LIGHT...

I had to relocate about two thirds of my house plants to the basement when I put up the Nativity sets for Christmas last month.  There just wasn't room to keep them where they normally provided such a rich green jungle for my elephants on the baker's rack in the kitchen and supplied other living oases throughout the house.

However, a month is a long time to be in the dark.  Oh sure, the lights were on while I was downstairs working, and there is some light that comes in the two basement windows. Plus I made sure the plants were still watered and the soil moist while they were down the basement, too.  I didn't neglect them!

But... when I closed the front door on the last of the Nativity Open House guests the night of January 10th, and I went downstairs to retrieve my precious plants, I was more than a little upset at what I found.  I was heartsick!  Four or five of the really delicate ones that need constant watering were outright dead.  The soil was still wet, but the stems were shriveled and the leaves were limp and lifeless, too.  Some of the others had grown tall and rangy, trying for some light I would assume.  They weren't so good looking either.  Still others were on the "okay" side, but their leaves looked like they had been bleached--they were streaked with white and they looked close to albino.  Not deep green at all.  And the rest, like the dense and leafy "Elephant Bush" ( yes, that's really the name of it--so it said on the little CARE pick that came with it) and a couple of others have stems and vines that now drop leaves if the plant is touched at all, until they are almost bare of any foliage.  The only plant that did okay was the Swedish Ivy.  All out of shape, though, and waaaaay over grown for the planter space it's in.  I think it might have hogged what little natural environment there was since most of the other plants were in much smaller pots.

It wasn't too hard to figure out the problem--not enough light! 

Wouldn't it be something if our temporal bodies reflected  the same kinds of results as my plants every time we deprived them of spiritual light--the light of Christ?  Instead of strong limbs, some of the arms and legs would be shriveled and the hands and feet drop off if someone were to touch them.  Or the pigment of our skin started fading when we didn't spend enough time feasting on the scriptures i.e.feeding ourselves the light of Christ.   What if that "growth spurt" causing a gangly  body was the result of concentrating on just a pinpoint of the gospel instead of the whole smorgasbord of saving principles?  What if the consequences were physically visible?

We are taught that Christ is our one true source of light.  We teach our kids to "walk in His light".  We seek to have the light of Christ in our own persona.  We pray that we can radiate the Savior's light by our choices and actions.

But just like the situation with my plants, we need to make sure we have enough light.  We cannot be overshadowed by people and practices that dim the light.  We cannot afford to take a "vacation" in the dark--even a little dark or dark that glows with neon lights.  We might have enough water to get by.  But if we don't have enough of the right kind of light, we are going to stunt our spiritual growth.

That was a surprisingly forceful object lesson for me when I brought my little plants upstairs only to find that all the loving care and coddling I had expended on them was wasted because I didn't leave a light on for them during the time they had to be in the basement.  They had given me such pleasure to see them respond and grow with my constant care.  Now they are changed.

Absence of LIGHT will do some serious damage to us, if not outright cause us to shrivel up and die a spiritual death.  So keep that light switched to "ON"!

I'm going to miss those friendly little plants....

ONCE MORE....WITH FEELING!

I was sustained as Primary President in the Carlson Farm Ward today.  When the bishop called me to this position a month ago following our beautiful Christmas Program in Sacrament meeting on December 20th, I was very surprised.  A calling like this certainly wasn't on my horizon, having just celebrated my 70th birthday and still actively flying for United Airlines with no retirement in eminent sight.

But I figured what the heck--and why not?  Sometimes it's good to have mature, experienced grandmothers in organizations that are usually peopled by young and middle-aged women.  After all, we older women must have learned a thing or two in our previous lives.  Besides, the General Primary Presidency are grandmothers, too!  I am in good company. 

The bishop reassured me he and his counselors were in full agreement, though in the beginning when my name came to them they kept putting it aside.  I think the Lord has confidence in me and in my ability to help the ward children learn the gospel and particularly come to know this year that the scriptures are true.  I have a testimony of that myself.  I can help them gain a testimony of it, and in turn they will strengthen my testimony even more.  I am sure of it.

It has been over 30 years since I was Primary president--my tenures before (including Sweden and Saratoga Springs) were bookended by the youngest and the oldest.    I began serving in a Primary presidency when Harold was an infant--no Primary aged children--in the old Denver First Ward.  The last time I served as Primary president was in the Arvada 5th Ward  when Britty was a baby. I will finish serving this time as Primary president on the opposite end of the spectrum from the first time--again no Primary aged children.  I picked two women as counselors who have also served as president or counselor in other ward Primary organizations.  They will lift me where I am weak, and I will do the same for them.  We will be a good team.  Some of my best friends in this life have been women who have been my counselors in Primary over the years.

Today is the 47th anniversary of that very wonderful day in which the Nichols Family came into being on January 17, 1969.  I can't think of a better way to celebrate that day than with a new chapter in my book of life!

LUCKY SEVEN!

Well, seventy years passed way faster than I could possibly have anticipated!  Even during the past several months while I was tracking my 70th birthday as a benchmark toward my retirement from United, December 2, 2015, still seemed like some far away date.

Now it has come and gone--but not without a proper acknowledgement.  That acknowledgement came from my family who were ALL at Sweetbriar celebrating Thanksgiving together--the first time in the 15 years since I began with United.  I have purposely bid to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years because my kids were all grown and gone.  Others at work with children needed to be with their kids.  On the few years I didn't have an assignment to fly, there were some occasions the family got together during  Thanksgiving week, a couple of years some of the family were together, some years Louis went with me on my United assignment, a couple of times I went to spend Thanksgiving with one of my children, and some years I have been in a hotel room alone eating a McDonald's hamburger for my Thanksgiving dinner.  But what a  celebration Thanksgiving 2015 was!

Apparently, the birthday part had been planned and spearheaded by Brittany ever since she rallied the family several months ago that 2015 would be a Nichols Family Thanksgiving.  Plus United cooperated and gave me my FIRST choice in the yearly vacation bid. What luck!

Slated for the day after Thanksgiving, the birthday party was in the style of a true Nichols Family Home Evening--  not just a couple of hours full of activities but from five pm into the night, the next day, and on into a second evening of fun.  No, it wasn't exactly on my birthday.  It was a few days before, but no matter.  And I finally "got it"--the Nichols Family Thanksgiving was the reason behind the REAL reason.

During Thanksgiving week in addition to time for visiting and cooking the dinner together, several went shopping or stopped in to see friends from the past.  Best of all Judy's brother Edwin had shipped his professional photography equipment to Colorado so he could take pictures of the family.  We hadn't had a family picture for about 10 years, so that was a big plus for being together.

I had told everyone we were going to do a game night on Friday while we ate the abundant desserts like we used to do.  But following Thanksgiving dinner, Brittany announced that we really weren't going to do that.  Instead we were going to have a "surprise" birthday party for me--but they let me in on the surprise since, truthfully, I don't always do well with surprises.

Judy prepared home made pizza dough and all the fixings so everyone could make their own personal pizza.  Brittany and Harold made doughnuts from my mother's recipe which I always requested for my birthday instead of a cake.  There were presents!  And there was a special edition of Trivia Pursuit--Momma G Edition--with 200 questions Brittany put together from a marathon rereading of the 10 years worth of Nichols Family News.  Not even I knew all the answers! 

I'm not sure what my 71st birthday will bring.  Hopefully it will also be a celebration for my retirement from United.  But the way things look now with continuing delays in forging a new contract and no announcement of a second buyout, retirement in 2016 doesn't look like the given it did even a year ago.  I hope I am wrong.

No matter.  It will be my 70th birthday celebration that will remain one of the high points of my seven decades.  No wonder I call it "Lucky Seven"!

THANK YOU, NICHOLS FAMILY!