We all have them, but some people are better at managing distractions, instead of letting distractions manage them. It’s good weather in Missouri now, and all I want to do with my energy and time is to work in my garden. A note about the picture: I said this when I was coming out of the anesthesia after one of my (too many) surgeries. Bill wrote it down and I later embroidered and framed it. It is too true of me. If you knew my mom, I think you’d agree that I came by it honestly.

Ambition is an interesting thing. You might like this little video about it. The Will of God

I have been blessed to know some of the things that God wants me to do with my life, and one of those is to “experience joy”. That means a lot of things for me. Experiencing nature, for almost any reason, and any season (except summer in high humidity) is a beautiful, joyful thing to me. Gardening, hiking, exploring, watching thunderstorms, looking at clouds and trees and animals of almost any kind are at the top of my “happy” list.

Creating brings me joy beyond what I can describe. Much of that joy is the tactile dimension of it. I want to touch everything. Feeling texture brings me a surprising amount of pleasure and pottery fills that need in many dimensions. Cooking, sewing, floral arranging, organizing, woodworking, and more; these are all ways I love to create. I think that my way to create is to re-organize. It is taking things from one form and putting them into another. When I create, I take God’s creations and organize them into a woman-made object. What a beautiful way to enjoy His creation and create with Him.

I am having to find different ways to find joy in creating. My left arm still doesn’t work (the Dr. thinks I have nerve damage from the tumor, break and surgery), so if I can do these things I mentioned at all, they are in a very simple form. To be honest, I was pretty angry last week after that doctor appointment. Not angry at God or any person. Just angry. I miss being able to do the things I am talented at. I miss the creative skills that I spent the last 50 years developing. I miss the emotional release of them, and I miss the joy I find in them.

The weekend after that bad news, I listened to 10 hours of the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The speakers opened my eyes to some eternal meanings of joy. I learned that if I can keep myself from getting distracted by the weeds that I can see from every window of my house, I have some new dimensions of joy to discover and experience and keep. They will be part of me no matter what my idiotic body is doing. (yes-I know that’s not true, but it feels that way sometimes).

I’ll just write here the notes I took from one talk. You can read the talks and find your own meaning in the messages for you.

Elder Deiter F. Uchtdorf-A Higher Joy  (not direct quotes):  God’s kind of joy is a higher and more profound joy-a joy that overcomes heartbreak. Godly joy is eternal. Only Christ’s joy is incorruptible. It is pure joy.  *How to receive God’s joy: 1) Press toward the Savior and draw near to Him, 2) Seek for it-we rarely find what we’re not looking for, 3) Share joy, serve, give joy to others, 4) Seek daily for moments of hope, peace and joy, 5) Gratitude is key, 6) Devote my life to God and Jesus Christ.

Here’s the amazing thing about this list; it checks off several of the other things I mentioned that I know God wants me to do with my life! In seeking for God’s kind of joy, I’ll be fulfilling much of my life’s purpose. Now that’s ambitious multi-tasking!

I’ll be working to let my ambition change from my finite, worldly views of joy to God’s omniscient understanding of it. He will have to be very patient with me, I’m so easily distracted. I will have to remind myself every day that when I realize the Godly ambitions, the joy I’ve always experienced in my own (very valid but limited) ways will change in importance. With an eternal perspective and a change in priorities, they will change from a current frustration to a source of hope and excitement (imagine what a perfect body and a mind that finally understands science can create!) Even better than the creations I can do with my mortal body, Christ’s joy will be incorruptible.

I think it’s time to discover a new “hobby”, after all!