Sunday ruminations

September 9, 2007

Dear family,

Sunday Morning

It’s a Sunday morning at home with the trees waving in the wind, the sumac is turning into it’s stunning fall colors and Forrest’s truck is parked by the carport filled with the detritus of another busy summer at home: aluminum single-pane windows (replaced with modern, double-paned, hermetically sealed fancy-doodley soft gliders), a GE potscubber dishwasher (replaced with a stainless steel, fully magic Kitchen-Aid- a dishwasher like Skye’s -we have now reached the stage where we envy our kids stuff), plastic barrels with vegetable oil (Kyrstyn’s bio-diesel Suburban finally traded for a Honda Civic that gets 40 mpg on real-live gasoline), old tool boxes, discarded soaker hose and other usual unmentionable stuff. It is warm but it feels like Fall.

Kaaren’s Garden

Kaaren’s garden - the one she tends in the new garden boxes I built with Forrest and Bryce - is maturing and she is already clearing some space for a fall garden of peas and cooler growing things. It is a wonderful place to visit. I’ll include some photos of the garden on the Flickr site.

Festival of Faith

Today Kaaren and I are going to a Festival of Faith downtown where several organized and some fairly disorganized religions are represented. Pres. Childs of the Beaverton Stake is supportive of this effort and some of his wards have changed their meeting times to allow members to attend Buddism 101 and similar "classes" for Scientology, Baha'i, Hindu, Mormonism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity (including representatives from the Lutheran and Seventh-Day Adventist faiths). This should be interesting and helpful. I’m not sure anyone except us in our stake is aware of this.

Ward Barbecue

Yesterday we had a ward barbecue at Nielsens. It was nice to visit with those who came. Courtney’s boys played on the swings and flew kites. They are becoming pretty independent. Logan’s first soccer game was yesterday and he started kindergarten last week. The times they are a changin’.

Sun River and Crater Lake

Two weeks ago, we were at the Sun River cabin. Skye and Jared and Seville visited. Forrest and Kaarina visited via the Butterfly airplane and Bryce visited. Kaaren tried her hand at a painting and I did some writing and reading and fretting in withdrawal over my recent resignation as music director of the West Linn Community Chorus due to chronic acrimony on the Board of Directors about the direction of the chorus. It has been a huge part of my life and passion for six years and very hard to give up. But I need music in my life and I’m sure something good will fill the void.

During part of our vacation at Sun River, Kaaren and I drove up to Crater Lake - a national park we had not seen before. The photos are inadequate to convey the grandeur of the thing. The depth of the lake (almost 2000 feet deep) brings out deep hues of blue and turquoise in the water. While we were there - eating a lunch at the Lodge - a storm came through with massive amounts of hail and rain. Some photos almost capture the drama.

Rescuing Kyrstyn from Burning Man

After we returned from Sun River, I flew down to the Burning Man encampment in the desert north and east of Reno to pick up Kyrstyn. Though I expected to just wait outside the fence at the "airport" for Kyrstn, I quite unexpectely managed to get in to the "city" - Black Rock City, it’s called - and found Kyrstyn in the main pavilion where she performed with Trash Can Joe (Jason Wells and friends). She took me to her camp - called appropriately "The Dump" and I rode with her friends out to the middle of the Playa to watch the burning of the Temple.

A word or two of what I know about Burning Man so far. Some of you may not know much about this thing. It started a number of years ago with a bunch of "hippies" reveling around an 8' stick-man figure they burned on Baker Beach in San Francisco. It has grown and been relocated to the Black Rock desert in Nevada. This year there were 47,600 campers and to accomodate them a huge "city" is laid out in the desert in the shape of a clock face with streets running from 2 o’clock to 10 o’clock and then cross streets in concentric circles with names appropriate to the theme for that year. So a typical address to find your camp would be Aurora Borealis at 5:30 o-clock. People bring their artwork of all kinds to display. Some of it is literally incredible. Part of the art work on display is the people themselves and their outfits run the gamut. People take pictures of each other and professional photographers roam the city looking for subjects to enlarge their portfolio. It has a reputation for being a place where (almost) anything goes, but I found it to be relatively quiet and people were respectful and helpful and kind. It some ways the peaceful hippie utopia was the culture - except for the predictable but only occasional loud yahoos who forgot to leave their spurs at home. I came at the end of the week - after the burning of The Man - and everything and everyone seemed covered with the alkaline playa dust and many were packing up and leaving. The Forest Service has many rangers patroling through the city for help and law enforement, there are medical centers and places where one can buy ice. Otherwise, everyone is instructed they must bring everything they want in and haul everything out leaving no trace. There is no water available but the main pavilion sells coffee and lattes and lemonade.

I rode my bike around the playa in the heat of the day and when I felt heat exhaustion coming on, I returned to the pavilion where I waited a long time in line and bought two lemonades at $3 each because I only had two hands. Later that evening I rode with Kyrstyn’s group to witness the burning of the Temple - which earlier I had visited and found full of people mourning lost loved ones and bedecked with mementoes to those friends who had died. I took some pictures of the artwork on the playa and some people in the pavilion. I camped with the plane, well away from the throb of music coming from the city, and brought Kyrstyn and two friends home the next morning. It was a great flying adventure to get there and land in the middle of the desert, see some part of the Burning Man thing, and return home with Kyrstyn.

Courtney’s Birthday

While we were gone at Sun River, Courtney and Jason and children were at Aspen Grove in Utah for an Atack family reunion. When they returned on Monday, we had a surprise birthday party (Skye’s idea) for Courtney.

Kaaren’s new car

Kaaren bought a "new" car and I’m jealous - or covetous, I should say. It is a forest green 1998 Volvo Cross-Country with all wheel drive. It drives very nicely. She’s needed a better car and now we won’t get stuck here so much in the snow. I loaned the grey station wagon to Jason again and we will sell her 89 wagon. I just replaced the engine last month in my car and am still taking it in every few days with squawks to get it running right.

Photos

I’m going to attach a lot of pictures to this email, hoping that it will be easier for some of you to seem some of this. More are available (or will be shortly) on the flickr web site you can get to from the link on the family web site.

Love,

Dad

new photo sets

I have loaded four (4) new photo sets on flickr. Perhaps these links will be easier to find them.

Sun River and Crater Lake:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12596028@N00/sets/72157601928865060/

Burning Man:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12596028@N00/sets/72157601938704433/

Kaaren's garden:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12596028@N00/sets/72157601940458275/

September 2007 miscellaneous including Courtney's birthday

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12596028@N00/sets/72157601930886744/

You can always to get all the pictures (way too many) by clicking on the link on the left of the family web site somewhat down the left side of www.pixtonfamily.com

Dad

August gatherings

Family,

Today our High Priest Quorum lesson was on "The Sabbath Day - A Delight." I mentioned that I thought the analogy from Genesis was wonderful - this is a day to stop everything, to rest from every care, and to walk in the garden and listen, and call it good.

Taking the time to pause and count blessings - to appreciate the beauty of the places where we live, and they are all beautiful in their way, and to see the hand of the Lord in our lives - is one of the core activities of true religion.

I returned Friday afternoon from a quick trip to Burney Falls Campground where I visited with my brother and his family. The flying time was 2.4 hrs to this remote place east of Mt. Shasta. It was a wonderful time to visit and catch up on things. The flight down and back was just beautiful - over country on the east side of the Cascades going down that I've never seen before. Every time I fly, I think of the words of Isaiah who said "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord... then shall thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The Jerusalem Bible reads "...and I will lead you triumphant over the heights of the land." I know its a stretch to apply this to flying, but I always have. It's my personal blessing and sabbath moment to see a view of the earth that few people enjoy. One of the pictures enclosed is a view of forest fire smoke rising high like a cumulus cloud over Mt. Jefferson. I wondered for a moment if the old volcano was erupting - but no, just a forest fire with intense smoke rising, I learned later. I really love this airplane and hope that more of you will have a chance to fly with me and experience the time machine it is.

I returned to bring some food - simple cottage cheese and peaches and some chicken, to Skye and Jared who were in the chemotherapy clinic where Jared was getting his first dose. He was there most of the day. If you haven't already gone there, you can read their blog at www.jaredandskye.blogspot.com.

Prior to this flying trip to California, we gathered at home on Sunday night for a farewell dinner to Bob and Brittany who were about to return to NYC the next day with their little puppy they bought in Washougal. We had some good music moments together and good food and good company. The Sunday prior, we also gathered together for another meal here at home. During the week, Brittany organized a temple trip where all of the endowed members of the family in the Portland Metro area (except Jason who stayed home with Seville) gathered for an endowment session and for some sealings for Bob's ancestors. It was a sweet experience for me and it gave me a renewed respect for the work of sealing our ancestors together in the temple. Thank you, Brittany.

Bryce is working hard at his new job and I am proud of him. He's on a steep learning curve but he has the chops to do the learning and I think he is feeling some reward for the service he gives to Hoffman. Work is sanctifying and I see it working for Bryce.

My car is still in the shop - the engine blown to smitherines by a faulty head gasket repair last year - and I'm wondering what I'm going to drive next. I'm actually enjoying driving the old 1990 740 wagon but it's beat up a little, being loaned out to family and friends in need all the time - and doesn't much to enhance my lawyer image.

Kaaren's garden is amazing. The sunflowers are about 12 feet tall and spouting several flower heads at the top. The beans are climbing up the sunflowers and the tomatoes are thick and tall - with fruit setting. Should be ripe soon. We're harvesting squash, cucumbers, beans and cherry tomatoes and yellow pear (tear drop?) tomatoes.

Well, this is all I have energy for this evening. Blessings upon you all.

Dad

Kansas City Trip

Family,

I just returned from my flying trip to visit Clayton and Amy and Olivia, Eli and Addison. What a great visit!. We left Wednesday morning (the 4th) and returned this afternoon (the 8th). Too many pictures of our (Bryce and Kadra came with me) trip at posted at my flickr site. Go to www.pixtonfamily.com and click on the second link on the right to photo albums. Enjoy.

Dad

Wallawa Lake road trip with Bryce

Dear Family,

Last weekend, Bryce and I left after Sacrament Meeting (and after making lunch, and after changing a spark plug in my car and after deciding not to take it and after repacking bryce's car and after stopping in on my monthly home teaching visit to Foushee's who fed us a little lunch and dessert and good gospel discussion - this is how Pixton's leave town) and began our road trip. We drove in Bryce's car in 100 degree weather with no air conditioning and a whistling windshield trim toward Wallawa Lake in the northeastern corner of Oregon. In the extreme heat, we found it advisable to stop for refreshment and sustenance at the last Burgerville for 24,789 miles, as the billboard said, and humbly partake of a large raspberry shake, some fries and a hamburger. Heading into the mountains, it is always good to stock up on things you may need in reserve, such as a bajillion calories in a quite heavenly concoction. Having had my spiritual experience for the Sabbath, I was ready to proceed on the journey across the high desert of Oregon and into the Wallawa Mountains.

Heading up the grade into the Blue Mountains, we drove into a lightning storm and rain pounded on the windshield. This storm was unexpected and it was beautiful and cool. At dusk, we were lucky to find a campsite along the Minam river in the dark. I sat at our picnic table in the dark and wrote in my journal on my laptop - the remote location, the rush of the river closeby and the starry sky above was quite a contrast to my high-tech screen, the only light in our camp. We slept in the open air and it was good rest.

Monday morning we drove to the Wallawa valley, and ate breakfast in Enterprise. I found that the proprietor and cook of our restaurant was a former client of mine from Lake Oswego. After our excellent meal, I had a good chat with Steve Lear while he worked the grill in the kitchen. He gave up his business and Lake Oswego home and moved to Enterprise to run a restaurant. He's on the city council and is a civic leader there. What a change of life. Would you have the courage to do this?

Next we went up the hill to check out the airport. We found the LDS church right next to the runway and at the runway we found a friend of my brother Bobby, Hank and his wife Kim with their Husky. They were visiting his sister in Wallawa. Small world.

We drove through Joseph, a very artsy community with beautiful bronze sculptures on each corner, to Wallawa Lake - very picturesque. We took the tram up to the peak of Mt. Howard. This was the highlight of the trip so far. Very incredible view, somewhat scary ride, tame animals at the top that ate from our fingers, chipmunks, squirrels, deer, birds, etc. We overlooked a canyon and the Eagle Cap Wilderness in the distance. Spectacular. Down in the canyon again, I filled my water bottle from the crystal clear water cascading down from the snow caps. I don't remember seeing water so clear before. It was cold and delicious.

After Wallawa Lake we drove further east and south to an overlook on the ridge of Hells Canyon - formed by the Snake River on the border between Oregon and Idaho. Beautiful wildflowers. We camped in a canyon descending to the Snake River. The next morning we drove to Halfway (it's not half way, it's all the way!) where we stopped for breakfast. The waitress cut Bryce off in the middle of his order with her hand in his face. Snarl. When she finally brought my breakfast, she slammed it down on the table in front of me and snarled at someone else at the next table. Bryce ordered orange juice. She grabbed it out of a cooler, shook it twice and plopped it down in front of him, still in the plastic bottle. We laughed and felt we had gotten our money's worth in entertainment alone.

We drove home on 84, foregoing our earlier plan to drive through the Blue Mountains and home along the John Day river. We'd had enough camping, enough winding roads and enough heat. We stopped by Horse Tail falls and Multnomah Falls and Benson Lake picnic area (checking it out for a ward activity) and came home, glad to be in such a nice place we could call home. We had a good time. In the evening Kaaren and I joined Skye and Jared for the fireworks at Fort Vancouver. Came home pretty tired. I go to work to recuperate, it seems, from the weekends.

So this was a road trip, a journey together to explore a little bit of America. We had some dumb conversations and some good conversations about mountains and valleys and philosophy and the search for quality (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance style), forgiveness, independence and growth, relationships with girls and with cars and other imponderables and we came home richer together.

Dad

Our Weekend

Sunday Evening, July 9 2006

Dear Family,

This last few days have been memorable. On Wednesday we had my sister, Shauna, and her husband Rick Laurel visit us on their way to Victoria, BC. We had a nice dinner here (salmon and more) and they stayed the night. Then the next day, my Mom and John visited us on their way from Chilliwack, BC to Mom's place in Occidental. We had another great dinner here and they stayed the night. Friday afternoon I drove Mom and John up to Timberline Lodge. We enjoyed the views of unlimited landscape on a clear warm day, some white bean chili and ale in the pub and stopped at a burger place near Sandy called "Calamity Jane's". Mom used to be (still is by John) called Calamity Jane and so she got a kick out of it as I knew she would. Saturday John was having balance problems so they stayed the day to recuperate and left this morning for Occidental. It was nice to have them relax at our home for a while. Courtney and the boys came over Saturday and had a picnic on our lawn with them and Mom played frisbee with Logan.

But Kaaren and I weren't here yesterday because we went to the Oregon Country Faire - a traditional fair of creative exuberance in the woods west of Eugene. I've put pictures (the ones I think I can put out publicly at this point anyway) on the flickr site you can reach by the link on our website. Kaaren and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. The sights and sounds were so unusual and exhilarating. It was huge. It would take days to really see all the displays and vendors and bands and jugglers and speakers exhorting return to the earth and respect for nature, etc, and impromptu parades (the whole thing was a parade, I remarked to Kaaren) and small musical groups and people with interesting get-up and garb or no get-up and no garb, and artists wall-to-wall with so many beautiful creations. We came home with a combination toy box/marimba made of red alder and cedar and a beautiful velvet skirt for Kaaren and a multicolored natural small broom (hobbit size) for sweeping out our treehouse.

Kyrstyn's group, March Fourth, was the big hit at the end of the day and there are quite a lot of pictures of them and the crowd around them.

It was an unforgetable day and we look forward to going back next year.

Our gardens are really beautiful and provided roses of many colors and fragrances for the church meetings today. They have also provided roses through the house for a few weeks. But the heat is beginning to take its toll on things.

I'm including a picture of the tree house on the website. I plan to finish the stairs tomorrow evening. Guess which part I designed and which part Kaaren designed?

I heard an interesting quote today. "You make the laws but I'll make the music and move the world."

We had a remarkable sacrament meeting today but I think Kaaren can tell you better about it - she took more notes. Ask her.

love,

Dad

Easter Eggs and Daffodils

April 16, 2006

Dear Family,

Easter came gently this morning, as it does in Oregon this time of year, with sunlight peeking through a gap between cloud cover and a snow-dusted forest on the horizon. Occasional showers put a glisten on our apple blossoms and daffodils. Later we had enough "sun breaks" to cheer up the place and lure Kyrstyn and me into the yard to hide Easter candy and "real live" dyed and decorated Easter eggs. It has been a good day to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.

Bill and Mary Griffiths were our speakers in Sacrament Meeting and they both presented thoughtful and moving messages. I sat in the choir seats and looked at many faces drinking in the spirit of their inspiration, the fruit of their spiritual work preparing a feast for us today. I sang in a quintet "Were You There" (When they crucified my Lord), I sang in the choir (Suzanne Mosman at the piano) singing "He Is Not Here" - one of my favorites from the old "Choir Book" but which is much too high for my voice and Brittany Foushee sang a beautiful rendition of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." with Laura Walhood at the piano. Just after the beginning of the closing hymn, "Christ The Lord Is Risen Today, Halleluia!", tiny Natalie Glausi climbed off her mother’s lap in the choir seats and tripped over the organ power cord, pulling it loose. The congregation sang on under Ed Winkler’s steady direction with no accompaniment. After a moment, I reached for a hymn book and slid onto the piano bench, quickly turning the pages to the hymn so I could pick up at the beginning of the second verse. At the same time, Teresa Jolly was figuring out what went wrong and then working to get the organ plugged back in. As luck would have it, we were both ready for the second verse and began playing at the same time, full tilt. This gave the congregation a start and they began to sing more energetically. We played together for the rest of the closing hymn and everyone seemed to be pleased. Lots of folks commented to me after the meeting how much they enjoyed the sound, and this by accident! This gave me an idea. I’d like to have a regular LDS version of the ubiquitous evangelical "worship band" for hymns in our Sacrament meetings but, of course, with "approved" instruments. We have youth in the ward who play in high school bands and adults in our ward with good intonation who can play cello, flute, violin, classical guitar and whatever other instruments. Wouldn’t it be great to have them play with hymns on a regular basis - to involve more people in the musical worship and liven up our hymns? I’ve never wanted to carry the load of a bishop, but the thought of being able to try some of my ideas makes me think it could almost (almost) be worth it. Oh, well... Maybe in some other life.

Sometime recently, Krystyn and I were having a conversation about Easter and she volunteered to decorate eggs. Of course, Kyrstyn had much more in mind than dipping them in some PAAS dye kit and you will see from the photos what she has done. I stuck to the PAAS coloring and enjoyed making some two toned and three toned

eggs. But Kyrstyn inspired others of us, even Jared for heaven’s sake, to try our hand at decorating an egg with some creativity.

Yesterday, Kyrstyn finished up her many days of body cleansing regimen with mixing up potions and making asparagus soup. Bryce cleaned out the refrigerator again. Photos galore of each.

We had our traditional Easter egg hunt in the yard in between showers. Logan and Caden had fun, but so did Kaaren, Bryce, Kadra, Kyrstyn, Skye, Jared, Courtney and Jason carrying Ashlynn about the gardens. I guess we’ll keep this tradition. We had a lovely dinner of Black Forest ham, scalloped potatoes, cauliflower, perfect sweet bread and fruit. Ashlynn slept through the whole thing. Kaaren read some scripture. We had some nice conversation. It was a good dinner.

It’s getting to late to write much more, but I want to tell you about an experience I had this week.

I stopped in Deseret Book - sometimes I do sometimes just to see what’s new - looking for a cheap copy of God’s Army (Did one of you borrow my DVD? ). I saw a new book being promoted near the entrance - an illustrated story by Elder Dieter Uchtdorf about a Sister "Eternal" ("Ewig" in German) and picked it up. It was a short story with only one paragraph on each page opposite an illustration, telling the story of his family’s conversion to the Church in East Germany through the influence of Sister Ewig whom his mother met in a bread line. Something about the simple and direct narrative in Dieter Uchtdorf’s style of speaking touched me deeply when I reflected on the deep faith of the German saints. Germans are not famous for their spirituality; they are known, rather, to revere "Die Wissenshaft" (Science) more than God. But here was a story that paralleled the lives of so many Germans I knew and loved including German people that I brought to the Church and baptized. He told a story of his family living their Gospel each day with simple, deep faith in the face of economic disaster, political danger, religious intolerance, and long suffering such as you and I may never know. I teared up reading his story while I thought of my friends in Darmstadt: Helga Koehn and her son, Hartwig and Ruth Litta and their daughters whom you know - just of few of the faithful living lives of obedience and humility even today. I couldn’t stop crying and left the store still wiping my eyes. This was the sort of simple faith that led my Grandfather and his family to be baptized and associate with the Mormons in Hannover and to leave their home town of Barsinghausen and emigrate to Salt Lake City. A couple of hours later, going into the courtroom in Portland on a contested Probate case, I was still fighting tears in my eyes over this story that Elder Uchtdorf told. In these days, many of think we are very sophisticated and discriminating in matters of religion and religious history and philosophy and I usually like to count myself among them. But this experience was a little reminder to me why faith is one of the first principles of the Gospel. It is worth while, in the face of criticism or spiritual difficulty, to withhold judgment and continue in faith. Perhaps I am not making much sense to many of you and only preaching to myself. Nevertheless, I needed to write this down and share it with you. My German converts are teaching me today to continue in faith.

Continue in faith.

Happy Easter!

Love,

Dad

Spring Camellias

April 10, 2006

Spring Camellias

Dear Family,

This was the view from our bedroom window Sunday morning. Our camellia is blooming beautifully just as the daffodils are fading. I hired Matt Sullivan to mow our meadow (our mower is dead) Saturday and so our "estate" is looking better.

I also hired Matt’s father, Gary Sullivan, to repair a rotten bathroom floor and walls in the Sunset apartments last week. He has been "in between" full time jobs for several years now, making do with all kinds of temporary employment. He does good and conscientious work. In church Sunday morning, the Sullivan family sat in the pew in front of us and I thought of the blessing of being able to employ people who need work, family and otherwise. When I worked for "Killer Ken’s Termite and Pest Control" while going to law school, I admired the position Ken Kenworthy was in - owned a business that gave him the ability employ people in his ward and acquaintance who needed work. I formed a goal for my life at that time that I would like to one day own a business where I could likewise employ people who needed the work - that was a kind of "rich life" I sought after. Thirty years later, I think all of my children and many of our friends have been employed in some capacity, if even for only a few hours and some for more than a few years, in my law office, and several of you have worked in the Pixton Properties projects and some in Kaaren’s school art residencies and installations. My last letter about my sons and daughter plowing my fields illustrated that. So, sitting in the church pew, I counted my blessings and saw the realization of at least one of my life’s goals.

Saturday night Kaaren and I saw Cirque De Soleil’s show "Varekai" under their colorful circus tents. The over-the-top creativity is hard to comprehend. The freedom and beauty of the art, the clothing, the music, the kinetic energy of dance and circus aerobatics in costume makes our everyday lives seem so banal. Kaaren rode home grieving for her lack of ability to achieve everything that comes to her mind. This is what eternal lives(s) are for, I guess. When Kaaren has more ideas each day than even a large cultural art foundation could fund, you need a grander sphere to bring those ideas to life. But we can start here and I want nothing more than to enable her to produce all she can before she wears out this mortal coil.

This last Sunday was not one for quiet contemplation, peeling oranges while lounging with the newspaper. Here was my schedule: We started with Music and the Spoken Word at 8:30 am. 9:30 , Ward Council; 10:30 Choir Practice; 11:30 Sacrament Meeting; 12:45 Sunday School; 1:45: HP Quorum Meeting; 3:00 Home Teaching at Fouchees (OK, this is not your typical home teaching assignment - Lloyd and Sandra Hale and Kaaren and I meet at Foushees for Sunday break-the-fast dinner and discussion); 4:00 Marylhurst Symphony (one of my choir members was soloist for the Mozart Halleluia aria); 6:00 telephone and fax with Ed Winkler going over music he wants on the Organ to back up a solo in two weeks in church; 6:30 help Kyrstyn with her tax return; 7:00 Birthday gathering for Jason at Atacks place; 10:00 home for the remainder of rest and relaxation.

Friday evening Kaaren and I went to dinner (Chinese in L/O) with three other couples in the ward - Bishop Mike and Carol, Fuhrimans and Rasmussens. We had a very enjoyable discussion - almost completely about ways to improve teaching and raising of youth in the ward. Don’t you think it is wonderful that this was the focus of these couples evening out together? Speaking about the upcoming screening of STATES OF GRACE in this area, I was stunned to hear that two of those couples had never heard of the film, God’s Army. So many have no idea that there is actually good cinema out there by LDS film makers.

Last night at Courtney and Jason’s birthday gathering, I loved holding Ashlynn for a while. It is hard to believe that each one of you was at one time a tiny snuggling bundle perfectly happy to be held and held and held. At one point, Jared mentioned picking blueberries in his youth but being outworked by an "elderly couple" that were 50 or 60 years old. I think of the stages of our lives. Kaaren will be 60 in a couple of weeks and I will follow her into the ranks of the "elderly" in about 6 months. My though so far is that I would never go back. I have enjoyed and celebrated each state of life - this coming "elderly" stage is richer than you can imagine. Hard, too, but rich as well.

I hope you are writing in a journal or something. I think too much of our lives, though deeply felt and experienced at the time, goes by with the current of time unaccounted for and lost to your family. It is hard, but try to pick out the pieces that are worth remembering and save them for your posterity.

Enough for now.

Love,

Dad