Clearing out

I have embarked on a three-year plan for clearing things out.

It wasn't originally intended to take three years, but it did not take very long to realize anything shorter would be unrealistic.

In this case the "how" is very individual, so I will talk about it but the "why" may be the part that is more applicable.

I had been thinking that for environmental and economic reasons one definite requirement for a better world is less materialism. There are the resources for people to be fed and clothed and comfortable, but not so much for the excess, where there is always more and more. Without strictly defining that, for it to work the mindset of always needing newer and shinier will not work.

Those thoughts had been in mind, but it hit harder when looking at footage of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. There were all of these mounds of possessions swept out by wind and water, and you couldn't even tell what they were anymore -- they were now garbage. That thought was not a reflection on anyone who owned the things; but a reminder that things are subject to destruction.

Other thoughts that have related are thinking about moving, and what a chore it would be, and watching a neighbor go through the contents of her late mother's home, and watching people needing to evacuate fires. Sometimes when you have some advance notice you can pack some things and save some things, but it is probably easier to focus if you have less.

Also, realistically, I have a lot of possessions now. I don't feel right just getting rid of them, but if I had never gotten them I would not have missed them.

I am not trying to promote a strict minimalist lifestyle, but I believe that greater consciousness about what we consume and what we keep will be really helpful.

In my case, a lot of the buildup has been in things that I am not ready to let go of yet: books, magazines, and embroidery kits. These are things that promised me some satisfaction at one time, and I believe that I can still get that enjoyment, but I haven't had it yet. I don't want to throw away the knowledge inside them, or the experience of working with them.

I am currently focusing more on the magazines, with some work on the books.

There was a time when I read magazines a lot; they weren't always piling up unread. Three that I enjoyed a lot and subscribed to were Smithsonian, Shape, and Psychology Today. Also, though it was more for the family and my mother, we had subscriptions to church magazines, the Ensign and Liahona. I have at this point discontinued all the subscriptions, because I can clearly no longer keep up, but the stacks remained.

The church magazines have become part of my gospel and Italian study, and there are sometimes parts of this blog that relate to that. They are working their way out - there are only three left after this morning - but the experiences have been good. I don't regret that they were saved, but I am also really satisfied to see them gone.

One additional issue with the more educational magazines was that sometimes I would read them but then save them, because someone would be interested in that, or I wanted to remember. I have gotten much stricter with myself. If I think someone else should see the article, I give it to them as soon as I am done. (It's usually Julie.)

It is also nice that I am not as worried about forgetting things. As I keep reading more science and history, things start to fit together. Maybe I had not thought about this random fact for a few years, but then when it pertains to something else I am reading it comes back to mind, "Oh yeah." And of course the internet makes finding things much easier when I can't quite remember. Now I can not only find that the experiment to have strangers fall in love was the work of Arthur Aron, but I can find the 36 questions used in the experiment on line.

(FYI, the experiment is really more about creating intimacy, but that is important for love, and developing those feelings of closeness can be intoxicating.)

Not everything has equal value. I ended up getting rid of a lot of the Shape issues without reading them. It was a well-written magazine, but it doesn't meet my needs anymore. I still maintain that it's better than Self, for what that's worth.

Not all of the books that I have had lying around for years have been great. Probably others will not be either, but some of them will be good, and they will still be done. Completing something is a wonderful feeling. I don't know that the long wait makes it better, but if there has been some frustration from seeing over and over again that something remains undone, completion vanquishes that.

In this way, it is becoming more conscious not just of my possessions and my surroundings, but also for how I use my time. This is something that I wanted. This is something that was important to me. It's slow, and if I had been staying on top of things all along it wouldn't have to be an issue, but it feels good.

You may not all have the same stacks of unread materials and uncompleted crafts (I did finish my Halloween basket!) -- for your sake, I hope you don't -- but there are probably some things that you don't need, where there is the opportunity to feel lighter. Doing it indiscriminately may lead to more problems, but proceeding thoughtfully can feel really good.

I expect that as I clear out this areas, the field will expand. We might be okay with less cookware. For example, I definitely need two stockpots, but we might not need so many loaf pans. Or maybe I should make more bread. I can think about that.

Mainly, I am a strong believer in thinking.

Living by the Spirit

After last week's post, it occurred to me that maybe I should do something on recognizing the Spirit. Emphasizing the importance of listening may not be that helpful without some idea of how to listen.

The range of possibilities is wide enough that it can lead to some difficulty. Honestly, D & C 9 gave me a bit of a complex:

"But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right." Doctrine and Covenants 9:8

I never really felt burning in my bosom, until it was confirmed that I should go on a mission. Then it was my entire body on fire, not just in my chest.

It is still a really good scripture. The concept that you should study and then pray for confirmation is helpful in many situations. Still, it is better when you know the context. This section is about Oliver Cowdery learning to translate, and expecting it to be easier than it was. Wrong expectations can set us up for failure, but it doesn't mean failure is the only option either. Section 9 can teach us about humility and opening ourselves up to guidance, but it also teaches us that there are individual differences. Guidance for me may not feel like guidance for you.

I can tell you that at times when I have been feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost it has led to me crying, or feeling a warmth, or getting goosebumps, or suddenly understanding something I hadn't before - which has come in the form of words sometimes but sometimes just knowledge - butI might not remember everything I have felt, and there might be still more ways that apply for you.

I think sometimes the differences can relate to the context. Every now and then there is a dream that matters, and is not just about my subconscious sorting things out. Often when that has happened it has been for something pretty specific that it would have been hard to get without seeing and hearing it. For the two main times, they were also about things that I needed to do for someone else without knowing there had been a need, so I wasn't going to be pondering and praying about it.

Otherwise, a lot of my memorable encounters with the Spirit have come from simply putting myself in the right place: while reading the scriptures, or praying, or in church or in the temple. Also, sometimes I am too preoccupied to listen, and need to make quiet time. I used to think meditation was not needed if you prayed, but taking time to meditate can make your prayer better. Pondering - where we focus our thoughts - is often understood as necessary, but meditating to quiet thoughts can help too. If we regularly do things to invite the Spirit, that invitation will be accepted, and then answers will come.

I remember having it hammered home pretty hard by a teacher once that there is no revelation without a question. That would seem to not be true based on those dreams, but at the same time, even if I was not praying to know how to help my friend or sister, I generally am praying for my family, and to do well in my callings, and for help in knowing what I need to do and doing it. Leaving the channel open appears to be the main priority. There are always going to be more possibilities than we realize.

My go-to scripture is always Galatians 5:22:

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,"

That is why I keep worrying about the increase of anger that I notice. It's not that there aren't things that deserve anger (and we can disagree on what those are), but being constantly angry will cut you off. Gloating will cut you off. Focusing on how much suffering people deserve, or the good things they don't deserve, will cut you off. Fortunately, we can pray for help with that too.


I have recently stopped to consider the guidance I have received over the years. Some of the growth has come from hardships that I did not choose, but as I have asked for help in dealing with those hardships, and acted on the promptings I have received for what to do, I have learned a lot. In the process, I have recognized my own weaknesses and how they have held me back, and actively sought healing for those weaknesses. That has been a long journey, and I never could have imagined the possibilities, but I am profoundly grateful for them now.

Let me add, then, that one hallmark of living by the Spirit is that there will keep being more. You will follow more promptings, gain more inspiration, and there will be more refining. It is not easy, but it is beautiful.

Staying spiritually alive

I am afraid this is going to be rather disjointed. I hope it will still have some value.

A few weeks ago we were teaching about the sacrament, and there was a question about how taking the sacrament without repenting could bring condemnation to your soul. I said that we are all in the process of being weak and trying to be better and not succeeding as well as we like, and we take the sacrament like that (though hopefully thinking about that and repenting as you take it). I then used the example that if you pretended to be good at home and at church, but were dealing drugs at school, taking the sacrament that way would be a problem.

Shortly after, I went back to that example in class and told them it wasn't a good one, but I used it because we don't like to mention drinking or sex to young people lest we give them ideas (which is only partially a joke). I also said that wasn't their biggest risk.

I told them that if they were with some friends and got pressured to drink or have sex and they did, they would know it was wrong right away, and then they would need to talk to their bishop before taking the sacrament, and also it would be a hard process so they are better off remembering that before they do it.

However, what would be easier to have happen (and I have heard through the grapevine does happen) is for them to just be kind of cold-hearted and mean. If they were snobby with the younger girls (our class has mainly young women, and our one young men wasn't their that day), or critical of the clothing of the poorer girls, or went along with the more popular girls in doing that, that would harden their hearts and could be easy to miss. It's happening in church; how bad could it be?

One of the eye-opening things on my mission was that people can know that something is wrong and still choose it, or know that something is right and not do it. Yes, there were plenty of examples before, but I had never been going around asking people to choose.

Sometimes it felt like the primary issue was that there was no sense of urgency, and I remember discussing that with my companion and wondering if it would get better. She predicted that the differences would become more obvious. That sounded logical and helpful, but now we are at a point where small children are taken from their parents, drugged, and thrown in cages, and even as the church reminds us about caring for refugees - which these people fleeing to the border are - there are members who applaud it. If that isn't obviously wrong enough, I am not sure there can be such a thing.

And, for anyone who is applauding it, that sounds like I am writing from a liberal point of view and can be easily dismissed. I assure you that the church leadership is more conservative than liberal, and yet, it becomes easy to dismiss them too. One blogger discounted an announcement because it came from the press department instead of being a member of the First Presidency speaking.

It is easy to get hardened - and I say that as someone who gets mad at conference talks pretty frequently, but then I still study them and find the good in them, and I try and do my best. Many people who got mad at the same things don't come to church anymore. That's not good either.

The only advice I can give you is to love and think.

Love people. Think about their needs. Last week when I said to think about your neighbors and if they would have difficulty evacuating? It will be hard to know that if you don't know them. The majority of them will probably not share your religious beliefs; fantastic! You need to see the good and the value in people who don't believe in you. And you need human warmth, which has some limitations on how well it can transfer through a screen.

Think about things. Don't echo the phrases you hear on the radio. If they keep repeating the same talking point, question why. Does it benefit someone they like? Does it hurt someone they don't like? and find your own ways of phrasing it, because if you find that you can't maybe there is an inherent logical fallacy in the thinking. I could give some examples, but I'm not doing that here.

Also - and this combines the loving and the thinking - cultivate your ear for the Spirit. If you are full of anger and pride and resentment, it will be hard to hear the promptings that you need. If you shut out common sense by an insistence on adhering to someone else's talking points, you can shut out realizations that way too.

It is great to have an emergency plan and kits and storage, but the most valuable means of preparedness is being open to inspiration and warnings. Don't throw that away. If you are afraid you might have, do whatever you need to do to get that back.

Making a plan - Wildfires

I wanted to spend some time on wildfires because they are affecting places we haven't been expecting. Some forest fires happen every year, and they can endanger homes, but we are seeing worse things here.

The earth is getting hotter, and when it is dry, it also becomes highly combustible. A spark from harvesting machinery can destroy that harvest and all the surrounding ones, because fire can move through grass more quickly than through trees. "Playing" with fireworks or arson (as suspected in Greece) can turn quickly out of control.

One additional potential issue with Greece is that there were people vacationing. Being unfamiliar with the area would have made getting oriented and out more difficult. Also, apparently the resort was not built considering fire safety.

Your family should have an emergency plan. Probably the fire part of that is thinking of a house fire, where meeting in front of the mailbox is fine and the fire department will arrive soon. Wildfires are different.

There is some excellent information available at http://www.readyforwildfire.org/Pre-Evacuation-Preparation/. I do encourage that, because it may cause you to think about things you haven't before.

Those thoughts may come from other sources. A recent news segment showed law enforcement in Washington visiting home owners and talking about risk reduction such as not storing firewood under the flammable and connected to your house deck, and clearing out dry brush near the house.

Even though we see images that look like solid moving walls of flame that will destroy everything in their path, the destruction will then seem random afterward, with intact homes near homes that have been burned to the ground.

Some of it probably is random, but some of it can be if there were things in place that allowed the fire to take hold, and maybe explode. That's when moving away the propane tanks and turning off the gas can make a difference. Maybe dampening the house - but not leaving the water running so as not to decrease water pressure for fire fighters - can help.

Many of your normal preparedness steps will be helpful for a wildfire, but because it disrupts a large area in a why that is not completely predictable, there are ways in which you need to be able to think differently.

Health may be affected even if home safety never is. Smoke can worsen air quality. This is true for children, the elderly, and for those with respiratory conditions, especially asthma. Being prepared with medication, so that inhalers are stocked and easy to access, or that someone on oxygen is not cutting it close on refills, will help.

You may need to keep people inside on a bad air quality day. Do you have air conditioning? Do you want to start using stronger filters? They are more expensive, but for some people it will make a difference. Think about those things now.

It is not just forests burning now; one fire was caused by a spark of harvesting equipment, and started burning the harvest. Food storage is still valuable. Growing your own food (to the extent possible) is still valuable. We don't talk about some of those things as much as we used to, but they are still needed.

We recently saw a television station shut down due to the fire, and if you are going to have to evacuate you cannot stay watching the coverage anyway. Make sure you have a portable radio with extra batteries so you can get updates.

It is great to have different family meeting places set up for different types of emergencies, but they may need to change. Not only can wildfires come from different directions, but they can change direction based on winds and other factors.

It is reasonable to follow community evacuation plans to near where the shelters are, but be warned that in large evacuations shelters and hotels quickly fill up. This not only means that your family may some day have a chance to serve others by opening your home, but you may need to accept that service. Also, as you are packing the car it is not a bad idea to include some camping equipment.

These have often been rural areas, where there is the possibility of having livestock, which seriously increases evacuation time. Think about your animals in advance, even if that just means that one of the many dangers of allowing cats outdoors or dogs off-leash and not in fenced areas is that you may not be able to find your pets when you need them.

But the other really important thing to remember is that this is a community wide issue. Know your neighbors and their needs. Help each other. Do you have older neighbors? Neighbors with disabilities? Neighbors with a lot of children? Neighbors who are not native English speakers? You may be able to be very helpful to them, and it is the right thing to do.

Part of emergency preparedness is surviving, but we need the survival of the soul, as well as the body. These are perilous times, and the most important thing is that our hearts do not wax cold.

I will try and write more about that next week.