Times and Seasons

I love the Springtime! It is so beautiful. Flowers and trees are in bloom, grasses grow and the world just seems more alive. The weather begins to warm, but there are still cool, pleasant showers. All is working together to help life begin again and to flourish. I do love the springtime. It seems silly to say "It is one of my favorite seasons" since there are only four (or three if you live in Utah). Actually, my favorite season is the fall. Which, coincidentally, is the exact opposite of the springtime. The Fall seems so peaceful to me; the changing of the leaves, the cool frosty mornings, the quiet stillness as things seem to fall asleep. It is so beautiful despite the fact that it is a time of ending, decay, and death (that sounds a little grim). It isn't exactly a time of death though, but more of a time of hibernation. And yet, if it weren't for springtime it would be grim. If the fall came, and we knew that the springtime wouldn't come to renew all of nature that was dying, could it be beautiful? It would seem oppressive, depressing, all consuming. We do have a spring though; we know that in a few months time we will begin to see all that has passed return. Beauty, life, glory restored! So is it our faith in the spring that makes the fall beautiful? The Fall lends glory to and brings the true power of spring to our understanding... (I think you all can easily take this next step with me.)
We have just been privileged to celebrate the single greatest event that has happened in the history of the world (and beyond). The Atonement of the Son of Man. When Jesus Christ performed the acts that made him our Savior. He created this world, it's times and it's seasons. He organized them in a way so as to teach us and to help our understanding of the great sacrifice that he has made for us. Just as the Fall is an ending of life, all must come to the end of their own immortal life on earth. If there is no hope of a Spring than Fall is only an ending. And so if all mankind died and that was the end, then it would indeed be oppressive, depressing, and all consuming. However, we have all been given a Spring, a time of life again. That is the gift that He has given to us all. Life Again! And it isn't only for a chosen few, but for all men. Just as we watch in wonder at the beauty of the passing away of life in the fall, we can find joy in the passing of all life that has fulfilled the measure of it's creation.
Yet, the symbol does not end there. In our own lives we may see the beauty of this "new life" over and over again. We have been given the hope of a Spring not only for our bodies, but for our very souls. We may each, at different times, feel a falling away, a dying inside. We may feel that the hope of Spring is gone for us; that we have truly died and that in this we come to a dead end. Do not lose hope in Spring too soon. Life, like hope, Springs Eternal! We are given the hope of Spring over and over again, but our Spiritual Spring requires something from us (unlike the physical spring that we will all be given freely). Just like the seed cannot become the mustard tree by staying a seed forever; it must be nourished and fed, and then the seed itself needs to open and push itself upward towards the light. So, too, we must be fed and nourished, and push ourselves toward the Light of the Son that warms the Earth and brings forth new life. I know that death is not the end of this life. I know that our spiritual falling away can be turned into an opportunity for new life, if we are nourished by the word and warmed by the love of God. Hope "Springs" Eternal, do not despair of the Fall, and He will raise us up through His Love and our Faith to an Eternal Spring.

Catch and Release

What is it about 5:30pm with a crying baby, dinner half made, cupcakes half made, laundry half done, Family Home Evening Lesson to give, two hyper-active children and a husband to feed that just makes a person want to grab their head in both hands and scream...Perhaps we'll never know. However, as I was folding the first half of the laundry while the fed, FHE-ed, and sugared children argued in the bath I started to think about how my day had gone from pleasant to Camp Frustration in about 5 minutes. It wasn't the crying baby (I am all too good at tuning that one out), it wasn't the fact that the baking soda was in clumps in the cupcakes (they all floated to the top to be pulled off), it was the fact that I was angry at me for allowing myself to become so frustrated. The problem with this situation is that no matter how much you know that the real person you are mad at is yourself, nobody else knows! So now you just seem like the mean grumpy mom who is mad at everyone, and short-tempered. It really isn't fair! Sometimes you just need to be upset all by yourself for a few minutes, work through what-ever-it-is that got you to this point, and then you can go back to being the nice, happy, patient mom that everyone knows and loves.
So what do you do to work through all the garbage? If I could have my own personal listener (someone who doesn't require anything from me, who doesn't try to fix me, who doesn't have any other obligations at the moment, someone who isn't going to feel attacked, and who is going to immediately forget everything I just complained about ) I could just sit and talk through everything. Unfortunately, there is only one such person, and I don't have the opportunity to talk to him face to face. So, I could just internalize everything and let it fester, focus on it continually until I feel so misused by the world that I am always bitter and angry, or... I could use that release. For most things, like the little day to day annoyances, it isn't important enough to hold on to, but it is important enough to let it go. In the 22nd chapter of Alma, in the Book of Mormon, Aaron is teaching the King of the Lamanites about the plan of salvation and the King, with the intent of repenting and obtaining peace, prays thus "...wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee..." I love that he phrases it that way, as if his sins had before been his treasures, and that he would offer them to God in order to be clean again.
It isn't enough to just take hold of all that is alienating you from peace, or causing frustration, but you need to give it all away, let it go...
Catch and Release.

Mason Twist?

I am sure you are all wondering around now, "What's that supposed to mean?" If you are, you have no imagination at all.
I am sure that you can imagine the stress one feels when faced with the responsibility of naming something: a child, a pet, a blog site. Well, one has to make sure that the name has meaning (at least a non-negative meaning). It is even better with multiple meanings. Something clever or witty...Well, I wanted to name my "blog" something that made sense at well. So, just to sum up... A name that characterizes myself, as well as describing what will be included in the blog, it must be funny, witty, clever, and have depth and meaning...yea, right! So, the question is, what is a "Mason Twist"?
About 7 weeks ago my husband Joshua and I embarked on a 90 day fitness program of high intensity. Included in the workout was a special little move called the "Mason Twist". I instantly felt a kinship with the exercise and felt that this was something I should be good at. I am, after all, a Mason. Allow me to describe this little move, if I may. It is done by sitting on the ground with your legs extended in front of you. Picking up your legs, while keeping your chest as high as possible, you clasp your hands in front of you. Then while keeping all of your weight exclusively on your tailbone you move your clasped hands from one side of your body to the other, touching the floor each time. In our program we do this move 40-50 times, consecutively. I hope you are getting a good mental picture, if not you may want to plop down on the floor and try...I'll wait...Okay, I am sure you now have an appreciation for the fact that I was not immediately successful with this move.
So why did I choose to name my beautiful blogging thoughts after this crazy move? I am using it as a metaphor for my life. There are three central elements to being successful with the Mason Twist. Strength, Flexibility, and Balance. Can you see where this is going? Life, like our Mason Twist move, is much more complicated and difficult than it may appear at first glance. It requires strength, flexibility, and balance. The the better you get at it (a.k.a. the more strength, flexibility, and balance you have) the better you do, and the more you are able to do. Subsequently the more strength, flexibility, and balance you are able to achieve. Each element in and of itself is essential. You need strength to keep yourself going; you need flexibility to give your strength it full worth and to increase it as well; and you need to have balance or the whole effort is wasted. Without the balance you are not able to use your flexibility and strength, but when you are able to gain your balance everything works together to improve the whole. Otherwise you are just going to teeter off to one side and then nothing is accomplished.
So, in using the "Mason Twist" exercise as a springboard for my musings I hope to give an idea of the types of metaphors that I like to use to learn. Hopefully I will be expanding my own understanding as well as helping others to have a slightly different perspective on life.
I guess you could say, I am just putting my own "twist"on things.

Inspiration in Earnest

So this is it! My first foray into the fantastic world of blogging. I know what you are asking yourselves, "Why?" The answer is simple, inspiration. So, was it a matter of inspiration to take on this task of creating a blog for the whole world to be profited by? No, not really. This is more of an inspiration from a friend; a way for me to document my day to day inspirations. So as my beautiful, talented, wonderful, etc... friend Kirsten says "It's just my journal". What better reason do I need than that? A fun, convenient way to keep my thoughts somewhere other than my head. An outlet for all that is cluttered in my brain. A pensieve if you will. Allowing me to take my cluttered thoughts out and peruse them at my leisure. Also, as an added bonus: all mankind with internet access may benefit from my abundant wisdom. So, if I may, I will quote from the fabulous work of Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest" -"You see it is simply a very young girl's record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication."(Cecily) So look out virtual world, the thoughts and impressions of one Stephanie Mason are well on their way to being read by upwards of 7 whole people. More to come...