Nancy's Musings

I love Winter. It's my favorite season. But I am just having the hardest time coming up with reasons to look forward to next year. So since I'm a masochist, this is the "reasons 2017 might not suck as hard as I think it's going to" list. I'm determined not to stop listing until I have at least twelve. 1) If I stay on schedule, I could actually receive my PhD this year. I know I've said this before, that's why this list includes the word "might" in the title. 2) Plants grow in the Spring, so I can start my seedlings next month or so. 3) I get to celebrate everybody's birthday ALL OVER AGAIN!!! Thank-you, Facebook. 4) I could finally move to Idaho. I'm just waiting for the word. I have all my winter clothes packed. Under my skin, really. This *gestures to abundant self* never gets cold. 5) This could be the year I meet a kind, intelligent, confident, single, and open-minded man who wants to spend time with me. Any time at all....

Today, right before the Christmas Program, the Bishop's counselor announced the death of a member of the stake. He said it with a little bit of irony: my ward is being transferred to another stake at the beginning of next year. Most of the members of my ward don't live in these boundaries, and I'm sure most people shrugged off the announcement, but I'm afraid I was too surprised to look at anyone. I'm a local girl. I grew up in this house. I've been a member of this stake since the mid 1980s. The name was familiar to me - not because it matched a face. I have no idea what he looked like. I only met him once. But his signature is as familiar to me as my own. He was the stake Patriarch who gave me my Patriarchal Blessing. I'm not particularly sentimental. I was as surprised to find myself crying through three hours of church as anyone else would have been, if they'd noticed. But words mean a lot to me, and those words are alive. St. George is thickly do...