I miss going to church on these Sundays that I have to stay away from people and germs. But I have enjoyed the quiet time at home. I have read some of the talks from the last general conference. I think one of my favorite talks was given by D. Todd Christofferson titled "Free Forever, to Act for Themselves". He talks about the agency we have been given by God and how we are ultimately responsible for our choices. I have always felt that we choose how we react to the situations that mortal life presents to us. And that the situations are a test of our faith and our decision to follow Christ. And in the end they are for our growth and progression. You can listen to, or read, this talk here at lds.org.
This has been a good week for me. I have felt pretty good, have gone to the gym and been able to run the errands I needed to. And I was able to go to the temple for an endowment session on Monday. I love sitting in the celestial room in the temple!
I have been able to eat and have a good appetite. But a weird thing is that I feel like I am always looking for something to eat. It may be that food doesn't taste quite right and I am looking for something that tastes as good as I remember it. I actually had some ice cream the other day. I have been trying to stay away from sweets, but it just sounded so good. As I was eating it, I realized that it didn't taste as good as I thought it would. Darn! Cause I really do like ice cream!! Especially chocolate with almonds. I have tried a couple of new recipes this week. One that I think I will keep is for a sweet potato carrot curry soup. Strong flavors and salty things seem to be able to wake up my taste buds!
Ken went to St. George this week to go to the national parks down there to take photos, but I decided I wanted to stay here. Our friends, Joy and Larry Erickson, were coming into town from Illinois to visit their daughter here in Utah. And I really wanted to be able to spend time with them before I needed to quarantine myself. Also, another friend from our time in Michigan, Meghan Decker, has been out here helping her daughter with a new grandbaby and I wanted to get together with her. So I stayed here.
I enjoyed both the afternoons I was able to visit with each of these friends and spend time catching up with each other and just sharing friendship. (I can't believe I didn't take any pictures!) I started thinking about how long we have known the Erickson - 24 years! Joy has been such a good friend to me, even though we have not lived near each other for the last 14 years. It is always good to visit with her. Larry has retired from working for pharmaceutical companies and has been involved in cancer research. It was interesting to talk with him about the chemo drugs I am being infused with. Basically, it is a very fine line between enough of these poisonous drugs to kill the cancer and not so much that it will kill you. Comforting, huh? I will have to do a post about the things Ken and I have learned about cancer and it's treatments. We have read some good books about the subject.
Meghan is an amazing woman. She has co-authored a book about dealing with depression and she works in communication. She is also an awesome mom and grandma. We have talked some about meditation and mind/body connection. She gave me a book titled "It's Easier Than You Think, The Buddhist Way to Happiness". One of the first pages in the book was about struggles in our lives and managing gracefully. That has been my prayer since my diagnosis - that I would be able to handle this trial gracefully.
So, some things I am thankful for this week:
-Wonderful out-of-town friends that I was able to visit with.
-A warm house and an electric blanket. (Can you tell it's been cold?!)
-Books. I do love to read!
-Scriptures, and the insights that come the more I spend time reading them.
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