wood and sand and time

wood and sand and time

melded into faint pathways

leading to stillness

Ledes & Limericks. Tuesday January 30 2018

The Chicago Sun-Times will not publish columns or reviews
authored by Richard Roeper as the newspaper investigates the legitimacy
of Roeper’s sizable Twitter following.  From the Chicago Sun Times.

A twitter account that is broad

Is probably terribly flawed.

Reporters who boast

That they have the most

Real followers may be a fraud.

To Get Anything Done,

Georgia Politicians Say,

‘Do It for Amazon’

Atlanta’s an Amazon town;

They want it so bad they will clown

Or vote in all ways

That Amazon says --

It seems like a fiscal shakedown.

How to Get a Wiretap to Spy

on Americans, and Why

That Matters Now

I think that my neighbor’s a spy;

He looks like the type that would lie.

I just need a judge

Who’s likely to fudge

And let me eavesdrop on the sly.

Goodbye, Goofy Hats:

Extreme Balloon Twisters

Inflate the Art Form

There was an artistic young guy

Who blew up balloons in black tie.

But at the event

A strange accident

With helium made too high.

Charlie Chaplin

Pen & ink by the Thai artist Nan

he went long ago

ageless and agile by turns

he left us life

Email from my missionary daughter in San Clemente

Hello everyone!!

It's been a great week here in the California Irvine Mission :) Thank you for all of your positive uplifting thoughts and prayers, I definitely felt them this week. I truly love being able to be a servant of God and have a front row seat in watching how He works in other people's lives. I don't really believe in coincidences anymore, but I do believe in divine design. I am able to see everyday that God has a plan for each and every one of us, and He wants to help us in our goals and desires as long as they are pure, honest, and in line with His will. He puts people in our lives that help us learn certain things, and I think that's the biggest way that I know He's there. We do have to ask, seek and knock - which isn't easy all the time- but we're promised that he'll answer us and never leave us without direction as long as we're keeping our promises we've made to him. We're just ordinary people, but we are also children of God, who is the most powerful being ever. But He chooses us to do His work, and I feel humbled by that. He has given me so much strength and faith and hope, that I cannot ever deny His existence. 

God also has quite a sense of humor haha.  Last week I had an experience at the gym where Sister Aebischer and I go to work out . We get up every day at 6:30 and go straight to the gym and usually there aren't very many people there, maybe one sometimes. But that day there were 5 or 6 people and so I was sitting on a bench reading the Book of Mormon waiting for a machine to open up, when this lady walks past and starts to use a weight machine behind me. I can hear her working pretty hard, when all of a sudden she puffs out between breaths: "Give me a verse!"

And I was like...." What?...." I think i was still trying to wake up, and then on top of that realize that someone was actually requesting that I read them a scripture haha. She repeated her question and I mildly panicked for a few seconds while I tried to find a good verse that would give her motivation, as she had requested. I flipped back a couple pages from where I was reading and read her Alma 26:12 which says: 

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; 

therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles 

we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name 

forever"

And then there was silence for a second while she absorbed what I had read, and then she asked if that was in the Bible, to which I readily replied that it was from another book of scripture called the Book of Mormon and that we read the Bible as well. She took the news well and so I asked her if I could give her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she said yes! She was just visiting a friend who lives in our apartment complex, so I would never see her again, but we dropped by later and gave her a copy. I don't really know if she'll ever read it, but I hope she will. You never know when or where you'll be able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone, so be prepared haha! 

Something that I've been thinking about the past couple of weeks is the hymn "Where Can I Turn for Peace". I love the last verse of this beautiful hymn which says:  

   He answers privately, 

   Reaches my reaching

In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.

Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.

Constant he is and kind,

Love without end.

I am always amazed at how much Jesus loves us all and how much he went through for each of us individually. His pain and suffering was for all mankind, but also very individual. I take great comfort in the fact that he knows how I feel in my best and worst moments. Sometimes I wonder why so many awful things happen in the world, but I am comforted in the knowledge that All that is unfair can be made right through Jesus Christ and his Atonement. 

I love the people here, even though they are very different than what I'm used to. I love being a missionary and I love having fun and finding joy in my service! I promise that in the next few weeks I will attach pictures! I love you all so much, thank you for being you and never be afraid to share the gospel with someone and how it has blessed your life. Everybody needs it, whether or not they know it ;) 

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Torkildson

Winter Waiting

Photograph by Yoshi Manumoto

waiting in winter

waiting by the dim frost veil

waiting becomes joy

Ledes & Limericks. Monday January 29,2018

A paid death notice for Big Mama, a 6-year-old Rhode Island Red,
appeared on Tuesday in The Eagle newspaper, which is based in
Bryan, Texas.  From Huffington Post.

An obit for chickens is rare;

It might make some editors stare.

At least the paid views

Cannot be fake news,

Or bot-driven clickbait -- so there!

In another dramatic shake-up at the Los Angeles Times,
Chicago journalist Jim Kirk will be named editor in chief
of the newspaper, replacing Lewis D’Vorkin, who will
move to another position within the parent company.

The move — which is expected to be announced Monday—
follows two weeks of turmoil at The Times,
including a unionization vote by newsroom employees
and accelerating hostilities between D’Vorkin and his staff.  
 From KTLA

Seems editors and their affairs

Are playing at musical chairs;

With unseemly speed

The old ones are kneed,

So new ones can give themselves airs.

 The minimalist look has caught on in certain design circles.
By turning books around, the taupe and white page edges
are shown on a shelf instead of book spines that often don’t match
the rest of the décor.  There’s just one catch. Hiding a book’s spine
also obscures useful information, like the title of the book or its author—
and that has some people feeling snubbed.  From the Wall Street Journal

I never read books anymore;

They simply are there for decor.

Their soothing pastels

Are nice parallels

To the blandness of mind I adore.

Lawyers Faced With Emojis

and Emoticons Are

All ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A lawyer in Sandusky, OH,

Did sue a most hapless fellow

For his emojis

That were sent to please

His girlfriend and make her mellow.



and finally:

Reporters who hang around Trump

Are subject to his constant grump.

Is it worth a scoop

To take all his poop --

Or wouldn’t they rather gas pump?

the cold dawn pastels

the cold dawn pastels

above the snowy rooftops

promise just one day

the gloss of winter

the gloss of winter

preserves the longing for spring

in the cold white heart

Ledes & Limericks. Sunday January 28 2018. Special LDS Edition.

LDS Church statement on

DACA calls for

'hope and opportunity'

Hope and opportunity may be in short supply

As the country struggles with what’s true and what’s a lie.

But no fake news has ever been invented that could sway

The pure in heart from working for more justice, less delay.

May all good people here upon our soil find recompense

For immigration policies that rarely make much sense.

Aren’t we all just strangers in a land that’s strange indeed --

Working for our visa to a place with love, not creed?  

LDS founders of ‘Beauty

Redefined’ say the road

to body image resilience

is found in power and

purpose

A positive body image

Is something I struggle to keep.

Especially since fried chicken

Is getting to be really cheap.

Maybe it’s time I consider

My image needs an overhaul --

And stop thinking I am a bean pole,

but more of a round bowling ball!

OR

There was an old man from Tooele

Who flavored his food with vanilla.

A diet, said he,

For firm mastery

in eating just a scintilla.

More Mormons approved of President Donald Trump's
job performance last year than any other religious group.
An incredible 61 percent of members of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints said they approved of Trump in
2017, according to a new Gallup report, an apparent shift
from the religious group's feelings towards Trump during
the 2016 election.   From Newsweek

The reason that Mormons support

Such a remarkable sport

Is that they believe

On earth we must grieve

To get to a heavenly court.

The mountains hold mute

the last ones of all

an obsolete tribe of brown

the mountains hold mute

the cold night rouses

there is a hint of something

lighter than snowfall

the rose haw is shut

the tumbled stones rest for good

winter means to hold