Create {The Text}

The way I put the photos on this post totally messed up the orientation of the text, and it was easier to just separate the posts.

I taught a Relief Society lesson about loving life and learning. I talked a lot about my love of gardening. I taste God's happiness when I create something. And I have been noticing it in many ways since pondering on it.

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

Relief Society is my church's organization for women, started in 1842. We are women who stand together in faith in the Savior Jesus Christ. We are committed to strengthening homes and families, but one of the big things we are known for is offering relief, whether temporal, emotional, or physical. Along these lines, last month we got together and tied quilts. My dear friend Katie came with me. It warmed our hearts to know that someone's body would be kept warm by these. I was impressed at how the raw materials became a lovely quilt.

Just home from church last week, my family stopped to fly "helicopters," those little seeds that spin in search of fertile soil.

But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy. Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things.

Josie and I spent some time at home together, and she used the camera to catch what she deemed noteworthy.

. . . Remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn’t it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God?

On Tuesday, another dear friend Samantha called me and basically said, "What do you need?" She took my kids for me so I could grocery shop and get some other stuff done. She served, knowing the best way to help.
Then she carried the things I couldn't out of my house so I could get new carpet (I love it, by the way). She totally saved me that day.

Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.

In that stage of pregnancy where I want to feel pretty and beautify the space around me, I finally finished re-doing an old window I got from my neighbor. Well, actually Sam did that too. She is so great.

And here is my cute little baking counter.

I haven't painted my toenails in about five years. Josie chose the color of course.

I don't have a ton of pictures of me and Patrick together, so I had Katie take this picture of us sitting on the couch. Any time we take a picture, Patrick always says, "fake memories." No, Patrick, we really were sitting on the couch taking a picture. I promise.

*quotes from Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Happiness, Your Heritage," Nov 2008 Ensign