By the Light of the Silvery Moon

If you're hearing barbershop quartet music in your mind, then I've had the intended effect.

Tonight I went for a walk. It has been the quintessentially perfect Spring Saturday here. I started to walk down the block and turned around because I heard an oncoming car, but then I saw the moon. It was enchanting...an apricot-colored sphere lit, it seemed, from within. I turned around and headed toward Muskegon Lake so I could get a better view. I stopped at a boardwalk/overlook at the end of my block and just listened. (Yep, I even turned off the iPod!). The moon's light was spread across the lake in a wide swath and the waves, such as they were, lapped quietly against the sand. As a kid I used to climb down that hill and sit on the beach; it's a shame that now it's overgrown with beach grass and trees or I would have climbed down again. I felt so peaceful. (Quiet's a rare thing at this point in my life!). I just thanked Heavenly Father that I live in this place and enjoyed this moment.

I don't have much else to say, really. But I came across a quote by Parley P. Pratt that I used to have written on the inside of my college-class copy of The Book of Mormon. Here goes:

"The gift of the Holy Spirit...quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections; it adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being." (Key to the Science of Theology, p. 100-101.)

Sometimes I reflect on issues facing the Church, or certain points of Church history or doctrine, and I can't see clearly now, with the knowledge and understanding I have, how it is to be reconciled. I realize, however, that the surest test of truth is a witness from the Holy Ghost, and that of all the things I must strive to have (Disney Vacation Club membership, thin thighs, perfect kids), the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost is the greatest of all of them.

Well, that list is pretty frivolous, but you take my point.

Thanks to all the ladies who came over for our Big Dinner Party in Andrea's honor last night. Rachel: Andrea, Holly and I all had our matching purses coincidentally lined up on a table and agreed that, yep, it was a little scary! We love our going-away gifts.