Lifting Field Work From Drudgery to Nature Joy: Prose

Backstory: We take care of (earth partnership, earth stewardship) six acres of land, including woods, wildflowers, fields, and gardens, at Spirit Tree Farms in Northwest Georgia.

The other day I was out working in the field, planting chard, lettuce, and raking in wildflower seeds into a large area we’d burned a few days before. Sweating, I looked up at the sky and caught myself resenting the work I HAD to do. I noticed that I was feeling down in my soul.

Just then, several birds flew overhead. As they called out in a Springtime serenade, I felt my heart lift, and my soul rejoice. I continued what I was doing, but it was no longer with sadness or resentment, but with a glad and joyful heart.

Why is it that we can do the exact same thing, especially working out on the land, and it can either be a task or chore of druudgery, or something we do with joy and gladness? What is it that leaves us feeling uplifted and strengthened? What is it that makes the change?

As I thought about it, out in the field, I realized that the mere act of THINKING about what I was doing, and changing my mind about how I felt about my field work, helped me feel better about the tasks I was doing out in Nature.

Even more importantly, as I pondered about it, I had to ask myself: “Why am I doing this?” When I decided that I was doing what Heavenly Father — often — has asked me to do (partner with the land, heal the Earth), they my soul was uplifted. In fact, it was the birds flying overhead that reminded me that I was in partnership with them, and with all of Natiure. And whjen you feel like you’re part of something bigger and more significant, that you’re helping and serving the Earth and everything on it, that you’re working to heal the Land, then it is easier to feel joy in what you are doing.

Of course, that means you do have to ASK Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ — the Creator — WHAT they want you to do. What part are you to play in Earth partnership? They are the great biologists, the perfect gardeners. In The Book of Mormon, the prophet Amulek said: “Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.” (Alma 34:24). But I think it’s even more than your crops prospering. It’s YOU prospering in the crops of your fields, learning, growing with them, connecting. Even if what the Creator tells you to do doesn’t work out the way you think it should, you will learn from it and grow and change.

Most of all, you’ll feel connected with the Earth. You’ll feel part of a greater whole. And that connection lets you #FindNatureJoy in ways that will keep you doing what you need to do, what you should be doing, in ways that will support you and bring you joy.

Finding Nature Joy

As the birds soared and circled and called out to me as I begrugingly worked in the field that Spring day, I felt connected to them, and to what I was husbanding, planting, and tending in the field. I felt connected to the sun, the clouds, the breeze, the dirt. Smiling, I turned my face upward and waved at the birds. Then, weeping, I waved at them, thanked them out loud “THANK YOU!” for their song and their visit, and plunged my hands deep into the ground.

ANd felt connected to the Creator, to the Earth, to Nature, to all of Creation. Because I was a part of it.

Cold Medicine Free Verse

As he wearily made his way
to his king size empty bed
alone
it was a song better left unsaid,
unsung.

He heavily breathing
from sinus infection
and midwinter cold
and allergies
and dust,
from cleaning up messes
that were not his own,
yet were,
taking the green pill,
medicine that would cure
his cough
or at least let him sleep,
(although he must be woken up later to take the medicine that would keep his heart beating.)

And he just watched a movie
about lunch
that reminded him of a film
about dinner,
and why has never anyone made one
about breakfast,
the most important meal of the day,
because after breakfast no one can write.

Don’t wait up.
And the movies and the poems that spawn them,
he wonders if he could write such,
that perhaps some obscure
Art House actor and actress could make them come to life
and seem more real
and less pretentious than they are.

Then, in the midst of his rambling,
the door opens
and she who was once
the author and finisher
of his life and salvation
interrupts
and he doesn’t know if it’s about
old men’s diapers
or the ice cream mess
he had to clean up from the floor
because she,
unaware,
left it there.
Will the House burn down someday?
Is he the only one who can see?

And the art house films
remind him of his daughter,
cosmopolitan
(though not in a cosmo girl type of way,)
but living in the Queen City
or the Big Apple,
and now he is out
in rural deplorable land
and he wonders if his lack of connection
to the arts,
to music,
and to Passion
is robbing him?
Or is it feeding his soul
with something much deeper,
much more mature,
something that Nature can bring
only to those who are immersed
deep
within her.

He shuts his eyes
and picks his toenails
and slowly moves
back
and
forth,
wondering if he will fall
while reaching for
the box of Kleenex
rescued from the back
of a non-functioning SUV,
at first covered with mouse feces,
but then underneath functional enough
to capture
the dregs of his draining brain
as he pushes
and pushes
and pushes
so hard that
his ears pop.

I Didn’t Dare To Steal Your Dreams

You blame me,
us,
them,
for stealing your dreams.

“How Dare You!”
you shout,
face twisted, contorted
into emotion.

Sadly, no one told you,
no one guided you,
to know,
no one can steal your dreams.

Just you,
and only you,
can let your dreams,
hopes,
desires,
visions,
slip away.

You can blame others
all you want,
as loud as you want,
but the truth is this:
You’ve lost your dreams?
That’s on you.

Micro-Garbage or Micro-Trash Urban Dictionary

Thanks to my daughter’s use of “micro-garbage”, I made a submission to Urban Dictionary. Even if they don’t approve it, here’s the definition!

Micro-garbage, micro-trash in urban dictionary

Micro-garbage, aka micro-trash: Small pieces of plastic and other non-biodegradable litter and garbage that annoyingly show up even in forests, beaches, parks, and gardens. Examples include cig butts; bottle tops; plastic tape from cardboard boxes; gum wrappers; broken glass; fast food anything (wrappers, cups, lids, straws, styrofoam containers, condiment packages). Take a deep look at any nature setting and see how many small pieces of garbage litter the ground and plants. (Then, pick it up!)

Examples of micro-garbage in a sentence:

The wildflower patch was so full of micro-garbage that we couldn’t enjoy the beauty until we’d picked up the junk.

My walk on the park trail was disturbed by the micro-trash littering the bushes.

By the end of our walk in the woods, our pockets and backpacks were stuff with micro-garbage.

She laughed at my nature-loving attitude, saying: “Your yard is full of micro-garbage!”

Doubt Your Doubters, Negate Your Nay-Sayers: IMprov Prose

Have you ever had the experience of being certain you are doing what God inspired you to do and someone came up and told you that you should be doing something else with your life? How did it make you feel? Did it confuse you? Did it make you frustrated and angry? Did you feel contention? Or that you were being derailed? Did you question yourself? Did you question your own inspiration? Did you doubt?

This happened to me recently, and I have to admit that it was one of the most emotionally painful experiences of my life! I’m certain this person had good intentions, but it hurt. What they did was tell me about something that concerned them, then insisted that Marnie and I spread the word about the issue they were concerned about: Lift up a voice of warning! Use your social media and communication skills and experience to educate and warn others about this awful danger!

Unfortunately for them, as soon as they brought up the subject, I felt like throwing up. The issue was not new to me, and I’d already resolved how I’d deal with it. But their pushy insistence that I pay attention to this vital issue and DO SOMETHING NOW! raised contention in my heart. It didn’t feel good, and it was not something I wanted to be involved with at all.

Unfortunately for me, it made me doubt what I am about.

Process Steps to Recognize and Avoid Doubt and Contention

Through this negative experience, I learned several truths about dealing with doubt and contention that I think can be good guideposts for all of us.

Recognize that, as soon as you feel inspired to do something, forces will gather to get you to doubt and NOT to do something. It could be a direct command from a spouse, parent, family member, leader, friend: “Don’t do that. You’re waisting your time.” It could be a suggestion: “That’s good, but you could do _____ instead.” Or people will come up with any number of reasons why you can’t or shouldn’t do something. Anticipate the naysayers, and you’ll be prepared to overcome them.
If you are certain you are on the path that Heavenly Father has inspired you to be on, know what that path is. Marnie and I have recently come up with a fairly strong mission statement about what we’re supposed to be doing. After floating around for awhile, we realized what we are to do deals with helping others find peace and joy in nature, hear God’s messages in nature, and then express that peace and joy creatively. You can read more about Spirit Tree Farms mission statement here. Because of that knowledge, I knew as soon as this person started telling me what I should do, (because it was a contentious political subject that I didn’t want to be involved in,) that was not the right thing for me to do.
The topics we’re passionate about do not have to be an either / or situation. It’s not a “better than” situation. Our passions — our purposes — are just different. This person is committed and concerned about this particular political topic. In fact, it might be a great topic for Marnie’s Front Porch Sense blog, which deals with politics. Other people might be concerned about the food bank, or about native plants and wildflowers, or about unemployment and making sure everybody has jobs, or about more effective ways to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His message, or about exercise and good health, or about any number of other things.
Isn’t it great that we live in a world that has so many options and so many important topics we can be involved in? My mistake in answering this person’s thoughts was to negate and demean what they had said by saying things like: “I won’t make any difference” or “I don’t want to waste my time with that.” That immediately put them on the defensive, feeling that I thought that their passion was not important.
Feel how a topic makes you feel. If somebody tells you to do something, pause, and feel how it makes you feel in your soul. When this person brought up this topic and told me I needed to do something about it, I felt and knew immediately that, because of the contention, anger, and nauseous feeling that I had, that it was not a topic I needed to be involved in. It was okay to be aware of it, but I didn’t need to spend my efforts doing what this person wanted me to do.
Be resolved in what you want to do and what you are inspired to do, and express that up front. It wasn’t until very deep in the conversation that I realized how strong my resolve was to do what I needed to do (see #2 above). This person actually did me a favor because, in sparking that deep realization, I discovered that I had not been as passionate and as energetic in doing what I was inspired to do as I needed to be.
Don’t argue about it. At the start of our discussion, I immediately came up with several reasons why I shouldn’t or couldn’t or wouldn’t do what this person had asked me to do or had suggested that I do. The reasons were logical and well thought out. But, later on, because they are a skilled arguer, they threw those same reasons back in my face. When I said that I was going to do something else, they derisively said: “Oh, like go plant blueberries?” That hurt my feelings. It made me angry and it made me distrust them. In fact right now I’m working through not even wanting to be around this person anymore, and not trusting their friendship at all. Don’t give people the opportunity to turn your words against you.
In the same vein, recognize how you have been inspired by Heavenly Father to do certain things, and just say that. It wasn’t until well into the argument and conversation that I finally got to the point of saying “Obviously, you feel inspired to do this thing. I feel inspired by Heavenly Father to do what we are doing at Spirit Tree Farms. It’s not better than or worse than, it’s just different.” And once I said that, the arguement and contention — and my own doubt and confusion –dissolved.
I once wrote an on-line dating article about how it’s okay to say no. The principles in that “Just Say No!” article are valid here. When we give reasons for not doing something or for doing something, we give other people the opening to argue and tell us that we’re wrong. It’s like a salesperson overcoming objections. But when we say “I don’t feel that this is what I’m inspired to do right now. I feel inspired to do this other thing!” then nobody can argue against our feelings. The argument ends.

Increasing My Resolve, Doubting My Doubts

Despite the fact that I’m still a little angry and hurt about our discussion, I’m also grateful that it happened. The arguement, resolution, doubt, and pondering about the topic and my response helped me realize how strongly I feel about what our mission is:

“We teach Nature observation so people can hear and feel and experience God’s love and messages in Nature. As they do, we show them, by example, how to let Nature inspire their own unique creativity.” Mission Statement: What We Do At Spirit Tree Farms

I also feel strongly about where that inspiration comes from, and so it was like a renewal of my testimony about my purpose. I don’t doubt. And the arguement actually is motivating me to do more. Because as I was sitting in my rocking chair, getting ready to watch a sports event on TV, I realized, through this discussion, that, although I was passionate about this topic, I hadn’t done a lot recently to move forward with what Heavenly Father had asked me and inspired me to do. For all the anger and contention this discussion and criticism brought into my house and my soul, it ended up being a positive, because it motivated me to work harder at what I know I should be doing.

And that’s a good thing.

And now I’m even more motivated to go plant blueberries and connect with the Earth!

Reconnecting with Earth: Shoeless in grass and white crownbeards

Don’t Doubt Your Purpose In Nature

Sitting In Nature, Deep: Verbal Riff

While sitting out in Creation Girl and my work-in-progress grape arbor on the banks of the West Chickamauga Creek at Spirit Tree Farms, I had some thoughts about sitting in nature. Rather than wait until I was at my computer, I picked up my phone and did a voice recognition verbal riff. A new prose-writing method for me, but one I could get used to! It’s quick and effective, and I hope captures the message well.

Sitting in nature requires putting your phone away, or maybe not even bringing it. It means laying your tools down, including pulling your snippers out of your pocket and throwing them onto the ground, to better be prepared for the messages Nature is going to send you.

Sitting in Nature Means Not Seeing So You Can Experience

Sitting in Nature means looking around and, instead of seeing privet that needs to be pulled, or wild grapevines that need to be trellised, or invasive grasses that need to be burned, or ironweed seeds that need to be gathered, just sitting. Listening. Feeling. Sensing.

Taking this deliberate time, making this purposeful effort of rest and nature observation and connection means hearing and feeling the negative ions of the distant creek running over the rocks placed there as a fishing weir by pre-contact native residents of this land. Sure, these Ancient Ones worked, but they also stopped, looked, listened, felt, learned, and taught.

Like us, they watched the late season butterflies flit among the few goldenrod and burn weed and ironweed blooms still available. They no doubt marveled at the bright blood-red stalks of pokeweed, nearly spent, holding on to the last vestiges of purple berries, to provide fruit throughout the winter swaying with the late autumn breeze.

These people of the land saw that same breeze give dead and dying ironweed stalks a shake, spreading their seeds like salt from a shaker. They felt the late Autumn breeze and wondered at its warmth and smiled at its gentle caress. They looked at the skyline of multi-hued deciduous trees and probably put that sight in their memory banks for later on, when they would make blankets and paint paintings showing those same Earth tone colors.

Developing Symbiotic Relationships With Nature And Families

Undoubtedly, these nature observation experts listened to the squirrels chattering, gathering and husking hickory nuts and black walnuts, preparing for the winter. In the Indigenous tribal culture, the older wise ones probably showed the younger ones which plants to gather. Then, the younger ones, full of life and energy and supple bodies able to bend and lift, used the old ones wisdom and knowledge to quickly harvest what the tribe needed. The old ones sharing that knowledge freely, and accepted the youth’s gift of energy and work, a symbiotic relationship in a group of humans mirroring the symbiotic relationships found throughout nature.

Throughout the entire Nature observation and gathering process, either the elderly or the young — or perhaps both — felt the presence of the Creator, the Great Spirit. Together, they shared the joy found in sitting with and being enveloped by Nature. Maybe the sun caressed their shoulders as they munched on a foraged turkey tail or a goldenrod blossom. Or when they discovered and shared and relished a late-fruiting passion flower, they felt joy, and they gave thanks. And when they went to work again after sitting, resting, and feeling, that Nature joy stayed with them, so work was no longer work and drudgery, but instead a joint celebration with each other, with the plants and animals all around them, like dancers separate but in harmony, swaying and moving through creation itself.

We can learn much from the Ancient Ones. We should mirror that dance with Nature. Let’s make an effort to put down our tools and technology. Let’s take the time to find nature joy today, ourselves. Because, if we let it, if we spend time sitting in Nature, the energy we get and gather to us stays with us, lifts us, buoys us, and carries us through life.

An updated, more in-depth copy of this is on our Spirit Tree Farms blog.

Facing Insurmountable Tasks Advice — Partnering With Nature: Prose

Recently, I read a post in a Native Habitat social media group. The person asked the group what they should do about their recently-purchased three acre property that was disorganized and overrun with non-native, invasive species, some so thick as to make walking through the property nearly impossible.With some passion and frustration, they explained that they didn’t know where to start or what to do. Almost to the point of despair, they said they were worried because there were non-native vines all over the trees, not only strangling them but threatening to collapse the larger branches, as well as creating a dense shadow on the forest floor where nothing could grow. They specifically asked what poisons and herbicides to apply, and how to apply them, to control these troublesome invaders.

As you can imagine, there were many answers, ranging from the drastic to the thoughtful. Interestingly, most suggested the property owners focus on assessment and inventory.
Suggestions included:
*Get a plant app (such as PlantNet), and go through the property, identifying and labeling all the plants
*Make a calendar and a schedule, going through each section at a time to clear out invasives and control what is wantedSome were more drastic, including:
*Do a controlled undergrowth burn, protecting the big trees, and see what grows back

*Chop away everything invasive, and apply deep-acting herbicides to the roots

As I read these responses, I thought of our own experience at our six-acre Spirit Tree Farms in Catoosa County, Northwest Georgia. I realized that the original post exhibited the same fears and frustrations I’d felt when I first purchased the property:

I didn’t know what was invasive, non-native, and undesirable, compared to what was native and welcome
It was such a large task, I was overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start
I was afraid to make a mistake

Lessons Learned From Partnering With Nature

It was then I understood the lessons I’d learned from listening to and working with Nature as a partner. This was the advice I gave:

Listen to the land. Many people think we have to use our own wisdom and knowledge to “Save the Earth”. The reality is, Mother Earth knows what she needs. Nature understands, even on a small scale, the actions we as partners should take. When partnering with Nature, work with the land.
Know what you want to do — in an overarching way. The original poster wanted a property filled with native trees, bushes, wildflowers, and other plants. Others might want a giant play area for their kids and grandkids. Some might want a food production focus, to be self sustaining. Still others might want a food plot for deer, rabbits, and game birds. At Spirit Tree Farms, we want walkable areas where we can teach and model partnering with Nature, along with Nature observation and creativity. These are all valid uses of the land, but they all require different solutions.
Do something. Do anything. Yes, making an inventory, designing an overarching plan, creating a calendar, are all vital — but they will not do anything to change the land or fix the problems. A favorite quote from my youth states: “The song I came to sing remains unsung. I spent my life stringing and unstringing my instrument.”
UPDATE: As I’m editing these piece some months later, I’ll add this thought: Do research sooner rather than later. I FINALLY got my soil tested (University of Georgia County Extension program). Turns out that I’d planted the blueberry bushes and ginseng roots in completely the wrong place. (The soil pH is way off). In other words, partnering with Nature means being smart, too!

I suggested that they pick one thing to do, and start doing that for a set time each day. I suggested the land owner start with spending an hour each morning and an hour each evening (during the cooler part of the day), and focus on one task. I pointed out that, if they didn’t have that much time on some days, even 15 minutes daily would bring a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

I pointed out that, in the original post, they seemed especially concerned about the invasive vines which were strangling the native trees. I suggested they go out with a small saw or a pair of pruning loppers and spend their time cutting and killing the vines at the base of the trees. I reminded them that they didn’t need to pull the vines off the trees just yet; killing them would (a) begin to solve the problem and (b) make it easier to pull them off later on. The key was to do something, and to focus on the highest priority, or their greatest concern.

Pulling Privet Parable

In my own experience, I listened to the land and discovered that a highly-invasive non-native plant, Chinese privet, was creating a mono-culture where nothing else could grow. Not only were these plants rapidly spreading, but they shaded out the sunshine, took up all the soil nutrients and water, and their roots and leaves distributed poison which prevented the growth of native plants.By listening to the land, I became “a man on a mission”. I would go out every day and pull up or cut down privet. Some of these bushes were as large around as my thigh, and would grow back shoots and runners even after I’d cut the main trunk. But I’d learned that applying herbicides to the trunk would potentially ooze through the roots, killing desirable plants around the privet. Instead, I kept cutting off the shoots, and eventually the entire privet system would die and rot to the point that I could use my angle-handled Fiskar shovel and leverage out the rootball.

I also learned to take advantage of what Mother Earth provided. Many people won’t go out and work on the land after a hard rain. “It’s too wet, it’s too muddy, it’s too gooey” they argue. Fortunately, I lived for 25 years in the Seattle area, where if you don’t work outside when it rains, you don’t work outside.

What I discovered is that, after a hard rain, small- and medium-sized privet plants — because of their shallow root system — came out quickly and easily with a firm tug. In fact, I now relish the rain, because I learned that I can pull out about ten times more privet and other invasive species when the ground is wet than when it is dry.

I explained to the original poster that, by listening to the land, and by working on what concerned them the most, they would probably learn lessons and get unexpected benefits as well. For example, after cleaning out a space of over 100 yards x 10 feet deep of privet lining my rural driveway — a giant monoculture — by the next year, more than 27 different native trees, shrubs, wildflowers and other plants sprang up in place of the privet. These native and beneficial species were there the entire time, but the privet was crowding them out.

This was such an impactful lesson to us that my wife used it as part of a presentation on Finding Peace in Nature. You can watch her first presentation about it here. It was received so enthusiastically that she expanded the concept, creating a book, journal, and training on it. Explore that here: SpiritTreeFarms.com/Peace. It focuses on how we as humans should put aside our hubris and vanity in trying to “fix Mother Earth”, and instead listen to her as she explains to us not only what she needs, but what we need and can learn from her.

Partnering With Nature Needs Organization

This privet parable had such a deep influence in my life that now, when I go out to work on what I feel I should do on the property (yes, I pray about what I should do, what would be most beneficial to myself AND the land), I take a notebook (or my phone) along. When I get the thought to “plant / transplant something here” or “trim this /remove that from there” or even “burn this section of field”, I take notes.

I explained to the landowner that one of the most beneficial suggestions I’d received was from my wife, who is very organized. She noticed I was getting a huge list of things to do, but — other than the privet — wasn’t getting much done. She created a spreadsheet, and had me populate it with tasks, including the what, where, when and how (and, sometimes, when I need motivation, a note on “why”.) Now, when I’m inspired to do a task, I not only start working on it, but I put it into the spreadsheet, so the inspiration becomes captured and actionable.Ultimately, the lessons I’m learning from this experience at Spirit Tree Farms are:
*Listen to Nature and The Creator
*Do something / ANYTHING
*Capture
*Review
*Continue to listen
*Be inspired
*Learn

Many of these thoughts and lessons are captured on only in SpiritTreeFarms.com/Peace, but in other writings on NaturesGuy.com, CreationGirl.com, and my creative blog, CyranoWriter.com

When nature observation becomes more than forest bathing -- learning from wildflower wandering how be tap into creativity

Accepting Old People Where They Are: Revolutionary Prose

A Facebook friend posted this thought: “You don’t need to “orient” the elderly, even if they have dementia. Spend time with them where they are at … even if it’s 1959. Ask them about what they do remember.” To which I responded:
“When my grandmother was going through that phase, where she couldn’t remember things even a few minutes after they happened, I had this thought: Old people get to that phase so they can pass their knowledge and wisdom and stories from long long ago onto to the next generation. She could remember the name of her four-year-old best friend, but she couldn’t remember what she had for breakfast that morning. So I asked her about her four-year-old neighbor and her childhood and the first time she saw an airplane. I learned how to fillet a fish. I played endless hours of cribbage and listened to stories and got to ask questions and watch her face light up as she remembered things she hadn’t thought of in decades. I spent months going through the years of 1920 to 1990 with her, looking at old photo albums, making video and audio recordings. She talked about those memories and photos as if the events captured had happened yesterday. Because to her, they probably had. It was an amazing experience.
As a result my children have heard and know more “Grandma stories” than my father, her eldest son. I’m grateful I took the time to listen about yesterday, instead of trying to force her into today.”

Light And Truth: A Covid-19 Pandemic Cure? Did I #HearHim Right?

Covid-19 / the Coronavirus Pandemic is ravaging the earth. I have not been directly impacted, but friends and family members are sick from it. And I fear.

So it was with interest and hope that I watched the 190th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which I am a member.

Did I hear a cure embedded in a Conference talk Saturday evening? Or preventative medicine against the Covid-19 virus? I think I did!

An Apostle Speaks Truth … And A Pandemic Cure?

In the Saturday evening special session, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, spoke. At about the 9:30 point of his talk, which you can watch here, things got interesting.

Is The Pandemic Cure Contained In This Talk?

I re-listened to his talk this morning. I typed as fast as I could: I’ve paraphrased some, and quoted some. Listen to his talk for yourself, and take notes on what YOU hear.

Elder Oaks said: “We’ve been taught great principles of eternity.” He then encouraged us to have our eye single to receive these truths of eternity, “so our bodies may be full of light.” Elder Oaks then discussed the Savior’s sermon (in both The Bible and The Book of Mormon), where the Savior taught that “mortal bodies can be full of light, or full of darkness. ”

The Savior “used the example of our eye,” Elder Oaks said, and talked about the eye being single. “If the eye is single to truth and righteousness, to that which is good, then thy whole body shall be full of light. But if the eye seeks evil, then the body will be filled with evil. That is, if we look for evil and take that into our bodies, then our whole body will be filled with darkness.”

“Mortal bodies can be full of light, or full of darkness. Listen to messages about truths of eternity. If we are concentrating on receiving eternal light and understanding,” thy whole body shall be full of light.”

“The light or darkness in our bodies depends on how we see or receive the eternal truths we are taught..”

How I Heard This Talk About Light = Pandemic Cure

His discussion about filling my body with light caught my attention: If we desire this and have our eye single to receive truth and light, “the Savior promises that the truths of eternity shall be opened unto us.”

Is this the prevention — and the pandemic cure — for Covid-19? I’ve found that, in recent months, I’ve been extremely negative and critical. I’ve criticized people and politics and processes on Facebook, in my daily interactions. While I haven’t sought wickedness, I haven’t been positive, joyful, or (for me, at least), happy. And as I’ve acted that way, I’ve felt darker, more weary, more down and downtrodden.

What if I start looking for truth? What if I start looking — again — for goodness, for joy, for happiness? What if, instead of grumbling about having to clear out the invasive trees on my property, I rejoice in getting to go outside on beautiful, sunny days? What if, instead of complaining about the rain, I give thanks that’s, when it’s over, the ground is so soft that I can pull out weeds and non-native trees easily, instead of struggling to cut them down? What if, instead of complaining about people I think are politically negative, I’m glad we live in a country where we can have different opinions?

Yesterday I wrote a press release about a Ultra-Violet disinfecting machine, recently shipped to one of my clients, that sanitizes health care facilities with LIGHT. What if internalizing joy, happiness and truth fills my body and soul with light? And what if, if my body is filled with light, THAT is the prevention — and the cure — to this pandemic?

In the time of Moses, the Children of Israel had a plague of poisonous serpents. Moses raised up a serpent on a staff. To be healed, someone who was bitten just had to look upon the staff (which was a symbol of the Savior Jesus Christ) to be cured. The task was simple. Yet because it was so easy, so simple, many didn’t do it, and perished.

What if this simple thing, given by an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the answer to this pandemic, as well as to other woes? What if we all looked for the good, the truth, the light?

Will people still die from this and other ailments, even if they are full of light? Of course. That is the human condition. Will it save everyone? Probably not. So why try to fill our souls with light? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know my answer. I don’t like darkness or evil. I’m going to change, to do this simple thing, to look for truth, for good, for joy. I’m going to fill my body and my soul with light.

#HearHim #ChurchofJesusChrist #GeneralConference

Here is Elder Dallin H. Oaks Saturday evening Conference talk. Listen from 9:30 on for a possible pandemic cure.

Don’t Untangle The Tangled Mess: Thought-Streaming Prose

On a recent trip, my wife and I had several hours of drive time in the car. We decided it would be good to do some energy work on some friends and family. (Yes, they’d given us permission to do such work.)

For those of you who don’t know, Marnie is a SimplyHealed^TM practitioner. Using her gifts of perception and empathy, she can tap into what’s going on energy-wise in people, and then (if it’s negative energy), she can clear it. She doesn’t have to know exactly what happened. She doesn’t have to go in and do any sort of interviewing or discussion or anything like that. She can just sense that there’s an energy that’s out of alignment and out of place and can move it so it’s in alignment. (Want to try it out? Get on her calendar.)

A tangled mess of rope: either untangle it or throw it away

As she was doing the work on somebody close to us, she stopped and told me “I just had a really interesting sensation and a sort of vision. This person is standing next to other people who are close (emotionally) to this person. They all have cords running out of their solar plexus. The cords all meet in the middle. There’s this big tangled messed-up ball, almost as big as they are, a big tangled pile of rope like the ones we have in our yard. Or maybe it looks like a big tangled mess of fishing line or yarn. These people who are all tangled up — and other people — try to untangle this mess. The lines, the cords, are the stories and the past hurts and all the bad things that have happened, that bring bad feelings into these relationships.”

Don’t Fix The Tangled Mess

All the people involved know that this tangled mess exists. They try really really hard to untangle the mess, but it’s just not working. No matter how hard they try to untangle it, the mess just gets more and more tangled. (Later I said: “It sounds like that scene from the Tar Baby with Briar Rabbit, when he keeps pushing and pulling trying to get away from the tar baby, and finally the narrator says ‘The more he tried to get unstuck, the stucker up he got! Pretty soon he was so stuck-up he could scarcely move his eyeballs!'”)

Everybody is trying to fix this mess by untangling all the cords, all the lines, all the hurt and anger and frustration. Then she (my wife) said: “I had the thought and the perception that they need to just let all of those cords go. In this case the Savior came in and picked up this big mess and clipped off the cords where they connected to each of the people and took away the big mess and threw it away.”

Now they can look at this relationship, where the big mess used to be, and say, “Okay, these things aren’t in the way anymore! Let’s just move on from where we are without any of this tangled mess, without trying to figure out what happened in the past or anything like that.”

Then as she continued to work on this scenario, she realized that there were people who were also attached to these people. As these groups of people faced each other, they had their own much smaller tangles. As they were released from the cords, the Savior could throw away the messy tangles.

As she talked about this, I realized that was something that I did with my family members. Yes, there were huge horrific stories and things that happened in the past and big tangled messes. It may sound like you’re just walking away. That doesn’t mean that you have to forget about your life experiences. You need to learn from the past; you should learn from the past. But you don’t have to try to unravel that big wad of messed up cords. You just let it go.

What Can Fix The Tangled Mess?

When we look at fixing the tangled mess, we are getting the question. In my case, I turned it over to the Savior, and said “I can’t do this.” That’s what He is waiting for. When we do that, then He takes care of it. He doesn’t unravel or untangle or analyze it. He get’s rid of it. He heals us from it. And as each person gets disconnected and liberated from the mess with the other person, then they can turn and have a very simple relationship where information is going back and forth.

People can start building these beautiful relationships that are clear. Everybody stands in their own power with each other. There’s no big tangled mess. It’s as if, as they disconnect from the tangles, everybody’s relationship begins to get much more solid and much more free-flowing and the energy between people is strong. When a cord is not tangled up it can hold the weight and the pressure. But when it’s tangled then it slips and things slip and move in a way that they’re not supposed to. Christ heals those wounds that lead to the tangles.

Sometimes you can go into the mess, you can have the hard conversations, you can apologize, and you can untangle things because you need to untangle them, and because you’ve caught them early enough. But it reminds me of when I was young: I would sit there and spend literally hours trying to untangle a tangled-up fishing reel with backlash. It would be a huge mess. That’s when my Dad would say: “Just cut it and put some new line on the reel. Then we can go fishing!”

The hard thing is to let the Savior take that tangled mess and throw it away. It’s hard for us to let Him move it out of our lives so that there is no more backlash, no more tangled mess, no more past mess. But we need to let Him do that. Because as we try to untangle things, we go back and re-examine and re-examine and re-examine and re-examine. Then new hurts come up, and we tell ourselves all these stories about what they mean and what they could mean, what they possibly should mean. And the reality is maybe they don’t mean any of that. The reality is if we just throw away those tangled messes and start over from what is so, and where things are, then we can really start to move and build these strong, clean relationships.

What happens next? She also saw that it was as if a chip were inserted to each person who’d been cut away from the mess. The chip could be labeled: “This is what good relationships look like!”

Most people who have these big tangles have never had a good relationship modeled. All they may know is confusion, calamity, distrust and sadness. It’s as if the Savior puts a chip into their heads, saying: “This is what a good relationship looks like.” With those inspired models they can start developing relationships. They stand in their own power instead of saying “Oh I have to live this way because this tangled mess is the way I always saw it, so I assumed that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” But Christ comes through and says, “No, it doesn’t have to be that big tangled mess. This is how it could be for you!”

As people let go and let Him take away that big tangled mess, they can find the truth, which teaches them the correct and easier way to do things. And then they can develop meaningful relationships without having these massive tangled messes.