what I see.

In verse 17 the poor and needy seek water. The God of Israel won’t forsake or forget a single one of them. He will go searching for the ONE! (v 19) tells us He will do a new thing, even “make a way in the wilderness and rivers (of living water) in the desert.

Desert means something to me! He entreats us all, “Ye men of Israel, my servants,” to go out into the world and use the internet to find the ONE.

Now back to Luke 15:6 when the young son, comes back home, his father invites friends and neighbors to celebrate his homecoming. How many of you have gone to the airport when “your young missionary son” returns home? or attended their homecoming talk in sacrament meeting. Think how God and our ancestors will also rejoice at our “finding” our lost ancestors and performing for them a work they cannot do for themselves?

“Likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth” more than the 99 just persons needing no repentance. (Luke 15:7)

We Have Become the Fishers and Hunters of Men!

Jeremiah 16:16 says “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.”

First the Lord sends fishers who gather men into the gospel net by our missionaries. Then he asks those they find to become hunters of men, their ancestors. Now that takes the Internet, in our modern world. When Jeremiah talks about out of the holes of the rocks he is referring to the graves, or tombs, like where Jesus’ body was laid. Now, when we bury someone, the rock is over their grave. We use FindaGrave and Billion Graves to search or to hunt them.

We find them one by one! Whether we fish with the Net, the living or the dead by the  Internet, or from the mountains and hills of records threshed as chaff by our computers. 

Christmas Window Painting

I was the Director for a small Art Museum in Downey California in 1970's

     I started painting holiday windows my Senior year in High School. Continuing in Jr. College I began taking photographs of every example of window painting that I saw. during the ensuing years, I earned sufficient money between Thanksgiving and Christmas to pay for my Spring Semester college expenses!

     When I was the director of the Downey Museum of Art 1969-1976, I held a workshop on this holiday activity and folk art form and included it in an exhibit of holiday art expressions (i.e., cards, wreaths, tree decorating, etc.) Better Homes and Gardens featured photos of me and how to "do it" in their Christmas Ideas Issue in 1976.

     Not only was the exercise of going up and down a ladder keeping me fit and burning off holiday calories, but many of my repeat clients had stores/businesses all over. One actually flew me to Salt Lake to paint the windows of his two car dealerships!

     This is mostly popular in warmer, non-rainy climates and I always wondered where the tradition began, that is until I moved to Guadalajara, Mexico and found windows there galore. I looked back over my earlier photos, and guess what? Almost all the names of the designers (yes, they'd sign their name and phone number on the lower right of a window) were Hispanic surnames!!!!

Christ and His Teachings are Living Water

Jesus Christ is Living Water

"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." --John 7:37

Nick Came to repair the junction box, or cistern if you will, outside my apartment. It

had been leaking for some time, cracked, and causing a lot of mud. Here, he had dug around it, was covered in dirt and still smiling. It took hours. I thanked him for his good work and asked permission to take his picture.

Elder Bruce McConkie defined living water as "the words of eternal life, the message of salvation, the truths about God and His Kingdom; it is the doctrines of the gospel. Where there are prophets of God, there will be found rivers of living water, wells filled with eternal truths, springs bubbling forth their life-giving drafts that save from spiritual death"

Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, vol.3 (1965-73 Bookcraft, Salt Lake City) 1:151-52

We have living prophets on earth today and may drink deeply of the waters that stream from their words during conference talks, BYU devotionals, temple dedications, church publications and devotionals or firesides.

We can become cisterns for this living water. As we partake of the sacramental bread we remember His body and commit to keeping His commandments and as we drink of the water, to remember His blood. This is done with the promise to always remember Him. Our body becomes that vessel to be filled with the gospel of Jesus Christ and doing His will. 

Beginning 24 days of Christmas Countdown

My Spiritual Eyeglasses Moment

An Epiphany 

There was that moment in time

When I knew Him, perfectly.

My mind did not analyze and logic never entered the equation,

Yet there was an equal sign, a balance, a solution.

The universe as I knew it changed perceptibly at that moment.

It was a capitalized and singularly unique moment.

Quietly talking in prayer and sharing hearts,

He whispered in my ear.

His voice walked into my soul and touched a switch.

The light changed; it became crystal clear.

It was the kind of clearness that your reading glasses give

  after a good wipe with a soft cloth and a quiet huff.

Then you put them on after struggling to see, then remember,

  "Oh, yes, ...my glasses."

It was that kind of remembering, that clear moment,

  that looked into eternity.

I knew who I was, that I was loved and that He

  would never give up on me.

His strength empowered me to become His disciple.

I will always remember Him.

I knew Him fully in that moment, forever.

----Beverly E. Field 2022

Reflections on Blogging and Journaling

Blogging and Journaling

public and private

REMEMBERING: A Sacred priesthood responsibility

Wilford Woodruff began keeping a day book or journal shortly after his conversion in 1833 continuing until his death in 1898, filling thirty-one such day books and journals. For Elder Woodruff the writing of a diary was inherent in ordination to the priesthood. As an avid student of the past, he recognized that the story of God's dealings with mankind could not be written without the records of eyewitnesses. Now all of his work is digitized and being studied in "The Wilford Woodruff Papers" project. Much of what we know from exact wording to events in the first decades of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is found in Woodruff's journals.

I have about 20 journals so far; 
I'm not a Woodruff, but I am obedient

President Henry B. Eyring (Oct 2007 General Conference) spoke about personally keeping a written record even if it falls short of being a full-fledged journal--creating the opportunity for remembering the specific manifestations of the Lord's hand in our lives-- He would ponder the occurrences of the day and ask himself, "Have I seen the hand of the God reaching out to touch us or our children or family today?" He recalled something special began to happen. As he remembered the day he saw evidence of God's work that he'd been too busy to recognize.

"Trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."

Bishop Frank D. Gibson, McCullough Hills Ward, Henderson, Nevada emphasized a windfall of blessings that come from keeping a journal. "Everyone should be a student of their own life and your journal is your workbook. You write it as you go along, page by page." He said, "If you're going to make progress in any aspect of life, you have to keep track of that progress and you have to keep track of it somewhere!" "I think," he continued, "that a journal as a workbook is a way to hold yourself accountable without having to talk it over with somebody else: you can talk it over with your journal" privately.      --Church News Week ending January 2, 2010

Whether it's a loose-leaf binder, index cards, 

or a note in a cell phone app, stay flexible. 

Do what works for you!

JUST REMEMBER TO REMEMBER

Posted in remembrance of the 

life of my inspiring friend Cecelia Welch

who passed away Nov. 17, 2022. 

Cecelia was the person who encouraged me to write a blog to publicly share what we'd in discussed in private, about patriarchal blessings, journal keeping, family history research and personal stories. She insisted that one person could quietly influence many, many others, even worldwide, as they search for truths, and as the Holy Ghost testifies.

Blogging is Public

Journaling is Private

 

 My mother on her scooter she rode when I was born. 

Now, I will be able to see me and my family when I was 6 in the 1950 US Census that will be available after Ancestry and FamilySearch volunteers index it. Ancestry has developed amazing technology that will scan each page and with truly unique, revolutionary software read the handwriting of the census takers. 

This will then be made available to volunteers around the world to look up, then correct any errors for any given enumeration district. I happen to know exactly where I lived in Los Angeles County, so it will be a cinch for me to find ME

These two women are amazing! While going to RootsTech's various Virtual Vendor Websites, I found Family Locket Genealogists  and their tips on "How to Research Like a Pro," another on DNA and another on how to organize your files and photos. Cool. You can watch their short video on YouTube at the link above.

 Did I say I'm developing a Research Plan by watching RootsTech 2022?

Well, here was my FIRST PLAN. My mother worked at Lockheed in Burbank, CA as a draftsman during WWII. This was my birth announcement. 

Now I've discovered Ancestral Quest's free version of software that interfaces with my FamilySearch family tree like PAF used to. I've used Legacy and RootsMagic, but they don't think like I do. So I've uninstalled them and have nothing now on my hard drive. Hmmmm maybe it's time to rethink having my own private version/software on my computer.

This Girl Detective is on the Hunt!!!! I am searching for my ancestors who are end of line mysteries, by watching RootsTech 2022 a Virtual Event with lots of Virtual Vendors and over hundreds of sessions. 

Also, I've just signed up to discover where my parents lived in Pasadena, California by volunteering to index the 1950 US Census that will be released on April 1, 2022.