October 2010 in the Pacific Northwest

Today's gospel doctrine lesson was from Isaiah 40-49. One of the verses Isaiah 44:3 led us to discuss the role of water in giving life (of course there is much symbolism ) and in the desert water is really a life or death issue. So when I walked out of the woods today at the end of my Sabbath Day stroll I was impressed with how green the fall rains have made our world.

To report on the results of our efforts this summer I have posted a few after the harvest pictures. Becky really turned the garden into beautiful place this summer. The raspberry patch is now a flower garden (see above).

This the bean pole teepee. That's potatoes, squash and green pumpkins in the background. We hope to build a "used window green house"here this fall so next years starts get a better chance.

As you can see from these pictures we are enjoying a lovely fall season. Its supposed to be sunny all week.

Leading the music

Coby loves to lead the music in church. We caught this picture on my Iphone. I had it out showing him pictures to keep him occuppied. Then the music started and he took out a hymnal and led the song. As you can see, he uses both hands.

New York, New York

Yes, Becky and Howard enjoyed a lovely trip to New York, New York... but the main reason for that trip was to travel to Pittsburgh and see Anne Turner get baptized. It was a marvelous experience and we are so humbled by her maturity and sincere goodness... to say the least of her ability to dance and laugh. (For more on this event see Joy's blog)

In the mean time Becky and I ventured to New York with Havalah and Brigg. They greeted us with this giant welcome on a 100 foot high billboard. We dedicated the moment to Sierra.
Times Square was really our first introduction to the energy of New York which really holds nothing compared to the energy of Havalah Turner. She was jumping and dancing like Anne.

These New York cops stopped us to get Becky's autograph and a few tips on how to plant their gardens. We let them take a picture with her.

Other than the opportunity to run / jog through Central Park and the magnificents of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, our experience traveling to see the Stature of Liberty was the most interesting and amazing. We were surrounded on this little ship by people from all over the world..literally. There were Germans, French, Russians, Asians, Mexicans among so many others and as we neared the statue to dock and embark the most interesting thing happened. They all stopped talking in their various languages and turned toward this symbol of freedom and liberty and strained to take pictures. The boat seemed to lean to the starboard (right?) as they rushed that direction to take it in and get a better,closer look. To me it was as if they knew that the liberty and freedom they now enjoy in their various homes and lands started here, in the United States of American and this Stature and her presence represented something to them they couldn't say to us but felt.

I heard in my mind the words Mom taught me for some speach contest way back in 6th grade..."give more your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wetched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door".

Gardens

Over the years this Burton family has planted lots of gardens. The California garden grew the fastest but was eaten the fastest by local critters. In Michigan we planted our first successful gardens. The soil left by the older couple we bought that house from was superb. There are pictures somewhere of all the kids (Dan, Joy and Anjuli) behind huge flowers in that garden.
We've planted lots of gardens here in Washington. The garden plot was placed on the site of the burn pile from the construction of the home. I thought the ashes would add nutrients to the soil. Did I note that our land is also on what was the path of the glacier that melted and became the Puget Sound... when it melted it left behind the rocks!
We kind of let things get away from us this spring and started with this last week end.
This week we weeded, roto tilled and planted. The "teepee" above is becoming an annual tradition as Becky creates a place for the grandkids to play while the beans have a place to grow. Look real close and you will see the string is red, green and blue. Probably the funnest teepee yet.

By mid afternoon tomatoes were planted, beans in, etc. We've added yards of new, better dirt, and really missed older kids that wanted to help. Yes, the best part of our gardens are these planting days when the whole crew is out here helping. I've enjoyed the miracles of seeing married children bring their children and spouses out to the gardens and digging in with enthusiasm and vision. Hearing in their voices stories of other gardens and enough understanding to know that when they have homes and backyards of their own they will plant gardens too.


This is a picture of the flower garden. That's Colby's rock in front and Anne and Andrew's rock from Lake Erie in the planters in the middle of the picture. We brought those back last summer. Not quite as many rocks as Uncle John's (see below) but this isn't Utah. The trees are a bit taller though.

Uncle John was an artist

It takes a plane trip home to Utah and its mountains to remind me of my roots. This trip was to attend Uncle John's funeral. Uncle John was Dad's youngest brother. I took this picture of Antelope Island to remind me of Burton family roots in that one of Grandpa Burton's sisters settled out here.

This picture of John and Evelyns backyard put into perspective the few rocks I have stolen from Dad's yard and place in my yard here. Jan and Jay both mentioned in their comments how Uncle John loved to go rock hunting.

Aunt Evelyn remembered me and caused me to remember playing catch with her. I thought she was so cool when I was a young little leaguer and my Aunt would play catch with us when we visited Provo. She is still cool and I'll bet she can still play catch. It was good to spend time with Lenore and my brothers and sisters. There is a picture of us together (but not on my camera). It was good to see them and to be together. We missed Elaine.

Did I say Uncle John was an artist. This is the shed in the back yard. B asked John to paint the shed one day and when she came home... I grew up with Uncle Johns painting on our walls or the billboards of Salt Lake City. Ask me about Jay's story of Uncle John's whiskey billboard... what a classic!

It was good to see Jay and Jan again. Its been too long. Too bad its takes a passing to bring us together. Yet our faith says we will all be together again. Its about family and we are family.

Family Prayer

As I ate breakfast this morning I reached out and flipped open the recently delivered March Ensign to Pres. Monson’s article on family prayer. It was the answer to my prayer regarding what to teach the priests quorum today. And as I read the article my mind was flooded with other thoughts that prompted me to make this note and perhaps post it to our blog.

As I read Pres. Monson’s comments on family prayer I thought of how prayer is and has been a blessing to our family. If there is a gospel family principle that we have lived more than others it is this one. For we have prayed as a family more consistently than almost anything else. We’ve prayed together, morning and night, over meals, on the road, for each other and because of each other. I have often wondered the effect of our prayers on the children as we prayed for them, with them. Were we praying at them, over them, because of them? My simple faith says the prayers were heard by God and His angels. As I read Pres. Monson’s words now I wonder again if the prayers blessed us also by communicating love and intentions. How many times have we prayed for students and direction and missionary sons and pregnant daughters, new, young families and our home. I wonder if our eyes were “opened” if we could see the angels that surround this home and our other homes.

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As I read these words I thought also of the family prayers in my home on Richards Street. For many years these family prayers were the only testimony I heard my father speak. He didn’t bear his testimony in church like others… sure his service and Christian behavior was a testimony that sub-consciously taught me. I make this note because he didn’t consciously teach the gospel to me (as I recall) like Mom who was more direct in teaching the gospel to me. (She was the teacher that given our class when no one else could handle us. None of my friends would dare mess around if Sister Burton was teaching.) No, Dad was the ward clerk who sat on the back row and raised the questions about Doc Taylor's sunday school lesson. I remember him reading his priesthood manual on Sunday mornings after he had returned from priesthood (before I went to priesthood meeting) but never heard him teach or preach. It was Mom that reminded Dad to call us to pray, to give the priesthood blessing. As I recall the only sermons I remember Dad preaching over the pulpit were the talks at Grant's, then Charles's then my missionary farewell ( In my little boy memory I remember he spoke at Jim Gaskells farewell… Something about “Remember Jim (who was going to Finland on his mission) many are cold but few are frozen”. This got a laugh that I didn’t understand until my mission and my study of DC121). I have noted many times Dad's "everybody has only one sermon. They just give it in different ways." His was always about the mountains and nature. Charlie, my brother, was made a Bishop last week. He will speak of the mountains and nature... and sports and running as he teaches the gospel to his priests and the other youth of his ward in Mesquite, Nevada. He will be a good Bishop. He was part of the same family prayers.

But when Dad knelt with us in the living room and voiced so many family prayers I realized he believed for there he was speaking to God for us. For how can a man kneel with his family in a quiet living room in a simple, humble, home if he doesn’t believe. Later in life when I was older and Dad was even older we learned to talk of his faith. It seemed to be stronger if more simple as he spent more time in the Temple. He was sure Mom was with us in the Temple at each of those sealings when we gathered to create another family in the Salt Lake Temple. And we still pray as a family…. All over the country now and here at home. Tonight young Colin Fry said the prayer for us here on Joelle Lane… even as Mom (Becky) wings her way to Salt Lake to assist her sister and gather with the family to remember the life of Mack Patten. She will kneel with David and Sierra in a home there and end this Sabbath with a family prayer.

Love is what its all about...

It was a beautiful day here in Lacey Washington. The sun really turned the yellow leaves golden. Part of our sun was felt in reading today from III Nephi and feeling the special power of the account of the Saviors visit and healing of the people in the new world. I was particularly touched, again, by the way Christ is touched by the love and faith of that people for Him. He says "my joy is full" and "he wept". And he prayed words that could not be written. As I walked in our forest and felt the warmth of the sun on my face and pondered these words my soul was warmed and I felt that love.
In a late night conversation with one of the good Bishops of this area I was impressed with his devotion and the particular way he expressed his appreciation for the blessing of being a Bishop..." to feel a small portion of the love the Lord has for his children". Feeling that love... isn't that what its all about.
I am grateful for the love of my family and especially my partner, friend and helpmate even my wife. She is truly an example of love to me.

Grateful for our moms...

Just a note of appreciation and amazement...

This Sunday eve I have enjoyed reading the blogs of our family. They include new exciting video shots of Abbey Burton teaching one and all the principles of the gospel (if we could just understand her celestial tongue); a revelation that Colby Fry is as cute as ever even without his lovely hair... and that the Pennsylvania crew are enjoying the good life on the front row of "Wicked"?... and they are gambling to get there.

We do appreciate your photos and your commentary. As I noted on Joy's blog the glimpses of your lives helps us to know a bit more of your experience even as it makes the heart ache in missing you all.

Mom noted again her love for all you in her testimony today. Grateful for your good choices and your service.

I must admit that we miss you. Even as we are humbled by your courage and hard work to prepare and to serve.

I am enjoying a new book, Ancient Futures bu Helena Norberg-Hodge. It is her observations on the lifestyle of a people, the Ladakh, that live in the region near Kasmir bordering India and Pakistan. The book tells a wondrous story of a people that were living a happy, hardworking "sustainstable" life until they were discovered by western civilization. I was impressed with the closeness of the families and communities. Their personal confidence that the author ascribes to the love and attention of their families; their traditions and a hardworking togetherness of their old villages and towns. As noted things have changed for them as they have experienced western civilization via tourists and modern technology (TV). What were a happy and contented people is now a struggling civilization as their youth are being educated (taught to read and write but not how to live and feed themselves at 12000 feet in a really harsh part of world (like their ancesters have done for hundreds of years). There is obviously many lessons in this book at many levels.

I mention here in appreciation of my families and the culture of the church and culture that has been a blessing to us to encourage the traditions and truths that have blessed our family. Most notably the dedication of our women to choose the path of motherhood and stay home to give our children the roots and foundation that give all of us a sense of worth and confidence of being loved. I know I am grateful for my mother who gave me and my siblings her life willingly and with such love. Becky has proven in so many ways her equal as she has worked so diligently and lovingly for our children. Now to see your families thrive and grow with good fathers and mothers I am indeed grateful. We are truly a wealthy and blessed people.

Thank you for your efforts to raise good children... do remember that your parents and grandparents showed you that true happiness will be found within your families and homes.