Books and things.

Dan spent a week in Korea. I spent a week keeping up with kids, cousins, camps and reunions. He gets back tonight. (If I could do back flips I'd be doing them.) This also means we broke our media fast and the children watched a small collection worth of vintage Disney VHS cassettes that were left in our cabin to taunt them each summer.

I also borrowed some of dad's hand tools to supplement my single hammer and pair of screw drivers so that I could hang some mirrors and a set of drapes at the cabin. Who needs their own set of tools when dad lives down the road? 

I also gave up precious sleep to paint our bathroom. Totally paid for it the next morning.

It seems I usually get more reading in during the summer. And I usually pass a list back and forth with Jeremiah. As his thesis has just wrapped up, he's finally got a minute to read. So for all interested, these are the books I've recently/currently enjoyed. 

Just finished: The Count of Monte Cristo. Always good no matter how many times you've read it.

Currently listening to: The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kashimi and Fumitake Koga. Dan recommend it, and i'm thankful that he spends so much time reading. Highly recommend.

Next up: Anna Karenina, In Dan's words, same ideas as the book I'm reading but in novel form.

Others:

Thinner Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews

One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly (Already recommended, but I'm recommending it again.)

The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz

And I'll throw in 2nd Nephi. Worth a browse.

I'm starting a fitness Challenge with Ann and Christy (Also, Leif, Dan and my Mom) on Monday. Lots of good vibes. Here's to good health, clean food and lifestyle

Halfway.

This word could be used to describe so many things in my life. It means more or less the middle of the journey, substance or effort in which I am a part of. It also denotes change, and hopefully progress. 

For example the container of ice cream in my freezer... I don't want to argue the point that the container is half empty or half full, but just acknowledge that it is. And it has remained in that state for two weeks. (If I am not to eat it then I should throw it away so it doesn't temp me. Erh, Dan.)

It is July 1st. Today is exactly halfway though our summer. It means we should have done all the important stuff by now. Ann's family flew home yesterday, sports camps start tomorrow, and then 3 weeks of reunions and sooner than I'd like to think we'll be packing up for our flights. Our list of experiences to have or people to visit doesn't seem any shorter than when we arrived. 

My grandmother has been quite ill. Hospitalised with dementia and a systemic infection, it seemed that her body was deteriorating past recovery. She has recuperated well, but has moved from and independent lifestyle to one with daily care and her mind will never be restored to the same capacity.

I am half her age. (approximately) And when death lingers at the door there is some inevitable contemplation. I am not comparing what she accomplish with what I hope to accomplish, but I do want to be motivated by the amount of good and those she influenced through out her lifespan. At my age she was raising 4 children on her own, had a career to pursue and dreams that she had to shelf until life dealt her an easier hand. I can't imagine trying to do that job without Dan by my side, I am only half of that Dream Team.

Halfway is a measurement comparing a point at which you determine progress from your start to the predetermined ending.

My mother asked me today how [I] might increase my desire to grow closer to God. I immediately thought, "Well, you either have an interest in God or you don't." Do you agree? I'm not so sure that statement is true as I know my own spiritual progress ebbs and flows.  So if you don't, then what is it that you earnestly seek or work towards? Maybe you think you want to draw closer to Him, to understand His will, but you get distracted. And by what? What pulls so many of us or our family and friends away from that one true source of happiness. And what if we (of which I know none) are those who have never heard of His existence and thus do not know what we don't know? I could easily end this thought by saying I am somewhere in the middle of understanding, I'll just leave it with a hope that I never lose that desire like Alma taught to let that desire work in you, "...if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." And as Elder Christofferson put so well, "God's ultimate purpose is our progress." And being somewhere in the middle, I can be satisfied with that.