Temple Cleansing Monday

If you aren't sure what happened on Monday of what we now call Easter week. Christ cleansed the temple.

Yes, Christ got angry and flipped over a table. What would you do if someone was desecrating your home?

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is the day in which Christ entered the city on a white ass, and they lined his path with Palms.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and I love it with all my heart.

You've Got a Friend In Me

If there is anything I've learned over the past few years it is the importance of friendship. There are moments in life when it comes clear that we have met someone for a very important purpose. At the first encounter we aren't always certain why we have met these people, but given time we can usually decipher certain reasons why. Recently I've been able to advise friends and while advising them I've found purpose in what I've said and how it can relate to myself. My last post I talked about how no man is a failure who has friends. I've learned not only within the last year, but especially in the last week how important friendship is. Because here's the thing... as you start to realize the importance of friendship and what it means to talk things out... life in general becomes extremely clear. You realize that everyone in your life is there for all the reasons. On New Year's Eve I spent time just chilling with friends. It was the most beautiful thing ever. Sometimes you need a friend to help you see the light. Speaking of light... have you ever experienced what happens when you realize how beautifully important you are in not only in someone else's life,  but just your own. It's a feeling of love and devotion to all that is around you. When you learn to love yourself loving others becomes a bit easier. You start to see the importance and beauty of life as you see yourself as you see others. There's that golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Or... "Love others as you love yourself." Loving yourself becomes magical when  you realize that you are the most important person in your life.  At first this could be a very scary moment, but then you realize how perfectly magical it is. Occasionally you are able to see yourself in a light you didn't know was possible. You are able at this point to look at yourself in the mirror and just love who you see.

So, "when the road looks rough ahead and your miles and miles from a nice warm bed just remember what your old pal said, bow you've got a friend in me."

I started this blog about a month ago, and I never finished it because I wasn't exactly sure how. I think I needed to see even more clearly why I have the close friends that I do. It isn't every day that you can meet people who you can connect with always. I love that about friendship.

No Man Is a Failure Who Has Friends

"No man is a failure who has friends." -Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life

This year I've learned this to be extremely true. On December 30, 2013 as many know my Grandmother passed away, but that started an entire year of death, trials, heartbreak, successes, failures, and a long journey to find happiness in even those things that are so mundane to many. 

I suppose the best thing to call it is My wonderful life. 

There is something that since the time of Adam & Eve happens to each of us. That thing is known as death. It's something that we all know will one day happen to each of us, but we all are secretly afraid of it. Especially, if it's one of our loved ones that dies. Now, when death occurs we mostly want our friends and family there for us. And I've discovered that one of the worst possible things to say is "I'm sorry for your loss" Okay... you have sympathy for the fact that I just lost a loved one, but WHY do you say that? Now the description of Death from dictionary.com is rather interesting "the end of life; the total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions of anorganism."

Death is something that has happened far too often throughout one's life. Just this year in my family there were 4 deaths, and just after Grandma Jeane's funeral last January my mom and I went to two more. All year long it's been this journey between life and death. I think after my Grandma passed away I went into a really long coma where I didn't want to talk to very many people about it. It kind of allowed me to help my family when my other Grandma passed away in August. However, nothing could have possibly prepared me for the death of my cat in October. Once her kidneys failed she decided to give up on life. She looked like she would pull through, but as much as a human can get a kidney transplant our animals cannot. 




Jeane Alice Mayhoffer passed away December 30, 2013. On December 31, 2013 I traveled to Colorado for a funeral. I heard once that how you spend New Year's Eve is how you will spend much of your year. I spent my New Year going to a funeral. Much of the year I experienced death. It was an enormous learning experience for me.



The next death that hit me pretty hard was my cat, Maria.She was having seizures and I didn't like seeing her suffer. Before Maria passed my Grandma Baron passed away in August. So, it was definitely a year of death for me, but the thing I noticed is there was usually a friend that I could talk to. I remember clearly when my cat passed away a dear friend of mine let me cry on his shoulder. There's something about our animals that just connects to our hearts, and only another animal lover can understand.



Truth: I wrote a longer blog about all of this but it got deleted.:( so, this is the shorter version.

End of story is just this. NO MAN IS A FAILURE WHO HAS FRIENDS. I love my friends. Especially those that probably don't realize just how much they've done so much for me.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

Maria Baron 1998-October 1, 2014

Let me take you on a little journey of a precious little kitten that turned into one of my greatest friends!
In 1998 there was a litter of kittens left outside the LDS church in Denham Springs, Louisiana. As each kitten one by one was taken home my brother rescued this poor kitten from underneath the stage. After asking our Bishop what we should do we ended up taking her home. We built this cardboard box with a shoe box inside as a litter box so we could teach her how to use it. My brother,  David taught her. We kept trying to find a home for her in Denham and Walker and yet... the vet had no home for her. So, eventually we ended up having to board her with our Dog (Thorn) and our other cat (Shelly).We had already started calling her Maria because my mom had the song from Sound of Music pop into her head... "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" Soon we ended up keeping her, and she became my kitty. She slept in my room at night, and I had a shoe rack on the door... so, I quite often got the wake up call with her climbing up the door. However, way back then... Shelly wanted nothing to do with her. So, she started following Thorn around the house. She came to a whistle, she came to the sound of food, and she stayed by the window and waited for mom to come home with him. One of her favorite spots to sleep back then was in between my legs! She would often get into little fights with other cats (except Shelly). Shelly mostly ignored her. BUT I have stories... The way my bed was at one point is that it was right underneath the window with a headboard where Maria could get up to the window sill and look out... Quite often you could hear feral cats yowling outside the window. .. This would tick Maria off, and one night she had a fight through the window and ended up falling backwards right on top of my head! It was a very good thing that it was the one time she didn't land feet first because my head would have been scratched. After that I kept her calm when I heard those cats. There was another time where Shelly got involved... My brother told me this story where Shelly was the middle cat. He watched as he heard this cat fight in the backyard in our big gardenia bush, and he saw Shelly run in... then he saw Maria run out, another cat come out, and then Shelly came out. Shelly always ended up defending Maria outside of the house even though it seemed like inside she didn't care about her. They became buddies... Especially, after Thorn passed away. So, How do you solve a problem like Maria? YOU LOVE HER TO THE VERY END! THAT'S HOW!