"Its just Stuff..."

I love my "stuff"...and I have A LOT of "stuff"...house stuff, decorating stuff, girly stuff, Christmas stuff (that is an understatement) stuff I can't get rid of, stuff I'm sure I've forgotten about and don't even remember that I have! Can you relate to this?

We all have "stuff"....and I've been thinking about the lesson I learned right after Natalie passed away, that helps me to remember every day that

"stuff is just stuff and in the big scheme of things...really doesn't matter at all"

I was going through some papers in my binder that I use for my church calling and came across a talk that I had given at the institute a couple of years ago...so I stopped and re-read it...and again, was reminded of this lesson that I had learned, and perhaps needed to be reminded of again... and just like my previous post about everything I learned in Kindergarten...I still have to learn things by repetition...and being reminded of them over and over...

so this lesson bears repeating...if only for my own sake.

In this talk I talked about "stuff" and how we need to keep our "stuff" in perspective. I related the story of how after Natalie passed away Kent and I were helping Colby with Noah as much as we could. It had been a week or more since Natalie passed away, and we needed more of Noah's clothes and things, so I needed to go to her and Colby's home to collect some of his things. This was the first time I had gone back to her home after she passed away. As I walked up to the front door, turned the key and went inside....I remember feeling almost a reverence for walking inside...it was quiet, clean, and Natalie was everywhere. Her darling decorations...her furniture, her pictures, her curtains that we sewed together....

Her Stuff

I remember just standing there...wanting so bad to have her walk around the corner in her pajama pants and a t-shirt with a huge smile and saying HI!...but all there was...was quiet.

I turned to go into Noah's nursery and there in Natalie's kitchen next to the phone was her purse with her checkbook, her credit cards, her keys to her new car she had only gotten the week before, her cell phone. There was her "stuff" right there where she had left it.

Stuff...stuff she didn't take with her, stuff that we worry about, can't live without, don't walk out the door without. It hit me right then...this lesson, that all of this was "just stuff" and we spend so much time and money and worry over all our stuff...and we don't take ANY of it with us when we leave...

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't have stuff.....because of course stuff is neccessary to make our houses our homes, and we obvioulsy need stuff in order to function every day....the point I'm trying to make is "the person with the most toys at the end of the day, does NOT win".....because no matter what stuff you've accumulated, your not taking it with you...so remember what's important in life...your knowledge, your family, your faith....your spirit.

I actually have a little bit of Natalie's "stuff" incorporated into my stuff....it reminds me everyday of her personality, what made her home so incredibly her. Natalie loved Rooster stuff...her kitchen was darling and cozy...the Rooster that roosted over her kitchen now roost's over mine...

And I'll never forget that someone gave her this little ceramic rooster gravy boat....she never really knew what to do with this little guy, and I remember she tucked it in a little spot in a cute wooden hutch she had....now, he sits right front and center on my kitchen counter...next to this simple block of wood she had that declared her love for roosters.

It's not much "stuff"....but it is just a little of Natalie's "stuff"....the kind of stuff...I can't get rid of.

And no, I won't take it with me when I leave....but it's the kind of stuff that reminds me everyday what the most IMPORTANT stuff is.

"What matters most is what lasts longest. And our families are for eternity." M. Russell Ballard

Everything I know...I learned in Kindergarten....

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be

I learned in kindergarten.

These are the things I learned.

Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why,

but we are all like that.

Noah... watching you start your first day of Kindergarten

is harder than I ever thought it would be....

I will be brave...

you have taught me much more than I ever learned in Kindergarten....and

I'm ready to watch you learn and grow beyond the little giant you already are!

Prayers for Jill......

This is my darling niece Jill

Jill is soft spoken, extremely smart, gentle and unassuming. Jill is a wife and a mother, a daughter and a sister, a niece and above all....

Jill is beautiful inside and out.

Jill has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

She will undergo surgery this Tuesday August 12.

"Life has its share of some fear and some failure. Sometimes things fall short, don't quite measure up. Somtimes in both personal and public life, we are seemingly left without strength to go on. Sometimes people fail us, or economies and circumstances fail us, and life with its hardship and heartache can leave us feeling very alone. But when such difficult moments come to us, I testify that there is one thing which will never, never fail us. One thing alone will stand the test of time, of all tribulation,

One thing only never faileth-and that is the pure love of Christ....

Only the pure love of Christ will see us through.

Only his pure love enables him-and-us to bear all things, believe all things,

hope all things, and endure all things. (moroni 7:45)

His pure love never fails us, not now, not ever. Not ever."

Jeffery R. Holland

A person without hope is a person without a heart;

and Jill has the biggest heart I know.

We love you and are praying for you Jill---

we have faith along with hope that all will be well.

All your prayers in Jill's behalf are so appreciated~