Spring

While the rest of the country is still experiencing winter Spring has pretty much come and gone here in the desert.  I loved looking at this pretty tree in our backyard.

It was the perfect view from my hammock.  And even better when I have a little helper to rock me back and forth.

accentuate the positive

I have been thinking about this for days. No. Weeks, really. Ever since I heard of the accident that changed this beautiful family's lives forever.

I don't know the Nielsons. Not personally at least. But as I sit and read the archives of this wonderful woman's blog I feel that I do. I love to see the adventures that this young family sets out upon. To see the fun she cooks up for days when they are cooped up in the house. I love to see their celebrations. Most of all? I love that she has found joy in motherhood and shares it with the rest of the world. When I read Stephanie's entries I want to be a better person. More particularly--a more loving wife and mother.

I love these words:

I am asking that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life we “accentuate the positive.” I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment virtue and effort.... What I am suggesting is that each of us turn from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom we associate, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults, that optimism replace pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears. When I was a young man and was prone to speak critically, my father would say: “Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve." --President Gordon B. Hinckley

Her sister now keeps the world updated on the status of recovery and the lives of the Nielson children. She is so positive. She helps those children "enjoy more fully the sunlight" at a time when it would be so easy to "seek out the storms." Thank you nie and cjane for helping us to accentuate the positive.

To find out more about the Nielsons click here, here, here, and here.