A lesson of humility in a simple scent.

What a great week last week was. I had the best time doing my visiting teaching with my new partner. It was great to visit with each of the ladies we have become friends with. The next day I had the wonderful blessing to see my sister-in-law sealed in the Draper Temple. It was a bittersweet beauty, I so wanted my little niece to have. Her father, my sister-in-law's ex-husband, would not allow her to be sealed. I understand both sides of this issue, but my biased of logic outweighs what her father would like. But, I have made it all okay for myself by rationalizing that she only has a little over 6 years until she can make act on her own choice.

Saturday, I was back at the Draper Temple for an endowment session for a dear friend of mine. I didn't get to participate in her session, but I did do other temple work. One of the best times was the opportunity to be alone in the celestial room. No one was there, just me and a worker, who fell asleep in the serenity of the room. I had a whole half hour to mediate and pray. No disruptions at all. This is what heaven is like. A pure peace. So much light and beauty. I hope I have a chance like that again. And I recommend it highly.

When I came home David was tinkering in the freezing cold of the garage. While I was away he went Christmas shopping for the family. We have over the years been talking about what would we do for a heat source if all power went out and he suggested getting a kerosene heater for such an emergency. I agreed that would be the best option, especially since we do not have a wood burning/pellet stove or fireplace.

A kerosene heater has a unique smell. One of those smells that if you had smelled it in years gone by, you would be flooded with the memories surrounding it.

I had that very experience.

A couple years before hurricane Hugo my family had moved to a house on China Grove Church Rd. in South Charlotte, NC. It was directly across the street from Sterling Elementary. It was a very old house. I remember that my family did not have much and it was sparsely decorated.

There we were living in this house, two women, my great grandmother, my mom and two young girls, my sister Luck and me. I didn't remember why we moved there, until I talked to my sister today. We moved there to escape my father's abuse. We lived in an apartment on the west side before moving to Sterling , that seemed to be fine...so I thought. But, I digress. The house on China Grove Church Rd., did not have a furnace, or gas. I remember my mom had bought a couple of kerosene heaters and placed them strategically throughout the house.

You can imagine how cold it was in the winter time. My sister and I would stand by the heater all the time. I'm sure we smelled of kerosene to everyone, but it was what we had. I remember always having to fill a pot with water and sitting it on top of the heaters so that the boiling would leave some moisture in the air...we boiled eggs on it also.

In that same house, since there was not a gas connection nor was there a connection for an electric stove we cooked all of our meals in the microwave oven and we had a cooler filled with ice to keep milk, eggs, cheese and things like that cool.

Just thinking about those days just humbles me. I never thought about that place until last night.

I called my mother today to thank her for teaching me through those times. It was a hard time. It was a scary time at that. Needless to say, that house was destroyed by hurrican Hugo.  It was condemed and we had to move yet again, this time to a nice condo in Quail Run.  But we moved from there to a housing project called Leafcrest.  Then I moved here....I moved a lot.  I have lived in my current house the longest...getting the itch to build now. :-)

People who think they know me, do not know this part of my history.  Which is funny to me, because I am truely, an open book. Some people see in me what they want and never really see what experiences from my past or how my past has molded me into the person I am today.

I am so grateful for my experiences. I would not exchange having lived in poverty and I am not embarrassed because of it either. This is not to say I would like to go there again...I would not. I am pleased with where I am.

I would not exchange not having the luxuries that my friends had. I am sure I grumbled a little about what I didn't have, I was a teenager, but I am grown now.

I see with different eyes. I feel with a different heart and I hold with different arms. I pray for those who do not have. I pray they can see that which they do have.

I have learned a lesson of humility in a simple scent.

My God, how thou has blessed me.