Giving Thanks: I am thankful for the miracle of music.

Music is the language of the soul. It can create emotion. It can be shared by people of different cultures and understood by all. It can slow down your heart rate, or speed it up. It can do some amazing things to your brain. Mozart helps me concentrate. I have different sound tracks for my writing projects. Avril Levigne's music is figuring prominently in my current NaNoWriMo project. I'll bet you can guess the genre from that clue alone.

We've all seen people who have such a strong stammer or stutter that they can barely speak, but who sing flawlessly. I'm posting this video that a friend shared on Facebook, because it shows the way music can work miracles. You may want to have a tissue handy. I am thankful for the miracle of music.

Giving Thanks: I have hands.

I'm thankful that I have hands. I use them for almost everything, except walking and breathing. My father insisted I learn to type when I was in high school. Now I use my hands for my vocation, which is transcription, and my avocation, which is writing. I use my hands for hobbies, like needle work, or holding a book (or plugging in my ear buds and tapping the screen of my tablet to start an audiobook). I use my hands to touch, to feel, to create, to serve.

I've seen people who have lost the use of their hands, to accident or disease, or who have been born with conditions that affect the movement of their hands, or who have been born with no hands at all. And I look at my hands and think, "I am so blessed."

Giving Thanks: I am thankful for firewood!

Today, it is overcast and COLD. But inside, we have a nice, big, wood stove with a roaring fire. We heat with a combination of propane, electricity, and wood. The first two are good for warming up the house, but the radiant heat from the wood stove warms ME. It's a little like sitting outside in the sun on a warm summer day, without the sunburn. I am thankful for the stack of firewood on my front porch, to feed that wonderful wood stove.

Giving Thanks: Sunshine

Today was such a beautiful, sunshiny day. In the past week it's been cold and overcast and blustery. We even had a little snow just in time for Halloween. But this morning we woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine. It was a nice break before the storms that will be rolling in, according to the weather forecast. It was still cold enough to wear a jacket outside and turn up the heater in the car, but the sun was shining! We have to revel in it while we have the chance.

Giving Thanks: I have an office!

See that pretty, old-fashioned key? That is for the lock on my office door. I finally made the jump from a home office to an away-from-home office. It's a tiny little place, about the size of your average cubicle (maybe smaller), and thankfully has an equally tiny rent. I've only been here for just over a week, but already my production has doubled.

For several months now, I've been trying to spend an hour a day, every weekday, at my friend's little coffee shop, nursing a hot chocolate (iced chocolate over the summer months), and writing. With my day job, that's really all I felt I could carve out of my day. Now this coffee shop is located on the main floor of a historic old building that used to be a hotel, back when door locks had keys like the one in the picture. I heard that there were office spaces on the second floor. I talked to the building owner. She gave me a tour, and I picked the smallest space. My desk, chair, computer, and I would all fit into a broom closet, but that might be a little weird. So I have room for a space heater and an easy chair, just in case I get visitors.

I'm thankful today that God led me to a place where I can have my own little hermitage away from home.

Equal but Different . . . Get Over It

(NOTE: If you don't already know, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is often called by the nickname Mormon Church. This is the church I am talking about in this post. In my church, worthy male members between 12 and 18 are ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. Worthy male members age 19 and older are ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. These ordinations come with responsibilities.)

I heard about this little demonstration that is being planned where women are being encouraged to wear pants to church meetings on a particular day to show that they feel "marginalized" by "gender inequality" and to show "solidarity" and be able to recognize and support each other. It feels an awful lot like a rehash of the old Equal Rights Amendment movement. I never understood why women would want to be equal to men. That would be like losing ground. (Okay guys, that was a joke.) (Sort of.)

In looking at this group's list of complaints, they all start with "I feel unequal when . . ." I find it sad that anyone feels they are not valued as much as any other member of the church. We are all of infinite worth. Christ's atonement applies to each of us individually, whatever our gender.

Now to boil it down, it seems that most of this group's statements can be tied to the fact that men in the LDS Church are ordained to the priesthood, and women are not. We'll get to that. Keep reading.

If you feel unequal because you want more recognition or power, that's pride. Repent.

If you feel unequal because you are demeaned or belittled, that is abuse, and it needs to be dealt with as abuse, not inequality. Grow a spine, get some help (it is out there), and do something about it. Do not confuse an individual priesthood holder's unrighteous actions with church doctrine. (Doctrine & Covenants, Section 121)

If you feel unequal when you are told it is the husband's role to "preside" in the home as a priesthood holder, somebody doesn't understand the role of the priesthood.

The priesthood of God is all about service. Presiding is not about being in charge and controlling. It's more of a shepherding role, taking care of responsibilities. Notice I said shepherding (love), not sheep herding (power). A priesthood holder who is doing it right should see his wife as a true partner. He should be more concerned with her welfare than his own. He should listen to what she says and how she feels. He should pay attention to his wife's observations because while he has his head down, completely focused on what he has to get done, she notices everything going on around her. (That's the way men's and women's brains are wired, but that's a whole different blog post.)

I believe (not official church doctrine, just my observations) that men are given the roles and responsibilities associated with the priesthood because they NEED it. They need the assignments to take care of people so that they can learn to CARE FOR and HAVE COMPASSION FOR others. That comes more naturally to women. Because we see all the details around us, we see what needs to be done and who needs help and we do it. If women had the priesthood responsibilities, everything would be done correctly and taken care of and the cloth on the sacrament table would always be straight and there would be nothing left for men to do. (Okay, that was a joke, too.) (Sort of.)

Gearing Up for NaNoWriMo

I've started getting ready for NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month for you non-writer types), working on things like plot outlines and character sketches, so that I can spend every spare minute typing like a crazy person during the month of November. During NaNoWriMo, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That's 1,667 words a day. If you do as I do and take Sundays off (and, being realistic, Thanksgiving) that's 25 days at 2000 words a day. That's a little bit crazy, especially if you have distractions like a job that pays real money or a family that wants food and acknowledgement. Now nobody said those 50,000 words a day have to be wonderful (I can edit in December). They just have to be written or typed somewhere other than in my head. There's already plenty of interesting stuff floating around my brain. Some of it needs to GET OUT where it can be useful. So anyway, I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo and just for kicks I hopped over to the NaNo website to see what's going on. They have this store with lots of merchandise sporting the logo, and while I'm kind of over the whole dark-T-shirt-with-words-on-it thing (strangers staring at my chest? No thanks.), I did find something I MUST HAVE! See the picture in the top left of this blog post? That's more than just a bracelet. It's a 2 GB USB jump drive disguised as a bracelet. How cool is that? I can literally wear my work-in-progress as a fashion accessory. And I guess it's smart to back up everything I write.