On Sunshine

I am soaking up every drop of summer that is still left in this old September.
Yes, soaking it up.
Every afternoon I take my blanket, sunglasses and a book - unfortunately also my phone for keeping time - and lie on my front lawn whilst reading of faraway places and things.
This is a favorite activity of mine...something I do as soon as springtime is warm enough to stand, and as late as autumn will allow. I need to store all that sunshine somehow before the long, bitter-cold, often-sunless winter begins.

Speaking of storing sunshine.
I watched the General Relief Society broadcast Saturday evening (if you couldn't tell by my last post) with my mother, sister and sister-in-law. I felt like every word that was spoken was spoken for me, and it was like sunshine was being poured into my soul.
I also felt like I would need that warmth in some unknown cold, dark days ahead.

"We live in perilous times," we keep hearing from our leaders. "The family has never been in more grave danger." I've just begun to wonder, has this warning become too familiar? Have we heard it so many times that we don't really hear it anymore? Are the calls to step up and do more felt as keenly by the rest of the world as they are by my parents, my siblings and me?

Newspapers and magazines are reporting financial crisis -imminent doom, really- for not only our nation, but others around the world. A part of me is inclined to think that a Depression would do our country some good. We are too wasteful, too spend-thrift, too dependent on Daddy's money, too lazy to learn how to work hard and to appreciate what we have. I was never more grateful for less help than I was in college, where I paid my own way and I learned that I could do without a lot of things. That we all could.
If we could all have a little humility.
Isn't that what causes financial problems? Wanting bigger and better things that we can't really afford? um, PRIDE?

I've been following the Presidential campaign painfully closely....thanks to my job in the library....and frankly, I'm getting sick of it. If one more person tries to tell me what to think, one more lie that so-and-so is telling, I might just throw up my hands. Just how far does my duty as a conscientious citizen extend? And how has it come to this?

Amidst the trouble and gloom, a glimmer - no, a ray - of hope warmed my soul Saturday night. And my soul answered back. Yes, it said, I am divine. I CAN create. I AM compassionate. And I WILL do more, be better. Whatever is required of me for good.

Please, let me know what that is.