TJ Hirst

Having Halloween on a Friday seems a wholly appropriate time for the holiday. Many school night trick-or-treating expeditions in the past have rang up too much sugar and excitement for my children to settle into bed without me resenting their fun. But, this year, I can relax and let them enjoy, since it will be one of their last times to trick or treat. Even though I regularly see teens at our door, I’m still going to set some limits. What about you?

 Loading …

The Question: Have I Seen the Hand of God Reaching Out to Touch Us Today?

When my husband called on his cell phone and said, “I’m hurt,” I didn’t believe him.

I said, “No, not really.”

Paul sounded so much like himself—in good humor, even tone of voice, cheerful.

But then I heard the sirens in the background and asked, “Is that for you?”

When he said “Yes,” then I knew he was really hurt. Fortunately, someone else got on his phone and explained what had happened. Apparently, a tree that he was cutting split down the middle and hit him, and he was on the ground unable to move.

The time between that call and seeing him in the emergency room was the most agonizing part of the entire accident. What were the extent of his injuries? Was he critical? Did he hit his head? What about his back? Would he be able to walk again?

When I saw him faith and courage reassured me that those questions would be answered and I would be able to cope with what I would hear. When I could touch his face and talk to him, I felt hope, not fear.

Ironically, three hours before his accident I watched The Infinite Power of Hope. When the events of the accident unfolded, these words must have planted themselves in my heart.

Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time. . . . Hope sustains us through despair. Hope teaches that there is reason to rejoice even when all seems dark around us.

Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Last week was all about me, and I’m embarrassed to say that even though the challenges I faced were real and discouraging, they were nothing compared to what happened to Paul or even what could have happened but didn’t.

His accident put everything in perspective, giving me a new measuring stick for worry and concern. I’ve found myself asking, “Is this as bad as what could have happened?” If not, I breathe a little deeper, allow myself to seek hope rather than worry and despair.

My natural impulse to magnify the negative is gone, but even more importantly, I seem to have replaced it with an ever-growing list of positives:

1. It could have been a whole lot worse.
2. His sense of humor never left him.
3. He calmed everyone around him.
4. Our family is pulling together, and I love him more than ever.
5. The nurses and doctors at the hospital were informative and compassionate.
6. I had just finished cleaning the house.
7. His business partner has been fabulous about filling in for him.
8. Many, many prayers were offered, and the phone calls, cards, visits and remembrances helped me know how much he’s loved.
9. His iPhone helped him feel connected to the outside world.
10. My children are old enough to manage themselves while I play nurse.

Paul’s finally home. He’s recovering from an accident this weekend while cutting down a tree. He suffered four broken ribs and a small fracture in his back. He’s in pain but healing. What an experience. More about it tomorrow.

To view more participants, go to Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

The TIWMT Book Club discussion of Walden by Henry David Thoreau begins today. Have you read it?  Share your thoughts below.

“To the sick the doctors widely recommend a change of air and scenery,” Henry David Thoreau in Walden.

Reading Walden certainly is a change of air and scenery from my life, but a change that didn’t bring me the wisdom and inspiration I was seeking. I hope I can say that without sounding truly ignorant of good ideas. Thoreau observes the simplicities of life with intelligence, which is a gift that I do not possess. But his gift, while admirable, did not rub off on me just by reading his story of getting back to nature.

I promised that we wouldn’t have a stuffy discussion, but embarrassingly, even though I chose this book, I am having a hard time crafting a good discussion post about it. It’s an old classic with many beautiful metaphors but overall, I just had the hardest time staying interested. I think that is because it is a book of observations rather than a story with a plot. Admittedly, I skimmed some of the chapters on economy, the bean field, and winter animals. The chapters I appreciated the most were on reading, solitude, and the ponds. In these, I made a connection with his philosophy to become a student and observer of life.

While his ideas of shunning materialism for a more simple life have much relevance fro us today, I’m afraid his style of writing and pace is so far removed that average modern readers like me will have a hard time relating it easily to our lives. I did find some lines that spoke to me, and I’m holding firmly to the poetry of his words, rather than his overall philosophy as a good reminder to slow down and savor what I have in my life rather than always searching for more.

Please stop by and see Rebecca at Thrilled By the Thought. She made her own honest assessment of the book; please check out her post and leave a comment there, too, to add to the discussion.

As a conclusion, tell me how you think these statements in Walden by Thoreau might relate to our time:

One:

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture or to carve a statue, or to make a few objects beautiful, but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Two:

When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.

Three:

And gradually from week to week the character of each tree came out, and it admired itself reflected in the smooth mirror of the lake. Each morning the manager of this gallery substituted some new picture distinguished by more brilliant or harmonious coloring, for the old upon the walls.

Four:

The phenomena of the year take place every day in a pond on a small scale. . . . The day is an epitome of the year. The night is winter, the morning and evening are the spring and the fall, and the moon is the summer.

Five:

The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who can hear him; but he writer, whose more equitable life is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the vent and the crowd which inspire the orator speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.

Six:

Not that food which entereth into the mouth defileth a man, but the appetite with which it is eaten.

Join the discussion by leaving your thoughts on one or more of the statements in the comment section below or if you wrote a post about it on your own website, leave your link in the comments below.

Even though this book wasn’t a favorite, I’m not giving up on my lifetime pursuit reading list. Next Tuesday I will announce a new the TIWMT Book Club Book for November. Have some recommendations? Send them to me at tj (at) tjhirst (dot) com.

My daughter’s fourth-grade school class just completed a health unit about drug and alcohol use. We’ve talked openly about it at the dinner table all week. I’ve played the devil’s advocate a bit to see if she can really tell me why they are harmful and not just give me rote answers.

On the final day of this curriculum, after school she and I talked a lot about what she learned. Later, at the dinner table, she brought it up to her dad without the reminder of the topic they were covering.

She said, “We went over in our health class today. It was more than two hours.”

“Why did you go over?” Paul asked her.

“Everyone was asking questions for like 30 to 45 minutes,” she said.

“”Why were they asking questions?” he said.

“We did drugs today.”