A Long Ball Season Comes to an End

A very pleasant evening on Friday watching the Salt Lake Bees' game with great company and very nice weather brought back memories of other games. I realized that this was the first summer in over twenty five years (yes, a quarter of a century!) we didn't have anyone playing baseball or softball (or some preparatory team such as T-ball or Coach Pitch).

I think it began with the year I coached Allysha and Lincoln in a coach pitch league some 25 years ago and it just sort of blossomed from there. The high water mark of games played was reached somewhere around 12 years ago when we had over 50 games, baseball and softball, on the schedule in just the month of June! Obviously, we did not make it to all of them but to a good portion. Memories of games at the Rec Center fields, Lakeridge Jr. High, Orem Jr. High, Orem City Center, a park in north Orem, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Manti and fields in Salt Lake. Lots of time to sit in the bleachers or on camp chairs and cheer the family on!

Many great memories! Everyone had their chance to shine! Thanks to all eleven who participated. Can we make a list of all the different team names? or uniform colors?

Happy Birthday Grandpa

It was a delight to watch Grandpa enjoy his birthday party last evening! From the grand entrance down the stairs, to the broad smile while listening to the strains of "Happy Birthday", to the opening of the various presents, the tossing of the Fruit Snacks to everyone, to "Happy Birthday to me!", and to his testimony of the Savior.

It seemed to be an experience he savored and deserved to savor. Happy 87th!

Same words . . . sort of

We use the same words to mean approximately the same thing and that ability to communicate is really a wonderful thing. Still, the breadth and depth of the same words depends upon our experience, the intensity of that experience, and the depth of our reflection about that experience with the ideas or things the verbal expression represents.

So "love" in the 4th grade is not "love" in the 4th year of marriage. "Faith" expressed in the testimony of a 12 year old is not the "faith" of a prophet. Yet it is. "Poplars" can be merely poplars or they can be "poplars" squared or cubed or to the 11th power. Our experience brings a unique richness to our communication as well as our ability to bring words together in unique ways that open new ways of seeing or feeling.

Words are like a library full of great books - inviting, wonderful and frustrating at the same time. Still I have an ongoing love affair with words and with the levels of life they express!