Fond Farewells

Today was a sacred day. Once a month Latter Day Saints, otherwise know as Mormons, fast for 24 hours. It is a day of prayer, contemplation, meditation, and hopefully intention. The aim is to forget the sustenance of the body in order to nourish the soul. People often pray for specific blessings on Fast Sunday. Concerns like jobs, illnesses, relationship issues, etc. are often concentrated on upon Fast Sunday. It starts with a prayer on Saturday evening. You pray for your fast to be recognized as a sufficient sacrifice to warrant the divine help you need to solve the problem you are praying about. Then you give up food and water until the next evening. During the 24 hour period you focus on the things of the spirit. Praying, reading scriptures, serving others, preparing to perform your church callings and duties, and meaningful conversation with loved ones are all good activities for Fast Sunday. Good music is also helpful. I prefer 89.5's Ancient Voices as a backdrop for my fasting. (Classical Radio) So today, being Fast Sunday, I prayed for a certain blessing. It's usually not advisable to talk about what one is fasting for but allow me simply to say my fast has something to do with the state of things in our economy and how I really need/want something to change. Now would be a really great time for all that CHANGE Obama was supposed to usher in to arrive. I think it will come. I just don't think Obabma will be the usher. Anyway, today was so special and sacred. It was my first time in my new ward, the Shoal Creek Ward. It is a family ward. For the last four years I have been attending Mt. Bonnell Ward, for young single people. I have been serving as Relief Society President of that ward which is a stewardship over all the young women in the ward. RS Presidents perform many duties including organizing the Visiting Teaching for their ward, teaching monthly Sunday lessons, overseeing compassionate service, organizing workshops, providing service opportunities and projects, and caring for the needs of all the women in her care. I have been serving in this capacity for 22 months. It was such a blessing! I have felt overwhelmed with insight, joy, love and awakenings of all shapes and kinds. It has been amazing. I love these young women. They shine with talent and beauty, virtue and intelligence, ambition and promise. To contemplate all the potential in the room while gathered with these young women causes one's head to spin. Some of them are students. Some of them are working. They come together in such incredible ways to bless each other's lives. I see them laughing together, cooking together, singing, talking, assembling hygiene kits for hurricane victims, packing emergency 72 hour kits of food, sewing quilts for children in third world countries, doing research on their family histories online, teaching lessons, giving talks, bearing testimonies, volunteering, picking people up for church, playing music at the nursing home. To say they've inspired me would be an understatement. They amaze me and words, even for someone as verbose as myself, will just never suffice. They have changed me; the way they have loved me, it has changed me forever. I came back to Austin from Chicago such a broken little person. I didn't know how I would ever recover from the failure of my marriage. I wasn't sure if I would ever be normal again. I was quite alone and very scared and just exhausted in every way. It was a funny thing, being called as the Relief Society President. I probably would have declined the opportunity, feeling too inadequate, had I not had a distinct impression that the calling was coming just a month before it actually did. It was much more fun and much less stressful than I had anticipated and while I served I was healed in ways I would never have dreamed. This calling was as enriching for me as it was for all of the wonderful women I sought to bless and serve. That broken girl who was walking around like a little lost soul was found in the midst of a responsibility that caused her to forget about her problems and focus on others. I won't pretend that I ever forgot my problems entirely or that I was able to become purely saintly. That didn't happen. But I will say that I learned that losing yourself in order to find yourself is the only way to come face to face with the only version of yourself worth knowing at all. I am so thankful to the precious girls who taught me that in such miraculous ways. To my sweet sisters, my precious girls, I love you. Thank you for your voices, your words, your beauty and gentleness. To all of you, I pray the desires of your hearts will be yours indeed and in haste, but no sooner than your Father would give them to you. Please remember your incredible worth, your innocence, your wondrous potential. Oh, the miracles you are capable of! I can't wait! I want to hear that you have all excelled in your chosen fields, married the loves of your lives, and created those eternal families. To every wish worth the endeavor, let us all press on in what we know is true. I love you.