Pure Joy!!!

My husband and I went on a walk this morning.  We walked along a canal in our neighborhood that  has a greenbelt on one side.

As we were walking home, I noticed three dogs playing in the greenbelt.  As I watched them I noticed one of the dogs was weird.  He pranced and his head was too big for his body.  I mentioned it to my husband.  He said it looked like a cartoon dog.

As we got closer we went over to the side and looked more closely at this weird dog.  Then it dawned on us.  This wasn't a dog. We asked the man standing next to the three "dogs" if this weird dog was a donkey.  He said yes.  This baby donkey was only 4 weeks old.

I have never seen anything or anyone ever exhibit such pure joy.  

He was prancing . . . delightedly . . . continually . . . and with no observed effort. I watched in amazement.  It brought a smile to my face.

As we continued our walk I thought about what that donkey would be like when he was fully grown.  Would he be stubborn, mean and hard to get along with, like most donkeys? I wondered what happens to donkeys, from birth to adulthood, that changes them so.

Then, I posed the same question to myself.  About me.  About other humans.  What happens?  What can we do about it?  As we read in the scriptures, "Adam fell that man might be and men are that they might have JOY."

Let's look for joy and start prancing . . . at least inside our homes!

Me? Writing a Blog?

Hi.  I can't believe I'm writing a blog.  I am a VERY private person.  That's why I never did facebook.  But, over the weekend I had a strong impression that I should start a blog.  I fought that feeling.  I tried to convince myself that writing it in a journal, where no one would ever see it, would be enough.  I wasn't very convincing.  So...here I am...writing a blog.

Let me introduce myself.   I was born in Great Falls, Montana.  I was pretty much raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I received my undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Utah.  I received my law degree from BYU.  I practiced law in Phoenix, Arizona for a couple of years.  For the past 25 years I've been at home raising my family and having them raise me.

Here is a picture of my family (this was from our most recent Christmas card).

Here is another picture.  We didn't use this as a card, but we thought about it.  Both pictures were taken the same day.  The picture taking day had some of those "smile, and act like we're a happy family" moments, but we also had a good time being together, mostly.

The two biggest things in my life are family and church.  I married Dan Barker in May 1983. We will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary next month.  We are returning to Hawaii, our honeymoon spot.  It will be the first time we've been back.

I have 5 children (Daniel 27, Allie 26, Nate 24, Malan 22 and Will 19). They have been the focus of my life.  Almost everything I've done has been with them in mind. I also have 3 grandchildren (LoraLee 4, Dewight 1, Triston 1--yes, they are twins, identical twins!).   I am truly grateful for them, all of them.

The other major thing in my life is my church.  I joined the Mormon church when I was 17--a junior in high school.  I grew up in Salt Lake, strongly disliking Mormons.  It would be easier to say that the Mormon lifestyle (family, togetherness, community, etc.) is what attracted me to join the church.  But, it wasn't.  Instead, it was a deeply personal religious experience.  That initial experience was followed by many more.  I came to know the Book of Mormon was written with God's help and, once again with God's help, translated by Joseph Smith.  Since I knew that was true, everything else in the church was true as well.

Since that junior year in high school, I have been a very active member of the Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) church.  I am sure many things on this blog will reflect that belief.

Well, enough of the introduction.  I'm not quite sure what I'll put on this blog.  But then again I'm not quite sure why I had such a strong impression to start it in the first place.  It will be interesting for me to watch it unfold.