Those who fight death the most are often those who have no faith/knowledge in what is coming next.

My dear sweet aunt is losing her battle with cancer, yet no one will admit it. It is a game of silence they are playing. Maybe if we don't speak of it, it won't happen. Maybe if we don't plan for it or even acknowledge it out loud it will not happen. And yet it has been obvious and heart wrenching to those that are watching. Everyone knows inside them that it is time to move on.

I can not blame them for not wanting to give her up. She is an awe inspiring person. But I do wish they would accept the will of the Lord and plan accordingly.

2 Ne. 9: 6, 10-12, 19
6 For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.
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10 O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.
11 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.
12 And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.

Alma 40: 11-14
11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.
12 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

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Mosiah 16: 7-9
7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.
8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
9 He is the alight and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

36 Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.



I wanted to paste these in her guestbook- but that would violate those unwritten laws. So what could I say, if not the comforts in my heart? I shared a memory or two.

cutting off my right hand

I am Preparing to cut off my internet service. In many ways the internet is my eyes, ears and mouth to the larger world. We get our news, family communications and all sorts of banking stuff on line. That won't stop. It will just be slower. I will still have my I- phone, and be able to access the internet and print things at my parent's house.

Doing so will force me away from the computer. I will most likely have a cleaner house and be buying less stuff to put in it. I will also have a much harder time communication with customers and selling items on my website or ebay. I also will not have instant information on all things at my fingertips at all times. That will be hard to adjust to.

Disscussion on birth

Birth is a mountain of personal achievement. It is a mountain that once you get to the top you realize you just climbed the first foot hill to the real mountain of parenthood.

Does it matter how you climb that foot hill? It can have an impact on the health of your body, your child (autism has been possible linked to some western medical birthing procedures)... not as much as the fact that you wanted to and that you landed there to continue the climb up that real mountain.

My first birth profoundly affected every fiber of my body- lots of it through hormones designed to help us achieve birth and then nurture the baby so our genetic material passes on.

Many of these same hormones attend to us while we nurse and raise the child. And these same hormones also allows us to create a long term relationship with spouse and friends.

We feel these hormones surge within us when we spy our child doing something cute, or when they snuggle close to our breast. We feel these hormones at work when our husband brings us a gift or does the dishes. These hormones keep us chemically addicted to the baby or to our spouse.

You can build this hormone connection up with others by serving them, caring for them, and by finding gratitude in what they do for you. That means that we can build this bond with just about anybody we choose. We can build it with our spouse and make our marriage stronger, we can build it with our kids (although that comes so naturally to most mothers)we can build with our co-workers, our neighbors or kids we are adopting. And pretty soon we'll find out that service = love.