Friendship Facebook Style

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant."- Socrates, Greek Philosopher

In the past few days I have had called into question the friendships I have on "FACEBOOK". Was I aware of their stances with regards to current standards in the church?

The answer is simple - YES.

In the past year these people and their blogs, their comments, their forums have carried me to come to a truth for myself. Each has their own journey both in and out of the church and only advocate the thought "to thine own self be true".

The only influence they played in the decisions I have made have been to search my own heart and find whatever truth will be authentic to myself. Yes, some advocate lifestyles and choices and doctrines that may differ from the stand of a black and white stance to the gospel but if more of these people had greater voices I may have been active today.

You may not agree to their posts, all I ask is to eliminate their feed because I won't.

My whole life I have never fit into the traditional mold of Mormonism. In the friendships I have that have been deemed inappropriate I have found like minded people. They remind me of the good that is in the culture. A culture I could say has not be kind to me.  Their voices, both written and spoken have helped me to see a side of the faith I have spent so much of life in with a more reasonable, rational perspective.

I am sad that their point of view frightens you. If it didn't it might make a more welcoming place for those who feel so lost when they walk through those chapel doors.

So though I don't know them on a personal level, I am purposeful in adding them as FACEBOOK friends, there is no doubt to that. I stand behind their words and their thoughts.



Once There Was A TREE....

 Once there was a tree....
and she loved a little boy.

I had another great moment in the "Reading Advantage" program. Did I say how much I love that program. I think Iz thinks she is the only one learning and yet there isn't an evening that I don't walk away knowing something new or feeling somehow enriched. I love the program.

On the first visit I gave Iz one of my favorite books; "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. I have loved that author and that book for so long. The book has such a deep and profound message beyond the simple story that is told. It's one of those conundrums that life offers. The story and then the deeper story. Life always gives a deeper meaning if you just think broader. So many people never get past the simple meaning.

Today, we were covering the vowel o, did you know that there are 6 different ways to say the letter o. The first pass through the book we concentrated on the actually phonetics of the book. Iz had practised so much and had it nearly perfect even though she would never admit it and then we read it for meaning. This time around we discussed how she had read book in Japanese, French and English and how with each language the tree is portrayed differently. I was so stunned.

I have always been so puzzled by the meaning of the book. Shel S isn't so simple as to have a tree give everything and then just be "happy". In a real way he challenges the reader beyond the simple story to ask, do we give everything we have to be happy? The answer is intrinsic; it depends on perspective. I have always felt that the tree was happy for the little boy but maybe not so much for itself and yet, since it's purpose is sacrificial, it met it's life's goal, or did it?

In the Japanese culture, this book is sad, almost a tragedy. The culture cannot come to terms with the tree every being happy both from the story's point of view and from the sense of reverence a tree is given in the religion of the Japanese - Shinto. This book isn't the happy story so basic to a reader who sees only the surface words reveal. As we discussed this and the principle of giving and to what point someone gives it was so cool to actually be so alike in our paradigms.

We grew up a world apart in two completely different cultures and yet think so similarly on quite a few levels. Today I learned just how small the world can be.

Did I say how much I love the "Reading Advantage" program.

No Worries Mate!

Blogging has been hard to do, what with holding my new grandson and all, hanging out with my amazing daughter and A and just enjoying this beautiful country.

I had wondered what it would be like here being down under and all. I mean I am, quite literally, 1/2 round the world. I have come to a better understanding of the culture, of the people and the area. It is beautiful here.

Tonight I wanted to stay in, we had a chance to dine downtown Brisbane and see the laser light show but what I really wanted to do is just feel this family one more night, feel this home and watch my grandson fall more in love with his parents everyday and to feel that tomorrow, when I leave, there will really be - "No worries".

Every Aussie says this as they leave you, they bid you bye and follow with the words - "no worries mate". I wondered what it meant and why it's used and all I could come up with is that here, life is about finding reasons to chill and enjoy. Things don't get done nearly as quickly as at home and when I heard A and his friend talk about the Aussie way of working I have to say I was a bit envious about having such a lackadaisical attitude. come on, showing up at 9am, 2 hour lunches and leaving right at 4 and still having a job to speak of. That would be firing at home.

But alas, I can't live here - that being two places at once doesn't work so I have to go home and inside of me is falling to pieces. I wish with all my heart I could be here to help, to hold and to just be a full time part of this family. Thank goodness for SKYPE - all I have to say.

So tomorrow I board a plane and then I wait for 10 weeks until this family flies North for Christmas. And then, we do what most families do anyway, we work it out and find reasons to see each other and we love, even 1/2 around the world from each other, because that's what families do. I can do it, even if my heart breaks along the way because of the ache of not holding my C in my arms. Considering the alternative of whose arms he's in, there really are "NO WORRIES MATE".

Mormon Mommy Blogs

I have much more free time then I thought I would here in the land down under. K1 has this Mommy thing down and she has established the most incredible family and home here. With the extra time I have been able to do things that I haven't done. Catch up on my reading, listen to my podcasts and surf the net to places I haven't been in forever.

K1 asked if I knew about the Mormon Mommy blogs. I had heard wind of them but hadn't really looked much closer that my nieces who I lost access to a while ago. It was the only one I would have had any interest in and since I tend to be quite controversial I just assumed it was meant to be that way. Anyway you look at it, it becomes a bit of a voyeuristic act to troll through them so I generally stay away.

Well, with some of my free time I meandered through a found myself intoxicated with the mundane scope of life these blogs expose. I kind of travel log through endurance, some extreme, others looking for compassion and more just needing release. It made me think about the one lasting and monumental change about being outside the culture of Mormonism.

Life isn't about the struggle anymore. Days aren't made to be endured and struggles, trials don't speak anything to my faith or lack thereof. I truly to enjoy every moment of my life, even the hard days and God loves me.  Bad things don't happen to test me. They happen because of choice and because of circumstance. Sometimes it is just the living.

I read of the YW who was the bain of every Smith girl's existence struggling with infertility and I ached for her. Not anger, not hate just compassion and for the girl who suffers in a marriage so clear by all her words I wanted to just say, FIX It. Find purpose in yourself, in your journey and make peace with the role YOU CHOSE. The one that got away probably isn't much different then the man you married and spending a life wondering what if only interferes with the living a life that is.

Reading all the blogs and posts made me realize a few other things.

A good camera a one photography class doesn't make you a professional photographer. It made me recommit even more to completing my SAIT courses and even then, I am still not sure of that path.

I won't use my associations for financial gain, ever. How many use their blogs or their church ties to build and promote business. It's a wonder that pyramids schemes do so will throughout the Mormon corridor. Selling a product I want is one thing but there are times when not being there and not being a part of all of it frees me from the endless stream of products, placements and plans that I have no interest in.

I have always seen this blog as nothing more than a travel log to my journey. There have been many times in the last while where a whole blog entry has been written, edited and left to draft because of content I felt unworthy of the generations that follow. I want and need my children and their children to understand the reasons I have made the decisions I have made but I can't impose on them the strong emotional scares that have accompanied them.

Mormon Mommy Blogs serve a purpose, a divine one. They are intrinsically good. There were some that were a JOY to read, to feel a "catch up" to some of my most favorite YW that I taught. I miss my niece's blog, I love watching from a distance my  great nephew and niece and see my Brother be the Grandpa I knew he always would be.

I will be heading back to reality in a few days and my time will be full again. I will skype my BBG #1 and work and have salsa days, travels to the mountains and soon welcome grandson # 2. H's pictures will be splashed all across these pages and my life will continue to be full.

I love writing, always have, always will and my hope is that someday, long from now, my great, great, great grandchildren will open a computer, a book, an IPAD and read about Crazy Grandma LH who struggled, survived and lived and maybe find some sense of purpose in the words I leave.

On Being a Mam.

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

I have been blessed beyond comprehension these last few days to witness the emergence of a family. You see in your own so much of the JOY and comfort that comes from the love of your first born and the changes that can happen.

Grandma L used to say that in that moment you look into your first born's eyes you know, for the first time, what it means to love something more than yourself. I see it everyday with K and C. I am so proud of her, so proud of her journey.

This Grandma thing is to incredible. It is EVERYTHING Mom said and more.  C is one of the biggest loves of my life. Is is true about "loving them more", it just is.

A New Beginning

There are tropical birds cawing out my window and I am in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude it is amazing.  I am a Grandma and I fell in love with a beautiful boy named C in a way I never thought imaginable. Grandma L was right, so very right in just how much more love there is to give to grandchildren.

I flew out three days after his birth to a country, heck, a hemisphere I have never been before and wept in an airport full of strangers because there in front of me was my beautiful daughter, her partner, and my C, a redefined family so full of love and hope and JOY.

As I have witnessed this family these past few days I began to be envious. What I would have given all those years ago to have what K has in A and in his love for that little boy. I am an intruder into this social unit, a welcome one, but none the less, K, A and C are a family, loved, cared for and honored by so many around them. It is a privilege to be a witness to the birth of a new generation of this family.

My camera has been going steady. Someone commented on my skills as a photographer and my reply was simple; it's easy with the subjects I shoot.

So, just those few years ago when my life started to change and I could see a light at the end of a very dismal tunnel I never knew or could have hoped for all that has been so graciously given. I have a wonderful husband, incredible children and now, beautiful grandchildren.

No religion can define my family and call it whole or true. I thinks that's where I get the emotions that have no place here at this time so I will let them go. I am Grandma, I am the woman who will love C and B and H and all the others that will come just because, without condition, without many expectations. Just the Grandma rules of;
no hurting others,
no hurting yourself and
no hurting things.

Oh, and I promise a freezer full of freezes and a cupboard full of stale licorice and life lessons about glass houses and integrity.

I wouldn't miss this for the world. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is more important than watching my daughter hold her son and see what this life is all about - FAMILY.

She's a natural, just like I thought she'd be.

Charlie

Meet Charlie Harold Collins; born Australian time, Sept 7, 2011, 9:01 AM. He's a JOY and a blessing. So happy he got here safe and sound.

Waiting

Today is my first grand baby's birthday. Where he/she is it's the 7th of Sept but where I sit, it's the 6th. I know my beautiful first daughter went in at 4:30pm for her c'section and I know I am supposed to wait patiently but I can't. Every worry possible is going through my mind, every worse case scenario playing through my mind. Do I have a grand daughter or grand son? How do I not go crazy waiting????

Baby girl #1, my very heart and soul is praying more than I ever have right now. I am sending so much positive karma out and ..........

OMG - IT'S A

Courage

People define things so differently. Today, while volunteering I learned a lesson without even purposely trying. Let me explain. IZ has trouble understanding how some words connect to others and we talk about the meanings these connections give to words that can most definitely make them different from each other.

Now, how that circumstance gave me pause and created another "aha" moment.

Here is what I am on about.
I read an email that called into question the courage one of my children was exercising. The words were something to the effect that it took courage to follow the doctrines of the church and that this child simply hadn't any or at least was failing himself. Oops, that gave who away.

At first reading I was ANGRY but the wonderful thing about movement to indifference to my feelings about the author of the email is that I quickly calmed myself and and realized that in the very defining of courage two people may see a similar situation or circumstance completely different. Though some may call a young man's movement away from the church as a lack of courage others may see it as courage.

D has struggled enormously with the abandonment of his father. Details won't matter but it hasn't been easy. I would never call D's actions a lack of courage but more a result of disappointment and enlightenment. Calling it out as this author did only made D's disappointment worse and can be used as reason to never look again at a religion that would call itself ahead of family relationships especially since it is supposed to be so family centered.

It also calls into question the courage or lack thereof of someone who constantly defaults to a religion as excuse for abuse or dysfunctional parenting. Faith should never be reason or excuse for inflicting emotional harm or result in the dysfunction in parenting of a child. This mantra is part of a very broken record repeated and repeated never to be heard.

Our examples, whether good or bad to others has an effect on the belief or lack thereof in so much of the lives we live. I see people all the time; I have been personally hurt by these individuals utilizing the name of the Mormon church in their actions. I know many that cringe at it and yet, time and time again it happens to the point where some people walk away and find a truth, or at least a different truth for themselves.

How I wish I could lash out not just at the person but the many who use a passive aggressive stand to control or manipulate the lives of people they swear they love.


To the author of the email;

Your son is anything but a coward. Of course he is different then you, Thank GOD! If you spent more time in unconditional connections instead of passing judgment you might find that he is one hell of an amazing human being and BTW, some of the most incredible men I know who treat their families and their fellow human beings better than you did or will, did not, as you wrote, have the courage to follow the doctrines and serve.

I can't address this to you specifically - you walked away from any kind of parenting years ago and since the "righteous" man that you are can't even grasp the concept of co-parenting or even financial child support why don't you turn your criticism elsewhere and let you son continue to grow and find strength in spite of you.

You'd be surprised to know that we are a great family that has found peace, unconditional love and acceptance and moved on with great courage and strength without you. You have great kids and if you can't see that; leave them alone. I am personally tired of picking up the emotional pieces you intrusions can cause.

I am done venting and I won't make apologies nor will I remove the post, this is our lives and hiding it isn't productive to anyone.

Important Things I Believe and Hope My Grandchildren learn.

I was thinking the other day that in just over 2 weeks I am going to be a full fledged Grandma. Every time I think about it my heart soars with excitement. I can't even describe it. So, these last few days I have wondered, what would be the important things I would want my grandchildren to be taught.
I am actually writing a blog for them and now, it so hard to literally express my hopes and desires for my new grandchildren. Well; today on a forum I love, someone wrote exactly my hopes, and I was inspired.

Here it goes.

I hope my daughters/son teach my grandchildren to trust the light inside them. There is a Mormon scripture: "put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good". There is a light that will let them know, beyond a doubt, which direction is best for them. I hope my grandchildren will learn about it and learn to use it. It matters not how it is taught, it doesn't matter to me; just that they know.

I want them to understand the importance of emotional and intellectual honesty. Their parents come from a very broken home and when the time is right and the lessons of "how not to do it" become clear, I hope they utilize those lessons and break the cycle. The hardest thing to do in life is to admit you are wrong or to see through strong emotions with reality. I think my children know and understand this above almost every average person. Loving truth makes for a healthy life, just be careful when expressed that it comes from good faith and not a need to be right. That's the balance.


I hope they teach my grandchildren about their inner songs and why their hearts will soar in places and times and in moments through out their lives. Nature, people.... all of it serves such a profound purpose in our lives and knowing the reasons can free your soul and open your heart so infinite possibilities of happiness can come into your lives.

I hope that my kids teach their children to love reading, writing, and arithmetic. That embracing learning only enhances living. Never be afraid of learning and NEVER let anyone shut out truth. I learned the hard way that life can be wasted when mental doors are shut.

I want my grandchildren to understand the power of kindness, compassion and caring. Love first, care first, share and give because like great Grandma Lloyd said, "it's never wrong to be a giver". Protect the weak, the vulnerable, the pained. All children are inherently blessed with extremely kind hearts, I hope my children nourish these and allow them to develop the compassion that will change the world.

I know there will be those that will criticize my hopes for my children and grandchildren. I can't and won't demand the teaching of a religion so responsible for so much pain. I do hope that my kids will find the good that was amongst the difficult and find a way to teach my grand babies concepts like how God (a higher power) really did give us the Son/sun and moon and the hope and that being kind does make people smile.

Under it all is the belief that in my children is a song so deep and so strong that as difficult as it can be, being a part of me will some day be seen as a good thing. My Mom didn't go to any extreme to be loved, she just gave unconditional love, always. That's the secret; the source of family. If my children can take her example and live it, they will succeed and their children will be blessed.

I have no fear for my grand kids because of the parent they have in my own child.